Friday FIVE: September 11 - Adagio for Strings

Samuel Barber composed his Adagio for Strings in 1936 as an intimate meditation inspired by a passage from Virgil's Aeneid. He did not write it for grief. And yet grief found it. On this 25th anniversary of September 11th, I reflect on how this piece became the unofficial anthem of American mourning, from the radio announcement of Franklin Roosevelt's death to the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the days after the attacks in 2001. I also consider Barber's choral arrangement setting the Latin Agnus Dei text to the same music. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. This piece keeps showing up at moments when we don't have words.

The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.

Here’s a link to the recording from September 15, 2001: https://youtu.be/Y4PWdOoOQjI