Barber, Samuel: Hermit Songs op.29
Artikelinfo
2023
2025
Samuel Barber
Anastasia Grishutina
Esther Valentin-Fieguth
1 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 1, At St. Patrick's Purgatory, 01:35
2 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 2, Church Bell at Night, 01:05
3 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 3, St. Ita's Vision, 03:29
4 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 4, The Heavenly Banquet, 01:33
5 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 5, The Crucifixion, 02:19
6 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 6, Sea Snatch, 00:41
7 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 7, Promiscuity, 00:55
8 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 8, The Monk and His Cat, 02:40
9 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 9, The Praises of God, 01:08
10 Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 10, The Desire for Hermitage, 03:49
The Hermit Songs, Op. 29, is perhaps Samuel Barber's best-known song cycle. The ten songs are based on translations of medieval Gaelic and Latin texts attributed to Irish monks. The composer himself wrote about these songs: 'These are settings of anonymous Irish texts from the 8th to 13th centuries, written by monks and scholars – often in the margins of the manuscripts they were copying or illuminating – and perhaps often not intended to be seen by their Father Superior. They are short poems, thoughts or observations, often very brief, which speak in a direct, idiosyncratic and often surprisingly modern way about the simple lives of these people, who were close to nature, animals and God.'
The cycle was composed in 1952–53 and dedicated to the great American patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, whose foundation had granted Barber a subsidy to complete the work. The premiere took place on 30 October 1953 in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress in Washington, with the young and then unknown soprano Leontyne Price and the composer at the piano.