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Barber Summer Music Notes

The document provides biographical information about American composer Samuel Barber and analyzes his work Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31. It details Barber's successful career and awards, his upbringing and education, and relationships. The work is described as being commissioned in 1953 and using themes from an unpublished piece. It received its premiere in 1956 and has a binary form with an extended coda.

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Matthew David Samson
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242 views3 pages

Barber Summer Music Notes

The document provides biographical information about American composer Samuel Barber and analyzes his work Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31. It details Barber's successful career and awards, his upbringing and education, and relationships. The work is described as being commissioned in 1953 and using themes from an unpublished piece. It received its premiere in 1956 and has a binary form with an extended coda.

Uploaded by

Matthew David Samson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op.

31, 11/18/2015

Notes:

Barber (1910-1981)
-Hugely successful during his lifetime

-Famous works in just about every genre, which have entered the repertoire

-Numerous awards: Bearns award, Rome Prize, Pulitzer, Guggenheim

-Famous Adagio for Strings (1936)

-Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947)

-Conservative and Romantic, lyrical style

-Began composing at age 7

-Studied at Curtis – Age 14, where he met Gian Carlo Menotti, his partner

-Piano with Isabelle Vengerova, Composition with Rosario Scalero, and Voice with Emilio de Gorgoza

-Mary Louise Curtis Bok introduced Barber to the Schirmer family

-Wrote a number of successful pieces in mid-twenties including Adagio for Strings, from String Quartet

-Joined Army Air Corps in 1942

-Bought a house with Menotti in New York in 1943

-2 Pullitzer Prizes – 1958 for Vanessa, his first actual opera, and 1962 for his Piano Concerto

-Antony and Cleopatra was premiered at the Met in 1966. It was a failure.

-Barber spent last years of his life somewhat isolated and depressed, also suffering from alcoholism.

-Died of cancer in 1981.


Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31 (1956)
-In 1953, Barber received a commission from the Chamber Music Society of Detroit to write septet for
three strings, three woodwinds, and piano – to be performed by the principal players of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra

-Unusual payment plan – Instead of a flat fee, the audience would pay what they wished, and the
society would act as a guarantor for a $2,000 payment

-Barber used themes from unpublished piece “Horizon,” which was originally written for the NBC radio
broadcast series “The Standard Oil Hour”

-Though premiered by Detroit players, Barber worked with the New York Wind Quintet very closely in
developing the piece. They read the piece for him, and he attended a rehearsal in which they revised
and edited different passages

-Premiered by Detroit with much media coverage because of commission funding

Form: Binary with extended Coda

Summer Music Section A Section B Coda Final Statement


m. 1-114 m. 115-159 m. 160-199 m. 200-209
(Rehearsal 19) (Rehearsal 30) (Rehearsal 31)
Key e#, g#, Ab, Eb g, Ab G#, B, B/Eb, Eb eb, Eb
Theme A Bsn 1-4 Cl 190-192
Bsn 98-102 Fl 194-196
Hn 105-108
Theme B Ob 9-25
Ob 80-98
Theme C Ob 115-120 Bsn 200-206
Fl 121-126
Ob 136-142
Bsn 148-154
Theme D Fl 160-163
Hn 164-167
Ob 168, 170, 172,
174
Hn 169, 171, 173,
175
Ob & Hn 176-179
Recording played:
Samuel Barber: Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31
Sony Classical SK 48052. Ensemble Wien-Berlin

Recording with score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBOjvIhm2Cs

Works Cited:
Grosklos, Hollie Jo. Form and Analysis as Elements of Neo-Romanticism in Summer Music Op. 31 by
Samuel Barber (D.M.A.). Denton: University of North Texas. 2001.

Heyman, Barbara B. "Barber, Samuel." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University
Press, accessed November 18, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy-
um.researchport.umd.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/01994

---. Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994.

For an exhaustive bibliography on Barber, his life, and his work, see the Heyman
Grove/Oxford article.

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