Customer Reviews

Collected Songs: High Voice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Samuel Barber balances the voice with the piano perfectly, and creates art songs as interesting as the dramatic most opera. Most composers just make the pianist fill in what the singer can't do, but Barber actually makes both parts interesting without each other. Not many composers can do this well. He also uses very interesting poetry in his works, which makes it even better. Some day Barber will be looked upon in the same way that Bach, or Brahms are upon.

Samuel Barber is a fantastic composer, and these songs do not disappoint. If you're interested in some fascinating, beautiful and unexpected American art songs, this is a grand place to start. Not only is the vocal line great, and poetry highly evocative and appropriate, the piano part is beautifully done. I actually bought this to accompany, not to sing, and the accompaniment is complex and quite satisfying for the pianist. Essentially, with these works, the pianist and vocalist are in much more of a partnership than a "soloist/accompanist" relationship. Good stuff.

I love singing Samuel Barber works, so this collection is perfect for my vocal library. great for anyone looking for some contemporary vocal solo works. Don't let the difficulty daunt you, they are totally worth learning.

This is a wonderful book with many interesting stars. Barber's compositions have extremely difficult rythym patterns so it is a hard collection to work with. However, they are extremely beautiful and have a nice mix of French and English works.