Choral Music By Samuel Barber

Release Date: 28th Aug 2015
Catalogue No: SOMM0152
Label: Somm
Length: 73 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Barber: Reincarnations, Op. 16

Work length8:37

$3.00

$3.60

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

I. Mary Hynes

Track length2:20

$1.00

$1.20

II. Anthony O'Daly

Track length3:03

$1.00

$1.20

III. The Coolin

Track length3:14

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: Chorale for Ascension Day (Easter Chorale)

Work length2:50

$1.00

$1.20

Matthew Firkins (timpani)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, Birmingham Conservatoire Brass Ensemble
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: God’s Grandeur

Work length6:40

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: Two Songs Op. 18

Work length2:12

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Let down the bars, O Death, Op. 8, No. 2

Track length2:12

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: 2 Choruses

Work length6:37

$2.00

$2.40

Ben Kennedy (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

No. 1. On the Death of Antony

Track length3:18

$1.00

$1.20

No. 2. On the death of Cleopatra

Track length3:19

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: Pieces (2), Op 42

Work length7:03

$2.00

$2.40

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Twelfth Night, Op. 42, No. 1

Track length4:12

$1.00

$1.20

To be Sung on the Water, Op. 42, No. 2

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: The Monk and His Cat (No. 8 from Hermit Songs)

Work length2:25

$1.00

$1.20

Ben Kennedy (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: Under the Willow Tree

Work length3:09

$1.00

$1.20

Ben Kennedy (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map, Op. 15

Work length5:59

$1.00

$1.20

Matthew Firkins (timpani)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: Motetto

Work length8:59

$3.00

$3.60

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

No. 1. There the Wicked Cease

Track length1:37

$1.00

$1.20

No. 2. Call Now!

Track length3:33

$1.00

$1.20

No. 3. God's Grandeur

Track length3:49

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: Two Songs Op. 18

Work length3:35

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

The Virgin Martyrs, Op. 8, No. 1

Track length3:35

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: Rounds

Work length2:06

$1.00

$1.20

Ben Kennedy (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Rounds: No. 8. The Moon

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.20

Excerpt, Barber: Four Songs, Op. 13

Work length2:29

$1.00

$1.20

Ben Kennedy (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

4 Songs, Op. 13: No. 3. Sure on this shining night

Track length2:29

$1.00

$1.20

Barber: Ad bibinem cum me regaret ad cenam

Work length1:50

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: Heaven-Haven: A Nun Takes the Veil Op. 13, No. 1

Work length1:54

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Barber: Agnus Dei

Work length6:37

$1.00

$1.20

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 26-27 June 2014
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom

Agnus Dei, Op. 11

Track length6:37

$1.00

$1.20

About
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About

This fourth disc in Somm's series of recordings with Paul Spicer and his Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir gives us most of Samuel Barber's utterly beautiful, neo-Romantic choral music.

Barber wrote a great deal of choral music, written in a traditional 19th century tonal idiom despite the fact that his critics called it 'utterly anachronistic and passé', a criticism to which he remained largely impervious. There was no denying however, that Barber's technical brilliance and emotional immediacy placed him at the forefront of American music.

Setting texts for chorus or solo songs formed a large part of Barber's creative life. At the heart of his self-expression was an intimate relationship with the text he was setting. He was fond of British and Irish literature and read poetry ardently, marking texts he might later use, and honing vocal pieces until he was satisfied that they reflected the rhythm, contour, and meaning of words. Barber's use of alternating homophonic and contrapuntal textures as well as sombre harmonies reflect his interest in early Baroque choral music.

Much of his music exposed his melancholy but he also had a kind, gregarious, likable side to his character, seen here in works like the three 'Reincarnations' and 'The Monk and His Cat'. Barber's Agnus Dei, heard here in his own arrangement of the famous Adagio for Strings has gained the same prominence as its instrumental counterpart.

Barber's music reflects the many sides of a complex man who, despite his warmth and humour could never fully escape his own sadness. "I myself wrote always as I wished, and without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible... I wrote as I wanted to for myself", he once declared.

Choral Music By Samuel Barber

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