Barber Nocturne Op. 33

Composer: Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Samuel Osborne Barber II, was born March 9, 1910, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, into a comfortable, educated, and distinguished Irish-American family. He showed a deep interest in music from an early age, writing his first piece at age 7 and attempting his first opera at age 10.

At 14, Barber entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied voice, piano, and composition. In his 20s, Barber wrote a large number of compositions launching him to the forefront of the classical music world. Widely distinguished for his gorgeous melodies composed in a romantic vein, his most recognizable and beloved composition, Adagio for Strings, was written when he was 28 and was premiered by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini in 1938.

Barber was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes over his lifetime including two Pulitzers and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He died of cancer in 1981 in New York City and was buried in his hometown of West Chester.

After the end of the Romantic period of classical music (roughly ending around 1910), one of the new compositional techniques that arose was Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone technique which uses all 12 tones of the chromatic scale to form a set that is then manipulated in various ways to produce an entire piece of music. It can be difficult to listen to and has since fallen to the wayside. Barber modified the technique when he used it in the Nocturne by making the left hand centered around a more recognized tonal base thus disguising the 12-tone method. A nocturne is a piece inspired by, or evocative of, the night. Barber’s Nocturne is strikingly beautiful with sections of great contrast. I like to image that it illustrates a mother trying to rock her restless baby to sleep.

Recorded: 06-06-2018 (4:10)

Piano: 2003 Steinway & Sons "B"