Overture to The School for Scandal 
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) 

THE STORY

     In 1933, 23-year-old Samuel Barber, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, composed a short orchestral work, Overture to The School for Scandal, and pitched it to the conductor of the conservatory’s orchestra. The conductor, Fritz Reiner, declined—but Barber was vindicated two years later when the overture was programmed by The Philadelphia Orchestra.
     The School for Scandal (1777) is a comedy by playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, but Barber didn’t compose his overture for a particular staging. Instead, he explained that it was intended simply to reflect the spirit of the play. The brilliance of the orchestration put Barber on the map, establishing his reputation as a great American composer.

LISTEN FOR

• The opening two pitches, a half-step apart, that sound just like a musical “sneer”—perhaps suggesting the play’s villain, Lady Sneerwell; these same two notes also conclude the work

• The noble oboe solo that introduces the second theme, likely portraying the moral young heiress

• Insistent repeated chords that thrust us into the recapitulation of the first theme

• Numerous changes in tempo and dynamics (at one point, seven tempo changes within just 30 measures!)

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, strings