Adagio for Strings

Barber's Adagio for Strings was originally the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while he was spending a summer in Europe with Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian composer and Barber's partner since their student years at the Curtis Institute of Music.{{cite news

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/arts/music/07barber.html

|title=An Adagio for Strings, and for the Ages

|newspaper=The New York Times

|access-date=March 7, 2010

|first=Johanna

|last=Keller

|date=March 7, 2010

}} Barber was inspired by Virgil's didactic poem Georgics. In the quartet, the Adagio follows a violently contrasting first movement (Molto allegro e appassionato) and is succeeded by a third movement that opens with a brief reprise of the music from the first movement (marked Molto allegro (come prima) – Presto).

{{cite book

|last1= Woodstra

|first1=Chris

|last2=Brennan

|first2=Gerald

|last3=Schrott

|first3= Allen

|title=All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music

|publisher=Backbeat Books

|year=2005

|isbn=0-87930-865-6

|page=81

}}

In January 1938, Barber sent an orchestrated version of the Adagio for Strings to Arturo Toscanini. The conductor returned the score without comment, which annoyed Barber. Toscanini sent word through Menotti that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6427815|title=The Impact of Barber's Adagio for Strings|work=All Things Considered|publisher=NPR|date=November 4, 2006|access-date=November 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101023030949/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6427815|archive-date= October 23, 2010|url-status=live}} {{link note|note=Audio clip}} It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere.{{harvnb|Heyman|1992|pp=[https://archive.org/details/samuelbarbercomp0000heym/page/167 167–180]}} On November 5, 1938, a selected audience was invited to Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center to watch Toscanini conduct the first performance; it was broadcast on radio and also recorded. Initially, the critical reception was mixed. The New York Times{{'}} Olin Downes praised the piece, but he was reproached by other critics who claimed that he overrated it.

{{cite book

|editor-last=Tick

|editor-first=Judith

|editor2-last=Beaudoin

|editor2-first=Paul

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzGQSt2L_osC&q=adagio+for+strings&pg=PA470

|title=Music in the USA: a documentary companion

|isbn=978-0-19-513987-7

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|year=2008

|pages=470–474

}}

Toscanini conducted Adagio for Strings in South America and Europe, the first performances of the work on both continents. Over 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.

Adagio for Strings begins softly with a B♭ (musical note) played by the first violins.

: \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1" \clef treble \key bes \minor \time 4/2 \tempo "Molto adagio" bes\breve(~\pp\< | bes4\! a bes c a bes c bes | c\< des bes c des c des ees | \time 5/2 c1.\! }

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". 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." Thomas Larson remarked that the piece "evokes a deep sadness in those who hear it".{{cite book |title=The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" |last=Larson |first=Thomas |year=2010 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-60598-115-4}} Many recordings of the piece have a duration of about eight minutes.{{cite web

|url=http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=24306

|title=Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber

|publisher=Schirmer.com

|access-date=October 2, 2010}} According to music theorist Matthew BaileyShea, the Adagio "features a deliberately archaic sound, with Renaissance-like polyphony and simple tertian harmonies" underlying a "chant-like melody". The work is in "the key of B{{music|flat}} minor (with some modal inflections)".{{cite journal |url=https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=gamut |title=Agency and the Adagio: Mimetic Engagement in Barber's Op. 11 Quartet |first=Matthew |last=BaileyShea |journal=Gamut |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=7–38 |date=August 2012 |access-date=January 25, 2022}}

The Adagio is an example of arch form and builds on a melody that first ascends and then descends in stepwise fashion. Barber subtly manipulates the pulse throughout the work by varying the primary {{music|time|4|2}} time signature with isolated measures of {{music|time|5|2}}, {{music|time|6|2}}, and {{music|time|3|2}}. After four climactic chords and a long pause, the piece presents the opening theme again and fades away on an unresolved dominant chord.

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."

{{cite book

|title=The Arts|series=Great Contemporary Issues Series

|last1=Braun

|first1=Gene

|last2=McLanathan

|first2=Richard

|year=1991

|publisher=Ayer Company

|isbn=0-405-11153-3

|page=132

}}

{{cite book

|title=Olin Downes on music: a selection from his writings during the half-century 1906 to 1955

|last=Downes

|first=Olin

|author-link=Olin Downes

|year=1968

|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group

|asin=B0006BYVRG

}}

Alexander J. Morin, author of Classical Music: The Listener's Companion (2001), said that the piece was "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye".

{{cite book

|title=Classical Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion

|last=Morin

|first=Alexander

|year=2001

|publisher=Backbeat Books

|isbn=0-87930-638-6

|page=[https://archive.org/details/classicalmusicli00mori/page/74 74]

|url-access=registration

|url=https://archive.org/details/classicalmusicli00mori/page/74

}} Reviewing the premiere performance in 1938, Olin Downes noted that with the piece, Barber "achieved something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits".

In an edition of A Conductor's Analysis of Selected Works, John William Mueller devoted over 20 pages to Adagio for Strings.

{{cite book

|last=Mueller

|first=John William

|title=A conductor's analysis of selected works

|year=1992

|publisher=John William Mueller

|pages=187–210

}} 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, said that it was one of the most recognizable pieces of American concert music.

{{cite web

|url={{AllMusic|class=work|id=c41496|pure_url=yes}}

|title=Adagio for Strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11

|website=Allmusic

|access-date=October 2, 2010

}}

The musicologist Bill McGlaughlin compares its role in American music to the role that Edward Elgar's "Nimrod" holds for the British.McGlaughlin, Bill. Edward Elgar: Part 2 of 5. Exploring Music. Originally aired April 6, 2004.

As part of a musical retrospective in 2000, NPR named Adagio for Strings one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century, calling it "standard repertoire for today's orchestras, and Barber's best-known work".{{cite web |title=NPR 100: Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' |url=https://www.npr.org/2000/03/13/1071551/barbers-iconic-adagio-for-strings |publisher=NPR |access-date=July 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415090350/https://www.npr.org/2000/03/13/1071551/barbers-iconic-adagio-for-strings |archive-date=April 15, 2022 |date=March 13, 2000 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=The NPR 100 |url=https://legacy.npr.org/programs/specials/vote/list100.html |publisher=NPR |access-date=July 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703151833/https://legacy.npr.org/programs/specials/vote/list100.html |archive-date=July 3, 2020 |url-status=live}} In 2019, NPR revisited the piece, with writer Anastasia Tsioulcas suggesting it arrived at "the right moment, when America was still hurting from the Great Depression and Europe was sliding into war." She continued by noting how young people reinterpret "America's semi-official music for mourning" as an expression of joy, using the example of Dutch DJ Tiësto's remix of Adagio for Strings as a dance music anthem,https://www.npr.org/2019/02/13/694388226/samuel-barber-adagio-for-strings-tiesto-william-orbit-american-anthem which caught the attention of the 2004 Olympics Organizers in Athens (ATHOC) and is included on Parade of the Athletes, Tiësto's retrospective mix of his live set performed during the opening ceremony.[https://medium.com/12edit/tiesto-parade-of-athletes-dac120244f44 Tiesto — Parade of Athletes. How Tijs Verwest turned out to be the DJ of the 2004 Olympics]

In 2004, listeners to the BBC Radio's Today program voted Adagio for Strings the "saddest classical" work ever, ahead of "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony, Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, and Gloomy Sunday as sung by Billie Holiday.{{ cite web | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/arts/saddestmusic_20040506.shtml | title=Today: search for the world's saddest music | access-date=November 12, 2011}}{{ cite web | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/arts/saddestmusic_vote.shtml | title=Saddest Music shortlist | access-date=November 12, 2011}}

G. Schirmer has published several alternate arrangements for Adagio for Strings. They include:

• Solo organ (1949){{spaced ndash}}William Strickland
• Clarinet choir (1964){{spaced ndash}}Lucien Cailliet
• Woodwind band (1967){{spaced ndash}}John O'Reilly
• Agnus Dei (1967){{spaced ndash}}Samuel Barber{{spaced ndash}}Latin text setting of "Agnus Dei" (Lamb of God) for chorus with optional organ or piano accompaniment
• Chorus with strings (2021){{spaced ndash}}Jonathan Manners, also setting the Agnus Dei text. Performed on the 20th anniversary of September 11 attacks (9/11) at The Last Night of the Proms 2021, London UK, in memory of those lost. The new arrangement was performed 20 years after the original Adagio for Strings was performed at the 2001 Last Night to honour the memory of the victims of 9/11, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.{{cite web|first=Freya|last=Parr|url=https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-last-night-of-the-proms|title=Everything you need to know about the Last Night of the Proms|website=BBC Music Magazine|date=September 10, 2021}}

Strickland, while assistant organist at St Bartholomew's Church in New York, had been impressed by Toscanini's recording of the work and had submitted his own arrangement for organ to Schirmer's. After he made contact with Barber at a musical soirée in 1939, he learned that his transcription had received a lukewarm response from the composer. Strickland, subsequently appointed wartime director of music at the Army's Fort Myer in Virginia, became a champion of Barber's new compositions. He continued to correspond with the composer.

In 1945 Barber wrote to Strickland, expressing his dissatisfaction with previously proposed organ arrangements; he encouraged Strickland to discuss and prepare his own version for publication.

{{quote|Schirmer's 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, although 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.}}

Strickland, having kept the piece, sent his organ arrangement to G. Schirmer. The company published it in 1949.

The recording of the world premiere in 1938, 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.{{ cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nrpb-2005reg.html | title=The National Recording Registry 2005 | publisher=Library of Congress | access-date=April 27, 2007}} Since the 1938 recording, the Adagio for Strings has frequently been heard throughout the world, particularly in times of mourning. It was one of the few American pieces to be played in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Barber voiced misgivings with the piece's ubiquity, saying in a 1978 interview, "They always play that piece. I wish they'd play some of my other pieces."{{cite web | url=https://www.wqxr.org/story/93875-barbers-adagio-saddest-piece-ever/ | title=WQXR Features Barber's Adagio: The Saddest Piece Ever? | date=September 8, 2010 | access-date=August 30, 2012|last = Wise|first = Brian}}

Notable invocations or performances of the piece include, chronologically:

• Broadcast over radio at the announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death (1945).
• Played at the funeral of Albert Einstein (1955).{{sfn|Heyman|1992|p=196}}
• Performed by the National Symphony Orchestra in a national radio broadcast following the funeral of assassinated President John F. Kennedy (1963).{{cite web |title=The Saddest Song |url=https://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/jfk-adagio-for-strings/ |website=pophistorydig.com |access-date=December 4, 2020}} The piece was one of Kennedy's favorites.
• Conducted by Leonard Bernstein at four consecutive New York Philharmonic concerts in memory of Samuel Barber shortly after Barber's death (1981).{{cite web|title=Concert Program|date=January 29, 1981|publisher=New York Philharmonic|access-date=March 18, 2021|url=https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/88c26de2-bc0a-445b-8014-a1cca686850a-0.1/fullview#page/1/mode/2up}}
• Played at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco (1982).{{ cite book | last=Lee | first=Douglas A. | title=Masterworks of 20th Century Music: The Modern Repertory of the Symphony Orchestra | url=https://archive.org/details/masterworksof20t0000leed | url-access=registration | publisher=Routledge | year=2002 | isbn=0-415-93846-5}}
• Played (as Barber's vocal choir arrangement, Agnus Dei) during the introduction cinematic of the video game Homeworld (1999).{{cite web | url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/homeworld-remastered-review | title=Wot I Think: Homeworld Remastered Collection | work=Rock, Paper, Shotgun | date=February 25, 2015 | last1=Co-Founder | first1=Alec Meer | last2=Meer | first2=Alec }}
• Performed at Last Night of the Proms in 2001 at the Royal Albert Hall to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks.{{ cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/tradition-yields-to-compassion-at-last-night-669530.html | title=Tradition yields to compassion | work=The Independent | location=London | first=Anthony | last=Barnes | date=September 16, 2001 | access-date=April 23, 2010 | url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903133236/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/tradition-yields-to-compassion-at-last-night-669530.html |archive-date=September 3, 2009}}
• Played during the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver.
• Played as the final song on the Peter, Paul and Mary compilation album Peter Paul and Mary With Symphony Orchestra: The Prague Sessions (2010). Mary Travers had requested that Adagio for Strings be played at her memorial service.{{ cite web | url=http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/events/events-pr.htm | title=Peter, Paul and Mary Soar Again with Symphony Orchestra | date=February 10, 2010 | access-date=November 13, 2011}}
• Played at the state funeral of Canadian Jack Layton, the New Democratic Party Leader (2011).{{ cite web | url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/310865 | title=In Photos: Canadian NDP Leader Jack Layton's procession, funeral}}
• Played in Trafalgar Square, on January 9, 2015, by an ensemble of 150 string players led by Thomas Gould of the Aurora Orchestra following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.{{cite web |url=http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/news/je-suis-charlie-professional-and-amateur-musicians-remember-victims-of-charlie-hebdo-attacks-with-barbers-adagio-for-strings-in-londons-trafalgar-square | title=Professional musicians joined with amateur performers last night in Trafalgar Square, London, to remember the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.}}
• Played by the Brussels Philharmonic on March 25, 2016, in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange following the 2016 Brussels bombings earlier that week.{{cite news|url=http://www.lalibre.be/actu/belgique/le-brussels-philharmonic-et-le-vlaams-radio-koor-rendent-hommage-en-musique-a-la-bourse-56f56e1b35702a22d5ba4734|title=Music Played after Brussels Attacks|last=Van Den Steen|first=Stephanie|date=March 25, 2016|newspaper=La Libre|at=Video at Bottom, French Language|access-date=March 25, 2016}}
• Played in Central Park in New York City on June 15, 2016, for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting.{{YouTube|6uRS8O3nT4U|Adagio for Strings for Orlando Victims, in Central Park}}
• Played at the televised memorial in Manchester, England on May 23, 2017, for the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.{{YouTube|nlJ5VAfF8Jc|Vigil Held for Victims of Manchester Attack in UK}}
• Played at the digital European Concert in the Berliner Philharmonie by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko on May 1, 2020, for Coronavirus victims.[https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/concert/53365 "European Concert"] from the Berliner Philharmonie by the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko, Digital Concert Hall {{subscription required}}
• Performed at Last Night of the Proms in 2021 at the Royal Albert Hall on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, in a new arrangement for chorus and strings.

Adagio for Strings can also be heard on many film and television soundtracks, including The Elephant Man (1980), Platoon (1986), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), and Outlander (2019).{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/02/13/694388226/samuel-barber-adagio-for-strings-tiesto-william-orbit-american-anthem |title=Barber's Adagio is Not the Saddest Music in the World|publisher=NPR|date=February 13, 2019}}{{cite magazine | url=https://ew.com/tv/2019/01/20/outlander-providence-episode-sad-song-adagio-for-strings/ | title=Why 'Outlander' used the saddest song ever to end the penultimate episode | magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=January 20, 2019}} More comedic or lighthearted uses of it have appeared in the film Amélie (2001) and on episodes of the sitcoms Seinfeld, The Simpsons, American Dad!, and South Park.

The group eRa included Adagio for Strings in their 2009 album Classics.{{cite web | url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r1808672|pure_url=yes}} | title=Era Classics – Overview | website=Allmusic | access-date=October 2, 2010}} English rock group Muse interpolated Adagio for Strings on their songs "Plug In Baby" and "Interlude".

The work is popular in the electronic dance music genre, notably in trance.{{cite journal | last=Sansone | first=Glen | date=February 14, 2000 | title=William Orbit |journal=CMJ New Music Report|publisher=CMJ| page=20}} Artists, including DJs who have covered it include William Orbit,{{cite magazine | date=October 10, 2005 | title=Billboard Dance |magazine=Billboard|page=87}} Ferry Corsten,{{cite journal | last=Jacks | first=Kelso | date=January 31, 2000 | title=Record News |journal=CMJ New Music Report|publisher=CMJ| page=11}} and Tiësto (eponymously titled single).{{Discogs master|38536|Adagio for Strings|type=single}}

Sources

• {{cite book|last=Heyman|first=Barbara B.|title=Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music|year=1992|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-509058-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/samuelbarbercomp0000heym}}

• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/rams/sadmusic2.ram Sample from the BBC]
• [https://www.npr.org/2000/03/13/1071551/barbers-iconic-adagio-for-strings "NPR 100: Barber's Adagio for Strings"], March 13, 2000, All Things Considered, NPR
• [https://www.npr.org/2010/03/09/124459453/barbers-adagio-naked-expression-of-emotion "Barber's Adagio: Naked Expression of Emotion"], March 9, 2010 NPR (audio)
• {{YouTube|KkObnNQCMtM|"Agnus Dei", Barber's own choral setting}}, performed a cappella by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, conducted by Richard Marlow

{{Samuel Barber|state=collapsed}}

{{Arturo Toscanini}}

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Category:1936 compositions

Category:Compositions by Samuel Barber

Category:Compositions for string orchestra

Category:Compositions in B-flat minor

Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings