Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute

by Peter Dickinson

Overview

Compulsively readable interviews with the great American composer and his friends and colleagues, including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Leontyne Price.

Samuel Barber is one of America's most popular classical composers. His widely beloved works include "Adagio for Strings" and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 .
The main source for Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute is a panoply of vivid and eminently readable interviews by Peter Dickinson for a BBC Radio 3 documentary in 1981. The interviewees include Barber's friends, fellow composers, and performers, notably Gian Carlo Menotti, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, soprano Leontyne Price, and pianist John Browning. The book also includes three of the very few interviews extant with Barber himself. Dickinson contributes substantial chapters on Barber's early life and on Barber's reception in England. The book has a foreword by the distinguished composer and admirer of Barber, John Corigliano.

Peter Dickinson, British composer and pianist, has written or editednumerous books about twentieth-century music, including CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage (University of Rochester Press) and three books published by Boydell Press: The Music of Lennox Berkeley; Copland Connotations; and Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580463508
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Series:	ISSN , #74
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by John Corigliano
About the 1981 BBC Interviews by Arthur Johnson
Acknowledgements
The Formative Years
Reception in England
Samuel Barber Interviewed by James Fassett (1949)
Samuel Barber Interviewed by Robert Sherman (1978)
Samuel Barber Interviewed by Allan Kozinn (1979)
Gian Carlo Menotti: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Yester House, Gifford, Scotland, April 6, 1981
Charles Turner: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Aaron Copland: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Rock Hill, Peekskill, NY, May 11, 1981
William Schuman: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 888 Park Avenue, New York City, May 14, 1981
Virgil Thomson: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Chelsea Hotel, New York City, May 12, 1981
Leontyne Price: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 14, 1981
John Browning: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Robert White: Interview with Arthur Johnson, London, February 1981
H. Wiley Hitchcock: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 1192 Park Avenue, New York City, May 10, 1981
Hans W. Heinsheimer: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
Edward P. Murphy: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 12, 1981
Postscript 2005: Orlando Cole: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Philadelphia, October 13, 2005
Selected Bibliography
General Index
Index of Works by Samuel Barber

Editorial Reviews

Neatly introduced and painstakingly annotated by . . . the indefatigable American music expert Peter Dickinson. . . . [Its] wealth of personal insights . . . [makes Samuel Barber Remembered] an all-round portrait.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE - Anthony Burton

Deftly assembled and adroitly annotated. . . . A valuable resource for Barber devotees and an excellent introduction to a man with the simplest of philosophies: There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience, is there?

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Wide-ranging and fascinating. . . Dickinson is a talented interviewer, well prepared and deeply immersed in his topic. . . Will be appealing to anyone with an interest in post-war American music.

MUSIC & LETTERS - Christopher M. Scheer

A composer as well as a scholar and writer, [Peter] Dickinson brings colorful immediacy to the interviews . . . [and] is generous with illustrations and bibliography. . . Summing Up: Recommended [for] all readers.

CHOICE - Michael Meckna

An absorbing and intimate portrait of one of the finest creative musical figures of our time. —Vivian Perlis, biographer of Aaron Copland; founding Director of the Oral History, American Music archive at Yale School of Music

.

Should appeal both to academics, with its copious footnotes, and to general music lovers, with its wealth of anecdotes. . . Shows how crucial [Barber and Menotti's] relationship was to both composers' artistic development.

WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE

A vivid and sympathetic portrait of Samuel Barber through the eyes of those who knew him best-friends, performers, lovers, his publisher, and colleagues. A moving tribute to one of the most important composers of the twentieth century.

Barbara Heyman

Perhaps the most useful anniversary homage. . . An insightful collection of interviews here transcribed and published in full for the first time. Give[s] insight, opinions, and anecdotes not available anywhere else. [The interviews with Barber himself] are valuable, rare sources of insight into the composer's mind and aesthetic. The production values of his volume are very high. An absolute necessity for scholars of mid-twentieth-century American music, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES - Luke Howard

Sheds much-needed light on Barber's character and artistic persona.

BOSTON GLOBE - David Weininger

Wide-ranging and fascinating. . . Dickinson is a talented interviewer, well prepared and deeply immersed in his topic. . . Will be appealing to anyone with an interest in post-war American music. MUSIC & LETTERS [Christopher M. Scheer]

Perhaps the most useful anniversary homage. . . An insightful collection of interviews here transcribed and published in full for the first time. Give[s] insight, opinions, and anecdotes not available anywhere else. [The interviews with Barber himself] are valuable, rare sources of insight into the composer's mind and aesthetic. The production values of his volume are very high. An absolute necessity for scholars of mid-twentieth-century American music, and a thoroughly enjoyable read. MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES [Luke Howard]

A composer as well as a scholar and writer, [Peter] Dickinson brings colorful immediacy to the interviews . . . [and] is generous with illustrations and bibliography. . . Summing Up: Recommended [for] all readers. CHOICE [Michael Meckna]

Sheds much-needed light on Barber's character and artistic persona. BOSTON GLOBE [David Weininger]

A vivid and sympathetic portrait of Samuel Barber through the eyes of those who knew him best-friends, performers, lovers, his publisher, and colleagues. A moving tribute to one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. --Barbara Heyman, author of Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music

An absorbing and intimate portrait of one of the finest creative musical figures of our time. --Vivian Perlis, biographer of Aaron Copland; founding Director of the Oral History, American Music archive at Yale School of Music

Should appeal both to academics, with its copious footnotes, and to general music lovers, with its wealth of anecdotes. . . Shows how crucial [Barber and Menotti's] relationship was to both composers' artistic development. WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE

Deftly assembled and adroitly annotated. . . . A valuable resource for Barber devotees and an excellent introduction to a man with the simplest of philosophies: There's no reason music should be difficult for an audience, is there? CLASSICAL MUSIC

Neatly introduced and painstakingly annotated by . . . the indefatigable American music expert Peter Dickinson. . . . [Its] wealth of personal insights . . . [makes Samuel Barber Remembered] an all-round portrait. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE [Anthony Burton]

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