Samuel Barber: His Life and Legacy. Howard Pollack

Extract

The present decade has witnessed the publication of two major biographical works on Samuel Barber: a second edition of Barbara Heyman’s 1992 biography Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music (New York, 2020) and Howard Pollack’s new biography Samuel Barber: His Life and Legacy (Urbana, IL, 2023). Given the proximity of publication and Heyman’s thorough treatment of Barber’s output relative to a wide range of primary source materials, one might wonder whether a new biography is necessary. Pollack shows that there is indeed more to say, and that there still remains more to say, about this often performed yet under-researched American composer. His volume offers a fresh perspective on Barber, on those within Barber’s personal and professional orbit, and on Barber’s music, particularly as concerns its early performances, recordings, critical reception, and use in other media like dance and film.

One of the pleasures of working through Pollack’s volume was a side-by-side perusal of the many early audio and video recordings that he cites, as well as newspaper articles about performances where no audio or video recordings exist or are easily accessible. Personal favourites, only some of which I was previously aware, include: the extant recordings of Barber singing his own works and the works of others (ch. 2), materials documenting Martha Graham’s performances and adaptations of Barber’s works (chs. 16, 25, and 27), and recordings related to Barber’s extensive collaboration with Leontyne Price (chs. 17, 21, 26–7, and 28). In this way, Pollack’s volume has reinvigorated my interest in Barber’s music as, first and foremost, a listener and enthusiast. I suspect that anyone interested in Barber, be they newcomers or experts, will find a new or renewed appreciation of his music through Pollack’s volume. Lucid prose, the omission of score examples, a general avoidance of scholarly jargon, and the inclusion of fifty-four beautiful photographs to enliven the biographical discussions make the biography engaging and accessible to a wide musical, and perhaps even non-musical, readership.