Samuel Barber
(Don A. Hennessee)
Hennessee provides a biographical overview of the life of Samuel Barber, one of America's foremost composers, as well as comprehensive bibliographical information about his complete oeuvre. The volume consists of four main sections: a brief biography, a complete list of works and performances, a discography, and an annotated bibliography. A complete index of personal and corporate names and titles concludes the volume.
Samuel Barber : The Composer and His Music
(Barbara B. Heyman)
Generously documented by letters, sketchbooks, original musical manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues and performers with whom he worked, this is the first book to cover Barber's entire career and all of his compositions. The biographical material on Barber is closely interspersed with a discussion of his music, displaying Barber's creative processes at work from his early student compostions to his mature masterpieces. Heyman also provides the social context in which this major composer grew: his education, how he built his career, the evolving musical tastes of American audiences, his relationship to musical giants like Serge Koussevitzky, and the role of radio in the promotion of his music.
