Samuel Barber

In the Stravinsky post, I talked about how "Rite of Spring" is constructed in block-like sections. Barber, however, is a master of the "long line." His melodies are expansive and can have incredibly long arcs.

His "Adagio for Strings" is a great example of this. Listen for how the entire piece slowly builds in intensity. While the "Rite" has several sections, "Adagio" is almost like one big section. Here it is:

Another fantastic piece by Barber is his Violin Concerto. Below are all three movements, but pay close attention to movements 1 and 2, as both of these demonstrate Barber's use of long melodic lines.

Incidentally, movement 3 is a "Perpetuum Mobile" or "Moto Perpetuo," which is a piece where there is a non-stop steady stream of notes of a particular rhythm. Notice that the violin hardly stops whatsoever for the entire movement.

And by the way, in my humble opinion, the 2nd movement is one of the most beautiful slow second movements of any concerto. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Mov 1:

Mov 2:

Mov 3: