Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Birth: 9th March, 1910
Place of Birth: West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Job Title: Composer, Singer
Partners: Gian Carlo Menotti
Died: 23rd Jan 1981, New York

If you are only remembered for one single piece of work; one novel, one performance, one world record, has the rest of your career been in vain? Even if that one thing has been more beautiful than anything else, more entirely complete in its perfection than anything could possibly be, has every other working day of your life just been a folly?

From the mind of this month’s Gay Great came Adagio - a piece of haunting music which has grown to become one of the most recognised classical masterpieces ever produced. It has been played in numerous films, at State funerals around the world and has even been remixed into a best selling dance track. But were you to ask the questions, what else did this amazing man produce? What nationality was he? How long did he live for? None but the most hardened classical fan could answer.

Samuel Osborne Barber II was born in the Pennsylvanian borough of West Chester. Music surrounded the young Barber for most of his early years. Although his father was a doctor, his mother was a seasoned pianist; his aunt was a famous mezzo soprano and his uncle was a song writer. In the family home, it was not the wireless that took pride of place but a large grand piano. The young Barber soon felt at home behind the keyboard and by the age of seven, he was accomplished enough to complete his first composition, a simple but melodically memorable piece which delighted his parents. With an amazing command over his singing voice as well, Barber was proving himself as a potential musical genius.

At the age of nine, he left a note for his mother ‘coming out’ about his desires for the future. In it, he wrote telling her he wanted to be a composer and pleading for her not to wish he enjoyed sports like all the other boys his age. His parents accepted the plea and encouraged him in his study of music. By twelve, he was playing the organ for his local church with huge maturity, even though his legs were still too small to reach most of the pedals. By fourteen, he had won one of the first places at the brand new Curtis Institute, now considered to be one of the premier music conservatories in the world.

At the institute, he initially worked on developing his singing talents, a strong baritone voice emerging slowly day by day as his voice deepened. As time went on, he thrived in the all music environment at Curtis, taking part in many recordings and performances of his and other student’s work. In his early days, he completed several opuses, most based around choral interpretations of famous poems, most notably Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Although encouraged in experimental styles, Barber still clung to his love of a good, solid melody, one that was simple and able to be appreciated by all.

Then when Barber hit 18, a new boy arrived at the school who was set to cause a distinct change to Samuel’s life. Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian boy who had moved to America after the death of his father. He and Samuel instantly found a connection, one which started as a shared passion for similar music styles and drifted slowly into a passionate sexual relationship. Around the campus, their “close relationship” was well known. But this was an artistic institute and few of the other students cared for prejudice. With all minds, eyes and ears focused on music, the boys were able to conduct a blossoming relationship undisturbed.

The crowning glory of Barber’s time at the institute came in his final year when the Philadelphia Orchestra premièred his first orchestral opus, Overture to the School for Scandal, often considered an ode to the institution from which he was just about to leave. The performance received great critical success and at the age of 23, Barber was set for a career as a great composer.

After leaving the Curtis Institute, Barber made ends meet with a few professional singing performances while he set about composing. He and Menotti travelled around Europe after Barber won a Pulitzer Travel Grant and the award was immediately followed by another; the American Prix de Rome, allowing him to study at the American Academy, itself based in Rome. It was there that Barber was to produce one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

Whilst working on his first string quartet, Barber decided to introduce a slow movement, an adagio. When it was first performed, the audience was stunned, some were even moved to tears and there was a rare standing ovation before the next movement. Noticing the power of the Adagio, Barber penned an arrangement for a whole orchestra. The piece shook the music world. In the 1930’s world of experimental classical music, Barber had made a direct return to the days of Strauss and Mozart, producing a variation on the theme that was as simple sounding as it was complex to perform. In the years to come, the piece would prove to reach out to the common man and classical connoisseurs alike. In 1945, it was played at the funeral of Franklin D Roosevelt. Later, it was famously used in the Vietnam cinematic epic Platoon, then played at the funeral of Diana before being remixed by William Orbit and receiving a new fan base at the turn of the millennium. In a recent poll, the Adagio was voted the single most powerful piece of music ever written.

With the Adagio making waves across his homeland, there was a recording contract and several commissions awaiting him when he had completed his studies in Rome. One if his early commissions, from a big soap manufacturer, came to a crashing end when a top violinist deemed his final movement ‘simply unplayable’. But despite the setback, other commissions still rolled in. Menotti was also finding his feet, although he clung dearly to the innovative styles taught at the Curtis Institute. When war broke out, the couple both managed to avoid active service, Menotti through his Italian nationality, Barber by joining the band of the American Air Corps.

After the war was over, the couple bought a large house in New York with the intention of living and writing there together for the rest of their lives. Barber continued to work on choral pieces as well as his symphonies. As ‘the man who wrote the Adagio’, Barber received many commissions from private clients, all looking for him to replicate the genius in it and have an Adagio all of their own. Barber was, in comparison to other composers, a slow and methodical writer. Knowing his own mind very well, he refused to even begin writing until he knew the spark was there ready to produce something amazing. When his record company commissioned him to write a piano concerto for the company’s 100th anniversary, Barber initially wrote the first few movements in a matter of a month. However, the rest of the two year’s leading up to his deadline did not run as smoothly. In a rather hand to mouth fashion, his pianist was learning the music as he wrote it only days before the performance. Although never happy with his work, Barber knew when he was in the right state to perform acts of musical genius. His intuition proved right and his piano concerto won the Pulitzer Prize for music.

By the early fifties, Barber was blazing a trail around America with his neo-romantic style. Ignoring modern composers who revelled in complexity, Barber stuck to the original principles of music as he saw them; to produce beautiful sounds. In 1958, he was commissioned to write an opera. Tentatively, he and Menotti decided to work together. While Menotti worked on the libretto (the story) Barber set the words to music. Despite both working in very different ways and at very different paces, the resulting work was Vanessa, a critically acclaimed opera which won Samuel his second Pulitzer Prize.

Samuel Barber2

Although his work was on a high, Barber found it hard to live up to the reputation the Adagio had given him. The Adagio, despite its brilliance, had begun to feel like a curse. After the success of his last opera, Barber decided to take an offer of working with major film director, Franco Zeffirelli, on a version of Anthony and Cleopatra. The critics hated it and in the weeks that followed its opening, the elaborate stage sets by Zeffirelli started to suffer prolonged mechanical failure. Barber noticed his reputation was in tatters. He would certainly now never live up to the reputation the Adagio had given him.

Suffering from depression, he split with his long term partner Menotti and moved to Switzerland, living in almost total seclusion. Menotti moved to Scotland where his popularity went from strength to strength and his work became well known both in Europe and the USA. Eventually, Menotti married. Barber returned from Switzerland after three years alone. His writing had started to significantly slow. Fewer and fewer commissions came in and Barber’s life began to look bleak. At the age of 71, Samuel Barber died of cancer. Menotti put past differences aside to be there at his bedside. Next to Samuel’s grave in West Chester is an empty plot. It remains to be seen if the ninety four year old Menotti will choose to grant Samuel’s wish and choose it as his own final resting place.

Every artist knows that their work will outlive their physical life but for most, there is the certain knowledge that it will also keep their memory alive with it. When analysing a painting by Da Vinci or Van Gogh, the lives of the painters are ultimately recalled and examined in light of their work. When reading HG Wells or TS Elliot, we are reminded of the things in their lives that influenced the words on the page. For Barber, the same cannot be said. His life is poorly recorded with only one major biographical look at his life ever produced. However, it is untrue to assume his name would have been long forgotten if it were not for the Adagio. When such a piece of pure perfection is created, there is nowhere left for the composer to go. Had he not created such a dominating work, the rest of his catalogue would have far more attention. As it is, when the Adagio is written about, it is the music and not the man that is referred to. In essence, the work has become greater than the man. However, there can be little wrong with being remembered as the creator of one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.