Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute
- Author: Dickinson
Neatly introduced and painstakingly annotated by . . . the indefatigable American music expert Peter Dickinson. . . . [Its] wealth of personal insights . . . [makes Samuel Barber Remembered]...
Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute
- Author: Dickinson
Purchase product
Neatly introduced and painstakingly annotated by . . . the indefatigable American music expert Peter Dickinson. . . . [Its] wealth of personal insights . . . [makes Samuel Barber Remembered]...
About
Compulsively readable interviews with the great American composer and his friends and colleagues, including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Leontyne Price. 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 editednumerous 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.
Contents
- Foreword by John Corigliano
- About the 1981 BBC Interviews by Arthur Johnson
- Acknowledgements
- The Formative Years
- Reception in England
- Samuel Barber Interviewed by James Fassett (1949)
- Samuel Barber Interviewed by Robert Sherman (1978)
- Samuel Barber Interviewed by Allan Kozinn (1979)
- Gian Carlo Menotti: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Yester House, Gifford, Scotland, April 6, 1981
- Charles Turner: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
- Aaron Copland: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Rock Hill, Peekskill, NY, May 11, 1981
- William Schuman: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 888 Park Avenue, New York City, May 14, 1981
- Virgil Thomson: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Chelsea Hotel, New York City, May 12, 1981
- Leontyne Price: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 14, 1981
- John Browning: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
- Robert White: Interview with Arthur Johnson, London, February 1981
- H. Wiley Hitchcock: Interview with Peter Dickinson, 1192 Park Avenue, New York City, May 10, 1981
- Hans W. Heinsheimer: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 13, 1981
- Edward P. Murphy: Interview with Peter Dickinson, New York City, May 12, 1981
- Postscript 2005: Orlando Cole: Interview with Peter Dickinson, Philadelphia, October 13, 2005
- Selected Bibliography
- General Index
- Index of Works by Samuel Barber
Awards and reviews
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
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
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
Sheds much-needed light on Barber's character and artistic persona. -- David Weininger
Music and Letters
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
