[PDF] Belle Moral: A Natural History by Ann-Marie Macdonald in Arts-Photography

Description

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was one of the most important and honored American composers of the twentieth century. Writing in a great variety of musical forms--symphonies; concertos; operas; vocal music; and chamber music--he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes such famous compositions as the Adagio for Strings; the orchestral song Knoxville: Summer of 1915; three concertos; and his two operas; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra; a commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Generously documented by letters; sketchbooks; original musical manuscripts; and interviews with friends; colleagues and performers with whom he worked; this is the first book to cover Barbers entire career and all of his compositions. The biographical material on Barber is closely interspersed with a discussion of his music; displaying Barbers creative processes at work from his early student compositions to his mature masterpieces. Heyman also provides the social context in which this major composer grew: his education; how he built his career; the evolving musical tastes of American audiences; his relationship to musical giants like Serge Koussevitzky; and the role of radio in the promotion of his music. A testament to the significance of the new Romanticism; Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important American musical figure.