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Adagio for Strings is a work for string orchestra, arranged by the American composer Samuel Barber from the second movement of his String Quartet. Barber finished the piece in 1936, and in 1938, it was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Toscanini's composing was recorded at 8H Studio for radio broadcasting. Toscanini took the piece on tour to Europe and South America. It is disputed whether the first performance of Adagio in Europe was conducted by Toscanini or Henry J. Wood. Barber has turned down many arrangements published by G. Schirmer, such as the organ arrangement by William Strictland.

The piece begins with a B flat played by the violins. Lower strings enter on the second beat. At practical tempo, the piece lengths at about eight minutes. The piece's reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin wrote that Adagio for Strings contains "full of pathos and cathartic passion, rarely leaves a dry eye." The piece can be heard in many TV shows and movies.

History
Barber's Adagio for Strings began as the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while Barber was spending a summer in Europe with his partner Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian composer who was a fellow student at The Curtis Institute of Music. The inspiration came from Vergil’s Georgics. Kimberly Keir of Cecil County Public Schools stated that "Barber envisioned a small stream that grows into a river." In the quartet the Adagio follows a violently contrasting first movement (Molto allegro e appassionato) and is succeeded by music which opens with a brief reprise of the music from the first movement (marked Molto allegro (come prima) – Presto).

In January 1938 Barber sent an orchestrated version of the Adagio to Arturo Toscanini. The conductor returned the score without comment, which annoyed Barber, who evaded an invitation from the conductor. Toscanini then sent word through Menotti that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it. It was reported that Toscanini did not look at the music again until the day before the premiere. On November 5, 1938, a selected audience was invited to 8H Studio to view Toscanini conduct Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. It was its first performance in a radio broadcast. Initially, the critical reception was positive, as seen in the review by the New York Times's Olin Downes. Downes praised the piece, but he was reproached by other critics who claimed that he overrated the piece. The composer also transcribed the piece in 1967 for eight-part choir, as a setting of the Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God").

From April 16–19, 1942, the piece had a premier performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra that was conducted by Eugene Ormandy at Carnegie Hall. Like the original 1938 recording, it was broadcasted on radio. Barber felt the Toscanini Adagio for Strings recording well surpassed the Carnegie Hall recording. Toscanini took Adagio for Strings on tour to South America and Europe, thus being the first Adagio performance in both continents. A concert program from London, England, however, cites that the first performance of the Essay for Orchestra (another work of Barber's) was conducted by Henry J. Wood on August 24, 1939.

G. Schirmer has published several alternate arrangements for Adagio for Strings. William Strictland has presented an arrangement that included an organ part. The arrangement was sent sent to Barber, who initially responded: Schirmers have has several organ arrangements submitted of my "Adagio for Strings" and many inquiries as to whether exists for organ. I have always turned them down, as, I know little about the organ, I am sure your arrangement would be best. Have you got the one you did before, if not, would you be willing to make it anew? If so, will you ever be in New York City on leave, so I could discuss it with you and hear it? If it is done at all, I should like it done as well as possible, and this by you. They would pay you a flat fee for the arrangement although I don't suppose it will be very much. However that is affair. Let me know what you think about it.

Strickland, having kept the piece, sent his organ arrangement to G. Schirmer who would eventually publish it in 1949.

Composition
Adagio For Strings begins softly with a B flat played by the violins. The lower strings come in two beats after the violins, which, as Johanna Keller from The New York Times put it, creates "an uneasy, shifting suspension as the melody begins a stepwise motion, like the hesitant climbing of stairs." NPR Music said that "with a tense melodic line and taut harmonies, the composition is considered by many to be the most popular of all 20th-century orchestral works." Many recordings of the piece have a duration of about eight minutes.

The song was arranged from the movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. The original arrangement was for string orchestra. A chordal accompaniment is included for all instruments not playing the melody or counter-melody. The song's contour is melodic melodic and is mostly diatonically stepwise. The rhythm is mainly compressed with sustained notes and includes both the time signatures of 4/4 and 6/4. The pieces' melody is made up mostly by violins and violas, while the counter-melody is played by second violins at measures 25 and 40. There are several dynamics used throughout the piece, ranging from pianissimo (very soft) to fortissimo (very loud). A climax occurs from measures 44-50, and an extreme resolution and dynamic change as the piece switches tones. The climax eventually ends and the piece continues very similar to the beginning with several hairpins. All instruments resolve their piece by fading away on a sustained tone.

Music critic Olin Downes wrote that the piece is very simple at climaxes, but reasoned that the simple chords create significance for the piece. Downes went on to say: "That is because we have here honest music, by an honest musician, not striving for pretentious effect, not behaving as a writer would who, having a clear, short, popular word handy for his purpose, got the dictionary and fished out a long one."

Critical reception
Alexander J. Morin, author of Classical Music: The Listener's Companion, said that the piece was "full of pathos and cathartic passion, rarely leaves a dry eye." In 1938, Olin Downes, an American music critic, noted that with the piece, Barber "achieved something as perfect in mass and detail as his craftsmanship permits." Journalist Tim Smith considered it to be one of the most beloved pieces in gaging Brandenburg Concertos.

In an edition of A conductor's analysis of selected works, John William Mueller devoted over 20 pages to Adagio for Strings. Wayne Clifford Wentzel, author of Samuel Barber: A Research and Information Guide (Composer Resource Manuals), said that it was a piece usually selected for a closing act because it was moderately famous. In A student's guide to GCSE music: for the WJEC specification, it was stated that William Orbit's adaptation to Adagio for Strings "is a straightforward exchange of acoustic string sounds for sythesised ones." Roy Brewer, writer for allmusic, stated that it was one of the most recognizable pieces of American concert music. Roy Brewer

Legacy
The recording of the 1938 world premiere, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the United States Library of Congress. Since the 1938 recording, it has frequently been heard throughout the world, and was one of the only American pieces to be played in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The Adagio was broadcast over the radio at the announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. It was also played at the funeral of Albert Einstein and at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. It was performed in 2001 at Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate the victims of the September 11 attacks, replacing the traditional upbeat patriotic songs. It was also played during the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2004, listeners of the BBC's Today program voted Adagio for Strings the "saddest classical" work ever, ahead of "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Æneas by Henry Purcell, the "Adagietto" from Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony, Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss and Gloomy Sunday as sung by Billie Holiday.

Adagio for Strings can be heard on many film, TV, and video game soundtracks, including Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning film Platoon, David Lynch's 1980 Oscar-nominated film The Elephant Man, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, Lorenzo's Oil, A Very Natural Thing, Reconstruction, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Oscar-nominated 2001 film Amélie. It has been heard in episodes of The Simpsons, Big Brother 2010 (UK), That Mitchell and Webb Look, The Boondocks, South Park, Seinfeld, ER (TV series), Big Love. A recorded performance by the London Symphony Orchestra was, for a time, the highest selling classical piece on iTunes. The work is extremely popular in the electronic dance music genre, notably in trance. Artists who have covered it include Armin van Buuren, William Orbit, Ferry Corsten, and Tiësto. eRa included this song in their new album Classics.