Editing Adagio for Strings (section)

== Composition ==
''Adagio for Strings'' begins softly with a [[B♭ (musical note)|B{{music|flat}}]] played by the first violins.

:<score sound="1"> \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1" \clef treble \key bes \minor \time 4/2 \tempo "Molto adagio" bes\breve(~\pp\< | bes4\! a bes c a bes c bes | c\< des bes c des c des ees | \time 5/2 c1.\! } </score>

The lower strings come in two [[Beat (music)|beats]] after the violins, which, as Johanna Keller from ''[[The New York Times]]'' put it, creates "an uneasy, shifting suspension as the melody begins a [[Steps and skips|stepwise]] motion, like the hesitant climbing of stairs".<ref name="nytimes"/> [[NPR Music]] said that "with a tense melodic line and taut harmonies, the composition is considered by many to be the most popular of all 20th-century orchestral works."<ref name=ATC /> Thomas Larson remarked that the piece "evokes a deep sadness in those who hear it".<ref name=Larson>{{cite book |title=The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" |last=Larson |first=Thomas |year=2010 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-60598-115-4}}</ref> Many recordings of the piece have a duration of about eight minutes.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=24306
|title=''Adagio for Strings'', Samuel Barber
|publisher=Schirmer.com
|access-date=October 2, 2010}}</ref> According to music theorist Matthew BaileyShea, the ''Adagio'' "features a deliberately archaic sound, with Renaissance-like polyphony and simple tertian harmonies" underlying a "chant-like melody". The work is in "the key of B{{music|flat}} minor (with some modal inflections)".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=gamut |title=Agency and the Adagio: Mimetic Engagement in Barber's Op. 11 Quartet |first=Matthew |last=BaileyShea |journal=Gamut |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=7–38 |date=August 2012 |access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref>

The ''Adagio'' is an example of [[arch form]] and builds on a melody that first ascends and then descends in stepwise fashion. Barber subtly manipulates the pulse throughout the work by varying the primary {{music|time|4|2}} [[time signature]] with isolated measures of {{music|time|5|2}}, {{music|time|6|2}}, and {{music|time|3|2}}.<ref name=Heyman167 /> After four climactic chords and a [[fermata|long pause]], the piece presents the opening theme again and fades away on an unresolved [[dominant chord]].

Music critic [[Olin Downes]] wrote that the piece is very simple at climaxes but reasoned that the simple chords create significance for the piece. Downes went on to say: "That is because we have here honest music, by an honest musician, not striving for pretentious effect, not behaving as a writer would who, having a clear, short, popular word handy for his purpose, got the dictionary and fished out a long one."<ref name=book1/><ref name="The Arts">
{{cite book
|title=The Arts|series=Great Contemporary Issues Series
|last1=Braun
|first1=Gene
|last2=McLanathan
|first2=Richard
|year=1991
|publisher=Ayer Company
|isbn=0-405-11153-3
|page=132
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|title=Olin Downes on music: a selection from his writings during the half-century 1906 to 1955
|last=Downes
|first=Olin
|author-link=Olin Downes
|year=1968
|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group
|asin=B0006BYVRG
}}</ref>