Barber – Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op.

31, 11/18/2015

Notes:

Barber (1910-1981)
-Hugely successful during his lifetime

-Famous works in just about every genre, which have entered the repertoire

-Numerous awards: Bearns award, Rome Prize, Pulitzer, Guggenheim

-Famous Adagio for Strings (1936)

-Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947)

-Conservative and Romantic, lyrical style

-Began composing at age 7

-Studied at Curtis – Age 14, where he met Gian Carlo Menotti, his partner

-Piano with Isabelle Vengerova, Composition with Rosario Scalero, and Voice with Emilio de Gorgoza

-Mary Louise Curtis Bok introduced Barber to the Schirmer family

-Wrote a number of successful pieces in mid-twenties including Adagio for Strings, from String Quartet

-Joined Army Air Corps in 1942

-Bought a house with Menotti in New York in 1943

-2 Pullitzer Prizes – 1958 for Vanessa, his first actual opera, and 1962 for his Piano Concerto

-Antony and Cleopatra was premiered at the Met in 1966. It was a failure.

-Barber spent last years of his life somewhat isolated and depressed, also suffering from alcoholism.

-Died of cancer in 1981.

Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31 (1956)
-In 1953, Barber received a commission from the Chamber Music Society of Detroit to write septet for
three strings, three woodwinds, and piano – to be performed by the principal players of the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra

-Unusual payment plan – Instead of a flat fee, the audience would pay what they wished, and the
society would act as a guarantor for a $2,000 payment

-Barber used themes from unpublished piece “Horizon,” which was originally written for the NBC radio
broadcast series “The Standard Oil Hour”

-Though premiered by Detroit players, Barber worked with the New York Wind Quintet very closely in
developing the piece. They read the piece for him, and he attended a rehearsal in which they revised
and edited different passages

-Premiered by Detroit with much media coverage because of commission funding

Form: Binary with extended Coda

Summer Music Section A Section B Coda Final Statement

m. 1-114 m. 115-159 m. 160-199 m. 200-209
(Rehearsal 19) (Rehearsal 30) (Rehearsal 31)
Key e#, g#, Ab, Eb g, Ab G#, B, B/Eb, Eb eb, Eb
Theme A Bsn 1-4 Cl 190-192
Bsn 98-102 Fl 194-196
Hn 105-108
Theme B Ob 9-25
Ob 80-98
Theme C Ob 115-120 Bsn 200-206
Fl 121-126
Ob 136-142
Bsn 148-154
Theme D Fl 160-163
Hn 164-167
Ob 168, 170, 172,
174
Hn 169, 171, 173,
175
Ob & Hn 176-179
Recording played:
Samuel Barber: Summer Music for Wind Quintet, Op. 31
Sony Classical SK 48052. Ensemble Wien-Berlin

Recording with score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBOjvIhm2Cs

Works Cited:
Grosklos, Hollie Jo. Form and Analysis as Elements of Neo-Romanticism in Summer Music Op. 31 by
Samuel Barber (D.M.A.). Denton: University of North Texas. 2001.

Heyman, Barbara B. "Barber, Samuel." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University
Press, accessed November 18, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy-
um.researchport.umd.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/01994

---. Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994.

For an exhaustive bibliography on Barber, his life, and his work, see the Heyman
Grove/Oxford article.