name	Rainer Maria Rilke
birth date	December 04, 1875
birth place	Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
death date	December 29, 1926
death place	Montreux, Switzerland
occupation	poet, novelist
nationality	Austrian
period	1894–1925
influences	J. P. Jacobsen, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Georg Trakl, Auguste Rodin, Cézanne, Kierkegaard
influenced	Martin Heidegger, William H. Gass, J.D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon
signature	Rilke Signature.gif
website	}}

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.

He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. Among English-language readers, his best-known work is the ''Duino Elegies''; his two most famous prose works are the ''Letters to a Young Poet'' and the semi-autobiographical ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge''. He also wrote more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to his homeland of choice, the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

Life

1875–1896

He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in Prague, capital of Bohemia (then part of Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic). His childhood and youth in Prague were not especially happy. His father, Josef Rilke (1838–1906), became a railway official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie ("Phia") Entz (1851–1931), came from a well-to-do Prague family, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived in a house on the Herrengasse (Panská) 8, where René also spent many of his early years. The relationship between Phia and her only son was colored by her mourning for a prior child, a daughter, who had died after only a week of life. During Rilke's early years Phia acted as if she sought to recover the lost girl through the boy by dressing him in girl's clothing. The parents' marriage fell apart in 1884. His parents pressured the poetically and artistically talented youth into entering a military academy, which he attended from 1886 until 1891, when he left due to illness. From 1892 to 1895 he was tutored for the university entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. In 1895 and 1896, he studied literature, art history, and philosophy in Prague and Munich.

1897–1902

In 1897 in Munich, Rainer Maria Rilke met and fell in love with the widely traveled, intellectual woman of letters Lou Andreas-Salomé. Rilke changed his first name from "René" to "Rainer" at Lou's urging because she thought that name more masculine, forceful, and Germanic. His relationship with this married woman, with whom he undertook two extensive trips to Russia, lasted until 1900. But even after their separation, Lou continued to be Rilke's most important confidante until the end of his life. Having trained from 1912 to 1913 as a psychoanalyst with Sigmund Freud, she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke.

In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey lasting several weeks to Italy. In 1899, he traveled with Lou and her husband, Friedrich Andreas, to Moscow where he met the novelist Leo Tolstoy. Between May and August 1900, a second journey to Russia, accompanied only by Lou, again took him to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where he met the family of Boris Pasternak and Spiridon Drozhzhin, a peasant poet. Later, "Rilke called two places his home: Bohemia and Russia".

In autumn 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists' colony at Worpswede. (Later, his portrait would be painted by the proto-expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker, whom he got to know at Worpswede.) It was here that he got to know the sculptor Clara Westhoff, whom he married the following spring. Their daughter Ruth (1901–1972) was born in December 1901. In the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and traveled to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Before long his wife left their daughter with her parents and joined Rilke there. The relationship between Rilke and Clara Westhoff continued for the rest of his life; a mutually agreed-upon effort at divorce was bureaucratically hindered by Rilke's "official" status as a Catholic, though he was the very opposite of observant.

1902–1910

At first, Rilke had a difficult time in Paris, an experience that he called on in the first part of his only novel, ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge''. At the same time, his encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved in the sculpture of Rodin, and then with the work of Paul Cézanne. For a time he acted as Rodin's secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation, and under this influence Rilke dramatically transformed his poetic style from the subjective and sometimes incantatory language of his earlier work into something quite new in European literature. The result was the ''New Poems'', famous for the "thing-poems" expressing Rilke's rejuvenated artistic vision. The poems of the ''New Poems'' and ''New Poems: The Other Part'' are highly wrought, using language and poetic form as a shaped and shaping material; to this extent the poems are often said to be "things" in themselves. During these years, Paris increasingly became the writer's main residence.

The most important works of the Paris period were ''Neue Gedichte'' (''New Poems'') (1907), ''Der Neuen Gedichte Anderer Teil'' (''Another Part of the New Poems'') (1908), the two "Requiem" poems (1909), and the novel ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', started in 1904 and completed in January 1910.

1910–1919

Between October 1911 and May 1912, Rilke stayed at the Castle Duino, near Trieste, home of Princess Marie of Thurn und Taxis. There, in 1912, he began the poem cycle called the ''Duino Elegies'', which would remain unfinished for a decade because of a long-lasting creativity crisis. The outbreak of World War I surprised Rilke during a stay in Germany. He was unable to return to Paris, where his property was confiscated and auctioned. He spent the greater part of the war in Munich. From 1914 to 1916 he had a turbulent affair with the painter Lou Albert-Lasard. Rilke was called up at the beginning of 1916, and he had to undertake basic training in Vienna. Influential friends interceded on his behalf, and he was transferred to the War Records Office and discharged from the military on 9 June 1916. He spent the subsequent time once again in Munich, interrupted by a stay on Hertha Koenig's Gut Bockel in Westphalia. The traumatic experience of military service, a reminder of the horrors of the military academy, almost completely silenced him as a poet.

1919–1926

On 11 June 1919, Rilke traveled from Munich to Switzerland. The outward motive was an invitation to lecture in Zürich, but the real reason was the wish to escape the post-war chaos and take up his work on the ''Duino Elegies'' once again. The search for a suitable and affordable place to live proved to be very difficult. Among other places, Rilke lived in Soglio, Locarno, and Berg am Irchel. Only in mid-1921 was he able to find a permanent residence in the Chateau de Muzot in the commune of Veyras, close to Sierre in Valais. In an intense creative period, Rilke completed the ''Duino Elegies'' within several weeks in February 1922. Before and after, Rilke rapidly wrote both parts of the poem cycle ''Sonnets to Orpheus'' containing 55 entire sonnets. Both works together have often been taken as constituting the high points of Rilke's work. In May 1922, Rilke's patron Werner Reinhart bought and renovated Muzot so that Rilke could live there rent-free.

During this time, Reinhart introduced Rilke to his protégée, the Australian violinist Alma Moodie. Rilke was so impressed with her playing that he wrote in a letter: "What a sound, what richness, what determination. That and the ''Sonnets to Orpheus'', those were two strings of the same voice. And she plays mostly Bach! Muzot has received its musical christening..."

From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly had to struggle with health problems that necessitated many long stays at a sanatorium in Territet, near Montreux, on Lake Geneva. His long stay in Paris between January and August 1925 was an attempt to escape his illness through a change in location and living conditions. Despite this, numerous important individual poems appeared in the years 1923–1926 (including ''Gong'' and ''Mausoleum''), as well as the abundant lyrical work in French.

Only shortly before his death was Rilke's illness diagnosed as leukemia. He suffered ulcerous sores in his mouth, pain troubled his stomach and intestines and he struggled with increasingly low spirits. Open-eyed, he died in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926 in the Valmont Sanatorium in Switzerland. He was buried on 2 January 1927 in the Raron cemetery to the west of Visp.

Rilke had chosen as his own epitaph this poem: :{| |style="padding-right:2em;"|Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust, Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel Lidern. | Rose, oh pure contradiction, delight of being no one's sleep under so many lids. |}

A myth developed surrounding his death and roses, which we see as a constant motif in his work. It was said: "To honour a visitor, the Egyptian beauty Nimet Eloui, Rilke [had] gathered some roses from his garden. While doing so, he pricked his hand on a thorn. This small wound failed to heal, grew rapidly worse, soon his entire arm was swollen, and his other arm became affected as well", and so he died.

Rilke's literary style

Figures from Greek mythology (e.g. Apollo, Hermes, Orpheus) recur as motifs in his poems and are depicted in original interpretations (e.g. in the poem ''Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes'', Rilke's Eurydice, numbed and dazed by death, does not recognize her lover Orpheus, who descended to hell to recover her). Other recurring figures in Rilke's poems are angels, roses and a character of a poet and his creative work.

Rilke often worked with metaphors, metonymy and contradictions (e.g. in his epitaph, the rose is a symbol of sleep – rose petals are reminiscent of closed eyelids).

Rilke's little-known 1898 poem, "Visions of Christ" depicted Mary Magdalene as the mother to Jesus' child.

Quoting Susan Haskins: "It was Rilke's explicit belief that Christ was not divine, was entirely human, and deified only on Calvary, expressed in an unpublished poem of 1893, and referred to in other poems of the same period, which allowed him to portray Christ's love for Mary Magdalen, though remarkable, as entirely human."

Works by Rilke

Complete works

Rainer Maria Rilke, ''Sämtliche Werke in 12 Bänden'' (''Complete Works in 12 Volumes''), published by Rilke Archive in association with Ruth Sieber-Rilke, edited by Ernst Zinn. Frankfurt am Main (1976)

Rainer Maria Rilke, ''Werke'' (''Works''). Annotated edition in four volumes with supplementary fifth volume, published by Manfred Engel, Ulrich Fülleborn, Dorothea Lauterbach, Horst Nalewski and August Stahl. Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig (1996 and 2003)

Volumes of poetry

''Leben und Lieder (Life and Songs)'' (1894)

''Larenopfer (Lares' Sacrifice)'' (1895)

''Traumgekrönt (Dream-Crowned)'' (1897)

''Advent (Advent)'' (1898)

''Das Stunden-Buch'' (''The Book of Hours'')

* ''Das Buch vom mönchischen Leben (The Book of Monastic Life)'' (1899)

* ''Das Buch von der Pilgerschaft (The Book of Pilgrimage)'' (1901)

* ''Das Buch von der Armut und vom Tode (The Book of Poverty and Death)'' (1903)

''Das Buch der Bilder'' (''The Book of Images'') (4 Parts, 1902–1906)

''Neue Gedichte'' (''New Poems'') (1907)

''Duineser Elegien'' (''Duino Elegies'') (1922)

''Sonette an Orpheus'' (''Sonnets to Orpheus'') (1922)

Prose collections

''Geschichten vom Lieben Gott'' (''Stories of God'') (Collection of tales, 1900)

''Auguste Rodin'' (1903)

''Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke'' (''The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke'') (Lyric story, 1906)

''Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge'' (''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'') (Novel, 1910)

Letters

;Collected letters

''Gesammelte Briefe in sechs Bänden'' (''Collected Letters in Six Volumes''), published by Ruth Sieber-Rilke and Carl Sieber. Leipzig (1936–1939)

''Briefe'' (''Letters''), published by the Rilke Archive in Weimar. Two volumes, Wiesbaden (1950, reprinted 1987 in single volume).

''Briefe in Zwei Bänden'' (''Letters in Two Volumes'') (Horst Nalewski, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1991)

;Other volumes of letters

''Briefe an Auguste Rodin'' (Insel Verlag, 1928)

''Briefwechsel mit Marie von Thurn und Taxis'', two volumes, edited by Ernst Zinn with a forward by Rudolf Kassner (Editions Max Niehans, 1954)

''Briefwechsel mit Thankmar von Münchhausen 1913 bis 1925'' (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2004)

''Briefwechsel mit Rolf von Ungern-Sternberg und weitere Dokumente zur Übertragung der Stances von Jean Moréas'' (Suhrkamp Insel Verlag, 2002)

Translations

Collections

''Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies and The Sonnets To Orpheus'' translated by A. Poulin, Jr. (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1975) ISBN 0-395-25058-7

''The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke'', ed. and trans. Stephen Mitchell, Introduction by Robert Hass (Vintage; Reissue edition 13 March 1989)

''Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke'', ed. and trans. Robert Bly New York, 1981

''The Unknown Rilke'', trans. Franz Wright (Oberlin College Press, expanded ed. 1990) ISBN 0-932440-56-8

''The Book of Fresh Beginnings: Selected Poems'', trans. David Young (Oberlin College Press, 1994) ISBN 0-932440-68-1

''The Essential Rilke'', ed. and trans. Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann (Hopewell, NJ, 1999)

''Uncollected Poems'', trans. Edward Snow (North Point Press, New York, 1996)

''The Poetry of Rilke'', trans. Edward Snow (North Point Press, New York, 2009)

''Two Prague Stories'', trans. Isabel Cole (Vitalis, Český Těšín, 2002)

''Pictures of God: Rilke's Religious Poetry'', ed. and trans. Annemarie S. Kidder (Livonia, MI 2005)

''Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, Letters to a young poet: Box set'', ed. and trans. Stephen Mitchell

"Rilke's Late Poetry: Duino Elegies, The Sonnets to Orpheus, and Selected Last Poems", ed. and trans. Graham Good (Ronsdale Press, Vancouver B.C., 2005)

Mood, John ''Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties. (New York: W. W. Norton 1975, reissue 2004) ISBN 0393310981

Mood, John. (2006) ''Rilke on Death and Other Oddities. Philadelphia: Xlibris ISBN 1425728189

''Duino Elegies''

''Duineser Elegien: Elegies from the Castle of Duino'', trans. Vita Sackville-West (Hogarth Press, London, 1931)

''Duino Elegies'', trans. J.B. Leishman and Stephen Spender (W. W. Norton, New York, 1939)

''Duino Elegies'', trans. Jessie Lemont (Fine Editions Press, New York, 1945)

''Duineser Elegien: The Elegies of Duino'', trans. Nora Wydenbruck (Amandus, Vienna, 1948

''Duinesian Elegies'', trans. Elaine E. Boney (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1975)

''Duino Elegies'', trans. David Young (W. W. Norton, New York, 1978) ISBN 0-393-30931-2

''Duino Elegies,'' trans. Gary Miranda (Azul Editions, Falls Church, VA, 1996) ISBN 885214-07-3

''Duino Elegies'', trans. Robert Hunter w/ block prints by Mareen Hunter (Hulogosi Press, 1989))

''Duino-Elegieë'' trans. H.J. Pieterse from German to Afrikaans (Protea, Pretoria, 2007) ISBN 978-1-86919-151-1

''Duino Elegies'', trans. Martyn Crucefix (Enitharmon Press, London, 2008)

''Sonnets to Orpheus''

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. with notes and commentary J.B. Leishman (Hogarth Press, London, 1936)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. M.D. Herder Norton (W. W. Norton, New York, 1942)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. C. F. MacIntyre, (U.C. Berkeley Press, 1961)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. Jessie Lemont (Fine Editions PRess, New York, 1945)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. with notes Stephen Mitchell (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1985)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. with notes and commentary Edward Snow (North Point Press, New York, 2004) ISBN 0865477213

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. Willis Barnstone (Shambhala Publications, Boston, 2004)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. Leslie Norris and Alan Keele (ed. Lucien Jenkins) (Camden House, Inc 1989)

''Sonnets to Orpheus'', trans. Robert Hunter

''Orpheus'', trans. Don Paterson (Faber, 2006)

Other collections

''Stories of God'', trans. M.D. Herter Norton (W. W. Norton, New York, 1932) ISBN 0393308820

''Stories of God'', trans. Michael H. Kohn (Shambhala, Boston, 2003) ISBN 9781590300381

''Stories of God'', trans. Various, edited by Jack Beacham (Aventure Works, Hudson, Ohio, 2009) ISBN 1439225613

''Letters to a Young Poet'', trans. M.D. Herter Norton (W.W. Norton, New York, 1934) ISBN 0393310396

''Letters to a Young Poet'', trans. Mark Harman (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2011) 112 pages ISBN 9780674052451

''Poems from The Book of Hours'' trans. Babette Deutsch (New Directions, New York, 1941)

''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', trans. M.D. Herter Norton (W.W. Norton, New York, 1949) ISBN 0393308812

''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York, 1983)

''The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christophe Rilke'', trans. Stephen Mitchell (Graywolf Press, 1985) ISBN 0915308770

''The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God'', trans. Annemarie S. Kidder (Evanston, 2001)

''Larenopfer'', trans. and commentary by Alfred de Zayas, with drawings by Martin Andrysek (Red Hen Press, Los Angeles, 2005, 2nd revised and enlarged edition with a preface by Ralph Freedman, 2008)

''Rainer Maria Rilke's The Book of Hours: A New Translation with Commentary'', trans. Susan Ranson, edited with an introduction and notes by Ben Hutchinson (Camden House, New York/Boydell & Brewer Ltd, Woodbridge, UK, 2008) ISBN 978-1-57113-380-9

''Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God'', translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy; New York: Riverhead Books(1996); ISBN 1-59448-156-3

See also

Baladine Klossowska

Rainer Maria Rilke Foundation in Sierre, Switzerland

References

Further reading

Biographies

Freedman, Ralph (1996) ''Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke'', New York.

Prater, Donald (1994) ''A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer Maria Rilke'', Oxford University Press

Torgersen, Paul (1998) ''Dear Friend: Rainer Maria Rilke and Paula Modersohn-Becker'', Northwestern University Press

Critical studies

Leeder, Karen, and Robert Vilain, eds. ''The Cambridge Companion to Rilke.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0521705080

Erika, A and Metzger, Michael (2001) ''A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke'', Rochester

Engel, Manfred and Lauterbach, Dorothea (ed) ''Rilke Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung'', Stuttgart: Metzler, 2004.

Goldsmith, Ulrich, ed. (1980). ''Rainer Maria Rilke, a verse concordance to his complete lyrical poetry''. Leeds: W.S. Maney.

Mood, John. (2009) ''A New Reading of Rilke's "Elegies": Affirming the Unity of "life-and-death" '' Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press ISBN 9780773438644.

Pechota Vuilleumier, Cornelia (2010) ''Heim und Unheimlichkeit bei Rainer Maria Rilke und Lou Andreas-Salomé. Literarische Wechselwirkungen''. Olms, Hildesheim ISBN 9783487142524

Schwarz, Egon. (1981) ''Poetry and politics in the works of Rainer Maria Rilke''. Frederick Ungar ISBN 9780804428118.

External links

Profile at Poets.org

Profile at Poetry Foundation

International Rilke Society (German-language site)

"Rilke" by Clive James in ''Slate'' Magazine 23 March 2007

The Big Three: Rilke's correspondence with Tsvetayeva and Pasternak. ''New York Review of Books'' 5 December 1985

"Angels to Radios: On Rainer Maria Rilke", By Ange Mlinko. ''The Nation'' 24 November 2009

"Rilke the Clay Pot" by Robert Vilain, ''The Times'' (16 September 2009)

"The life of a poet" article in ''The Washington Post'' 1996

Category:1875 births Category:1926 deaths Category:People from Prague Category:Austrian poets Category:Austro-Hungarian writers Category:German-language poets Category:French-language poets Category:Sonneteers Category:Austrian people of Bohemian German descent Category:Austrian expatriates in France Category:Austrian expatriates in Switzerland Category:Deaths from leukemia Category:Cancer deaths in Switzerland

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name	Dennis Hopper
alt	Dennis Hopper, with gray hair and a gray goatee, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
birth name	Dennis Lee Hopper
birth date	May 17, 1936
birth place	Dodge City, Kansas, U.S.
death date	May 29, 2010
death place	Venice, California, U.S.
death cause	Prostate cancer
restingplace	Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
nationality	American
education	Helix High School
occupation	Actor, director, artist
years active	1954–2010
spouse	Brooke Hayward (1961–1969; divorced)Michelle Phillips (1970; divorced)Daria Halprin (1972–1976; divorced)Katherine LaNasa (1989–1992; divorced)Victoria Duffy (1996–2010; divorced)
children	3 daughters, 1 son }}

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955) and ''Giant'' (1956). During the next 10 years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films.

He directed and starred in ''Easy Rider'' (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer. "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, ''Easy Rider'' became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion." Film critic Matthew Hays notes that "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper."

He was unable to build on his success for several years, until a featured role in ''Apocalypse Now'' (1979) brought him attention. He subsequently appeared in ''Rumble Fish'' (1983) and ''The Osterman Weekend'' (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in ''Blue Velvet'' and ''Hoosiers'', with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He directed ''Colors'' (1988) and played the villain in ''Speed'' (1994). He played another villain, King Koopa, in ''Super Mario Bros.'' (1993). Hopper's later work included a leading role in the television series ''Crash''. Hopper's last performance was filmed just before his death: ''The Last Film Festival'', slated for a 2011 release.

Hopper was also a prolific and acclaimed photographer, a profession he began in the 1960s.

Early life

Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (née Davis, July 12, 1917 - January 12, 2007) and Jay Millard Hopper (June 23, 1916 – August 7, 1982). Hopper had two brothers, Marvin and David.

After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. At the age of 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager (Hopper has acknowledged, though, that his father was in the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, in China with Mao Zedong). Hopper was voted most likely to succeed by his 1954 high school graduating class (Helix High School, La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego]). It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and the Actors' Studio in New York City (he studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare.

Film career

Hopper was reported to have an uncredited role in ''Johnny Guitar'' in 1954 but he has stated that he was not even in Hollywood when this film was made. Hopper made his debut on film in two roles with James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955) and ''Giant'' (1956). Dean's death in a 1955 car accident affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterwards that he got into a confrontation with veteran director Henry Hathaway on the film ''From Hell To Texas''. Hopper refused directions for 80 takes over several days.

In his book ''Last Train to Memphis'', American popular music historian Peter Guralnick says that in 1956, when Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Hopper was roommates with fellow actor Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. In 1959 Hopper moved to New York to study Method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio. In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in "Night Tide" an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an abandoned amusement park.

In a December 1994 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Hopper credited John Wayne with saving his career, as Hopper acknowledged that because of his insolent behavior, he could not find work in Hollywood for seven years. Hopper stated that because he was the son-in-law of actress Margaret Sullavan, a friend of John Wayne, Wayne hired Hopper for a role in ''The Sons of Katie Elder''. This role enabled Hopper to begin making movies again.

Hopper had a supporting role as "Babalugats," the bet-taker in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967). Hopper acted in mainstream films including ''The Sons of Katie Elder'' (1965) and ''True Grit'' (1969). Both of these films starred John Wayne, and in both Hopper's character is killed in the presence of Wayne's character to whom he utters his dying words. During the production of ''True Grit'', he became well acquainted with Wayne.

In 1968, Hopper teamed with Peter Fonda, Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson to make ''Easy Rider'', which premiered in July 1969. With the release of ''True Grit'' a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box office films that summer. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing for ''Easy Rider''. The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to Hayward, his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk, and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol.

In 1971, Hopper released ''The Last Movie''. Expecting an accessible follow-up to ''Easy Rider'', audiences were treated to artistic flourishes (like the inclusion of "scene missing" card shots) and a hazily existentialist plot that dabbled in non-linearity and the absurd. After finishing first at the Venice Film Festival, the film was dismissed by audiences and critics alike during its first domestic engagement in New York City. During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970, for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from ''Easy Rider'', he married Michelle Phillips in October 1970.

Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypical "tormented maniac", including ''Mad Dog Morgan'' (1976), ''Tracks'' (1976), and ''The American Friend'' (1977). With Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster ''Apocalypse Now'' (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hypo-manic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in ''Out of the Blue''. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration ''Human Highway''. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. Peter Biskind states in the New Hollywood history ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time period, complemented by an additional 30 beers, marijuana, and Cuba libres.

After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (filmed by professor and documentary filmmaker Brian Huberman), and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1983. During this period, he gave critically acclaimed performances in ''Rumble Fish'' (1983) and ''The Osterman Weekend'' (1983).

It was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming iconic villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's ''Blue Velvet'' (1986) that his career revived. After reading the script, Hopper called Lynch and told him "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!" Hopper won critical acclaim and several awards for this role and the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic basketball lover in ''Hoosiers''.

In 1988, Hopper directed the critically acclaimed ''Colors''. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the 1991 HBO films ''Paris Trout'' and ''Doublecrossed'' (in which he played real life drug smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal). The same year he starred as King Koopa in ''Super Mario Bros.'', a 1993 critical and commercial failure loosely based on the video game of the same name. In 1993 he played Clifford Worley in ''True Romance''. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster ''Speed'' with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and as magic-phobic H. P. Lovecraft in the TV movie "Witch Hunt".

In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in ''Search and Destroy''. The same year, he starred as Deacon, the one-eyed nemesis of Kevin Costner in ''Waterworld''. In 2003, Hopper was in the running for the dual lead in the indie horror drama ''Firecracker'', but was ousted at the last minute in favor of Mike Patton. In 2005, Hopper played Paul Kaufman in George A. Romero's ''Land of the Dead''. In 2008, Hopper starred in ''An American Carol''. His last major feature film appearance was in the 2008 film ''Elegy'' with Sir Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Debbie Harry. For his last performance, he was the voice of Tony, the alpha-male of the Eastern wolf pack inside the 2010 3D computer animated film ''Alpha and Omega''. He died before the movie was released. This brought the directors to dedicate the film to his memory.

Television work

Hopper debuted in an episode of the Richard Boone television series ''Medic'' in 1955, portraying a young epileptic.

He appeared as an arrogant young gunfighter, the Utah Kid, in the 1956 episode "Quicksand" of the first hour-long television western television series, ABC's ''Cheyenne'', starring Clint Walker. In the story line, the Kid gave Cheyenne Bodie no choice but to kill him in a gunfight.

He subsequently appeared in over 140 episodes of television shows such as ''Gunsmoke'', ''Bonanza'', ''Petticoat Junction'', ''The Twilight Zone'', ''The Barbara Stanwyck Show'', ''The Defenders'', ''The Investigators'', ''The Legend of Jesse James'', ''Entourage'', ''The Big Valley'', ''The Time Tunnel'', ''The Rifleman'' and ''Combat!''.

Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of television commercials. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular drama ''24'' on the Fox television network.

Hopper starred as a U.S. Army colonel in the NBC 2005 television series ''E-Ring'', a drama set at The Pentagon, but the series was cancelled after 14 episodes aired in the USA. Hopper appeared in all 22 episodes that were filmed. He also played the part of record producer Ben Cendars in the Starz television series ''Crash''.

Photography and art

Hopper was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor. His photography is known for portraits from the 1960s. His painting style ranges from abstract impressionism to photorealism and often includes references to his cinematic work and to other artists.

Ostracized by the Hollywood film studios due to his reputation for being a "difficult" actor, Hopper eventually turned to photography in the 1960s with a camera bought for him by his first wife, Brooke Hayward. During this period he created the cover art for the Ike & Tina Turner single ''River Deep – Mountain High'' (released in 1966). ''Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967'' was published in February, 2011, by Taschen.

Hopper became a prolific photographer, and noted writer Terry Southern profiled Hopper in ''Better Homes and Gardens'' magazine as an up and coming photographer "to watch" in the mid 1960s.

He began working as a painter and a poet as well as a collector of art in the 1960s as well, particularly Pop Art. One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for $75. Hopper also once owned Andy Warhol's Mao which he shot one evening in a fit of paranoia, the 2 bullet holes possibly adding to the print's value. The print sold at Christie's, New York, for $302,500 in January 2011.

In March 2010, it was announced that Hopper was on the "short list" for Jeffrey Deitch's inaugural show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA).

In April 2010, Deitch confirmed that Hopper's work, curated by Julian Schnabel, will indeed be the focus of his debut at MOCA.

In May 2010 it was announced that Hopper will be the subject of an upcoming biography by American writer Tom Folsom, ''Hopper: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream''. The subtitle is a direct reference to the Hunter S. Thompson book ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''.

On the Gorillaz album ''Demon Days'', Hopper narrates the song "Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head."

Personal life

According to ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, he was "one of Hollywood's most notorious drug addicts" for 20 years. He spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s living as "an outcast" in a small town after the success of ''Easy Rider''. Hopper was also "notorious for his troubled relationships with women," including Michelle Phillips, who divorced him after less than two weeks of marriage. Hopper was married five times in total — he was in the process of divorcing Victoria Duffy, his wife of 14 years, at the time of his death — and was survived by:

Brooke Hayward (born 1937), daughter of Leland Hayward and Margaret Sullavan; married 1961 – divorced 1969, 1 child, daughter Marin Hopper (born on June 26, 1962)

Michelle Phillips (born 1944); married 31 October 1970 – divorced 8 November 1970

Daria Halprin (born 1948); married 1972 – divorced 1976, 1 child, daughter Ruthanna Hopper (born circa 1974)

Katherine LaNasa (born 1966); married June 17, 1989 – divorced April 1992, 1 child, son Henry Lee Hopper (born on September 11, 1990)

Victoria Duffy (born 1968); married April 13, 1996 – separated January 12, 2010, 1 child, daughter Galen Grier Hopper (born on March 26, 2003)

Hopper has two granddaughters, Violet Goldstone and Ella Brill.

In 1999, actor Rip Torn filed a defamation lawsuit against Hopper over a story Hopper told on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. Hopper claimed that Torn pulled a knife on him during pre-production of the film ''Easy Rider''. According to Hopper, Torn was originally cast in the film but was replaced with Jack Nicholson after the incident. According to Torn's suit, it was actually Hopper who pulled the knife on him. A judge ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was ordered to pay $475,000 in damages. Hopper then appealed but the judge again ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was required to pay another US$475,000 in punitive damages.

According to Newsmeat, Hopper donated $2,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004 and an equal amount in 2005.

Hopper has been honored with the rank of commander of France's National Order of Arts and Letters, at a ceremony in Paris.

Hopper supported Barack Obama in the 2008 US Presidential election. Hopper confirmed this in an election day appearance on the ABC daytime show ''The View''. He said his reason for not voting Republican was the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Divorce from Victoria Duffy

On January 14, 2010, he filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy. After citing her "outrageous conduct" and stating Duffy was "insane", "inhuman" and "volatile", Hopper was granted a restraining order against her on February 11, 2010, and as a result, she was forbidden to come within of him or contact him. On March 9, 2010, Duffy refused to move out of the Hopper home, despite the court's order that she do so by March 15.

On March 23, 2010, Hopper filed papers in court alleging Duffy had absconded with $1.5 million of his art, refused his requests to return it, and then had "left town". In March 2010, a judge ruled that Duffy must stay at least away from Hopper.

On April 5, 2010, a court ruled that Duffy could continue living on Hopper's property, and that he must pay $12,000 per month spousal and child support for their daughter Galen. Hopper did not attend the hearing. On May 12, 2010, a hearing was held before Judge Amy Pellman in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. Though Hopper died two weeks later, Duffy insisted at the hearing that he was well enough to be deposed. The hearing also addressed who to designate on Hopper's life insurance policy; it currently lists his wife as a beneficiary. A very ill Hopper did not appear in court though his estranged wife did – case BD518046. Despite Duffy's bid to be named the sole designee of Hopper's million-dollar life insurance policy, the judge ruled against her and limited her claim to one-quarter of the policy. The remaining $750,000 was designated to go to his estate.

On November 14, 2010, it was revealed that, despite Duffy's earlier assertion in her court papers of February 2010 that Hopper was mentally incompetent, and that his children had rewritten his estate plan in order to leave Duffy and her daughter, Hopper's youngest child Galen, destitute, that in fact Galen would be receiving the proceeds of 40% of his estate.

Illness and death

On September 30, 2009, news media reported that Hopper had been rushed to a New York hospital for an unspecified condition. Hopper, 73, was reportedly brought into an unidentified Manhattan hospital by an ambulance on September 28 wearing an oxygen mask and “with numerous tubes visible.” On October 2, he was discharged, after receiving treatment for dehydration.

On October 29, Hopper's manager reported that Hopper had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. In January 2010, it was reported that Hopper's cancer had metastasized to his bones.

On March 18, 2010, it was announced that Hopper would be honored with the 2,403rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Surrounded by friends including Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, David Lynch, Michael Madsen, family and fans, he attended its addition to the sidewalk on March 26, 2010.

As of March 23, 2010, Hopper reportedly weighed only and was unable to carry on long conversations. According to papers filed in his divorce court case, Hopper was terminally ill and was unable to undergo chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer. His lawyer reported on March 25 that he was dying from cancer.

Hopper died at his home in the coastal Los Angeles district of Venice on the morning of May 29, 2010 at the age of 74, due to complications from prostate cancer.

Hopper's funeral took place on June 3, 2010 at San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. He was buried in Jesus Nazareno Cemetery, Ranchos de Taos.

The film ''Alpha and Omega'', which was his last movie role, was dedicated in his memory.

Filmography

Awards

;Academy Awards

(1970) Nominated – Best Original Screenplay / ''Easy Rider'' (shared with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern)

(1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor / ''Hoosiers''

;Golden Globe Awards

(1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture / ''Hoosiers''

(1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture / ''Blue Velvet''

;Primetime Emmy Awards

(1991) Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie / ''Paris Trout''

;Cannes Film Festival Awards

(1969) Won – Best First Work Award / ''Easy Rider''

(1969) Nominated – Palme d'Or / ''Easy Rider''

(1980) Nominated – Palme d'Or / ''Out of the Blue''

;Directors Guild of America Award

(1970) Nominated - Outstanding Directing - Feature Film / ''Easy Rider''

;Independent Spirit Awards

(1987) Nominated - Best Male Lead / ''Blue Velvet''

;Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

(1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / ''Blue Velvet''

;Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

(1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / ''Blue Velvet'' & ''Hoosiers''

;MTV Movie Awards

(1995) Won - Best Villain / ''Speed''

;National Society of Film Critics Awards

(1970) Won - Special Award ("For the director, co-writer and co-star") / ''Easy Rider''

(1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / ''Blue Velvet''

;Writers Guild of America Award

(1970) Nominated - Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen / ''Easy Rider'' (shared with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern)

References

Further reading

:Books

Biskind, Peter. ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood'', Simon and Schuster (1999)

Hoberman, J. ''Dennis Hopper: From Method to Madness'', Walker Art Center (1988)

Hopper, Dennis. ''Dennis Hopper: Out of the Sixties'', Twelvetrees Press (1986)

Krull, Craig. “Photographing the LA Art Scene: 1955-1975”, Craig Krull Gallery (1996)

Rodriguez, Elean. ''Dennis Hopper: A Madness to his Method'', St. Martin's Press (1988)

''Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967'', Taschen (2011)

:Articles by Hopper

"Dennis Hopper, Riding High," ''Playboy'' (Chicago), Dec. 1969

Interview with G. O'Brien and M. Netter, in ''Inter/View'' (New York), Feb. 1972

Interview in ''Cahiers du Cinema (Paris), July–August 1980

"How Far to the Last Movie?," ''Monthly Film Bulleting (London) Oct. 1982

"Citizen Hopper," interview with C. Hodenfield, in ''Film Comment'' (New York) Nov/Dec. 1986

Interview with B. Kelly, in ''American Film'' (Los Angeles) March 1988

Interview with David Denicolo, in ''Interview'' (New York), Feb. 1990

"Sean Penn," interview with Julian Schnabel and Dennis Hopper, ''Interview'' (New York) Sept. 1991

"Gary Oldman," in ''Interview'' (New York), Jan. 1992

:Articles about Hopper

Macklin, F. A., "Easy Rider: The Initiation of Dennis Hopper," in ''Film Heritage'' (Dayton, Ohio), Fall 1969

Burke, Tom, "Dennis Hopper Saves the Movies," in ''Esquire (New York), Dec. 1970

Burns, Dan E., "Dennis Hopper's ''The Last Movie'': Beginning of the End,", in ''Literature/Film Quarterly, 1979

Algar, N., "Hopper at Birmingham," in ''Sight and Sound'' (London), Summer 1982

Herring, H. D., "Out of the Dream and into the Nightmare: Dennis Hopper's Apocalyptic Vision of America," in ''Journal of Popular Film'' (Washington, D.C.), Winter 1983

Scharres, B., "From Out of the Blue: The Return of Dennis Hopper," in ''Journal of the University Film and Video Assoc. (Carbondale, IL), Spring 1983

''Current Biography'' 1987, New York, 1987

Martin, A., "Dennis Hopper: Out of the Blue and into the Black," in ''Cinema Papers (Melbourne), July 1987

Weber, Bruce, "A Wild Man is Mellowing, Albeit Not on Screen," in ''New York Times, Sept. 8, 1994

External links

Dennis Hopper Exhibition History

Dennis Hopper: Life & Times - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Category:1936 births Category:2010 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:20th-century writers Category:Actors from Kansas Category:Actors_from_San_Diego,_California Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:American television actors Category:California Republicans Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from prostate cancer Category:Kansas City Art Institute alumni Category:Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute alumni Category:People from Dodge City, Kansas Category:People from the Kansas City metropolitan area Category:People from San Diego, California Category:People from Taos County, New Mexico

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Name	Samuel Barber
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Samuel Osborne Barber II
Born	March 09, 1910West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Death date	January 23, 1981
Occupation	composer
Years active	}}

Samuel Osborne Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His ''Adagio for Strings'' is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, for his opera ''Vanessa'' and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. His ''Knoxville: Summer of 1915'', a work for soprano and orchestra, was an acclaimed setting of prose by James Agee.

Biography

Early years

Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and Samuel Le Roy Barber. At a very early age, Barber became profoundly interested in music, and it was apparent that he had great musical talent and ability. At the age of nine he wrote to his mother:

He wrote his first musical at the early age of 7 and attempted to write his first opera at the age of 10. He was an organist at the age of 12. When he was 14, he entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied piano, composition, and voice.

Barber was born into a comfortable, educated, social, and distinguished Irish-American family. His father was a physician, and his mother was a pianist. His aunt, Louise Homer, was a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera and his uncle, Sidney Homer, was a composer of American art songs. Louise Homer is known to have influenced Barber's interest in voice. Through his aunt, Barber had access to many great singers and songs.

Barber began composing seriously in his late teenage years. Around the same time, he met fellow Curtis schoolmate Gian Carlo Menotti, who became his partner in life as well as in their shared profession. At the Curtis Institute, Barber was a triple prodigy in composition, voice, and piano. He soon became a favorite of the conservatory's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok. It was through Mrs. Bok that Barber was introduced to his lifelong publisher, the Schirmer family. At the age of 18, Barber won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his Violin Sonata (now lost or destroyed by the composer).

Middle years

From his early to late twenties, Barber wrote a flurry of successful compositions, launching him into the spotlight of the classical music world. Many of his compositions were commissioned or first performed by such famous artists as Vladimir Horowitz, Eleanor Steber, Raya Garbousova, John Browning, Leontyne Price, Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. When Barber was 28, his ''Adagio for Strings'' was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini in 1938, along with his first ''Essay for Orchestra''. The Adagio had been arranged from the slow movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. Toscanini had only rarely performed music by American composers before (an exception was Howard Hanson's Second Symphony, which he conducted in 1933). At the end of the first rehearsal of the piece, Toscanini remarked, "Semplice e bella" (simple and beautiful).

Barber served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, where he was commissioned to write his Second Symphony, a work he later suppressed. (It was released in a "Vox" recording by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Schenck). Composed in 1943, the symphony was originally titled ''Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces'' and was premiered in early 1944 by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Barber revised the symphony in 1947, which was published by G. Schirmer, and recorded the following year by the New Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by the composer, but Barber subsequently destroyed the score in 1964. It was reconstructed from the instrumental parts. According to another source, however, it was precisely the parts to the symphony that Barber had torn up. Hans Heinsheimer was an eyewitness, and reported that he accompanied Barber to the publisher's office where they collected all the music from the library and Barber "tore up all these beautifully and expensively copied materials with his own hands" Doubt has been cast on this story, however, on grounds that Heinsheimer, as an executive at G. Schirmer, would have allowed Barber into the Schirmer offices to watch him "rip apart the music that his company had invested money in publishing".

Barber won the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1958 for his first opera ''Vanessa,'' and in 1963 for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

Later years

Barber spent many years in isolation after the harsh rejection of his third opera ''Antony and Cleopatra''. He suffered from depression, and was also beset by alcoholism. The opera was written for and premiered at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House on September 16, 1966. After this setback, Barber continued to write music until he was almost 70 years old. Barber's music in his later years would be lauded as reflective and contemplative, but without the morbidity or unhappiness of other composers who knew they had a limited time to live. The ''Third Essay for Orchestra'' (1978) was his last major work.

Barber died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70. He was buried in Oaklands Cemetery in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Achievements and awards

Barber was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Rome Prize (the American version of the Prix de Rome), two Pulitzers, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961.

Barber was initiated, as a full collegiate member, into the Zeta Iota chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at Howard University in 1952.

In addition to composing, Barber was active in organizations that sought to help musicians and music. He was president of the International Music Council of UNESCO, where he did much to bring into focus and ameliorate the conditions of international musical problems. One of the first American composers to visit Russia (which was then a constituent republic of the Soviet Union), Barber was influential also in the successful campaign of composers against ASCAP, helping composers increase the share of royalties they receive from their compositions.

Music

Orchestral music

Barber played and studied the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and was an adherent of Johannes Brahms, from whom he learned how to compress profound emotions into small modules of highly charged musical expression (Cello Sonata, 1932).

In 1933, after reading the poem "Prometheus Unbound" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Barber composed the tone poem ''Music for a Scene from Shelley'', Op. 7. In 1935, when the work was premiered at Carnegie Hall, it was the first time the composer heard one of his orchestral works performed publicly.

Barber's compositional style has been lauded for its musical logic, sense of architectural design, effortless melodic gift, and direct emotional appeal. This was evident in the Overture to ''The School for Scandal'' (1931) and ''Music for a Scene from Shelley'' (1933). These were characteristics of his music throughout his lifetime.

Through the success of his Overture to ''The School for Scandal'' (1931), ''Music for a Scene from Shelley'' (1933), ''Adagio for Strings'' (1938); (First) ''Symphony in One Movement'' (1936), (First) ''Essay for Orchestra'' (1937) and Violin Concerto (1939), Barber garnered performances by the world's leading conductors – Eugene Ormandy, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Bruno Walter, Charles Münch, George Szell, Artur Rodziński, Leopold Stokowski, and Thomas Schippers.

His compositions later included polytonality (Second Symphony, 1944); atonality (''Medea'', 1946, ''Prayers of Kierkegaard'', 1954); Twelve-tone technique (''Nocturne'', 1959 and the Piano Sonata, 1949); and jazz (''Excursions'', 1944; and ''A Hand of Bridge'', 1959).

Among his finest works are his four concertos, one each for Violin (1939), Cello (1945) and Piano (1962), and also the neoclassical ''Capricorn Concerto'' for flute, oboe, trumpet and string orchestra. All of these works are rewarding for the soloists and public alike, as all contain both highly virtuosic and beautiful writing, often simultaneously. The latter three have been unfairly neglected until recent years, when there has been a reawakening of interest in the expressive possibilities of these masterpieces.

Barber's final opus was the ''Canzonetta'' for oboe and string orchestra (1979/1981).

Piano

The four piano "bagatelles" ''Excursions'', Op. 20, (1942–44), was his first and only venture into Americana music. Its elements of boogie-woogie, blues, theme and variations on a cowboy song, and hoedown are not typical of Barber's generally more classical style. In 1949, Barber wrote his keyboard masterpiece Piano Sonata, which has maintained a prominent position in the concert repertoire since its premiere. The ''Nocturne for Piano (Homage to John Field),'' Op. 33, is another respected piece which he composed for the instrument.

Opera

Barber's life partner Gian Carlo Menotti, whom he had met at Curtis, supplied the libretto (text) for Barber's opera, ''Vanessa.'' Using his vocal training, in 1956 Barber played and sang the score to the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager, Rudolf Bing, who accepted the work. It premiered in January 1958. The title role was written for Sena Jurinac but she cancelled six weeks before the opening, to be replaced by Eleanor Steber, with whom the role has become closely identified. ''Vanessa'' won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize and gained acclaim as the first American grand opera.

Menotti also contributed the libretto for Barber's chamber opera ''A Hand of Bridge''. Barber's ''Antony and Cleopatra'' was commissioned to open the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966. The elaborate production designed by Franco Zeffirelli was plagued with technical disasters; it also overwhelmed and obscured Barber's music, which most critics derided as uncharacteristically weak and unoriginal. The critical rejection of music that Barber considered to be among his best sent him into a deep depression. In recent years, a revised version of ''Antony and Cleopatra'', for which Menotti provided collaborative assistance, has enjoyed some success.

Vocal

Barber's background, deeply rooted in singing (including studies with Emilio de Gogorza), his love of poetry, and his intimate knowledge and appreciation of the human voice, inspired his vocal writing. Barber's most famous vocal compositions, ''Knoxville: Summer of 1915'' (to words by James Agee) and ''Dover Beach'' (to the poem by Matthew Arnold), were greatly successful. Their critical acclaim has made a powerful case for Barber as one of the twentieth century's most accomplished composers for the voice.

In honor of Barber's influence on American music, on October 19, 1974, he was awarded the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit. This award was established in 1964 "to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year who has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."

In September 1992, soprano Cheryl Studer, baritone Thomas Hampson, the preeminent Samuel Barber pianist John Browning and the Emerson String Quartet recorded the complete songs of Samuel Barber (with the exception of ''Knoxville: Summer of 1915'') at the Brahms-Saal of the famous Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. The Deutsche Grammophon (catalogue 435 867–2) set has become a classic of American song on record.

Violin

In 1939 Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for Fels' ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year as Barber, 1934. The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of the violin concerto's commission and subsequent year leading up to the first performance. Heyman interviewed Briselli and others familiar with the history in her publication. In late 2010, previously unpublished letters written by Fels, Barber, and Albert Meiff (Briselli's violin coach in that period) from the Samuel Simeon Fels Papers archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania became available to the public.

Notable compositions

For a full list of works with opus number and some without, see List of compositions by Samuel Barber

''Dover Beach'' (Medium Voice and String Quartet) (Op. 3, 1931)

''The School for Scandal'' (Overture) (Op. 5, 1931)

Cello Sonata (Op. 6, 1932)

''Music for a Scene from Shelley'' (Op. 7, 1933)

(First) ''Symphony in One Movement'' (Op. 9, 1936)

''Adagio for Strings'' (arr. of String Quartet, mov’t 2) (Op. 11, 1938)

''Essay for Orchestra'' (Op. 12, 1937)

Violin Concerto (Op. 14, 1939)

''Reincarnations'' for mixed chorus, (Op. 16, 1939–1940); words by Antoine Ó Raifteiri in translation by James Stephens

''Second Essay for Orchestra'' (Op. 17, 1942)

''Excursions'' (Op. 20, 1942–44)

''Capricorn Concerto'' (Op. 21, 1944)

Cello Concerto (Op. 22, 1945)

''Medea (Ballet)'' (Op. 23, 1946)

''Knoxville: Summer of 1915'' (Soprano & Orchestra) (Op. 24, 1948)

Sonata for Piano (Op. 26, 1949)

''Hermit Songs'' (Op. 29, 1953)

''Prayers of Kierkegaard'' (Soprano, Choir & Orchestra) (Op. 30, 1954)

''Summer Music for Wind Quintet'' (Op. 31, 1956)

''Vanessa'' (opera) (Op. 32, 1957)

''A Hand of Bridge'' (Chamber opera) (Op. 35, 1959)

''Toccata Festiva'' (Organ and Orchestra) (Op. 36, 1960)

Piano Concerto (Op. 38, 1962)

''Antony and Cleopatra'' (Op. 40, opera, 1966, rev. 1974)

Popular culture

''Adagio for Strings'' is a string-orchestra version of the slow movement from Barber's only string quartet. It was broadcast as part of a radio tribute following the death of US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt and at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. It was used by French film composer, Georges Delerue, as part of his score, in the opening and various other passages of ''Platoon'' (1986), a film directed by Oliver Stone about the Vietnam War and in the film, ''Lorenzo's Oil'', starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. It is the soundtrack of the movie ''The Elephant Man'' (1980) directed by David Lynch. During its depiction of the final moments of Merrick's (The Elephant Man) life, the film uses "Adagio for Strings". It has also been remixed quite popularly by electronic dance artist DJ Tiesto and a choral version served as the theme to the real-time strategy game ''Homeworld''.

Notes

Reference and further reading

Broder, Nathan. 1954. ''Samuel Barber''. New York: G. Schirmer. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985. ISBN 0313249849.

Heinsheimer, Hans W. 1968. "The Composing Composer: Samuel Barber". ''ASCAP Today'' 2:7.

Henahan, Donal. 1975. "Juilliard Rehabilitating 'Antony and Cleopatra'". ''New York Times'' (February 8).

Heyman, Barbara B. 1992. ''Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music''. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195090581.

Károlyi, Ottó. 1996. ''Modern American Music: From Charles Ives to the Minimalists''. London: Cygnus Arts; Madison [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 9780838637258 (cloth); ISBN 9781900541008 (pbk).

Lee, Douglas A. 2002. ''Masterworks of 20th-Century Music: The Modern Repertory Of The Symphony Orchestra''. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93846-5

Mostovoy, Marc. 2010. "Iso Briselli, Samuel Barber, and thbe Violin Concerto, op. 14: Facts and Fiction". Iso Briselli website. (Accessed December 6, 2010)

Schenck, Andrew. 1988. Booklet notes. ''Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 2; Music for a Scene from Shelley; Overture to The School for Scandal; First Essay; Adagio for Strings''. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Schenck, cond. CD recording. Stradivari Classics SCD 8012. Hackensack, NJ: Special Music Company.

Simmons, Walter. 2004. ''Voices in the Wilderness: Six American Neo-Romantic Composers''. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810848848. Paperback reprint edition, Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8108-5728-6.

Smith, Patricia Juliana. 2002. "Barber, Samuel". ''glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture'', edited by Claude J. Summers. Chicago: glbtq, Inc.

Staubrand, Jens. 2009. ''Kierkegaard International Bibliography: Music Works and Plays: Appendix: About The Seducers Diary and the Illness and Death of Søren Kierkegaard'', new edition. Copenhagen: Eget Forlag; i kommission hos Forlaget Underskoven. ISBN 978 87 92259 91 2.

Valente, Erasmo. 1983. "A Spoleto rinasce Cleopatra". ''L’unità'' (June 27).

Wade, Graham. 2003. ''A Concise Guide to Understanding Music''. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications. ISBN 9780786649815.

Warrack, John Hamilton, and Ewan West. 1992. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-869164-5

Wright, Jeffrey Marsh II. 2010. "The Enlisted Composer: Samuel Barber's Career 1942–1945". PhD diss. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

External links

Biography

Heyman, Barbara B (1992). Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195090586

Wittke, Paul. Samuel Barber. G. Schirmer Inc.

Homepage of ''Capricorn'', the French Samuel Barber Society. (In English and French)

Article "Barber, A Composer Between Two Worlds", by the Capricorn Society on American Center France

Samuel Osborne Barber. IHAS. PBS.

Smith, Patricia. Barber, Samuel. glbtq.com

"Samuel Barber", ''Fyne Times''

Other

''Frédéric Chopin and Samuel Barber'' – ArtsEditor.com opinion article, 2010.

Audio and Video

Anne Akiko Meyers performs the Barber Violin Concerto

Cheryl Studer sings Samuel Barber in recital, November 27, 2003

Art of the States: Samuel Barber

Video of Erika's aria from ''Vanessa'', "Must the Winter Come So Soon?", sung by Mary Gayle Greene

In the BBC Discovering Music: Listening Library

Category:20th-century classical composers Category:American classical composers Category:Opera composers Category:Pulitzer Prize for Music winners Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:1910 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Grammy Award winners Category:LGBT composers Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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