The Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 26, is a four-movement piano sonata by the American composer Samuel Barber. Composed between 1947 and 1949, the sonata was commissioned for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers by American songwriters Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers. It was first performed by Vladimir Horowitz in December 1949 in Havana, Cuba. Upon its premiere, the sonata was met with immediate widespread acclaim, with The New York Times describing it as the "first sonata truly to come of age by an American composer of this period".
Barber began composing the work in September 1947, completing the first movement later that year; however, a demanding schedule slowed his progress, and Barber did not complete the sonata until June 1949. Initially, Barber envisioned a three-movement work, but feedback from Horowitz led Barber to compose a virtuosic four-voice fugue as a fourth and final movement. Horowitz premiered the sonata in Havana, Cuba, on December 9, 1949. He followed this premiere with a private performance in New York in early January 1950 attended by prominent composers including Aaron Copland and Gian Carlo Menotti. The public US premiere took place at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., later that month, followed by a performance at New York's Carnegie Hall on January 20.
The sonata, despite being tonally centered in E minor, utilizes heavy chromaticism and modern compositional techniques such as twelve-tone technique. Structurally, the sonata adheres to a traditional four-movement design. The first movement is in sonata form and its texture integrates several twelve-tone tone rows. The second movement is in a five-part rondo form and with a tonal center of G major. The third movement, often described as a passacaglia, is tonally centered in B minor and builds its bass ostinatos from twelve-tone rows. The finale is a highly virtuosic four-voice fugue that has been considered one of the greatest examples of the fugue in the 20th century.
History In September 1947, the American songwriters Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers, on the League of Composers' recommendation, announced a commission for a piano sonata by Barber to mark the 25th anniversary of the League."The World of Music: Commissions." The New York Times, 11 December 1949, X7. Barber began writing the sonata that month, completing the first movement by December 1947. However, Barber's progress on the sonata was interrupted by a hectic schedule that demanded his focus, including rehearsals for his ballet Medea and plans for Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Barber planned to complete his sonata during his stay at the American Academy in Rome, initially planned from February to July. The composer was wary of the academy's crowded conditions and disgruntled atmosphere but hoped to work in isolation. However, once in Rome, he found it difficult to focus. Writing to Sidney Homer, his uncle and longtime mentor, he confessed to being heavily distracted not only by the atmosphere of the city of Rome, but by the shifting social and political landscape of postwar Italy.
Barber returned to the United States early in the summer, sooner than planned, and finished the second movement in mid-August 1948. Upon completing the first two movements, Barber initially planned that a slow movement would conclude the piece.: "The first two movements are good, I think. Now a slow movement – finale." However, after Barber played the completed movements for Vladimir Horowitz, who later premiered the work, Horowitz then suggested Barber include a "very flashy last movement, but with content";Sherman, p. 42–43 Barber subsequently added a concluding fugue after the slow movement.
The composer finished the sonata in June 1949, and Horowitz began to prepare it for performance, spending five hours a day practicing it. Barber later commented that Horowitz had been playing it "with a surprising emotional rapprochement which I had not expected". Horowitz premiered the sonata in Havana, Cuba, on December 9, 1949. This was followed by a private performance by Horowitz in New York at the former G. Schirmer headquarters on January 4, 1950. Gian Carlo Menotti, Virgil Thomson, Douglas Moore, William Schuman, Thomas Schippers, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Myra Hess, and Samuel Chotzinoff all attended. The official United States premiere was in Washington, D.C.,Plaskin, Glenn, "Horowitz, a biography", , p229 on January 11, 1950, at Constitution Hall; Horowitz then publicly played the work in New York on January 23, 1950 at Carnegie Hall.Olin Downes, "Horowitz Offers Barber's Sonata", The New York Times, 24 January 1950, 27. It received ubiquitous praise from music critics.: "After its first public performance, at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on January 11, 1950, Barber’s Piano Sonata was declared a milestone by local music critics. 'The sound of the instrument has not been exploited in like manner by any twentieth- century composer,' wrote Glenn Gunn. Richard Keith called the last movement 'one of the most musically exciting and technically brilliant pieces of writing yet turned out by an American.' The New York premiere on January 23 at Carnegie Hall gained unqualified praise from Olin Downes: 'We consider it the first sonata really come of age by an American composer of this period. It has intense feeling as well as constructive power and intellectual maturity. It is stated naturally and convincingly in the language of modern music.' By April 1950, plans were in place for Horowitz to record the sonata for a Christmas release that year; Horowitz made the recording in May, for RCA Victor. This recording remained Barber's preferred version for at least a decade.
Structure and music The sonata is in four movements, and usually takes twenty minutes to perform:
The sonata is technically demanding;Tischler, p. 352 Barber, himself a pianist, said that he was unable to adequately play it,Sherman, p. 42–43. "I played [the sonata] for [Horowitz] at his house and I fell on the floor at the end of the third movement—that was really just a joke, but they were a little worried about me. It was awfully hard!"Tocco (1977). Barber: "My sonata? No, no, no. I can't [play it]." and the Music Library Association noted in 1986 that the sonata was "once considered almost too demanding a work".Svard, p. 646 Structurally, the sonata adheres to traditional designs for each movement. Musicologist Hans Tischler writes that the sonata fuses modern compositional techniques such as twelve-tone technique with forms from the preceding three centuries, such as sonata form, passacaglia, and fugue.Tischler, p. 354 American folk idioms are included in at least the second and fourth movements of the sonata.Sifferman 1982, p. 22 Despite forays into twelve-tone technique, and its chromaticism and dissonance, the sonata is centered on E minor.Broder, p. 69 Some of the twelve-tone rows resemble examples from Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, a book that was reportedly on Barber's piano while he was composing the sonata.
I. Allegro energico The first movement is in sonata form and meter. Musicologist Barbara Heyman writes that in this movement "the sonata form is more aptly delineated by melodic design than by harmonic structure". Barber worked several twelve-tone tone rows into the movement's texture. Tischler writes that in these rows, the composer prioritizes the musical motive over strict adherence to a twelve-note structure. This allows for flexibility in note repetition, omission, and grouping. According to musicologist Nathan Broder, the entire movement is based on four distinct themes, all introduced in the exposition; three of these themes are explored further in the development section.Broder, p. 69–70
The second section of the two-part development marks a significant shift in the overall atmosphere of the movement, which had up to this point been characterized by constant chromaticism. The section, in diatonic C minor, does not include any chromatic alterations for the first twelve measures.Marshall 2018, p. 48 The recapitulation begins with a climacticBroder, p. 70 restatement of the first theme, now intensified by octave doubling and richer harmonies; the very first chord of the recapitulation creates a complex dissonance by incorporating the notes of both the German and French augmented sixth chords in E minor, alongside the tonic chord.Sifferman 1982, p. 37 Although the recapitulation is slightly condensed compared to the exposition, it still presents all major thematic groups.Sifferman 1982, p. 31 According to Heyman, the coda that follows is where the home key of E minor is asserted for the first time in the movement.
II. Allegro vivace e leggero The second movement is in rondo form,Marshall 2018, p. 65 tonally centered in G major and in time.Sifferman 1982, p. 42 The rondo is a five-part A–B–A–C–A. The movement's initial tonal framework initially suggests a G major backdrop, yet chromatic elements such as C and F-natural subvert its stability.Marshall 2018, pp. 65–66 Section A introduces two primary themes, one in G major and one in the subdominant key of C major.Sifferman 1982, p. 43 Section B adopts a waltz-like character and is in C major. Within its distinctive atmosphere are complex syncopations, bitonalities, and blue notes.Sifferman 1982, p. 46 Following a return of section A, section C introduces a new theme in B major, which has rhythmic and intervallic similarities to the second primary theme.Sifferman 1982, p. 47 The final return of the A section begins in A major before abruptly pivoting back to G major, leading to a coda that cadences on a tonic triad.Carter 1980, pp. 73–74
III. Adagio mesto Often described as a passacaglia, the third movement is in ternary ABA form, and Broder describes it as "the most tragic of all of Barber's slow movements".Broder, p. 70 Despite its chromaticism and twelve-tone writing, the movement is tonally centered in B minor,Sifferman 1982, pp. 56–57 and often throughout the movement Barber enriches chords constructed from twelve-tone rows with notes independent from the rows.Broder, p. 71 The movement opens with two statements of six dyads which constitute "a vertical statement of twelve tones" and serve as the first of two twelve-tone rows that comprise the entire movement's bass ostinato.Sifferman 1982, p. 52 The three sections of the movement are connected by brief passages that have no relation to the twelve-note rows. Tischler notes that "the employment of the twelve-note rows in this movement is quite original and a real contribution to contemporary technique", and is a reinterpretation of the traditional passacaglia through a 20th-century lens.Tischler, p. 353
Following the two statements of dyads, the ostinato is transformed to an arpeggiated form in the third measure and then repeats in the fourth measure transposed up a half-step. The next two measures—numbers five and six—are where the second twelve-tone row is introduced in arpeggiation.Sifferman 1982, p. 53 The melody, though highly chromatic, does not constitute a row.Marshall 2018, p. 91 Section B begins with a similar introduction to that of the opening A section.Sifferman 1982, p. 55 This section develops the opening melody by including a variant of it in faster thirty-second notes.Broder, p. 72 The return of the A section also includes added counterpoint, with fragments of the melody in canon in a middle voice.Sifferman 1982, p. 56
IV. Fuga: Allegro con spirito