Prelude to War

This chapter reveals the most accurate account of Barber’s first major commission, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. It was commissioned in 1939 by Samuel Fels of Fels-Naptha soap for his ward Iso Briselli, a young violinist prodigy. Barber’s work on the concerto in Switzerland was interrupted by the impending Nazi invasion in Poland and, on arriving home, the illness of his father. As the work could not be completed in time for Briselli’s debut, it was premiered instead by Albert Spalding and the Philadelphia Orchestra and received a generous response, newspapers reporting it to be an “exceptional popular success.” The chapter also features four songs on texts by Gerard Manley Hopkins, James Agee, W. B. Yeats, and Frederic Prokosch, a friend of Barber’s. It mentions the piano trio he wrote for the wedding of Barber’s sister Sara and his nomination to the National Institute of Arts and Letters as its youngest member.

Interlude 1958–1960

This chapter focuses on more works of Barber that are dedicated to significant people, places, or events. Wondrous Love was written for the inauguration of the new organ at the Christ Episcopal Church in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A piano piece, Nocturne, “an homage to John Field,” was premiered by John Browning; infused with elements of Chopin and Debussy, the piece more aptly displays Barber’s own melodic penchants. The chapter also describes Barber’s collaboration with his close friend and former lover Menotti, founder of the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, for which the couple produced the short opera A Hand of Bridge. The gift of an organ to the Philadelphia Orchestra from Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist led Barber to create Toccata Festiva, premiered by Paul Callaway. And finally, Die Natali, for a full orchestra, dedicated to Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky, using Christmas carols as thematic material for an ingenious fabric of harmonically colored contrapuntal variations, was performed by the Boston Symphony under Charles Munch and later by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, representing some reconciliation of what had been an uneasy relationship.

Preparation

The Fifteenth Regiment’s disciplined response to racial harassment during a two-week stay at Camp Wadsworth, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, earned it the right to be among the first units ordered to France. Nick LaRocca represented the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in a Chicago lawsuit to stop the unauthorized publication of the sheet music to “Livery Stable Blues” by former bandmate “Yellow” Nunez, but the judge ruled that all blues were the same and therefore not subject to copyright protection. The Victor Talking Machine Company, using the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, made the first recordings employing the full symphony orchestra. The concert seasons of orchestras across the country opened amid intense scrutiny of their repertoire choices and patriotism.