American Stories

Sonata for Cello and Piano in C minor, Op. 6 by Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Cello and Piano was the final piece he wrote while still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music and is dedicated to his composition teacher Rosario Scalero. Barber had begun his studies in piano, voice, and composition in 1924 (the same year Curtis opened), becoming one of the conservatory’s first, and eventually most famous, graduates. While on a trip throughout Europe, Barber became inspired to write the cello sonata after hiking near Lake Lugano in northern Italy to visit the family of a fellow student, the composer Gian-Carlo Menotti. He wrote the first movement and sketched out sections of the other two movements on the trip, and completed the work on his return to Philadelphia.

The cello part itself was heavily influenced by a friend of Barber’s, the cellist Orlando Cole. Cole…