![]() ![]() The musical "essay," a form of Barber's own rather clever invention and one with which he had some previous success over a decade earlier in his Three Essays for Piano, is a medium much like its more familiar literary counterpart. As with a written essay, the idea behind a musical essay is the development of a complex, well-reasoned, thoughtful work drawn from a single melodic thesis. The Essay begins with divided violas and cellos gently stating the work's main theme in a mournful, languid Andante sostenuto. This same theme is soon taken over by upper strings, while briefly joined by the horns, and is only partially developed by an iridescent brass choir. ![]() Samuel barber dover beach samuel barber full#Ī short-lived animated section is heralded by oboes, clarinets, horns, and trumpets followed by a restatement of the first theme, this time by the full orchestra. The transition to the work's frenzied middle section comes as lower strings offer counterpoint to the horn's repetition of the earlier theme. This middle section contains some of the Essay's more intricate and animated writing, with strings playing light, nimble rhythmic figures in triple meter evocative of a symphonic scherzo. Soon, woodwinds and piano mimic this pattern while strings accompany with pizzicato quarter notes before returning to the figure they first introduced. Much momentum builds as the piece rushes to an exasperated climax then quickly tapers off. The work ends with a highly unsettling "question" posited by a trio of trumpets and tentatively answered by hushed violins set against a backdrop of grumbling timpani. Anthony McAlister is a cellist and writer currently at work on a fictional account of the abdication of King Edward VIII.The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2013, Columbia University Press. Barber, Samuel(1910–81) composer born in West Chester, Pa. There he wrote the orchestral works The School for Scandal and Music for a Scene from Shelly, which gained him attention in America and Europe.įrom a musical family, Barber decided on his career in childhood and attended the Curtis Institute of Music from 1924–34. His Adagio for Strings, premiered by Toscanini in 1938, was an immediate hit and remains his best-known score. In the late 1930s Barber joined the Curtis faculty he left teaching and served in the military from 1942. ![]()
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