 Barber, Samuel b. West Chester, PA, March 9, 1910; d. New York, Jan. 23, 1981 Second Essay, Op. 17 The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, perhaps the most prestigious center of training for orchestral musicians in the world, counts Samuel Barber among its very first students. Upon his graduation he attained international prominence, principally as a composer, known for his characteristically vocal approach. Barber’s use of the term Essay to describe three of his orchestral works suggests an appreciation for the rhetorical processes of language within music. The Second Essay, written at the request of Bruno Walter for the New York Philharmonic, is a dense 11 minute development of an initial melodic idea into three separate themes, similar to a written thesis. The initial phrase, heard in the flute, contains leaps but little stepwise motion. Bass clarinet, English horn, and oboe enter, each in turn, before the rest of the orchestra joins. The climax of the first exposition, in which the timpani beat a rhythm derived from the initial idea, is soon reached. The viola section introduces an elaborate new theme, transforming the initial idea. Brass and timpani become prominent in the following development section. As a sudden, stabbing chord resounds, a single clarinet intones a bubbling alteration of the principal idea. This is treated in a scampering fugue. Abruptly, static string chords appear, and for a moment the horn and oboe twist in these shafts of light. A strike of the bass drum resumes the fugue, and the brass usher it to a dramatic plateau. The conjunct, hymn-like melody of the closing section is an apotheosis of the initial idea, whose leaping intervals, quoted in the trumpets, serve as the guiding harmonic framework. A searing unison from the strings signals the essay’s thunderous conclusion. |
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