Samuel Barber composed for a wide range of forces, but he is his most Romantic and passionate self in his song-writing. Barber set dozens of poems for voice and piano, plus two cycles for voice and instruments: Knoxville, Summer of 1915, to texts by James Agee, and Dover Beach, a setting of the Matthew Arnold poem.
Photo: Samuel Barber, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Digital ID: van 5a51697
Songs & Song Collections BY Barber
(entered to date)
- At Saint Patrick's Purgatory
- Text:
- Anonymous
- Bessie Bobtail (op. 2, no. 3) (in Three Songs, Op. 2)
- Text:
- James Stephens
- Church Bell at Night
- Text:
- Howard Mumford Jones
- The Crucifixion
- Text:
- Howard Mumford Jones
- The Daisies (op. 2, no. 1) (in Three Songs, Op. 2)
- Text:
- James Stephens
- The Desire for Hermitage
- Text:
- Anonymous
- Despite and Still (op. 41, no. 5) (in Despite and Still, Op. 41)
- Text:
- Robert Graves
- Despite and Still, Op. 41 - Song Collection
- Text:
- Robert Graves
- The Heavenly Banquet
- Text:
- Anonymous
- Hermit Songs, Op. 29 - Song Collection
- Text:
- W. H. Auden
- I Hear an Army (op. 10, no. 3) (in Three Songs, Op. 10)
- Text:
- James Joyce
- In The Wilderness (op. 41, no. 3) (in Despite and Still, Op. 41)
- Text:
- Robert Graves
- In the Dark Pinewood
- Text:
- James Joyce
- Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (op. 24)
- Text:
- James Agee
- A Last Song (op. 41, no. 1) (in Despite and Still, Op. 41)
- Text:
- Robert Graves
- The Monk and His Cat (op. 29, no. 8)
- Text:
- W. H. Auden
- My Lizard (Wish For a Young Love) (op. 41, no. 2) (in Despite and Still, Op. 41)
- Text:
- Theodore Roethke
- Nocturne (op. 13, no. 4)
- Text:
- Frederic Prokosch
- Nuvoletta (op. 25)
- Text:
- James Joyce
- The Praises of God
- Text:
- W. H. Auden
- Promiscuity
- Text:
- Anonymous
- The Queen's Face on the Summery Coin (op. 18, no. 1)
- Text:
- Robert Horan
- Rain Has Fallen (op. 10, no. 1) (in Three Songs, Op. 10)
- Text:
- James Joyce
- Sea-Snatch
- Text:
- Anonymous
- Sleep Now (op. 10, no. 2) (in Three Songs, Op. 10)
- Text:
- James Joyce
- Solitary Hotel (op. 41, no. 4) (in Despite and Still, Op. 41)
- Text:
- James Joyce
- St. Ita's Vision
- Text:
- Chester Kallman
- Sure on This Shining Night (op. 13, no. 3)
- Text:
- James Agee
- Three Songs, Op. 2 - Song Collection
- Three Songs, Op. 10 - Song Collection
- Text:
- James Joyce
- With Rue My Heart is Laden (op. 2, no. 2) (in Three Songs, Op. 2)
- Text:
- A. E. Housman
