Samuel Barber

        If any composer may truly be considered our national composer, this writer’s vote is for Samuel Barber. Notwithstanding Aaron Copland’s populist music from the 1930s and 40s, most of the latter composer’s compositions in other musical styles are not well received by the American public--too dissonant and modern! On the other hand, no major American composer of the twentieth century was a more ardent and eloquent champion of the lyrical, accessible, yet modern idiom than Samuel Barber. His musical style is founded in the romantic traditions of the nineteenth century, and built upon and extended the harmonic language and formal structures of that time. >>>