Overview

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is one of the most admired and honored American composers of the twentieth century. An unabashed Romantic, largely independent of worldwide trends and the avant-garde, he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes every genre, including the famous Adagio for Strings, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, three concertos, a plethora of songs, and two operas, the Pulitzer prize-winning Vanessa, and Antony and Cleopatra, the commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966.Generously documented by letter, sketches, autograph manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and performers with whom he worked, this ASCAP-Award winning book is still unquestionably the most authoritative biography on Barber, covering his entire career and interweaving the events of his life with his compositional process. This second edition benefits from many new discoveries, including a Violin Sonata recovered from an artist's estate, a diary Barber kept his seventeenth year, a trove of letters and manuscripts that were recovered from a suitcase found in a dumpster, documentation that dispels earlier myths about the composition of Barber's Violin Concerto, and research of scholars that was stimulated by Heyman's work. Barber's intimate relations are discussed when they bear on his creativity.A testament to the lasting significance of Romanticism, Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important musical figure.

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9780190863739

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Reviews

This catalogue of themes with copious additional notes, covering 'all published and unpublished' works of Samuel Barber culminates years of extraordinary labor. Adding to her earlier definitive biography, Barbara Heyman here makes another gigantic contribution to our knowledge of a major American composer. --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado at Boulder Barber's acclaimed biographer now gives us a catalog which is a panoply of information packed with exactingly researched detail. Everything needed by enthusiasts, performers and scholars now and into the future is punctiliously laid out--a magisterial centenary tribute. --Peter Dickinson, Emeritus Professor, University of London Masterfully done, the result of decades of painstaking research. It is highly recommended for all post-secondary collections. --Fontes Artis Musicae This new book serves as a model for thematic catalogs of dominant 20th-century composers...Highly recommended. --Choice [A]n indispensable reference source and an exemplary model for this kind of work, especially as it pertains to twentieth-century and contemporary composers. --ARSC Journal This catalogue of themes with copious additional notes, covering 'all published and unpublished' works of Samuel Barber culminates years of extraordinary labor. Adding to her earlier definitive biography, Barbara Heyman here makes another gigantic contribution to our knowledge of a major American composer. --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado at Boulder Barber's acclaimed biographer now gives us a catalog which is a panoply of information packed with exactingly researched detail. Everything needed by enthusiasts, performers and scholars now and into the future is punctiliously laid out--a magisterial centenary tribute. --Peter Dickinson, Emeritus Professor, University of London Masterfully done, the result of decades of painstaking research. It is highly recommended for all post-secondary collections. --Fontes Artis Musicae This new book serves as a model for thematic catalogs of dominant 20th-century composers...Highly recommended. --Choice [A]n indispensable reference source and an exemplary model for this kind of work, especially as it pertains to twentieth-century and contemporary composers. --ARSC Journal

Heyman's meticulous accounting of that sad chapter will likely spur a new wave of scholarship on a composer with whom she has spent so many rewarding decades. * Russell Platt, Opera News *

This catalogue of themes with copious additional notes, covering 'all published and unpublished' works of Samuel Barber culminates years of extraordinary labor. Adding to her earlier definitive biography, Barbara Heyman here makes another gigantic contribution to our knowledge of a major American composer. --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado at Boulder Barber's acclaimed biographer now gives us a catalog which is a panoply of information packed with exactingly researched detail. Everything needed by enthusiasts, performers and scholars now and into the future is punctiliously laid out--a magisterial centenary tribute. --Peter Dickinson, Emeritus Professor, University of London Masterfully done, the result of decades of painstaking research. It is highly recommended for all post-secondary collections. --Fontes Artis Musicae This new book serves as a model for thematic catalogs of dominant 20th-century composers...Highly recommended. --Choice [A]n indispensable reference source and an exemplary model for this kind of work, especially as it pertains to twentieth-century and contemporary composers. --ARSC Journal This catalogue of themes with copious additional notes, covering 'all published and unpublished' works of Samuel Barber culminates years of extraordinary labor. Adding to her earlier definitive biography, Barbara Heyman here makes another gigantic contribution to our knowledge of a major American composer. --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado at Boulder Barber's acclaimed biographer now gives us a catalog which is a panoply of information packed with exactingly researched detail. Everything needed by enthusiasts, performers and scholars now and into the future is punctiliously laid out--a magisterial centenary tribute. --Peter Dickinson, Emeritus Professor, University of London Masterfully done, the result of decades of painstaking research. It is highly recommended for all post-secondary collections. --Fontes Artis Musicae This new book serves as a model for thematic catalogs of dominant 20th-century composers...Highly recommended. --Choice [A]n indispensable reference source and an exemplary model for this kind of work, especially as it pertains to twentieth-century and contemporary composers. --ARSC Journal

Author Information

Barbara B. Heyman is a musicologist who has written extensively about Samuel Barber. An accomplished pianist and violinist, she was educated at Barnard College, holds an MSSW degree from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Music History from the City University of New York. She has written numerous articles for scholarly journals and encyclopedias, as well as Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works (OUP, 2012), the first thematic catalogue of an American composer.

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