A Hand of Bridge (Opus 35) is a one-act chamber opera composed by Samuel Barber with libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. The opera has only four characters – Sally, her husband Bill, Geraldine, and her husband David. The two unhappy couples play bridge (a card game), and each character has an arietta, or little aria, expressing their inner monologues. In the game, Sally is vexed by the result of Bill’s dummy play, which means Bill decides her move. Her arietta is “I want to buy that hat of peacock feathers!” Bill’s concern is whether or not his wife has discovered his affair with Cymbaline; meanwhile, he enviously wonders whom Cymbaline may be with tonight. Geraldine’s lamenting monologue asks about who loves her, and expresses regrets regarding her relationship with her dying mother. David looks forward to being rich; in the end, he concedes that his aspiration would not come true and he has to continue his mundane life.
The opera was written for the Festival of Two Worlds which was founded in 1958 by Barber’s longtime partner, Menotti. Menotti declared that the festival was “a need for having people around all of the time. A need for a certain amount of pow…for the joy of it.”[1] A Hand of Bridge premiered at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto on June 17, 1959. The opera lasts only about nine minutes, and is one of the world’s shortest operas. A Hand of Bridge is presented as a cabaret-style micro-opera, which typically are compact works from three to fifteen minutes in various styles.
Barber’s music
A Hand of Bridge was composed during Barber’s middle period, 1942-1966, and it reflects tge essential characteristics of this period. The opera utilizes vivid texture and swing rhythms, which were heavily influenced by jazz music. Also, Barber used more modern harmonies which were characterized by traditional tonal with more chromaticism, dissonant triads, tritones, triplets, and diatonic scales.
As an American composer, Barber wrote music with fascinating features from different genres, such as jazz, expressionism, and serialism, but his earlier music (1928-1941) is considered more neo-romantic because of its return to the broad lyricism and emotional expression associated with nineteenth-century romanticism, but expressed by more contemporary techniques. Therefore, in Barber’s early period, his music featured traditional 19th-century harmonies (based on major and minor scales) and formal structures. His music was essentially lyric and dramatic, and he said that “My songs…tend to highlight the text.”[2] The more lyrical melodies are governed by traditional tonal and diatonic chordal outlines, but with a certain freshness. The rhythms are also varied and active. However, around 1939, Barber entered a transitional period in which he was influenced by different music genres that surrounded him. After that, Barber adopted more elements of modernism, contrapuntal textures, and contemporary compositional techniques such as quartal harmony and polyrhythm.
In his late period (1966-1981), Barber’s music extended beyond the realm of neo-romanticism. Lyrical lines become more chromatic, angular, and dramatic, but were still rooted in tonality. He avoided chordal outlines, focusing on particular intervals, especially fourths, seconds, and sevenths. The contrapuntal texture added much interest and vitality, which contributed to Barber’s seldom static musical style. The rhythmic style ranged from smooth and flowing patterns to more driving and complex figures. His vocal music was carefully suited for the rhythm of the text. Even in writing a simple folk-like tune, Barber achieved a piquant and attractive effect by unusual rhythmic organizations.
Understanding modern music
To understand A Hand of Bridge, people should know what modern music is. In the modern period, revolutions, war, immigration, and other social transformations reshaped composers’ landscapes and changed how music was made and heard. Unlike the composers of the eighteenth century, who were inspired by the pastoral life and aristocratic requirements, modernistic composers tend to reflect contemporaneous city life and industrial machinery, reflecting cultural shifts. Music became a lens for showing people’s perceptions of real life, how people read the modern world in all its confusing multiplicity. In this way, modern music uses a kind of symbolism, conveying new attitudes, modern objects, moods, and styles. Therefore, at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, music featured a “mixture of syncopation, irregularity, and new percussive texture that gave an overall impression of the hurry and unpredictability of contemporary life.”[3] Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, for example, reflects modernity through its complex rhythms. It evokes “the scream of the motor-horn, the rattle of machinery, the grind of the wheels, the beating of iron and steel, the roar of the underground railway, and other barbaric noises of modern life.”[4]
For centuries, music was relaxing and beautiful. Although modern music can be similar, many find it hard to understand because it can tend toward the atonal, noisy, and abstract. For example, even a short piece such as A Hand of Bridge can be challenging. In the twentieth century, modern music seemed to reject all conventional ornamentations and fetching melodies, even sounding excruciating and tortuous, but that is exactly its charm. It presents the abnormal and changeable century “in its power to communicate spiritual torment.”[5] Modern music often abandons traditional harmonies, but it still has its own system of organization, as with serialism, which is ruled by forming twelve notes into specific rows or series, and provides a unifying basis for melodies, harmonies, structural progressions, and variations. However, most listeners are not music theorists and would be bored or puzzled by the music they are unable to understand. Hence, a distinctive perspective, which is called the “new listening,” derived from experimental music is more adaptable for laymen and amateurs. Experimentalism is a general label for any music that breaks existing boundaries and genre definitions. It opposes institutional compositions, performances, and aesthetic conventions in music, but it centers around the activities of the sound and understands sound as music—for example, warbles, laughter, even grunts. Sound is art, and it occurs whether intended or not and may occur in any combinations, in any patterns, or anywhere. Based on understanding of sound, if a person only focuses on the music written on the score, the music that he could listen to is limited. Nevertheless, if one was not confined to anthropic thoughts, such as theorized music, one would tend to listen to all kinds of the sound. Then, one would gain all kinds of music. Therefore, when an individual listens to modern music, one could pay more attention to enjoying the sound itself.
Furthermore, one of music’s beauties is sparking resonances within its audience. A person touched by eighteenth-century music could imagine palace life or an evening party. An analogous situation could happen listening to the modern music, but the images conjured could be more miraculous or ridiculous. There are no conclusive principles about what music says because the music is different in every person’s mind. If a piece of modern music sounds like the composer is trying to cram every single note, rhythm, or dynamic into it, then it is correct: understanding modern music can occur through responding to what one hears, such as through feelings, imaginations, or recollections.
Bibliography
Book
Albright, Daniel. Modernism and music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Broder, Nathan. Samuel Barber. New York: G. Schirmer, inc. 1954.
Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. 1961.
Deri, Otto. Exploring Twentieth-Century Music. USA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, inc. 1968.
Dickinson, Peter. Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute. New York: University of Rochester. Press, 2010.
Ewen, David. Modern Music: A History and Appreciation – From Wagner to the Avant-Garde. Philadelphia / New York / London: Chilton Book Company, 1969.
Fuente, Eduardo De La. Twentieth Century Music and the Question of Modernity. New York / London: Taylor & Francis Books, 2011.
Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music: A concise history. London / New York: Thames and Hudson inc. 1994.
Heyman, Barbara B. Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983.
Lea, Henry. Passion and Rebellion: The Expressionist Heritage. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Wentzel, Wayne C. Samuel Barber: A Research and Information Guide. New York: Taylor & Francis Books, 2010.
Score
Barber, Samuel, A Hand of Bridge (New York / London: G. Schirmer, 1960). Thesis & Dissertation
Arakawa, Scott Toshikazu. “A Conductor’s Guide to “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber.” Master thesis., California State University, 2007. https://search-proquest-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/dissertations-theses/conductors-guide-adagio-strings-samuel-barber/docview/304709800/se-2?accountid=14472.
Carter, Susan Blinderman. “THE PIANO MUSIC OF SAMUEL BARBER.” PhD thesis., Texas Tech University, 1980. https://search-proquest-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/dissertations-theses/piano-music-samuel-barber/docview/288449235/se-2?accountid=14472.
King, James Stephen. “A Performer’s Guide to Selected Songs of Samuel Barber.” PhD thesis., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1991. https://search-proquest-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/dissertations-theses/performers-guide-selected-songs-samuel-barber/docview/303935327/se-2?accountid=14472.
[1] Peter Dickinson, Samuel Barber Remembered: A Centenary Tribute (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2010), 57.
[2] James Stephen King, “A Performer’s Guide to Selected Songs of Samuel Barber.” (PhD thesis, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1991), 20, https://search-proquest-com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/dissertations-theses/performers-guide-selected-songs-samuel-barber/docview/303935327/se-2?accountid=14472.
[3] Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983).
[4] Daniel Albright, Modernism and music: An Anthology of Sources (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).
[5] Henry Lea, Passion and Rebellion: The Expressionist Heritage (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).