Adagio for Strings, Composed by Samuel Barber (genre: Classical)

[Catsmeow]

This orchestral piece was composed by Samuel Barber (documentation included.) It's written that many consider Barber's melancholy masterpiece to be a pure and perfect expression of grief and sorrow, duly suited to represent the passion Jesus Christ. His suffering and subsequent death on the cross are masterfully portrayed in this composition by this great composer. This captivating musical marvel is so deeply moving at so many levels, it competes with Adagio for Strings, (composed by Thomas Tallis during the reign of King Henry the VIII.)  Barber's work has been used at the funerals of famous individuals, including John F. Kennedy's funeral and was used as the main theme in the movie  Platoon, as it so effectively depicted the loss of life and ravages of war in the film.

* Catsmeow (who also enjoys grunge and metal music) has been and is a huge fan of both classical music, sacred choral and Renaissance and medieval art, (sculpture, paintings and biblical texts.) I visited museums regularly to study ancient illuminated texts created long before the invention of the printing press.

[FresnoJoe]

Amen~!

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. John 19:30

 

[Omegaman 3.0]

It is a nice piece. I am confused though, what is it that makes it sad, or melancholy. I hear music! Sad lyrics, I could understand, but what make a series of notes emotional? To me, I just as easily hear serenity or peace, soothing or inspirational moods. I think you get out of music like this, what you bring to it, or perhaps what visually accompanies it.

If I were sitting in the Sierras (a mountain range) watching the clouds blow across the treetops of the valley bellow, sadness would never enter my mind. If this music played during a movie scene, where the camera just silently swept the landscape viewing the senseless carnage of a civil war battlefield, a different mood would be evoked. However, it is the context, not the music, that is sad.

To me, to say a piece of music is sad, is like saying the color teal is sadder than the color maroon. It stimulates senses, not emotions. What am I missing? (Also, not sure why this is classified as Christian music, but whatever). Might want to read the post on that topic.

[FresnoJoe]

On 2/27/2016 at 0:56 PM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

It is a nice piece. I am confused though, what is it that makes it sad, or melancholy. I hear music! Sad lyrics, I could understand, but what make a series of notes emotional?

To me, to say a piece of music is sad, is like saying the color teal is sadder than the color maroon. It stimulates senses, not emotions. What am I missing?

Beloved, Even Colors Have Been Used To Help Evolve Great Sadness And Sense Of Lost
It Just Depends On Where They Are Placed Within The Color Fields
And In What Context The Artist Chooses To Put Them
And Even More, Who Is Viewing

As It Is Happens So Often With A Fine Art Piece
With Music I Believe Everyone May Hear A Different Composition
Even Each Time They Listen

In 2004, the radio program, BBC Today, began a competition to find the saddest music in the world. After receiving more than four hundred nominations, they listed the top five on a website for voting. The audience preferred Barber’s Adagio more than two to one over the second place vote-getter and four to one over number three.

1) Barber’s Adagio for Strings (52.1%)
2) Henry Purcell’s "Dido’s Lament" (20.6%)
3) Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony (12.3%)
4) Billie Holiday’s "Gloomy Sunday," written by the Hungarian Rezsô Seress (9.8 %)
5) Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen (5.1 %)

It may strike you, as it did me, whether or not these five pieces are comparable. True, all five are slow, some very slow, while the Strauss, a work for twenty-three strings that lasts twenty-five minutes, develops and changes character, which the others don’t. Four are minor-keyed, Mahler’s Adagietto in major. Two have texts that describe the sorrow: Dido pre-grieves her own death, hoping to be remembered, although she is dying because she cannot live without Aeneas; and Holiday, in a dream, believes the man she loves has died and she will soon join him.

Evaluated together, these pieces reveal that listeners identify sad music differently. There is no universal decoder. I think the common thread is that they evoke the feelings we have when we lose what we love. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_for_Strings

~

And As For Christians Who Still Weep For Their Lost

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12:15

Prehaps It Fits

Love, Your Brother Joe

[post]

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting:

for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter:

for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

(Ecclesiastes 7:2-4)
 

[Catsmeow]

On 2/27/2016 at 11:56 AM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

It is a nice piece. I am confused though, what is it that makes it sad, or melancholy. I hear music! Sad lyrics, I could understand, but what make a series of notes emotional? To me, I just as easily hear serenity or peace, soothing or inspirational moods. I think you get out of music like this, what you bring to it, or perhaps what visually accompanies it.

If I were sitting in the Sierras (a mountain range) watching the clouds blow across the treetops of the valley bellow, sadness would never enter my mind. If this music played during a movie scene, where the camera just silently swept the landscape viewing the senseless carnage of a civil war battlefield, a different mood would be evoked. However, it is the context, not the music, that is sad.

To me, to say a piece of music is sad, is like saying the color teal is sadder than the color maroon. It stimulates senses, not emotions. What am I missing? (Also, not sure why this is classified as Christian music, but whatever). Might want to read the post on that topic.

I've been a classical fan for many years. If you listen to the music it's very melancholy. It was written by Samuel Barber who apparently composed it as a piece of music inspired by the sadness and suffering of our Savior. You can tell if piece is Goth ( aka Death Metal ) and you can also tell if the mood of the music is uplifting. The counter piece written by Thomas Tallis during King Henry the 8th included the Fantasia on a Theme ( written by Thomas Tallis ) and Ralph Vaughn Williams, Composing and Conducting. It's the opposite of Adagio for Strings. It signifies the Resurrection of Christ and the awe of this piece is a stark contrast between the two. One shares in the emotions that are conjured p during the actual scourging and nailing to a cross. The other the Resurrection of Christ in all of it's splendor and majesty. It's an amazing song you should listen to. Just YouTube it for Thomas Tallis/Ralph Vaughn Williams. ( Ralph being properly pronounced, "R a f" ( the 'a' is a long a sound ) when properly spoken. 

I used to play the Classics radio all the time. I love classical music.