In 1936, American composer Samuel Barber (1910-1981) composed his only string quartet. Its Molto allegro and appassionato first movement carries more than a little of the strength of Beethoven’s own first string quartet, Op. 18, No. 1. It’s the three-note

Samuel Osmond Barber, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on 9 March 1910, went on to become one of the most celebrated, honored and most frequently performed American composer of the 20th century. A critic writes, “Probably no other American composer

Euripes (480-406 BC) focused on the women of the war in his middle-period play The Trojan Woman. As was common with his middle period plays, this play looked, too, at the senselessness of war. One of the central women was

Excursions, Op. 20 is American composer Samuel Barber’s first published piece for solo piano, and remains one of his most popular pieces for the instrument. A neo-Romantic composer whose style was characterised by lyricism and expression, Barber takes small classical

By the early 1940’s, the pianist Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz — and his conducting father-in law Arturo Toscanini — had reached the pinnacle of fame in the United States. Described as a “tornado unleashed from the steppes,” Horowitz mesmerized audiences with