Samuel Barber | Cladrite Radio

Celebrating an American master

image-Samuel Barber The great Samuel Barber was born a hundred years ago today.

The piece for which he is best known, Adagio for Strings, remains our favorite orchestral work. The Adagio began as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, which was written in 1936.

It’s likely you’ve heard the piece before (it’s been used in many movies, among them Platoon (1986) and The Elephant Man (1980)), but here’s a choral version of it for your consideration, performed by The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, UK, under the direction of Richard Marlow.

And here’s a discussion of Barber’s life and career, originally broadcast on radio station WHYY, between Barber’s biographer Barbara Heyman and David Ludwig, acting head of musical studies and member of the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, a conservatory in Philadelphia, Penn.

Are You Having Any Fun?
Hey fellow with a million smackers
And nervous indigestion
Rich fellow, eats milk and crackers,
I'll ask you one question,
You silly so and so,
With all your dough...

Are you having any fun?
What you getting out of livin'?
What good is what you've got
If you're not having any fun?

Are you having any laughs?
Are you getting any lovin'?
If other people do,
So can you, have a little fun.

After the honey's in the cone,
Little bees go out and play.
Even the old grey mare down home
Has got to have hay. Hey!

You better have some fun.
You ain't gonna live forever.
Before you're old and gray, feel okay.
Have your little fun, son!
Have your little fun!

Why do you work and slave and save?
Life is full of ifs and buts.
You know the squirrels save and save,
And what have they got? Nuts!

Better have a little fun.
You ain't gonna live forever.
Before you're old and grey, still okay,
Have your little fun, son!
Have your little fun!
Are you havin' any fun?

---Sammy Fain (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics), 1939