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The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings
An exploration of the cultural impact of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, the Pietá of music, and its enigmatic composer--in celebration of the centenary of his birth. "Whenever the American dream suffers a catastrophic setback, Barber's Adagio plays on the radio."--Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise
In the first book ever to explore Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer and his seminal from its composition in 1936, when Barber was just twenty-six, to its orchestral premiere two years later, led by the great Arturo Toscanini, and its fascinating history as America's secular hymn for grieving our dead. Older Americans know Adagio from the funerals and memorials for Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Grace Kelly. Younger Americans recall the work as the antiwar theme of the movie Platoon . Still others treasure the piece in its choral version under the name Agnus Dei. More recently, mourners heard Adagio played as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Barber's Adagio is truly the saddest music ever written, enrapturing listeners with its lyric beauty as few laments have.
The Adagio's sonorous intensity also speaks of the turbulent inner life of its composer, Samuel Barber (1910-1981), a melancholic who, in later years, descended into alcoholism and severe depression. Part biography, part cultural history, part memoir, The Saddest Music Ever Written captures the deep emotion Barber's great elegy has stirred throughout the world during its seventy-five-year history, becoming an icon of our national soul.
In the first book ever to explore Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer and his seminal from its composition in 1936, when Barber was just twenty-six, to its orchestral premiere two years later, led by the great Arturo Toscanini, and its fascinating history as America's secular hymn for grieving our dead. Older Americans know Adagio from the funerals and memorials for Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Grace Kelly. Younger Americans recall the work as the antiwar theme of the movie Platoon . Still others treasure the piece in its choral version under the name Agnus Dei. More recently, mourners heard Adagio played as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Barber's Adagio is truly the saddest music ever written, enrapturing listeners with its lyric beauty as few laments have.
The Adagio's sonorous intensity also speaks of the turbulent inner life of its composer, Samuel Barber (1910-1981), a melancholic who, in later years, descended into alcoholism and severe depression. Part biography, part cultural history, part memoir, The Saddest Music Ever Written captures the deep emotion Barber's great elegy has stirred throughout the world during its seventy-five-year history, becoming an icon of our national soul.
262 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2010
About the author
Thomas Larson
21 books2 followersThomas Larson is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" from Pegasus Books, September 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 3, 2020
Aside from academic theses about the structure of a particular symphony, this is the first book I've read that focusses on a single piece of music. Larson, a critic and essayist, takes a wide-ranging approach, discussing not just the Adagio's history but its place in American society and his own family. It's an interesting way to deal with music; the closest parallel I've read is perhaps Lewis Thomas's Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony, a series of essays about music. In the same way, this is a series of essays about Barber's Adagio.
As I said, Larson is an essayist, but he's no musicologist. I'm not either, but even so I stumbled across some glaring errors that made me question his research. For example, Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony -- one of the most famous of the 20th century because of its dramatic origins during the siege of that city -- is NOT his Eighth. Nitpicking, you say? Not really, because it makes me wonder what other facts Larson might've warped to fit them into his chosen narrative.
I enjoyed learned about Samuel Barber's personal life, as I knew little about him . . . but as I said above, I reserve judgment about how accurate that information is. On the positive side, the book is short, well-written, and easy to read.
As a personal aside, before I read this book I wouldn't have classified Barber's Adagio for Strings as sad. To me, it seems more nostalgic and contemplative than grief-stricken. That's a quibble, though, because people interpret music differently.
As I said, Larson is an essayist, but he's no musicologist. I'm not either, but even so I stumbled across some glaring errors that made me question his research. For example, Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony -- one of the most famous of the 20th century because of its dramatic origins during the siege of that city -- is NOT his Eighth. Nitpicking, you say? Not really, because it makes me wonder what other facts Larson might've warped to fit them into his chosen narrative.
I enjoyed learned about Samuel Barber's personal life, as I knew little about him . . . but as I said above, I reserve judgment about how accurate that information is. On the positive side, the book is short, well-written, and easy to read.
As a personal aside, before I read this book I wouldn't have classified Barber's Adagio for Strings as sad. To me, it seems more nostalgic and contemplative than grief-stricken. That's a quibble, though, because people interpret music differently.
April 30, 2023
A heartfelt but strange combination of many things:
It is a biography of American composer, Samuel Barber, whose Adagio you have most certainly heard, as background music to films, at funerals (among others Princess Diana, Princess Grace, Franklin Roosevelt,) 9/11 memorial and many other times. The biographer seems to be quite fascinated by Barber's life-long relationship with Italian/American composer, Menotti (Anal and the Night Visitors.)
An analysis of the piece, as well as some of Barber's other works.
A discussion of the music of grief and lamentation.
A survey of how music in general, and the Adagio in particular, are used in film.
And interspersed, the author's own autobiographical cameos of how the Adagio played a part in the lives of his family family members, grandparents, parents and himself. The author has apparently later specialized in the art of autobiography, but I found these chapters distracting from a book about Samuel Barber.
In the past years, as I near the end of my life, I try to give away books as soon as I read them. But I don't know who to give this to. I doubt that it would interest my music-lover friends.
It is a biography of American composer, Samuel Barber, whose Adagio you have most certainly heard, as background music to films, at funerals (among others Princess Diana, Princess Grace, Franklin Roosevelt,) 9/11 memorial and many other times. The biographer seems to be quite fascinated by Barber's life-long relationship with Italian/American composer, Menotti (Anal and the Night Visitors.)
An analysis of the piece, as well as some of Barber's other works.
A discussion of the music of grief and lamentation.
A survey of how music in general, and the Adagio in particular, are used in film.
And interspersed, the author's own autobiographical cameos of how the Adagio played a part in the lives of his family family members, grandparents, parents and himself. The author has apparently later specialized in the art of autobiography, but I found these chapters distracting from a book about Samuel Barber.
In the past years, as I near the end of my life, I try to give away books as soon as I read them. But I don't know who to give this to. I doubt that it would interest my music-lover friends.
January 26, 2021
I am giving 5 stars even though there were some parts of the book that I didn’t like that much (namely the personal story connections). However, the book is otherwise quite brilliant, with the musical composition insights and the interesting (and sad) story of Barber’s life. I am a fan of classical music, but for some reason I always overlooked or skipped the “songs” (such as vocals and piano, vocals and orchestra etc.). This book made me look into these – and Barber was a genius when composing songs, using poems, traditional texts and so on. Search for Knoxville: Summer of 1915, arranged for piano and tenor (Simon Lepper and Russell Thomas) – the beauty of this song is beyond description. This book broadened my horizons, and I am quite grateful for that. That is why it deserves 5 stars.
May 28, 2019
El libro está bien... pero tampoco es nada del otro mundo. Mucha información sobre el Adagio de Barber y algunos intentos (un poco pretenciosos desde mi punto de vista) de explicar su impacto emocional sobre la familia del autor. También: insiste mucho en el papel de la obra dentro del contexto estadounidense que es algo que difícilmente podía resonar conmigo (invoca mucho el "we", nosotros, "los americanos"... me hace gracia que escriba desde esa identidad colectiva, me parece a su vez, una cosa muy "americana").
January 20, 2011
Life's too short and library holdings are too vast to waste time reading bad books. So please note that this review reflects only the exhaustion of my patience after a mere three days digesting 70 pages (a little more than a quarter of the volume) and a subsequent skim. I'll admit up front that this review comes free of exhaustive survey and contemplation, but if you persist on reading this book anyway, don't look to me to refund your wasted time.
Saddest Music is disappointing on many levels, foremost for being chock-full of vapid, precious writing low on imagination and insight. Ostensibly this is a personal take on Barber's elegiac Adagio for Strings, a work which (apart from its myriad performance interpretations) exists in three distinct versions in the author's own hand, initially as middle movement to a string quartet, then adapted for string orchestra at the suggestion of Arturo Toscanini, and finally as an unaccompanied choral setting of Agnus Dei. Surely that leaves a lode to be mined, but reading Larson's book is akin to sitting in a lecture hall for 6 straight hours with Barber's masterwork on endless repeat and only an ill-considered blog article for diversion.
Enough insults. I'll let the author speak for himself, but first, because I like my reviews to be educational, a bit of context. Samuel Barber composed and was published consistently throughout his life, starting when he was only 17. You can survey Barber's full ouerve on any CD that offers Three Essays for Orchestra, as these were respectively written at the ages of 26, 31, and 67.
We go now live to p. 175. Larson has just quoted a performance program note of Barber's Agnus Dei to suggest that Barber adapted the Adagio to change its affectational context from funereal to aspirational:
Oh, well. But what of the piece itself, the work which is the sun around which The Saddest Music Ever Written revolves?
Now here's some obvious juxtaposed stupidity that I'm amazed neither the author nor his editor chose to fix, from a chapter entitled "How to Describe the Adagio:
Uh-oh, right? What could possibly…
Ga-ZING!
I close by returning to the author's interpretation of the work as a rewritten eulogy for a composer with 20 years left to live.
*Sigh.* Why am I not surprised?
Saddest Music is disappointing on many levels, foremost for being chock-full of vapid, precious writing low on imagination and insight. Ostensibly this is a personal take on Barber's elegiac Adagio for Strings, a work which (apart from its myriad performance interpretations) exists in three distinct versions in the author's own hand, initially as middle movement to a string quartet, then adapted for string orchestra at the suggestion of Arturo Toscanini, and finally as an unaccompanied choral setting of Agnus Dei. Surely that leaves a lode to be mined, but reading Larson's book is akin to sitting in a lecture hall for 6 straight hours with Barber's masterwork on endless repeat and only an ill-considered blog article for diversion.
Enough insults. I'll let the author speak for himself, but first, because I like my reviews to be educational, a bit of context. Samuel Barber composed and was published consistently throughout his life, starting when he was only 17. You can survey Barber's full ouerve on any CD that offers Three Essays for Orchestra, as these were respectively written at the ages of 26, 31, and 67.
We go now live to p. 175. Larson has just quoted a performance program note of Barber's Agnus Dei to suggest that Barber adapted the Adagio to change its affectational context from funereal to aspirational:
"…which, going beyond mourning, offers pure inwardness, one of the few things we can count on as we get ready to curtail our relationships, give the house to the kids, give up the ghost, and die."This is "a boon" to someone "in his late fifties." Samuel Barber died in 1981 about 40 days shy of his 71st birthday.
Oh, well. But what of the piece itself, the work which is the sun around which The Saddest Music Ever Written revolves?
"Barber's Adagio is the Pieta of music. It captures the sorrow and the pity of tragic death: listening to it, we are Mother Mary come alive – holding the lifeless Christ on our laps, one arm bracing the slumped head, the other offering him to the ages. The Adagio is a sound shrine to music's power to evoke emotion." (p. 7)On to the author's 'Prelude:'
"It is in the nature of our response to music's emotion that we seldom talk about it." (p. 17)
"As new technologies arrive, the Adagio has found itself {to be}… like a musical Zelig." (p. viii)Let that sink in. Like fine poetry, that last quote leaves much to absorb.
"But the Adagio's most enduring legacy is the question it continually poses: What is its sorrow about? There are a number of answers. Here are three. It is about Barber's melancholia and depression; it is about the aloneness we feel when a loved one is lost or dies, whether a president or a princess, a parent or a child; and it is about our alienation from ourselves as Americans: the shattering sound of our fallen dreams, for dreams dreamt big, and the equally shattering remorse we feel when we realize we are not and never will be that big. This realization comes, for me, most emphatically while watching Platoon." (p. 14)
Now here's some obvious juxtaposed stupidity that I'm amazed neither the author nor his editor chose to fix, from a chapter entitled "How to Describe the Adagio:
"Avoid jargon. You risk alienating your audience." (p. 65)
Uh-oh, right? What could possibly…
"The most intense statement of the Adagio, the climax, comes on the highly unusual chord, F-flat major. What's more, that F-flat chord is preceded by an E-flat minor chord with an added minor sixth, the work's most dissonant chord…. Next, a short chorale or series of chords transitions {sic} back to the F major dominant chord…. At the end, as the final four notes are played very slowly, the chords move from the subdominant E-flat minor seventh to the dominant F major." (p. 69)
Ga-ZING!
I close by returning to the author's interpretation of the work as a rewritten eulogy for a composer with 20 years left to live.
"I find no evidence to back up this claim,…but I like the idea." (p. 174)
*Sigh.* Why am I not surprised?
November 7, 2014
I love Barber's Adagio and thought this would be a good read for my 2014 challenge for the 700's. However, I thought Larson was trying to do too many things in the book - tell Barber's story, plus imagining how the music influenced his family - parents & grandparents. Too much conjecture and assumptions in my mind to be considered non-fic in those areas. The Barber parts were interesting, his family parts not so much. Also was more detailed about music than I could follow. I'm not a musician, but at least know a little about music & can read it. Would have been a good article along with a cd, or links to hearing portions of the various pieces mentioned throughout the book. Did make me wish I knew more about music & did learn a lot about Barber & his works.
June 8, 2016
A very strange mix
Lots a great information about Barber and perceptive listening to the actual works of this composer I love, but the amount of conjecture (so much "he must of thought" and "surely he felt) even regarding his own family histories make several wince-worthy moments. His observations about Menotti and Barber's choice of non-monogamy in their relationship are well meaning but seem forced. Still his narratives about their long-term outside partners are fascinating and now that historians no longer feel the need to recloset the deceased we can only hope future biographies will add more insights. All in all very readable.
Lots a great information about Barber and perceptive listening to the actual works of this composer I love, but the amount of conjecture (so much "he must of thought" and "surely he felt) even regarding his own family histories make several wince-worthy moments. His observations about Menotti and Barber's choice of non-monogamy in their relationship are well meaning but seem forced. Still his narratives about their long-term outside partners are fascinating and now that historians no longer feel the need to recloset the deceased we can only hope future biographies will add more insights. All in all very readable.
April 5, 2013
Unfortunately, this book is no where near as beautiful as the music. I did learn a few things -- that Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti were lifelong partners, that Barber did not want this piece played at his funeral -- but the book could have been edited to about half the size, quite repetitive.
March 26, 2014
Something that the author actually wrote: "Barber woke up one morning during that bucolic Austrian summer of 1936 and took the call: You're the one who is going to write the saddest piece of music ever written."
Read
April 9, 2012Sadly, I don't know enough about music to be really interested or engaged in the book. I tried for about 70 pages, but it's not for me.
November 19, 2013
A book in search of an idea.
September 26, 2014
SOO SAD IT'S TOO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SADDDDDD
January 28, 2016
One of the most compelling & beautifully written books on music I've ever read! Part biography, part social / cultural / musical analysis of a unique piece of American orchestral writing.
Want to Read
December 14, 2010If you don't know what to get me for Christmas, GET ME THIS BOOK.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews