Hello, Music Lover,
Samuel Barber’s
Adagio for Strings, as it has become known, is the second movement of his String
Quartet, op 11, and is so full of pathos and sadness, it will leave a lump in
your throat the first time you hear it. It has been played at the funerals and
memorial services of numerous prominent people, and it is reported to be the
most often requested piece of music on anniversaries of 911. It has been requested in memory of Michael, by Charles.
Musically the piece is
full of changing time signatures, and the dynamics tend to build over the
piece. It is this that I tried to suggest in the changing curves in the square.
Even on the first page of music (a piano score), it changes from 4/4 to 5/4
after 3 bars. So my square reads from left to right, beginning with 4 “strings”
and exiting with five, splitting and rejoining at evolving intervals. Barber is said to have envisioned a river growing from a small one to a larger one; hence the watery tones.
It’s deceptively
simple and somehow so honest!
Take care -
Susan
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