Adagio for Strings
Samuel Barber (arr. Tobie Wilkinson)
General Info
Year: 1936 / 2003
Duration:
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: String orchestra
Publisher: Really Good Music
Cost: Score and Parts – Unknown
Instrumentation
Full Score
Percussion, including:
- Marimba I-II-III-IV
- Bass Marimba
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arguably his best known, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year that he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time on November 5, 1938, by Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a radio broadcast from NBC Studio 8H.
Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye." The music is the setting for Barber's 1967 choral arrangement of Agnus Dei. Adagio for Strings can be heard in many TV shows and movies, most notably in the 1986 film Platoon, which brought the work to wide popular attention.
- Program Note from Wikipedia
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) Symphonic Band Percussion Ensemble (Jerry Luckhardt, conductor) - 15 April 2021
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Adagio (arr. Linden) (1936/2006)
- Adagio (arr. Warner) (1936/1997)
- Adagio for Strings (arr. Wilkinson) (1936/2003)
- Adagio for Young Concert Band (arr. Jennings) (1936/1991)
- Adagio from "Adagio for Strings" (arr. Custer) (1936)
- Andante and Tranquillo (arr. Saucedo) (1943/2009)
- Commando March (1943)
- Commando March (ed. Collinsworth) (1943/2009)
- Commando March (arr. Curnow) (1943/1990)
- Fantasy on a Theme by Samuel Barber (arr. Saucedo) (1931/2005)
- First Essay (arr. Joseph Levey) (1937/1972)
- Funeral March (1943)
- Intermezzo (from “Vanessa") (arr. Beeler) (1962)
- Knoxville, Summer of 1915 (tr. Singleton) (1949/2004)
- Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, op 23a (arr. Hudson)
- Mutations from Bach (1968)
- Overture to “The School for Scandal” (arr. Hudson) (1941/1971
- Second Essay (arr. Schneider) (2011)
- Summer Music (1956)
- Sure on This Shining Night (arr. Saucedo) (1938/2004)
- Symphony in One Movement (tr. Duker) (1936/1970)
Resources
- Barber, S.; Wilkinson, T. (2004). Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 [score]. Really Good Music: Eau Claire, Wisc.
- Adagio for Strings, Wikipedia Accessed 10 November 2018