Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/05/2006, uploaded on 01/12/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Samuel Barber’s only sonata for the piano, the Piano Sonata in E-flat minor was composed during 1947-49. The work was commissioned by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers, a society aimed at promoting new American classical music, and was to be premiered by Vladimir Horowitz. Barber responded enthusiastically to the commission, quickly producing the first movement. However, his attention was torn between the many projects different projects he was engaged in at the time, and the sonata was soon placed on a backburner. Eight months later, Barber picked up work again on the sonata, producing two more movements. Though he had only planned a three-movement work, Horowitz convinced Barber that the sonata needed a flashy finale. Barber acquiesced, yet the movement caused him great consternation. For months, Barber was unable to make any headway on the movement. Finally, after being called a “constipated composer” by Horowitz, Barber in a fury dashed off the entire movement in one day. The sonata was enthusiastically received following Horowitz’s premiere, and remains today a favorite piece in the repertoire.

While Barber maintained traditional forms for each of the sonata’s four movements, he also drew on a more heavily contrapuntal style during the work’s composition, fusing it with his already well-defined lyricism. Through this use of counterpoint, the sonata reaches a level of dissonance not found in his earlier works. The first movement, energetic and lively, is in sonata form, and, curiously, even incorporates some use of twelve-tone techniques. Next follows a sprightly scherzo in rondo form. The third movement, an Adagio, returns to the chromaticism of the first, dissipating the brighter mood brought about by the scherzo. Lastly, a jarring and intense fugue brings the sonata to a tumultuous close.     Joseph DuBose

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Sonata in e-flat minor, Op. 26             Samuel Barber

Allegro energico; Allegro vivace e leggiero; Adagio mesto; Fuga: Allegro con spirito

Samuel Barber's sonata, from 1949, has become one of the most important sonatas of the twentieth century and the signature piano work of this American composer. Darker in mood and far thicker and more complex in texture than his earlier Excursions, this 4-movement neo-classical work challenges the pianist at every turn and culminates in a brilliant and technically thorny 4-voice fugue.  

Although the piece is written in the key of e-flat minor, Barber employs some twelve-tone rows in both the first and third movements.  Barber did not use these rows as structural devices in the same way as composers of the Second Viennese School did, but rather he incorporated them into the texture of the accompaniment to disguise the tonality.  In the first movement, Barber juxtaposes sections of more traditional harmony with the stridently dissonant to create a volatile world of passion and aggression.

The second movement is in a traditional Rondo form.  In this 2-½ minute movement, Barber uses very little of the bass registers.  The extensive use of the upper register provides a necessary break from the thundering of the opening movement. 

Barber originally envisioned his Sonata having only three movements.  He intended it to end with the depressing Adagio movement.  It was the suggestion of Vladimir Horowitz, who premiered the work, to add a 4-voice fugue to finish the Sonata.  With its jumping octaves, devilish passage work, and complicated counterpoint, this jazzy final movement is a brilliant ending to one of the great piano masterpieces of the 20th century.    Stephen Beus

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.