Samuel Barber Remembered - (Eastman Studies in Music) by Peter Dickinson (Hardcover)

About the Book

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

Book Synopsis

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 edited numerous 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.

Review Quotes

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

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.--Anthony Burton "BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE"

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.--Michael Meckna "CHOICE"

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-- "."

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"

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.--Luke Howard "MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES"

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

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"

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.--Christopher M. Scheer "MUSIC & LETTERS"