THOMAS LARSON

The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"

Just Announced: Saddest Music is a finalist for the Barnes & Noble "Discover" Award for September.

Coming September 2010 from Pegasus Books (ISBN: 978-1605981154).

In the first book to explore Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer and his seminal masterpiece: from its composition in 1936, when Barber was just twenty-six, to its orchestral premiere two years later, led by the great Arturo Toscanini, and its fascinating history as America's secular hymn for grieving our dead. Older Americans know the Adagio from the funerals and memorials for Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Grace Kelly. Younger Americans recall the work as the antiwar theme of the movie Platoon. Still others treasure the piece in its choral version under the name "Agnus Dei." More recently, mourners heard the Adagio played as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Barber's Adagio is truly the saddest music ever written, enrapturing listeners with its lyric beauty as few laments have.

Early Blurbs: 

"The Saddest Music Ever Written is as moving and eloquent as the music Larson writes about, and a fascinating meditation on how our lives and our culture connect."

—Michael Sherry, Gay Artists in Modern American Culture

"To say that The Saddest Music Ever Written is an in-depth study of the Barber Adagio would be an understatement. Rarely, if ever, have nine minutes of music been subjected to such intense cultural, historical and emotional analysis. With keen sensitivity, Larson places this iconic work in a biographical (and autobiographical) context, and within the cultural history of the United States from 1936 until the present. The book is filled with illuminating insights into Barber's other works, his psychology and the milieu within which he lived and worked, and may contribute to an enhancement of this immensely gifted composer's stature. The emotional journey through the life and times of Samuel Barber ends quite movingly with a visit to his grave."

—Eugene Drucker, violin, Emerson String Quartet, author of The Savior: A Novel.

"Thomas Larson's The Saddest Music Ever Written, a historical overview of an American music classic, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, is without question one of the most multi-layered books on music I've encountered. Not only does the reader learn of the varied, and often iconic, history the Adagio has held and continues to hold around the world, but we become intimately acquainted with the composer and the book's author on a deep level. In a sense it is a biography and autobiography in one volume, and is certain to leave any reader with a sense of profound appreciation to both Barber and Larson for revealing their most intimate thoughts, feelings and life story in one masterful opus."

—Daniel Glover, pianist 

"The Saddest Music Ever Written is about much more than a single piece of music. It is an exploration of a fascinating 20th-century composer, a case study in the cultural appropriation of works of art, and an often very personal meditation on the power of music."

—Kevin Bazzana, author of Lost Genius and Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould 

First Review:

"The Transcendence of Sadness," Classical Voice of New England review of The Saddest Music Ever Written