Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” – An Explication of Grief
I posit that Adagio for Strings is not only “a stepwise motion,” but a stepwise motion akin to climbing a spiral staircase; there is one rotation after another around a defined epicenter. Adagio for Strings repeatedly contemplates itself during the ascent. To the listener, an apt analogy is that the melody winds around the spinal column up into the brain until the full cognizance of sorrow is realized.