Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music - Hardcover

Heyman, Barbara B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195066502 ISBN 13: 9780195066500

Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, 1992

Synopsis

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was one of the most important and honored American composers of the twentieth century. Barber wrote in a great variety of musical forms--symphonies, concertos, operas, vocal music, chamber music--but is best known by such compositions as the Adagio for Strings, the orchestral song Knoxville: Summer of 1915, his piano and violin concertos, and his two operas Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra the second of which opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Covering Barber's career and all of his published and unpublished works, this is the only book based upon primary sources: his own letters and those written to or about him, his sketchbooks, his original musical manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and performers who were directly involved with him. The biographical material on Barber is closely interspersed with a discussion of his music. Displaying Barber's creative processes at work from his early student compositions to his mature masterpieces, Heyman provides the social context in which a major composer such as Barber moved: his education, how he built his areer, the evolving musical tastes of American audiences, his relationship to musical giants like Serge Koussevitsky, and the role of radio in the promotion of his music. Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important American musical figure.

About this title

Review:

In the sheer scope of her documentation, her book must be close on faultless. (Tempo)

provides and authoritative commentary on this most European of American composers (Michael White, Independent)

Synopsis:

Drawing on a range of letters, diaries and journals, this biography of a major American composer of the 20th century traces his career and evaluates his individual works. It also describes the circumstances surrounding the composition of each work and compares the music to that of other composers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0195066502
• ISBN 13: 9780195066500
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 586