A comprehensive analysis of Samuel Barber's

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of Andromache's Farewell by Samuel Barber. A setting for soprano and orchestra of a scene from The Trojan Women by Euripides, this work contains a variety of musical materials, skillfully used for dramatic impact. This paper analyzes these materials to uncover their relationships, thus revealing the style and structure of the piece. This composition displays an unusually dissonant and contemporary idiom for Samuel Barber. The discussion in this paper includes not only musical language but also text, orchestration, and performance problems. This neglected work deserves more attention. It is an important part of Barber's contribution to twentieth-century art.