Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute  Peter Dickinson University of Rochester Press Many  middle-aged music lovers with a taste for powerful tonal orchestral music remember all too well the orthodoxy that ruled unshakeably throughout the 1960s. Such music was felt to be deeply unfashionable, and only rebarbative twelve-tone pieces (or compositions heavily influenced by this hegemony) held sway. The BBC under Sir William Glock was, of course, a bastion of this unyielding thinking, and composers such as Malcolm Arnold were shamefully neglected. A somewhat similar prejudice held sway in the United States, and few composers suffered this implacable demand for new fashion more than Samuel Barber. But how things have changed – and how unimportant such prejudices now seem, given that composers such as Barber and Arnold are now recognised as the Masters that they always were, while much of the once-fashionable music has fallen away. Not that such posthumous recognition does much good for Barber, who might be bemused (were he still alive) to see just how much more of a grip his compositions (other than the ubiquitous Adagio for Strings) have attained in the 21st century, though recognition on the scale of Copland has remained elusive.

Peter Dickinson’s fascinating, detailed book takes a prismatic approach to the composer’s achievement, and the word ‘tribute’ is well found – all aspects of the composers protean talent are examined here from a variety of perspectives, and the American composer’s music (with its capacity for exquisite yearning beauty and muscular suppleness) is examined with skill and understanding – though a little pruning of the repetitive writing about the ubiquitous Adagio for Strings would have been profitable. The composer’s homosexuality and his relationship with fellow musician/partner Gian Carlo Menotti are discreetly addressed. Particularly valuable are the interviews with fellow American composers such as William Schuman, which throw a fresh light onto a once neglected talent. But be warned: the book will cost you money – not just its cover price but to send you to acquire those Barber items you don’t possess.