“Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete…”
Sounds like the beginning of a coming out letter (and a life of shame) doesn’t it?
Actually, the 9-year old Samuel Barber wrote these words to his mother and then lowered the boom that her beloved son was – gasp! – a composer. He continued, “Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.”
If only Mrs. Barber knew what else was in store.
It’s getting over looked amidst the Chopin and Schumann bicentennial celebrations and the lingering fondness for Mendelssohn who had an anniversary last year, but one-hundred years ago today, Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
It’s not that Barber’s music is being neglected, exactly. Especially not his Adagio for Strings. According to statistics from the League of American Orchestras, the Adagio was the third most frequently performed work by an American composer during the 2007-2008 season with 33 performances, trailing only Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” (55 performances) and ”Rhapsody in Blue” (35 performances). (Actually the League says that Stravinsky’s “Firebird” Suite ranks third, but I don’t count Stravinsky as an American composer.)
In Sunday’s New York Times, Johanna Keller surveys the pervasive presence of the Adagio:
The Adagio is a shape shifter widely appropriated in film and television. In recent years it has also become an unexpected hit for a number of pop musicians and remix artists, including the Dutch mixer and producer DJ Tiësto… It was used as the soundtrack to an intimate scene in the gay film drama “A Very Natural Thing” in 1974 (Barber himself was gay), as well as being heard in the movies “Platoon,” “The Elephant Man” and “Lorenzo’s Oil.” On television it has been in both “The Simpsons” and “South Park.”
Conductor Marin Alsop has recorded all of Barber’s orchestral music and is quoted extensively in the story:
Ms. Alsop is among the many musicians who advocate that more of his work be performed. She will conduct the Adagio in a series of concerts with the Baltimore Symphony beginning June 6 and is programming Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra when she brings her orchestra to Carnegie Hall next season.
“The archetypical Barber we know from the Adagio,” Ms. Alsop said, “is a melodic, lyrical long-line composer. But that only captures one dimension of his work. Because he’s also concise, angular, rhythmic and witty.”
If the Adagio is Barber’s greatest hit, his 1969 opera for the opening of the Met, “Antony & Cleopatra” is certainly his biggest flop. There’s a fascinating recounting of the production of that piece and the fall out from its terrible reception in Michael S. Sherry’s 2007 book “Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: an imagined conspiracy” (University of North Carolina Press).
In a lengthy chapter on Barber and his difficulties at the Met, Sherry lays the ground with this statement:
During World War II and the Cold War, Barber’s career became shaped by the enterwined currents of empire and sexuality. He was a prime example of how America’s cultural empire depended on gay men. Many artists had doubts about their role in that empire or, like Copland, met others’ resistance to it. Barber’s difficulties grabbed no headlines, but as a gay artist he had them…
Perhaps Barber really did know what was coming when he wrote that letter to his mom.
OMG…I can’t believe I didn’t know Barber was gay! I do wish he would get more recognition and exposure for his other works…such a talented composer…particularly love his violin concerto.