In this period, the likes of some of the most spectacular pieces came to life.
At the time of World War II, he served in the Air Corp, where part of his job required him to make musical compositions. Soon after, the 1939 version of the Violin Concerto took Barber’s recognition to the international stage, something Barber would never have dreamt of a few years ago. After being performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Barber’s career really took a notable flight amongst the classical musicians of the day. In his student years, Barber is credited to have focused more on vocals with songs such as Dover Beach, and orchestral pieces like Overture to the School for Scandal making center-stage at the time.Īfter graduation, Barber worked on a stream of compositions with a string quartet titled Adagio of Strings, standing out as one of the most popular. He also befriended an incredibly gifted composer, Gian-Carlo Menotti, with whom he would collaborate for the better part of his life. Not long after, he was enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music, where he developed further taste for vocals, composition and the piano, seeking the aid of renowned artists like Isabelle Vengerova and Rosario Scalero. By the age of 10, he had composed his first opera, called The Rose Tree. At the age of 6, Barber made his first attempt to learn the piano, and successfully enough composed a magnificent solo piano piece only a year later. Although his father had pursued a career as a Physician, virtually every other family member had been a composer or an organist of sorts. His choral works include Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and he has also composed instrumental pieces and songs.Growing up in a family with musical abilities made things quite easy for young Barber to grasp a hold of. Theatre works include three operas and two ballets there are two symphonies (1936, revised 1943 1944, revised 1947), concertos for violin, cello, and piano, and the Capricorn Concerto (1944) for flute, oboe, trumpet, and strings. Barber was in no way an innovator: ‘I write as I feel’, he said. His opera Vanessa (1957), with libretto by Menotti, was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera and played there for two subsequent seasons (1958//65) an opera commissioned for the opening of the new Lincoln Center, Antony and Cleopatra (1966), designed by Zeffirelli, was less successful, probably due to its cumbersome production.īarber's harmony is basically that of late-nineteenth-century diatonicism his music is lyrical and often dramatic and comparable with that of Brahms. The popular Adagio for Strings is an orchestral transcription of the second movement of his string quartet (1936).
He travelled extensively in Europe on scholarships (including the Prix de Rome) and found his style in a natural romanticism allied to classical forms. His excellent baritone voice led him to consider a career in singing, and in 1935 he gave recitals on the NCB radio and recorded his Dover Beach for voice and string quartet (1931). US composer whose work is marked by a strong traditional element of melodic structure.īorn and brought up in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Barber became a student at the Curtis Institute, studying piano, composition, and conducting.