Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty

Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty Known for his mournful "Adagio for Strings," composer Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable.

This documentary feature film explores his music and melancholia. Known for his mournful "Adagio for Strings," Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. "Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty" is a probing exploration of his music and melancholia. Performance, oral history, musicology, and biography combine to explore the life and music of one of America’s greatest composers. Featuring Thomas Hampson, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and many more of the world's leading experts on Barber's music.

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03/09/2026

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Recommended viewing for Samuel Barber’s birthday: H. Paul Moon’s Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty. The award-winning documentary about the great American composer (world-famous for his “Adagio for Strings”) aired nationally on PBS back in 2017 and is now available for streaming on demand on Vimeo and elsewhere.

Watch the trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/barber

Barber makes a wish in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUKoutowqpA

Happy birthday, Sam! It’s a good day for a trip to the Barber.

02/23/2026

In her new book, Professor Emerita Ronnie Ancona traces how myth, movement, and design came together in Graham’s work with sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

01/23/2026

H. Paul Moon's latest opera film, Handel's "Radamisto" has been released.

01/12/2026

I inadvertently schedule two concerts on the same day, both of them featuring the Samuel Barber Violin Concerto!

Hah! Our research was pretty exhaustive, but we didn't come across that one! On the other hand, we weren't looking for f...
12/21/2025

Hah! Our research was pretty exhaustive, but we didn't come across that one! On the other hand, we weren't looking for fleas.

Samuel Barber while removing fleas from his dog

12/14/2025

Tema Hecht from the Music and Recorded Sound Division shows off an LP from the Library for the Performing Arts' archive of Samuel Barber's music, including Adagio for Strings, and says it "is such a beautiful composition."

Since Barber wrote it in 1936, it has given comfort to listeners during funerals and other times of mourning.

You can listen to this very record by visiting the Library for the Performing Arts!

12/09/2025

Great essay. Hope you like it too:

Brilliant and beautiful performance by Augustin Hadelich of the Barber Violin Concerto tonight at this New York Philharm...
11/21/2025

Brilliant and beautiful performance by Augustin Hadelich of the Barber Violin Concerto tonight at this New York Philharmonic concert! It's the start of an abundant weekend for absolute beauty: next up, The Orchestra Now will perform the Symphony in One Movement (or, Symphony No. 1 if you disregard that Barber tore up his No. 2, as explained in Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty) at Symphony Space this Sunday.

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10/26/2025

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For a century, the tiny Coolidge Auditorium, at the Library of Congress, has been a wellspring of cultural integrity, innovative music and American ingenuity. (And free concerts.)

09/14/2025
A composer who dearly loves Barber's music, and who writes in his tradition, has got a new video about him and his music...
08/30/2025

A composer who dearly loves Barber's music, and who writes in his tradition, has got a new video about him and his music, streaming now on YouTube.

"Anthony Cheng's documentary film 'Ian Venables - Hidden Music' explores the life and music of one of England's foremost living composers. Based on interview...

06/27/2025

Shunning trendy modernist dissonance, the American composer Samuel Barber was never afraid to seduce his listeners with a beautiful tune

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David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza (Broadway At West 65th St)
New York, NY
10023

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