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127-448: The Greek term ἐλεγείᾱ ( elegeíā ; from ἔλεγος , élegos , ‘lament’) originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter (death, love, war). The term also included epitaphs , sad and mournful songs, and commemorative verses. The Latin elegy of ancient Roman literature was most often erotic or mythological in nature. Because of its structural potential for rhetorical effects,

254-471: A violin concerto for Fels's ward, Iso Briselli, a 1934 graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music (as Barber was). The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of the violin concerto's commission and subsequent year leading up to the first performance. Heyman interviewed Briselli and others familiar with

381-481: A brief career as a professional baritone , performing on the NBC Music Guild concert series and earning a weekly contract on NBC radio in 1935. Musicologist Barbara Heyman wrote that Barber's recording of his own setting of Arnold 's Dover Beach was hailed as having "singular charm and beauty, intelligently sung by a naturally beautiful voice". First-hand experience as a singer and an intuitive empathy with

508-640: A composer during the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Here he wrote ballet suite Medea (1946) for Martha Graham and the symphonic work Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra for opera singer Eleanor Steber who premiered the work with the BSO in 1948. In 1946 he was selected by the United States Department of State to be a member of the American delegation to the first Prague Spring International Music Festival where his music

635-485: A concertante work for organ and orchestra entitled Toccata Festiva (1960). Barber's final opus was the Canzonetta for oboe and string orchestra (1977–78), Op. 48, originally intended as the second movement of an oboe concerto. Barber's most important and most played works for the piano include his Excursions , Op. 20, which emulate four styles of classic American idioms, including the boogie-woogie and blues, and

762-613: A death. In English literature, the more modern and restricted meaning, of a lament for a departed beloved or tragic event, has been current only since the sixteenth century; the broader concept was still employed by John Donne for his elegies written in the early seventeenth century. That looser concept is especially evident in the Old English Exeter Book ( c.  1000 CE ), which contains "serious meditative" and well-known poems such as " The Wanderer ", " The Seafarer ", and " The Wife's Lament ". In those elegies,

889-480: A favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok . It was through Mrs. Bok that Barber was introduced to his lifelong publishers, the Schirmer family. From his early adulthood, Barber wrote a flurry of successful compositions, launching him into the spotlight of the classical music world. According to Walter Simmons, Barber's earlier compositions contain certain characteristics that directly relate to

1016-596: A major focal point for the development of Christian thought . The Musaeum , or Shrine to the Muses, which included the library and school, was founded by Ptolemy I . The institution was from the beginning intended as a great international school and library. The library, eventually containing more than a half million volumes, was mostly in Greek. It was intended to serve as a repository for every work of classical Greek literature that could be found. The genre of bucolic poetry

1143-636: A negative impact on his creative productivity. He began to divide his time between his home in New York and a chalet in Santa Cristina, Italy, where he spent long periods in isolation. Tensions grew between Menotti and Barber, leading Menotti to insist that the couple end their romantic attachment and put 'Capricorn' up for sale in 1970. Capricorn sold in 1972, and the two men remained friends after their romantic involvement ended. During his troubled later years, Barber continued to write music until he

1270-520: A permanent place in the orchestral concert repertory, as has that work's adaptation for chorus, Agnus Dei (1967). He received the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–1957), and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee . At

1397-948: A philosophical treatise, the Diatribai , based on the teachings of his mentor Epictetus . Best known of the late Greek historians to modern readers is Plutarch of Chaeronea , who died about AD 119. His Parallel Lives of great Greek and Roman leaders has been read by every generation since the work was first published. His other surviving work is the Moralia , a collection of essays on ethical, religious, political, physical, and literary topics. During later times, so-called " commonplace books ," usually describing historical anecdotes, became quite popular. Surviving examples of this popular genre include works such as Aulus Gellius 's Attic Nights , Athenaeus of Naucratis 's Deipnosophistae , and Claudius Aelianus 's De Natura Animalium and Varia Historia . The physician Galen lived during

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1524-549: A piece for soprano and orchestra, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and soprano Martina Arroyo with Thomas Schippers conducting in April 1963. The final composition composed for Lincoln center was his third and final opera, Antony and Cleopatra , which premiered at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House in 1966 with Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz in the title roles. Barber worked on

1651-457: A significant body of purely instrumental music, two-thirds of his compositional output was art songs for voice and piano, choral music, and songs for voice and orchestra. Some of his most frequently performed songs include both the solo voice and choral versions of Sure on this shining night (solo version from 1938 and choral version from 1961) with text by Agee; and the song cycle Hermit Songs (1953), with anonymous texts by Irish monks from

1778-420: A very young age, and it was apparent that he had great musical talent and ability. He began studying the piano at the age of six and at age seven composed his first work, Sadness , a 23-measure solo piano piece in C minor. Despite Barber's interest in music, his family wanted him to become a typical extroverted, athletic American boy. This meant, in particular, they encouraged his playing football. However, Barber

1905-513: A voluminous collection of biographies of nearly every Greek philosopher who ever lived. Unfortunately, Diogenes Laërtius often fails to cite his sources and many modern historians consider his testimony unreliable. Nonetheless, in spite of this, he remains the only available source on the lives of many early Greek philosophers. His book is not entirely without merit; it does preserve a tremendous wealth of information that otherwise would not have been preserved. His biography of Epicurus , for instance,

2032-448: Is a systematic account of creation and of the gods. The writings of Homer and Hesiod were held in extremely high regard throughout antiquity and were viewed by many ancient authors as the foundational texts behind ancient Greek religion ; Homer told the story of a heroic past, which Hesiod bracketed with a creation narrative and an account of the practical realities of contemporary daily life. Lyric poetry received its name from

2159-493: Is certain that their roots reach far back before his time (see Homeric Question ). The Iliad is a narrative of a single episode spanning over the course of a ten-day-period from near the end of the ten years of the Trojan War. It centers on the person of Achilles , who embodied the Greek heroic ideal. The Odyssey is an account of the adventures of Odysseus , one of the warriors at Troy . After ten years fighting

2286-455: Is known for certain about the life of the philosopher Pythagoras of Samos and no writings by him have survived to the present day, but an impressive corpus of poetic writings written by his pupil Empedocles of Acragas has survived, making Empedocles one of the most widely attested Pre-Socratic philosophers . A large number of fragments written by the philosophers Heraclitus of Ephesus and Democritus of Abdera have also survived. Of all

2413-516: Is known mainly from later summaries. He is credited with being the first person to measure the Earth's circumference. Much that was written by the mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes has been preserved. Euclid is known for his Elements , much of which was drawn from his predecessor Eudoxus of Cnidus . The Elements is a treatise on geometry, and it has exerted a continuing influence on mathematics. From Archimedes several treatises have come down to

2540-493: Is merely a fictional representation intended to expound Plato's own opinions who has very little to do with the historical figure of the same name. The debate over the extent to which Plato's portrayal of Socrates represents the actual Socrates's ideas is known as the Socratic problem . Plato expressed his ideas through dialogues, that is, written works purporting to describe conversations between different individuals. Some of

2667-481: Is of particularly high quality and contains three lengthy letters attributed to Epicurus himself, at least two of which are generally agreed to be authentic. Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor , baritone , and music educator , and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. Principally influenced by nine years' composition studies with Rosario Scalero at

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2794-444: Is sometimes thought to have been written by Euripides' son, or to have been a posthumous reproduction of a play by Euripides. Euripides pushed the limits of the tragic genre and many of the elements in his plays were more typical of comedy than tragedy. His play Alcestis , for instance, has often been categorized as a " problem play " or perhaps even as a work of tragicomedy rather than a true tragedy due to its comedic elements and

2921-529: Is still in use today. Following his graduation from high school in 1928, he entered the adult professional program at Curtis from which he graduated in 1934. At Curtis he studied piano with George Frederick Boyle and Isabelle Vengerova , composition with Rosario Scalero , conducting with Fritz Reiner , and voice with Emilio de Gogorza . In 1928, he met fellow Curtis schoolmate Gian Carlo Menotti , who became his partner in life as well as in their shared profession. During his last year at Curtis he became

3048-522: Is traditionally attributed to Aeschylus, and Rhesus , which is traditionally attributed to Euripides, are, however, questioned. There are seven surviving tragedies attributed to Aeschylus. Three of these plays, Agamemnon , The Libation-Bearers , and The Eumenides , form a trilogy known as the Oresteia . One of these plays, Prometheus Bound , however, may actually be the work of Aeschylus's son Euphorion . Seven works of Sophocles have survived,

3175-584: Is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential philosophical thinkers of all time. The first sentence of his Metaphysics reads: "All men by nature desire to know." He has, therefore, been called the "Father of those who know." His medieval disciple Thomas Aquinas referred to him simply as "the Philosopher". Aristotle was a student at Plato's Academy , and like his teacher, he wrote dialogues, or conversations. However, none of these exist today. The body of writings that have come down to

3302-549: The Cello Concerto (1945) and Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955); and the use of tonal ambiguity and a narrow use of serialism in his Piano Sonata (1949), Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and Nocturne (1959). Barber was adept at both instrumental and vocal music. His works became successful on the international stage and many of his compositions enjoyed rapid adoption into the classical performance canon. In particular, his Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned

3429-460: The Dionysiaca , the longest surviving epic poem from antiquity. He also wrote a poetic paraphrase of The Gospel of John . Nonnus probably lived sometime during the late fourth century AD or early fifth century AD. The historian Polybius was born about 200 BC. He was brought to Rome as a hostage in 168. In Rome he became a friend of the general Scipio Aemilianus. He probably accompanied

3556-452: The Attic dialect . Choral performances were a common tradition in all Greek city-states. The Athenians credited a man named Thespis with having invented drama by introducing the first actor, whose primary purpose was to interact with the leader of the chorus. Later playwrights expanded the number of actors to three, allowing for greater freedom in storytelling. In the age that followed

3683-438: The Curtis Institute and more than 25 years' study with his uncle, the composer Sidney Homer , Barber's music usually eschewed the experimental trends of musical modernism in favor of traditional 19th-century harmonic language and formal structure embracing lyricism and emotional expression. However, he adopted elements of modernism after 1940 in some of his compositions, such as an increased use of dissonance and chromaticism in

3810-623: The Elegy Op. 58 of Edward Elgar , the Elegy for Strings of Benjamin Britten , and the first movement, "Elegy", of Pēteris Vasks 's String Quartet No. 4. Though not specifically designated an elegy, Samuel Barber 's Adagio for Strings has an elegiac character. Ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from

3937-727: The Golden Fleece from the land of Colchis . The poet Aratus wrote the hexameter poem Phaenomena , a poetic rendition of Eudoxus of Cnidus 's treatise on the stars written in the fourth century BC. During the Hellenistic period , the Old Comedy of the Classical Era was replaced by New Comedy . The most notable writer of New Comedy was the Athenian playwright Menander . None of Menander's plays have survived to

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4064-508: The Greco-Persian Wars , the awakened national spirit of Athens was expressed in hundreds of tragedies based on heroic and legendary themes of the past. The tragic plays grew out of simple choral songs and dialogues performed at festivals of the god Dionysus . In the classical period, performances included three tragedies and one pastoral drama, depicting four different episodes of the same myth. Wealthy citizens were chosen to bear

4191-680: The Ibis , which was directed against his former pupil Apollonius. He also compiled a prose treatise entitled the Pinakes , in which he catalogued all the major works held in the Library of Alexandria. The Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes is best known for his epic poem the Argonautica , which narrates the adventures of Jason and his shipmates the Argonauts on their quest to retrieve

4318-703: The Piano Sonata in E-flat minor , Op. 26. The Nocturne (Homage to John Field) , Op. 33, is another respected piece which he composed for the instrument. In 1977, the Van Cliburn Foundation commissioned Barber to write a Ballade , Op. 46, for the fifth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition . Menotti supplied the libretto for Barber's opera Vanessa . (Menotti also contributed the libretto for Barber's chamber opera A Hand of Bridge .) In 1956, using his vocal training, Barber played and sang

4445-767: The Renaissance , European authors in general, including Dante Alighieri , William Shakespeare , John Milton , and James Joyce , have all drawn heavily on classical themes and motifs. This period of Greek literature stretches from Homer until the fourth century BC and the rise of Alexander the Great . The earliest known Greek writings are Mycenaean , written in the Linear B syllabary on clay tablets. These documents contain prosaic records largely concerned with trade (lists, inventories, receipts, etc.); no real literature has been discovered. Michael Ventris and John Chadwick ,

4572-878: The Rome Prize , two Pulitzer Prizes , the Henry Hadley Medal (1958), and the Gold Medal for Music at the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1976). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and, as a Fellow, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961. Barber was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1980 by the MacDowell Colony for outstanding contribution to

4699-683: The Successors (especially the Ptolemies) and under Roman rule. Romans of literary or rhetorical inclination looked to Greek models, and Greek literature of all types continued to be read and produced both by native speakers of Greek and later by Roman authors as well. A notable characteristic of this period was the expansion of literary criticism as a genre, particularly as exemplified by Demetrius, Pseudo-Longinus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The New Testament , written by various authors in varying qualities of Koine Greek also hails from this period,

4826-463: The "childhood" period of his composition, extending to 1942. The use of tonal harmony , unresolved dissonance , moderate chromaticism , and largely diatonic, lyrical melodies are some of the defining features of this period in his compositional career. At the age of 18, he won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his violin sonata (now lost or destroyed by the composer). He won

4953-484: The 1950s, and taught composition at the Curtis Institute from 1939 to 1942. Barber was in a relationship with the composer Gian Carlo Menotti for more than 40 years. They lived at Capricorn, a house just north of New York City, where they frequently hosted parties with academic and music luminaries. Menotti was Barber's librettist for two of his three operas. When the relationship ended in 1970, they remained close friends until Barber's death from cancer in 1981. Barber

5080-477: The 2nd century AD. He was a careful student of anatomy, and his works exerted a powerful influence on medicine for the next 1,400 years. Strabo , who died about AD 23, was a geographer and historian. His Historical Sketches in 47 volumes has nearly all been lost. His Geographical Sketches remains the only existing ancient book covering the whole range of people and countries known to the Greeks and Romans through

5207-596: The Ancient Orators , and On the Arrangement of Words . The historians Appian of Alexandria and Arrian of Nicomedia both lived in the second century AD. Appian wrote on Rome and its conquests, while Arrian is remembered for his work on the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Arrian served in the Roman army. His book therefore concentrates heavily on the military aspects of Alexander's life. Arrian also wrote

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5334-488: The BSO. Barber revised the symphony in 1947 and it was subsequently published by G. Schirmer in 1950 and recorded the following year by the New Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by Barber himself. According to some sources, Barber destroyed the score in 1964. Hans Heinsheimer was an eyewitness, and reported that he accompanied Barber to the publisher's office where they collected all the music from

5461-667: The Bearns Prize a second time for his first large-scale orchestral work, an overture to The School for Scandal , which was composed in 1931 when he was 21 years old. It premiered successfully two years later in a performance given by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of conductor Alexander Smallens . While a student at Curtis, Barber also pursued other music development opportunities as well as personal interests through travels in Europe; mainly in

5588-713: The Bearns Prize a second time in April 1933, he extended his stay in Europe beyond the summer of that year to pursue further studies in Vienna; staying in that city in the Autumn of 1933 into the early part of 1934. During this period his studies were mainly focused on developing his talents as a vocalist with the intent of pursuing a career as a baritone . He also studied conducting independently during this period; making his professional conducting debut in Vienna on January 4, 1934. In March 1934 he returned to Philadelphia to finish his studies at Curtis. After graduating from Curtis in

5715-702: The Boston Symphony that same year. While in the Army Air Corps Barber was commissioned to write other several works for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), including his Cello Concerto for Raya Garbousova and his Second Symphony , a work he later suppressed. Composed in 1943, the symphony was originally titled Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces and was premiered in early 1944 by Serge Koussevitzky and

5842-495: The City Dionysia. Even today, The Frogs still appeals to modern audiences. A commercially successful modern musical adaptation of it was performed on Broadway in 2004. The third dramatic genre was the satyr play . Although the genre was popular, only one complete example of a satyr play has survived: Cyclops by Euripides . Large portions of a second satyr play, Ichneutae by Sophocles, have been recovered from

5969-613: The Death of His Father), written between 1460 and 1470 by Jorge Manrique . "Elegy" (French: élégie ) may denote a type of musical work, usually of a sad or somber nature. A well-known example is the Élégie, Op. 10, by Jules Massenet . This was originally written for piano, as a student work; then he set it as a song; and finally it appeared as the "Invocation", for cello and orchestra, a section of his incidental music to Leconte de Lisle 's Les Érinnyes . Other examples include Gabriel Fauré 's Elegy in C minor (op. 24) for cello and piano,

6096-851: The King and Antigone . Euripides is known for his plays which often pushed the boundaries of the tragic genre. The comedic playwright Aristophanes wrote in the genre of Old Comedy , while the later playwright Menander was an early pioneer of New Comedy . The historians Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Thucydides , who both lived during the fifth century BC, wrote accounts of events that happened shortly before and during their own lifetimes. The philosopher Plato wrote dialogues, usually centered around his teacher Socrates , dealing with various philosophical subjects, whereas his student Aristotle wrote numerous treatises, which later became highly influential. Important later writers included Apollonius of Rhodes , who wrote The Argonautica , an epic poem about

6223-514: The Persian Cyrus expel his brother from the throne, another famous work relating to Persian history is his Cyropaedia . Xenophon also wrote three works in praise of the philosopher Socrates : The Apology of Socrates to the Jury , The Symposium , and Memorabilia . Although both Xenophon and Plato knew Socrates, their accounts are very different. Many comparisons have been made between

6350-464: The Soul , and Rhetoric . By 338 BC all of the Greek city-states except Sparta had been united by Philip II of Macedon . Philip's son Alexander the Great extended his father's conquests greatly. Athens lost its preeminent status as the leader of Greek culture, and it was replaced temporarily by Alexandria , Egypt . The city of Alexandria in northern Egypt became, from the 3rd century BC,

6477-641: The Temple University Chorus directed by Robert Page. The Third Essay for Orchestra (1978) was his last major work. Barber was hospitalized on and off between 1978 and 1981 while undergoing treatment for cancer. He died of the disease on January 23, 1981, at his 907 Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan at the age of 70. The funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church of West Chester three days later and he

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6604-696: The US entered World War II, Barber joined the Army Air Corps where he remained in service through 1945. Barber's first work after his military induction was the "Commando March" (1943), which was his only work for a concert band . It was premièred by the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command Band in Atlantic City on May 23, 1943. Sergei Koussevitzky commissioned an orchestral version for performance by

6731-462: The account of the military historian and the account of the poet-philosopher. Many important and influential philosophers lived during the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Among the earliest Greek philosophers were the three so-called " Milesian philosophers ": Thales of Miletus , Anaximander , and Anaximenes . Of these philosophers' writings, however, only one fragment from Anaximander preserved by Simplicius of Cilicia has survived. Very little

6858-663: The age of 10, Barber wrote his first operetta, The Rose Tree , to a libretto by the family's cook. At the age of 12, he became an organist at a local church. At the age of 14, Barber entered the youth artist program at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he ultimately spent ten years developing his talents as a triple prodigy in composition, voice, and piano. During his initial studies at Curtis, he simultaneously attended and graduated from West Chester High School (now West Chester Henderson High School ), during which time he composed his school's alma mater which

6985-571: The arts. In 1998, the American Classical Music Hall of Fame inducted Barber posthumously. In addition to composing, Barber was active in organizations that sought to help musicians and promote music. He was president of the International Music Council of UNESCO . He worked to bring attention to and ameliorate adverse conditions facing musicians and musical organizations worldwide. He was one of

7112-552: The author of the book of Acts of the Apostles and the Byzantine Era historian Procopius of Caesarea . A third historian of ancient Greece, Xenophon of Athens , began his Hellenica where Thucydides ended his work about 411 BC and carried his history to 362 BC. Xenophon's most famous work is his book The Anabasis , a detailed, first-hand account of his participation in a Greek mercenary army that tried to help

7239-469: The beginning of Sophocles's career. Oedipus the King , the most famous of the three, was written around 429 BC at the midpoint of Sophocles's career. Oedipus at Colonus , the second of the three plays chronologically, was actually Sophocles's last play and was performed in 401 BC, after Sophocles's death. There are nineteen surviving plays attributed to Euripides . The most well-known of these plays are Medea , Hippolytus , and Bacchae . Rhesus

7366-435: The best-known of these include: The Apology of Socrates , a purported record of the speech Socrates gave at his trial; Phaedo , a description of the last conversation between Socrates and his disciples before his execution; The Symposium , a dialogue over the nature of love ; and The Republic , widely regarded as Plato's most important work, a long dialogue describing the ideal government. Aristotle of Stagira

7493-594: The biennial Congress of Soviet Composers in Moscow. That same year he won the Pulitzer Prize a second time for his Piano Concerto which was one of three works by him commissioned for the opening of Lincoln Center and was performed at the opening of Philharmonic Hall with pianist John Browning in September 1962. The second work performed for the opening of Lincoln Center was his Andromache's Farewell ,

7620-699: The city of Vienna which would later become an important city in his musical development. During this first stay in Vienna in 1928 he formed a friendship with composer George Antheil . Barber returned to Italy in the summer of 1929 using funds he received upon winning the Bearns Prize; this time with Menotti as his travel companion. He returned to Paris in the summer of 1930, and in the summers of 1931 and 1933 both Barber and Menotti studied composition with Rosario Scalero in Montestrutto , Turin while staying with Menotti's parents in Cadegliano . After winning

7747-523: The classical philosophers, however, Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle are generally considered the most important and influential. Socrates did not write any books himself and modern scholars debate whether or not Plato's portrayal of him is accurate. Some scholars contend that many of his ideas, or at least a vague approximation of them, are expressed in Plato's early socratic dialogues . Meanwhile, other scholars have argued that Plato's portrayal of Socrates

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7874-541: The distinctions between them were frequently blurred. Among the found papyri , the most frequently found are the works of Homer , in 1680 fragments, Demosthenes , 204 fragments, and Euripides , 170 papyri. At the beginning of Greek literature stand the two monumental works of Homer , the Iliad and the Odyssey . The figure of Homer is shrouded in mystery. Although the works as they now stand are credited to him, it

8001-688: The earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire . The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period , are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey , set in an idealized archaic past today identified as having some relation to the Mycenaean era . These two epics, along with the Homeric Hymns and the two poems of Hesiod , the Theogony and Works and Days , constituted

8128-411: The early Hellenistic era. The third part takes the story to the beginning of Caesar's wars in Gaul, now France. Dionysius of Halicarnassus lived late in the first century BC. His history of Rome from its origins to the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC) is written from a Roman point of view, but it is carefully researched. He also wrote a number of other treatises, including On Imitation , Commentaries on

8255-530: The eighth through thirteenth centuries. This emphasis on sung material was rooted in his own brief career as a professional baritone in his 20s which inspired a lifelong love of vocal music. In 1935, Barber recorded his own setting of Arnold 's " Dover Beach " for NBC , singing the vocal part accompanied by string quartet, and he was also featured weekly on NBC Radio in 1935–1936 performing German lieder and art songs. He also occasionally conducted performances and recordings of his works with symphony orchestras during

8382-419: The elegiac couplet was also used by both Greek and Roman poets for witty, humorous, and satirical subject matter. Other than epitaphs, examples of ancient elegy as a poem of mourning include Catullus 's Carmen 101 , on his dead brother, and elegies by Propertius on his dead mistress Cynthia and a matriarch of the prominent Cornelian family . Ovid wrote elegies bemoaning his exile , which he likened to

8509-452: The expense of costuming and training the chorus as a public and religious duty. Attendance at the festival performances was regarded as an act of worship. Performances were held in the great open-air theater of Dionysus in Athens. The poets competed for the prizes offered for the best plays. All fully surviving Greek tragedies are conventionally attributed to Aeschylus , Sophocles or Euripides . The authorship of Prometheus Bound , which

8636-473: The fact that it has a happy ending. Like tragedy, comedy arose from a ritual in honor of Dionysus , but in this case the plays were full of frank obscenity, abuse, and insult. At Athens , the comedies became an official part of the festival celebration in 486 BC, and prizes were offered for the best productions. As with the tragedians, few works remain of the great comedic writers. The only complete surviving works of classical comedy are eleven plays written by

8763-484: The fact that it was originally sung by individuals or a chorus accompanied by the instrument called the lyre . Despite the name, the lyric poetry in this general meaning was divided in four genres, two of which were not accompanied by cithara , but by flute. These two latter genres were elegiac poetry and iambic poetry . Both were written in the Ionic dialect . Elegiac poems were written in elegiac couplets and iambic poems were written in iambic trimeter . The first of

8890-521: The first American composers to visit Russia (then part of the Soviet Union ). Barber was also influential in the successful campaign by composers against ASCAP , the goal of which was to increase royalties paid to composers. Through the success of his Overture to The School for Scandal (1931), Music for a Scene from Shelley (1933), Adagio for Strings (1936), (First) Symphony in One Movement (1936), (First) Essay for Orchestra (1937) and Violin Concerto (1939), Barber garnered performances by

9017-430: The general to Spain and North Africa in the wars against Carthage. He was with Scipio at the destruction of Carthage in 146. Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC, around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus. He wrote a universal history , Bibliotheca Historica , in 40 books. Of these, the first five and the 11th through the 20th remain. The first two parts covered history through

9144-604: The history of Sicily and Italy to the year 264 BC, which is where Polybius begins his work. Timaeus also wrote the Olympionikai , a valuable chronological study of the Olympic Games. Ancient biography , or bios , as distinct from modern biography, was a genre of Greek (and Roman) literature interested in describing the goals, achievements, failures, and character of ancient historical persons and whether or not they should be imitated. Authors of ancient bios , such as

9271-488: The instrumental parts, and released in a Vox Box "Stradivari Classics" recording by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Schenck in 1988. In 1943, Barber and Menotti purchased 'Capricorn', a house north of Manhattan in suburban Mount Kisco, New York . The home served as their artistic retreat up until 1972, and it was at this house that Barber had his most productive years as

9398-496: The late first century BC or early first century AD, during the latter part of the Hellenistic Era. The discovery of several fragments of Lollianos's Phoenician Tale reveal the existence of a genre of ancient Greek picaresque novel . While the transition from city-state to empire affected philosophy a great deal, shifting the emphasis from political theory to personal ethics, Greek letters continued to flourish both under

9525-412: The library, and Barber "tore up all these beautifully and expensively copied materials with his own hands". Doubt has been cast on this story, however, on grounds that Heinsheimer, as an executive at G. Schirmer, would have been unlikely to have allowed Barber into the Schirmer offices to watch him rip apart the music that his company had invested money in publishing. The score was later reconstructed from

9652-596: The lives of orators and poets (such as Philostratus 's Lives of the Sophists ), school and reference biographies that offered a short sketch of someone including their ancestry, major events and accomplishments, and death, autobiographies, commentaries and memoirs where the subject presents his own life, and historical/political biography focusing on the lives of those active in the military, among other categories. Eratosthenes of Alexandria ( c. 276 BC – c.  195/194 BC), wrote on astronomy and geography, but his work

9779-474: The lyric poets was probably Archilochus of Paros , 7th century BC, the most important iambic poet. Only fragments remain of his work, as is the case with most of the poets. The few remnants suggest that he was an embittered adventurer who led a very turbulent life. Many lyric poems were written in the Aeolic dialect . Lyric poems often employed highly varied poetic meters. The most famous of all lyric poets were

9906-498: The major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical , Hellenistic , and Roman periods . The lyric poets Sappho , Alcaeus , and Pindar were highly influential during the early development of the Greek poetic tradition. Aeschylus is the earliest Greek tragic playwright for whom any plays have survived complete. Sophocles is famous for his tragedies about Oedipus , particularly Oedipus

10033-428: The most acclaimed of which are the three Theban plays , which center around the story of Oedipus and his offspring. The Theban Trilogy consists of Oedipus the King , Oedipus at Colonus , and Antigone . Although the plays are often called a "trilogy," they were written many years apart. Antigone , the last of the three plays sequentially, was actually first to be written, having been composed in 441 BC, towards

10160-570: The most famous example is Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke (1922). In the Islamic world—namely Shia Islam, the most famous examples are elegies written by Sachay Bhai on the Battle of Karbala . Elegies written on Husayn ibn Ali and his followers are very common and produced even today. In Spain, one of the capital works in Spanish is Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre (Stanzas About

10287-715: The most important works being the Gospels and the Epistles of Saint Paul . The poet Quintus of Smyrna , who probably lived during the late fourth century AD, wrote Posthomerica , an epic poem narrating the story of the fall of Troy, beginning where the Iliad left off. About the same time and in a similar Homeric style, an unknown poet composed the Blemyomachia , a now fragmentary epic about conflict between Romans and Blemmyes . The poet Nonnus of Panopolis wrote

10414-497: The narrators use the lyrical "I" to describe their own personal and mournful experiences. They tell the story of the individual rather than the collective lore of his or her people as epic poetry seeks to tell. By the time of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others, the term had come to mean "serious meditative poem": Elegy is a form of poetry natural to the reflective mind. It may treat of any subject, but it must treat of no subject for itself; but always and exclusively with reference to

10541-571: The one that has received the most lasting recognition is The Frogs , which simultaneously satirizes and immortalizes the two giants of Athenian tragedy: Aeschylus and Euripides. When it was performed for the first time at the Lenaia Festival in 405 BC, just one year after the death of Euripides, the Athenians awarded it first prize. It was the only Greek play that was ever given an encore performance, which took place two months later at

10668-566: The opera in Greece and was visited by writer William Goyen 's former lover, American artist Joseph Glasco and his collector-friend Stanley Seeger . This visit may have proved to be a distraction and the work was poorly received by critics, although Barber himself believed it contained some of his best work, and he spent the decade following its premiere revising the opera. After the harsh rejection of his third opera Antony and Cleopatra (1966), Barber battled depression and alcoholism which had

10795-580: The original decipherers of Linear B, state that literature almost certainly existed in Mycenaean Greece , but it was either not written down or, if it was, it was on parchment or wooden tablets, which did not survive the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces in the twelfth century BC . Greek literature was divided into well-defined literary genres, each one having a compulsory formal structure, about both dialect and metrics. The first division

10922-585: The outstanding center of Greek culture. It also soon attracted a large Jewish population, making it the largest center for Jewish scholarship in the ancient world. The Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was reputed to have been initiated in Alexandria. Philo , a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, operated out of Alexandria at the turn of the Common Era . In addition, it later became

11049-615: The piano. Price also sang for the premiere of Barber's cantata Prayers of Kierkegaard with the BSO in 1954, and would become closely associated with performances of his music over the next two decades. In 1958 Barber won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his first opera Vanessa which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in January 1958 with a cast that included opera stars Eleanor Steber, Rosalind Elias , Regina Resnik , Nicolai Gedda , and Giorgio Tozzi . The Met took

11176-580: The playwright Aristophanes . These are a treasure trove of comic presentation. He poked fun at everyone and every institution. In The Birds , he ridicules Athenian democracy . In The Clouds , he attacks the philosopher Socrates . In Lysistrata , he denounces war. Aristophanes has been praised highly for his dramatic skill and artistry. John Lemprière 's Bibliotheca Classica describes him as, quite simply, "the greatest comic dramatist in world literature: by his side Molière seems dull and Shakespeare clownish." Of all Aristophanes's plays, however,

11303-400: The poet. As he will feel regret for the past or desire for the future, so sorrow and love became the principal themes of the elegy. Elegy presents every thing as lost and gone or absent and future. A famous example of elegy is Thomas Gray 's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750). In French, perhaps the most famous elegy is Le Lac (1820) by Alphonse de Lamartine . In Germany,

11430-544: The present day in their complete form, but one play, The Bad-Tempered Man , has survived to the present day in a near-complete form. Most of another play entitled The Girl from Samos and large portions of another five have also survived. The historian Timaeus was born in Sicily but spent most of his life in Athens . His History , though lost, is significant because of its influence on Polybius . In 38 books it covered

11557-574: The present probably represents lectures that he delivered at his own school in Athens, the Lyceum . Even from these books, the enormous range of his interests is evident: He explored matters other than those that are today considered philosophical; the extant treatises cover logic, the physical and biological sciences, ethics, politics, and constitutional government. Among Aristotle's most notable works are Politics , Nicomachean Ethics , Poetics , On

11684-460: The present. Among them are Measurement of the Circle , in which he worked out the value of pi; The Method of Mechanical Theorems , on his work in mechanics; The Sand Reckoner ; and On Floating Bodies . A manuscript of his works is currently being studied. Very little has survived of prose fiction from the Hellenistic Era. The Milesiaka by Aristides of Miletos was probably written during

11811-610: The production to the Salzburg Festival later that year, becoming the first American opera to be performed at that festival. Menotti wrote the libretto for both Vanessa , and Barber's second opera A Hand of Bridge . This latter work premiered at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy in 1959 with a cast that included Patricia Neway and William Lewis . In 1962 Barber became the first American composer to attend

11938-536: The score of Vanessa for the Metropolitan Opera's general manager, Rudolf Bing , who accepted the work. It premiered in January 1958. Vanessa won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize and gained acclaim as the first American grand opera. Barber's Antony and Cleopatra was commissioned for the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center , and premiered at the opening of Opera House on September 16, 1966. The elaborate production, designed by Franco Zeffirelli ,

12065-444: The second century BC. The Milesiaka itself has not survived to the present day in its complete form, but various references to it have survived. The book established a whole new genre of so-called " Milesian tales ," of which The Golden Ass by the later Roman writer Apuleius is a prime example. The ancient Greek novels Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton and Metiochus and Parthenope were probably both written during

12192-625: The site of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri . Two notable historians who lived during the Classical Era were Herodotus of Halicarnassus and Thucydides . Herodotus is commonly called "The Father of History." His book The Histories is among the oldest works of prose literature in existence. Thucydides's book History of the Peloponnesian War greatly influenced later writers and historians, including

12319-496: The slow movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11 . Toscanini had rarely performed music by American composers before (an exception was Howard Hanson 's Symphony No. 2 , which he conducted in 1933). At the end of the first rehearsal of the piece, Toscanini remarked, "Semplice e bella" (simple and beautiful). From 1939 to 1942, Barber taught composition at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. During this time, there

12446-404: The so-called " Nine Lyric Poets ". Of all the lyric poets, Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was by far the most widely revered. In antiquity, her poems were regarded with the same degree of respect as the poems of Homer. Only one of her poems, " Ode to Aphrodite ", has survived to the present day in its original, completed form. In addition to Sappho, her contemporary Alcaeus of Lesbos

12573-524: The spring of 1934, Barber pursued further studies in conducting and singing with John Braun in Vienna in the summers of 1935 and 1936 through the aid of a Pulitzer traveling scholarship. He soon after was awarded the Rome Prize which enabled him to pursue further studies at the American Academy in Rome from 1935 to 1937. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946 and also studied conducting privately with George Szell . In his early career Barber had

12700-471: The summer months when school was not in session but also sometimes for longer periods. His first European trip began in the summer of 1928 in which he visited Paris, Brittany, and Italy with cellist and composer David Freed. He continued to travel in Europe in the fall of 1928 without Freed to other European cities in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria; during which time he first visited

12827-570: The third century BC. The Aetia was lost during the Middle Ages, but, over the course of the twentieth century, much of it was recovered due to new discoveries of ancient papyri. Scholars initially denigrated it as "second-rate", showing great learning, but lacking true "art". Over the course of the century, scholarly appraisal of it greatly improved, with many scholars now seeing it in a much more positive light. Callimachus also wrote short poems for special occasions and at least one short epic,

12954-459: The time of Augustus . Pausanias , who lived in the 2nd century AD, was also a geographer. His Description of Greece is a travel guide describing the geography and mythic history of Greece during the second century. The book takes the form of a tour of Greece, starting in Athens and ending in Naupactus . The scientist of the Roman period who had the greatest influence on later generations

13081-482: The time of Barber's death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded. Many of his compositions were commissioned or first performed by such noted groups and artists as the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the Philadelphia Orchestra , the New York Philharmonic , the Metropolitan Opera , Vladimir Horowitz , Eleanor Steber , Raya Garbousova , John Browning , Leontyne Price , Pierre Bernac , Francis Poulenc , and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau . While Barber composed

13208-431: The time of this work's creation. This work adopted a more modern dissonant harmonic language with vivid textual imagery characterized by tonal ambiguity and a frequent use of chromaticism , conflicting triads, tritones , and whole-tone segments. In 1971 his cantata The Lovers was well received by audiences and critics when it premiered in performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra , Finnish baritone Tom Krause , and

13335-623: The universe endured until Copernicus , Galileo , Kepler , and other early modern astronomers replaced it with heliocentrism . Epictetus ( c. 55 AD – 135 AD) was associated with the moral philosophy of the Stoics . His teachings were collected by his pupil Arrian in the Discourses and the Encheiridion (Manual of Study). Diogenes Laërtius , who lived in the third century AD, wrote Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers ,

13462-588: The voice would find expression in the large legacy of songs that occupy some two-thirds of his output. Barber's first orchestral work to receive international attention was his Symphony in One Movement which he wrote while studying composition in Rome. The work was premiered by the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome under the baton of Bernardino Molinari in December 1936, and

13589-475: The voyage of the Argonauts ; Archimedes , who wrote groundbreaking mathematical treatises; and Plutarch , who wrote mainly biographies and essays. The second-century AD writer Lucian of Samosata was a Greek, who wrote primarily works of satire . Ancient Greek literature has had a profound impact on later Greek literature and also western literature at large. In particular, many ancient Roman authors drew inspiration from their Greek predecessors. Ever since

13716-445: The war, he spends another ten years sailing back home to his wife and family. Penelope was considered the ideal female; Homer depicted her as the ideal female based on her commitment, modesty, purity, and respect during her marriage to Odysseus. During his ten-year voyage, he loses all of his comrades and ships and makes his way home to Ithaca disguised as a beggar. Both of these works were based on ancient legends. The Homeric dialect

13843-643: The work earned an enduring place in the performance canon. In the 1950s Barber was engaged to conduct his own works with several symphony orchestras internationally for performances and recordings, including the BSO, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony . To prepare for recordings of his Second Symphony , Cello Concerto and the Medea ballet suite, he studied conducting with Nikolai Malko in 1951. In 1952 he

13970-465: The works of Nepos and Plutarch 's Parallel Lives imitated many of the same sources and techniques of the contemporary historiographies of ancient Greece, notably including the works of Herodotus and Thucydides . There were various forms of ancient biographies, including philosophical biographies that brought out the moral character of their subject (such as Diogenes Laertius 's Lives of Eminent Philosophers ), literary biographies which discussed

14097-405: The world's leading conductors such as Artur Rodziński , Eugene Ormandy , Dimitri Mitropoulos , Bruno Walter , Charles Münch , George Szell , Leopold Stokowski , and Thomas Schippers . Among his works are four concertos, one each for violin (1939), cello (1945) and piano (1962), and the neoclassical Capricorn Concerto for flute, oboe, trumpet and string orchestra (1944). He also wrote

14224-442: Was a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera ; his uncle, Sidney Homer , was a composer of American art songs . Louise Homer is known to have influenced Barber's interest in voice. Through his aunt, Barber was introduced to many great singers and songs. Sidney Homer mentored Barber for more than 25 years, and profoundly influenced his compositional aesthetics. A child prodigy , Barber became profoundly interested in music at

14351-524: Was a major turning point in Barber's music. In 1940, he wrote a choral piece using Stephen Spender 's war poem, "A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map". From this point forward, World War II caused his second phase of composing. This new phase was greatly influenced by other composers such as Stravinsky , Schoenberg , Bartók , and genres such as jazz . His new era of composition would feature a greater involvement in American literature and culture. In 1942, after

14478-419: Was a native of Boeotia in central Greece , and is thought to have lived and worked around 700 BC. Hesiod's two extant poems are Works and Days and the Theogony . Works and Days is a faithful depiction of the poverty-stricken country life he knew so well, and it sets forth principles and rules for farmers. It vividly describes the ages of mankind, beginning with a long-past Golden Age . The Theogony

14605-574: Was almost 70 years old. In 1967 he successfully adapted his Adagio for Strings (1936) to a choral work, Agnus Dei , set to the Latin liturgical mass text on the Lamb of God . The work has become widely performed and recorded by choirs internationally. In 1969 Leontyne Price performed the premiere of Barber's song cycle Despite and Still which emphasized textual themes of loneliness, isolation, and lost love; all issues present in Barber's own personal life at

14732-452: Was also notable for monodic lyric poetry. The poetry written by Alcman was considered beautiful, even though he wrote exclusively in the Doric dialect , which was normally considered unpleasant to hear. The later poet Pindar of Thebes was renowned for his choral lyric poetry. All surviving works of Greek drama were composed by playwrights from Athens and are written exclusively in

14859-404: Was an archaic language based on Ionic dialect mixed with some element of Aeolic dialect and Attic dialect , the latter due to the Athenian edition of the 6th century BC. The epic verse was the hexameter . The other great poet of the preclassical period was Hesiod . Unlike Homer, Hesiod refers to himself in his poetry. Nonetheless, nothing is known about him from any external source. He

14986-523: Was between prose and poetry. Within poetry there were three super-genres: epic, lyric and drama. The common European terminology about literary genres is directly derived from the ancient Greek terminology. Lyric and drama were further divided into more genres: lyric in four ( elegiac , iambic , monodic lyric and choral lyric ); drama in three ( tragedy , comedy and pastoral drama ). Prose literature can largely be said to begin with Herodotus . Over time, several genres of prose literature developed, but

15113-616: Was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania , the son of Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Samuel Le Roy Barber. He was born into a comfortable, educated, social, and distinguished American family. His father was a physician; his mother was a pianist of English-Scottish-Irish descent whose family had lived in the United States since the time of the American Revolutionary War . His maternal aunt, Louise Homer ,

15240-712: Was buried in the Oaklands Cemetery there. His final composition, Canzone for oboe and string orchestra (1981), was published after his death. Initially intended to be a fully developed oboe concerto, Barber only completed the second movement of that work. At the time of Barber's death in 1981, Pulitzer Prize winning music critic Donal Henahan wrote in The New York Times about Barber that "probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim". Barber received numerous awards and prizes, including

15367-547: Was elected vice president of the International Music Council . In 1953 Barber was introduced to soprano Leontyne Price by her voice teacher Florence Kimball , who was a friend of Barber, when he approached Kimball about needing a singer to perform his song cycle Hermit Songs . Impressed with her voice, Barber engaged her to premiere the work at the Library of Congress with Barber accompanying on

15494-462: Was first developed by the poet Theocritus . The Roman Virgil later wrote his Eclogues in this genre. Callimachus , a scholar at the Library of Alexandria , composed the Aetia ("Causes"), a long poem written in four volumes of elegiac couplets describing the legendary origins of obscure customs, festivals, and names, which he probably wrote in several stages over the course of many years in

15621-595: Was in no way a typical boy, and at the age of nine he wrote to his mother: Dear Mother: I have written this to tell you my worrying secret. Now don't cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlet [ sic ]. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I'm sure. I'll ask you one more thing.—Don't ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.— Please —Sometimes I've been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very). At

15748-497: Was plagued with technical disasters; it also overwhelmed and obscured Barber's music, which most critics derided as uncharacteristically weak and unoriginal. The critical rejection of music that Barber considered to be among his best sent him into a deep depression. In recent years, a revised version of Antony and Cleopatra , for which Menotti provided collaborative assistance, has enjoyed some success. In 1939 Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write

15875-458: Was showcased alongside other prominent American composers such as Leonard Bernstein . In 1949 he achieved a major critical success with his Piano Sonata which was premiered by Vladimir Horowitz and commissioned by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the League of Composers . Popularized in concerts internationally by Horowitz and other prominent pianists,

16002-650: Was soon after programmed by symphony orchestras in New York City and Cleveland. The work was the first symphonic composition created by an American to appear at the Salzburg Festival , where it was performed in 1937. In 1938, when Barber was 28, his Adagio for Strings was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini , along with his first Essay for Orchestra . The Adagio had been arranged from

16129-475: Was undoubtedly the astronomer Ptolemy . He lived during the 2nd century AD, though little is known of his life. His masterpiece, originally entitled The Mathematical Collection , has come to the present under the title Almagest , as it was translated by Arab astronomers with that title. It was Ptolemy who devised a detailed description of an Earth-centered universe , a notion that dominated astronomical thinking for more than 1,300 years. The Ptolemaic view of

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