Enjoy listening to The Woodlands High School, performing Overture to "The School for Scandal" at UIL Region 9 in April 2024.
SAMUEL BARBER
BORN March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania; died January 23, 1981, in New York City
THE STORY
Richard Sheridan’s madcap comedy of manners, The School for Scandal, has delighted(and scandalized) audiences ever since it premiered in 1777. Samuel Barber, all his life an avid reader of literature, composed his overture not as a prelude to the play but rather “as a musical reflection of the play’s spirit.” The overture was Barber’s first completed work for full orchestra. He composed the bulk of it while vacationing in Italy during the summer of 1931, tossing it off between tennis matches, swimming, bicycle trips, shopping expeditions, and other vacation activities.
LISTENING TIPS
The overture opens with a sneering fanfare (perhaps in “tribute” to the play’s principal female villain, Lady Sneerwell). The fanfare sets in motion a scurrying, tonally ambiguous theme, suggestive of the nefarious scandal mongering and plotting of Lady Sneerwell, her hireling, Snake, and arch-hypocrite, Sir Joseph Surface. The contrasting second theme, a sentimental melody introduced by the oboe, perhaps represents the play’s principal innocent, Maria. There are numerous rapid changes in tempo and dynamics as the two themes are developed - in one place, seven changes within 30
measures.
Composer: Samuel Barber
Conductor: Carter Frederick
Ensemble: The Woodlands High School Wind Ensemble
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