excursions op. 20

Samuel Barber

Excursions, for piano, op. 20, avg duration, description, parts/movements.

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The Life And Music Of Samuel Barber

* celebrating the barber centennial *, knoxville: summer of 1915 (excerpt).

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Samuel Barber. Gordon Parks/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images hide caption

Samuel Barber.

Barber, Samuel (b. West Chester, Penn., March 9, 1910; d. New York, Jan. 23, 1981)

American composer Samuel Barber was a nephew of the celebrated contralto Louise Homer and a protege of the composer Sidney Homer, who caught on to young Samuel's gifts when, at the age of 9, he began work on his first opera. In 1924, Barber enrolled in the newly opened Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova, composition with Rosario Scalero and conducting with Fritz Reiner. It was at Curtis that he met another young composer, Gian-Carlo Menotti, who was to become his lifelong companion and professional collaborator. Early works from Barber's student days still hold a place in the repertoire, including Dover Beach — a setting of a Matthew Arnold poem for voice and string quartet; Barber, who had become quite a capable baritone, sang the world premiere — and his graduation exercise, the Overture to The School for Scandal . These works established him as "the one to watch" in his generation of American composers, a status confirmed by his receipt of the Prix de Rome and a Pulitzer traveling grant in 1935, when he was 25.

ESSENTIAL BARBER Recordings

Concerto for violin and orchestra, op. 14, allegro (gil shaham, violin), 'adagio,' from string quartet, op. 11 (emerson quartet), dover beach (samuel barber, baritone; curtis string quartet, rec. 1935).

His music caught the ear of Arturo Toscanini , who led the premieres of two works: the Essay for Orchestra (later retitled First Essay for Orchestra ) and the Adagio for Strings , one of the best-known works of the 20th century. The essay form — Barber's own creation, something of a musical "argument" in which one "thought" or melody is the seed from which an entire single movement springs — would be something the composer would return to at subsequent points in his life, composing a Second Essay in 1942 and a Third Essay in 1978. His beautifully lyric Violin Concerto (1940) is one of the finest string concertos of the 20th century, with a razzle-dazzle finale and a richly expressive opening movement. He also wrote a piano concerto (which won him a Pulitzer Prize) and a cello concerto. For Vladimir Horowitz , he composed the Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1949), making it as challenging as possible. Barber's other works for the piano include the Nocturne (Homage to John Field) of 1959 and the beautiful Excursions, Op. 20 (1942-44).

Barber Speaks

On a 1949 CBS radio program, Samuel Barber talks about the Italian premiere of his first symphony, and writing his second symphony while serving in the army.

The Hisses Win

Tuba gratitude, a military symphony.

Barber's most exquisite achievements were in the realm of vocal music, particularly the songs of Op. 10 and 13 and his 1947 setting of James Agee's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by soprano Eleanor Steber. He also wrote a song cycle called Hermit Songs (1953), in which he set old anonymous Irish texts taken from the walls of monasteries.

In recognition of his preeminent place in American music, the Metropolitan Opera commissioned Barber to compose an opera, Antony and Cleopatra (based on Shakespeare), for the opening of its new home at Lincoln Center in 1966. While not a success in its original production, the opera, which featured Leontyne Price in the role of Cleopatra, manifested yet again Barber's unique mastery of line and color, and his extraordinarily imaginative way of setting a text.

(Ted Libbey is the author of " The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music ")

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An American Rhapsody

Calefax Reed Quintet

Well known for their witty, well crafted arrangements, the Calefax Quintet are on top form here in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Barber’s jaunty Excursions. Azmeh and Hekkema’s Airports for... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2023, 5 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 17th Mar 2023
• Catalogue No: PTC5187046
• Label: Pentatone
• Length: 79 minutes

Format: Hybrid Multi-channel

Usually despatched within 1 working day

This release includes a digital booklet

Offer , Samuel Barber: The Complete Solo Piano Music

John Browning (piano)

• Catalogue No: NI2528
• Label: Nimbus

This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched.

Offer , Shura Cherkassky Recital, Salzburg 1961

Live Recording July 31, 1961, Mozarteum

Shura Cherkassky (piano)

• Release Date: 28th Oct 2013
• Catalogue No: C882132
• Label: Orfeo
• Series: Orfeo d'Or, Salzburger Festspieldokumente
• Length: 1 hour 48 minutes

No digital booklet included

New , American Excursions

Alexander Crosett (piano)

• Release Date: 8th Mar 2024
• Catalogue No: CRC4063
• Label: Centaur
• Length: 59 minutes

New , Piano Works of Samuel Barber

Mira Armij Gill (piano)

• Release Date: 9th Feb 2024
• Catalogue No: CRC4053
• Length: 53 minutes

New York Connections

Elizabeth Hayes (piano)

• Release Date: 25th Oct 2004
• Catalogue No: QTZ2005
• Label: Quartz
• Length: 78 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Barber: Piano Music

Angela Brownridge (piano)

• Release Date: 8th Jul 1989
• Catalogue No: CDH88016
• Label: Helios
• Length: 41 minutes

Leon McCawley (piano)

• Release Date: 11th Apr 2011
• Catalogue No: 9489552
• Label: Warner Classics
• Series: American Classics
• Length: 69 minutes

Samuel Barber: Adagio

100th Anniversary

Elmar Oliveira (violin), Barbara Hendricks (soprano), Sir Thomas Allen (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano), Endellion String Quartet, Leon McCawley (piano)

Berliner Philharmoniker, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas

• Release Date: 18th Jan 2010
• Catalogue No: 6872862
• Length: 2 hours 37 minutes

Barber: Solo Piano Music

Daniel Pollack (piano)

Daniel Pollack studied with (among others) Rosina Lhévinne and Wilhelm Kempf. His playing exudes confidence, especially in the more rhythmic and forthright passages. In his hands the Sonata is... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

• Catalogue No: 8550992
• Label: Naxos
• Length: 72 minutes

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Samuel Barber

Excursions, Op. 20 is American composer Samuel Barber’s first published piece for solo piano, and remains one of his most popular pieces for the instrument. A neo-Romantic composer whose style was characterised by lyricism and expression, Barber takes small classical forms (Rondo, the Theme & Variations, for example) and infuses them with regional American folk idioms to create a four-movement work that is a musical travelogue around the United States. The suite is a homage rather than a pastiche – concert pieces with stylized folk elements. The work was premiered by Vladimir Horowitz in January 1945, though minus the third movement as Barber’s publisher initially omitted it from the score, and it has been recorded by, amongst others, André Previn , Joanna Macgregor, and Leon McCawley, as well as Horowitz himself.

Times Square, New York Manhattan © Brittany Petronella

The first movement, Un poco allegro , is a classical 5-part rondo underpinned by a motoric ostinato bass redolent of boogie-woogie. With its catchy, driving rhythms, dissonant harmonies, blue notes and syncopated, improvisatory melodies, this opening movement takes us to the city, to the hustle and bustle, vibrancy and clamour of Manhattan or Chicago. The challenge for the pianist is in maintaining the forward propulsion without allowing the tempo to run away. There are other technical issues too, such as crossed-hands sections, syncopation and poly-rhythms, but it’s a wonderfully invigorating opener to the suite.

Barber takes us to the Deep South next, in a lazy, bluesy movement whose rolled chords and syncopations recall the twang of the blues guitar and strummed double bass. With its stop-start meter, dotted rhythms and lush harmonies, it’s sassy and nonchalant, and woe-betide the pianist who tries to make this too “classical”. The music needs to sit back and relax, and it takes a confident, fluent player to create exactly the right ambiance here.

© Gordon Parks/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

We’re in cowboy country for the third movement, a theme and seven variations based on the tune ‘Streets of Laredo’. This touching, quasi-Romantic ballad has a lyrical melody, interrupted by playful, jazzy variants, and Barber creates a sense of music without bar lines through syncopations and poly-rhythms. The overall mood is gentle and poignant.

The finale of Excursions is an exuberant hoedown. Rhythmically tricky with an upbeat, foot-tapping tempo, it recalls the idioms and sounds of a fiddler, accompanied by a banjo or harmonica, portrayed in the limited harmonies of tonic and sub-dominant block chords. This joyous barn dance brings Barber’s musical journey to a close.

Barber called his Excursions “nothing but bagatelles”, and in keeping with the definition of “bagatelle”, these four pieces are light in character and short in length. But taken as a set, they are a splendid, witty slice of Americana, and an enticing challenge, technically and artistically, for the pianist.

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Barber: Excursions, Op. 20

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• Composer : Samuel Barber
• Instrumentation : Piano
• Work : Excursions, Op. 20
• Binding : Paperback
• ISBN : 9780634069970
• Size : 9 x 12.0 inches

Description

Excursions, Op. 20, is the first published solo piano piece by Samuel Barber. Barber himself explains: "These are ‘Excursions' in small classical forms into regional American idioms. Their rhythmic characteristics, as well as their source in folk material and their scoring, reminiscent of local instruments are easily recognized."

This is typical of neo-Romantic composers such as Barber. As Susan Carter explains in her dissertation, "The Piano Music of Samuel Barber", that "neo-Romantic composers returned to a style characterized by broad lyricism and dramatic expression." She also states that the traditional structures of form from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were conserved while drawing upon a "contemporary technical vocabulary." From a boogie-woogie style of a five-part rondo to a theme and variations of a well known cowboy ballad, and even to a barn-yard dance with a fiddler, Barber uses each style effectively and accurately, according to the neo-Romantic ideas.

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Barber: Excursions, Op. 20 Paperback – November 1, 1986

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• Print length 24 pages
• Language English
• Publisher G. Schirmer, Inc.
• Publication date November 1, 1986
• Dimensions 9 x 0.07 x 12 inches
• ISBN-10 0634069977
• ISBN-13 978-0634069970
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ G. Schirmer, Inc. (November 1, 1986)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 24 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0634069977
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0634069970
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 0.07 x 12 inches
• #1,918 in Opera & Classical Songbooks
• #2,352 in Classical Music (Books)
• #5,494 in Piano Songbooks

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SAMUEL BARBER

Excursions, op. 20.

Excursions , Op. 20 by Samuel Barber, one of the most famous American composers of the 20th century, is his first published work for solo piano. Excursions are four musical miniatures reflecting the spirit of the United States. The first piece is based on the boogie-woogie manner, active and syncopated pulsation, dissonant harmonies, improvisational melodies. This miniature takes the listener into the urban hustle and bustle of the city. The second piece is a lazy blues based on rich harmonies. It does not copy other examples of American music, but rather conveys the classical composer’s take on this exceptional genre. The third piece reflects the atmosphere of the streets of Laredo. Its main theme, based on variations, is the famous American cowboy ballad, Streets of Laredo , also known as The Dying Cowboy . This piece features a lyrical melody, complemented by playful and energetic inserts. The finale of the Excursions is an American folk dance that takes the listener to a joyful rural celebration where violins, banjos and harmonicas accompany dancers’ rampageous stomping.

Barber’s intriguing work is performed by Petras Geniušas, the Lithuanian celebrity, a recipient of the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize.

PUBLISHED: 2021-09-29

PIANO: PETRAS GENIUŠAS

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• Excursions op. 20

Barber, Samuel ( 1910 - 1981)

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