Born into a distinguished family on March 9th,
1910, Samuel Barber showed an early interest and talent for music. He wrote his
first composition at the age of seven and attempted his first opera when he was
ten. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia
studying piano, composition and voice. Barber excelled in all three areas and
became a favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who
introduced him to his lifelong publisher, the Schirmer family.
Throughout his twenties, Barber composed many of his most
famous and successful compositions. In 1933, he composed the tone poem Music for a Scene from Shelley after
reading Percy Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound." The work premiered two years
later at Carnegie Hall. In the following years followed the famous Adagio for Strings, Symphony in One Movement, the First Essay for Orchestra and the
Violin Concerto, all of which today are considered masterpieces of modern
classical music.
An admirer of both Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes
Brahms, Barber's music was firmly grounded in tonality, featuring expressive, vocal-like
melodies bathed in lush harmonies and an undeniable internal logic. These
qualities set Barber at odds with the general trend of other composer's around
him—a lone Romantic fighting for the supremacy of melody amidst a swarm of
modernists. In his later years, however, Barber swayed from his ideal and
utilized modern techniques such as polytonality, atonality and twelve-tone.
In 1958, Barber's first opera, Vanessa, premiered at the Metropolitan
Opera. The opera soon gained the title of the first American grand opera and
brought Barber his first Pulitzer Prize. The chamber opera, A Hand of Bridge, followed the next
year. Barber's third opera, Antony and
Cleopatra, was commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center in 1966. Plagued by disasters, the opera was a critical failure.
Following its rejection, Barber suffered from depression and alcoholism though
he still continued to compose. On January 23rd, 1981, Barber died
from cancer in New York City.
Samuel Barber
Biography
Born into a distinguished family on March 9th, 1910, Samuel Barber showed an early interest and talent for music. He wrote his first composition at the age of seven and attempted his first opera when he was ten. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia studying piano, composition and voice. Barber excelled in all three areas and became a favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who introduced him to his lifelong publisher, the Schirmer family.
Throughout his twenties, Barber composed many of his most famous and successful compositions. In 1933, he composed the tone poem Music for a Scene from Shelley after reading Percy Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound." The work premiered two years later at Carnegie Hall. In the following years followed the famous Adagio for Strings, Symphony in One Movement, the First Essay for Orchestra and the Violin Concerto, all of which today are considered masterpieces of modern classical music.
An admirer of both Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms, Barber's music was firmly grounded in tonality, featuring expressive, vocal-like melodies bathed in lush harmonies and an undeniable internal logic. These qualities set Barber at odds with the general trend of other composer's around him—a lone Romantic fighting for the supremacy of melody amidst a swarm of modernists. In his later years, however, Barber swayed from his ideal and utilized modern techniques such as polytonality, atonality and twelve-tone.
In 1958, Barber's first opera, Vanessa, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. The opera soon gained the title of the first American grand opera and brought Barber his first Pulitzer Prize. The chamber opera, A Hand of Bridge, followed the next year. Barber's third opera, Antony and Cleopatra, was commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966. Plagued by disasters, the opera was a critical failure. Following its rejection, Barber suffered from depression and alcoholism though he still continued to compose. On January 23rd, 1981, Barber died from cancer in New York City.