Samuel Barber Cello Sonata, op. 6

This piece was a "student" composition, completed in 1932 while Barber was in Europe. He was a student at the Curtis Institute, where, interestingly enough, he became BFF with Menotti.

If you're scratching your head going "The only Barber I know in classical music is the one from Seville," I nigh-guarantee you know him. His Adagio for Strings has been used at funerals of famous people (Einstein), to commemorate national tragedies (Sept. 11th), and, most famously, in Platoon. The Adagio for Strings, according to Wikipedia, was voted the "Saddest Classical Piece" ever written, pulling ahead of Purcell's Dido's Lament and the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony (beating Mahler in the depressing-and-angst-ridden music dept. is no easy feat).

Back to the Cello Sonata. It is in c minor, in three movements, with piano. The piano and cello parts have a broad, compelling depth of sound. An added benefit of writing a cello piece in c minor is the ability to exploit the open C string (the lowest on the cello). As a cellist I would probably really enjoy any opportunity to use the C string.

The first movement has a lovely quality. Even when it is at its most tempestuous, it still has more of a reflective tone in the cello. Longing. Insistently pleading. The second theme is particularly tender and tuneful. I've always thought of c minor as sort of a quietly sad key. It doesn't have the anguish of, say, f minor. Of course this opinion has been shaped by other pieces in c minor, particularly Chopin.

The third movement was what really caught my attention. This is where all of the turbulent emotion went. The movement opens with an awesomely dark piano solo with a left hand in the bottom of the piano that reminded me of the Chopin Revolutionary etude. It had that same energy. The cello joins it and the bottom drops out. I love the change in texture in the piano at the entrance of the cello; it jumps up to a higher register to let the cello take its melody and make an increasingly impassioned statement.

I think the great thing in this movement is Barber's exploration of textures and register, particularly in the piano. There's a cello pizzicato section against a piano-heavy theme. There's a wealth of imitation between the parts. The extremes in register are made apparent in other ways; the opening's extreme low register in the piano draws attention to itself through the incessant rhythm. The cellist uses a variety of articulations to demonstrate register, along with vibrato speed. There seems to be equal weight and dialogue between parts.

Also, the final cadence is really rewarding. It has a loud and clear "THIS PIECE IS OVER" statement with the piano block chords and the cello's low, powerful last note. I love when a piece has a satisfying ending like that.