A suave style combined with elegant workmanship has made Barber one of the major voices in American music. For a long time he was regarded as a conservative composer, because he was more concerned with expressing his inmost feelings unashamedly than with embarking on new forms and novel experiments. But later compositions reveal an increasing independence of style and thought, together with the necessity to utilize the fullest resources of modern writing. The outstanding trait of his major works is a capacity to project subtle moods and atmospheres. His is a deeply poetic temperament reflected in everything he has written.
Written in 1937, and introduced at a concert of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, on November 5, 1938, the Adagio for Strings is built out of a single theme (heard at the beginning of the piece in the violins). A poetic mood is sustained throughout the work. Sibelius, who saw the manuscript, remarked: “I am glad to say that I consider this music excellent…(It is)…good art, and especially do I like its simplicity.
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