Keria Thadison
Mr. Patt
4th Block Music Theory
1 March 2017
Composer Sameul Barber
Samuel Barber's path to a successful career in composition began in his childhood when he first expressed an interest in music. From then on out, he flourished, going out from studying music to eventually making music of his own. The music that Samuel composed was interesting due to the fact that he didn't try to conform it into the popular styles of composition; instead he focused on expressing his own voice. Although his career ended on a sour note, Sameul Barber has lived an astounding life in music writing.
As aforementioned, Barber music interest began as a child. Samuel Osborne Barber II was born to Samuel Le Roy Barber and Marguerite McLeod Beatty on March 9, 1910 in his home town of West Chester, Pennsylvania. There, in Pennsylvania, he musically blossomed; at age seven, he wrote his first composition titled Sadness, a twenty-three measure piece in C-minor. Influenced by his aunt and uncle (whom was a contralto and a composer for American songs, respectively) he also went on to write many other pieces of music By the
…show more content…
Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, the first opera that he collaborated with someone other than Menotti, was received poorly; it was cancelled after one performance. Barber blamed the performance on creative differences between himself and Zeffirelli, the director of the opera. "What I wrote and what I envisioned had nothing to do with what one saw on that stage," he would go out to say. The poor ratings effected Barber so terribly that he slipped into alcoholism and destroyed his career as well as his relationship with his partner with Menotti. After a lapse of inactivity passed, Barber went on to create a few more pieces, his last major one being Third Essay for Orchestra, until he was diagnosed with cancer in 1978. Barber died in New York City, NY on January 23,