COMPOSER

Samuel Barber

1910 - 1981

Photo of Samuel Barber

Icon of person 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 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 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. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Samuel Barber is the 194th most popular composer (down from 184th in 2019), the 1,037th most popular biography from United States (down from 823rd in 2019) and the 7th most popular American Composer.

Samuel Barber is most famous for composing the "Adagio for Strings" in 1936.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Samuel Barber by language

Loading...

Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Samuel Barber ranks 194 out of 1,451. Before him are Ferruccio Busoni, Amilcare Ponchielli, Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Bononcini, Dmitry Kabalevsky, and Stanisław Moniuszko. After him are Michael Praetorius, Niccolò Piccinni, Jan Dismas Zelenka, Luigi Nono, Charles-Marie Widor, and Johann Stamitz.

Most Popular Composers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1910, Samuel Barber ranks 34. Before him are Helenio Herrera, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Ronald Coase, Ludwig Stumpfegger, Kim Yong-sik, and William Hanna. After him are William Shockley, Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Edda Mussolini, Jean Anouilh, Benzion Netanyahu, and Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Among people deceased in 1981, Samuel Barber ranks 28. Before him are A. J. Cronin, Eugenio Montale, René Clair, Joseph Murphy, Joe Louis, and Omar Bradley. After him are Georges Brassens, William Saroyan, Miroslav Krleža, Duško Popov, Zarah Leander, and Omar Torrijos.

Others Born in 1910

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1981

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Samuel Barber ranks 1,037 out of 20,380. Before him are Linda Hamilton (1956), Bradley Cooper (1975), Melanie Griffith (1957), Bob Beamon (1946), Cuba Gooding Jr. (1968), and Paul L. Modrich (1946). After him are Bing Crosby (1903), John Sherman (1823), Mark Hamill (1951), Neal Cassady (1926), Anne Baxter (1923), and John B. Calhoun (1917).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among COMPOSERS In United States

Among composers born in United States, Samuel Barber ranks 7. Before him are George Gershwin (1898), John Williams (1932), John Cage (1912), Leonard Bernstein (1918), Alfred Newman (1900), and Philip Glass (1937). After him are Henry Mancini (1924), Scott Joplin (1868), Angelo Badalamenti (1937), Jerry Goldsmith (1929), James Horner (1953), and Steve Reich (1936).

American born Composers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous