| Adagio for Strings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Composer | Samuel Barber | |
| Year | 1936 | |
| Type | Classical | |
| Period | 20th-century | |
| Style | Modernist | |
| Premiere | ||
| Date | 1938 | |
| Conductor | Arturo Toscanini | |
| Location | New York radio studio | |
| Music sample | ||
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Adagio for Strings
A thirty second sample of a recording of Adagio for Strings from Platoon.
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Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who also took the piece on tour to Europe and South America. It is disputed whether the first performance in Europe was conducted by Toscanini or Henry Wood. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."[1]
The piece begins with a B flat played by violins, leading to the lower strings' entrance. The rhythm is mainly compressed with sustained notes, and Barber uses some unusual time signatures including 4/2, 5/2, 6/4, and 3/2[2] . The piece can be heard in many TV shows and movies.
While Barber rejected many arrangements published by G. Schirmer, such as the organ arrangement by William Strickland, in 1967 he did transcribe the piece for eight-part choir as a setting of the Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God").[2]
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Barber's Adagio for Strings began as the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while Barber was spending a summer in Europe with his partner Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian composer who was a fellow student at the Curtis Institute of Music.[3] The inspiration came from Virgil’s Georgics. Kimberly Keir of Cecil County Public Schools stated that "Barber envisioned a small stream that grows into a river."[4] In the quartet the Adagio follows a violently contrasting first movement (Molto allegro e appassionato) and is succeeded by music which opens with a brief reprise of the music from the first movement (marked Molto allegro (come prima) – Presto).[5]
In January 1938 Barber sent an orchestrated version of the Adagio to Arturo Toscanini. The conductor returned the score without comment, which annoyed Barber. Toscanini then sent word through Menotti that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it.[6] It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere.[2] On November 5, 1938, a selected audience was invited to Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center to view Toscanini conduct the first performance, a radio broadcast which was recorded for posterity. Initially, the critical reception was positive, as seen in the review by The New York Times's Olin Downes. Downes praised the piece, but he was reproached by other critics who claimed that he overrated the piece.[7]
Toscanini took Adagio for Strings on tour to South America and Europe, thus giving the first Adagio performances in both continents. A concert program from London, England, however, states that the first performance of the Essay for Orchestra (another work of Barber's) was conducted by Henry Wood on August 24, 1939.[2]
On April 16–19, 1942, the piece had public performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy at Carnegie Hall. Like the original 1938 performance, these were broadcast on radio and recorded. Barber felt the Toscanini recording well surpassed the Carnegie Hall recording.
G. Schirmer has published several alternate arrangements for Adagio for Strings. William Strickland has presented an arrangement that included an organ part. The arrangement was sent to Barber, who initially responded:
| “ | Schirmers have had several organ arrangements submitted of my "Adagio for Strings" and many inquiries as to whether it exists for organ. I have always turned them down, as, I know little about the organ, I am sure your arrangement would be best. Have you got the one you did before, if not, would you be willing to make it anew? If so, will you ever be in N.Y. on leave, so I could discuss it with you and hear it? If it is done at all, I should like it done as well as possible, and this by you. They would pay you a flat fee for the arrangement, although I don't suppose it will be very much. However, that is their affair. Let me know what you think about it.[2] | ” |
Strickland, having kept the piece, sent his organ arrangement to G. Schirmer who would eventually publish it in 1949.[2]
Adagio for Strings begins softly with a B flat played by the violins. The lower strings come in two beats after the violins, which, as Johanna Keller from The New York Times put it, creates "an uneasy, shifting suspension as the melody begins a stepwise motion, like the hesitant climbing of stairs."[3] NPR Music said that "with a tense melodic line and taut harmonies, the composition is considered by many to be the most popular of all 20th-century orchestral works."[8] Many recordings of the piece have a duration of about eight minutes.[9][10]
Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is a short instrumental piece for orchestra. The work is a slow, minor-key lament, which evokes a deep sadness in those who hear it… The Adagio has captured the emotions of millions of listeners since Barber first wrote it as the middle movement of a string quartet in September 1936.
A chordal accompaniment is included for all instruments not playing the melody or counter-melody. The song's contour is melodic and is mostly diatonically stepwise. The rhythm is mainly compressed with sustained notes and includes both the time signatures of 4/4 and 6/4. The piece's melody is made up mostly by violins and violas, while the counter-melody is played by second violins at measures 25 and 40. The dynamics range from pianissimo (very soft) to fortissimo (very loud). A climax occurs from measures 44–50, followed by a resolution and dynamic change as the piece switches tones. After the climax and a long pause the piece recapitulates to the beginning with several hairpins. The end is a fading away on a sustained tone.[4]The piece follows the arch form.
Music critic Olin Downes wrote that the piece is very simple at climaxes, but reasoned that the simple chords create significance for the piece. Downes went on to say: "That is because we have here honest music, by an honest musician, not striving for pretentious effect, not behaving as a writer would who, having a clear, short, popular word handy for his purpose, got the dictionary and fished out a long one."[12][13][14]
Alexander J. Morin, author of Classical Music: The Listener's Companion, said that the piece was "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."[1] In 1938, Olin Downes noted that with the piece, Barber "achieved something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits."[12]
In an edition of A conductor's analysis of selected works, John William Mueller devoted over 20 pages to Adagio for Strings.[15] Wayne Clifford Wentzel, author of Samuel Barber: A Research and Information Guide (Composer Resource Manuals), said that it was a piece usually selected for a closing act because it was moderately famous. Roy Brewer, writer for allmusic, stated that it was one of the most recognizable pieces of American concert music.[16]
The recording of the 1938 world premiere, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the United States Library of Congress.[17] Since the 1938 recording, it has frequently been heard throughout the world, and was one of the few American pieces to be played in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.[16]
The Adagio was broadcast over the radio at the announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death.[18] It was also played at the funeral of Albert Einstein and at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco.[18] It was performed in 2001 at Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate the victims of the September 11 attacks, replacing the traditional upbeat patriotic songs.[19] It was also played during the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.[20] In 2004, listeners of the BBC's Today program voted Adagio for Strings the "saddest classical" work ever, ahead of Dido's Lament from Dido and Æneas by Henry Purcell, the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony, Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, and Gloomy Sunday as sung by Billie Holiday.[21][22][23]
Adagio for Strings can be heard on many film, TV, and video game soundtracks,[24] including Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning film Platoon, David Lynch's 1980 Oscar-nominated film The Elephant Man, El Norte, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, Swimming Upstream, Lorenzo's Oil, A Very Natural Thing, Reconstruction, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Oscar-nominated 2001 film Amélie. It has been heard in episodes of The Simpsons, Big Brother 2010 (UK), That Mitchell and Webb Look, The Boondocks, South Park, American Dad, How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, ER (TV series), Red Dwarf, Big Love, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.[3]
A recorded performance by the London Symphony Orchestra was, for a time, the highest selling classical piece on iTunes.[25] A choral version, Agnus Dei, can be heard in the soundtrack to the PC video game Homeworld (released in 1999, awarded with the Game of the Year accolade from the PC Gamer magazine). The work is extremely popular in the electronic dance music genre, notably in trance.[26] Artists who have covered it include Armin van Buuren,[27], Escala, William Orbit, [28] Ferry Corsten, and Tiësto. Muse's interlude from their 2003 album Absolution is a guitar adaptation of Adagio for Strings.[29]. eRa included this song in their album Classics.[30] Adagio is the final song on the final collaborative Peter, Paul and Mary album Peter Paul and Mary, With Symphony Orchestra. Mary Travers had requested that Adagio be played at her memorial service.[31]
Adagio was played at the State Funeral of Canadian New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton.[32]