Although Samuel Barber was one of the most prominent composers of the twentieth century, scholars have yet to contextualize his work within the development of American musical modernism. Throughout Barber’s career, critics often derided him for what they felt was a conservative, “neo-Romantic” compositional style. Yet Barber did not fully isolate himself from idioms and techniques associated with modernism. When his contemporaries noticed, however, their reactions were highly polarized. Some applauded his ability to balance Romantic sensibilities with more experimental techniques, while others dismissed his efforts as fraudulent and insufficiently modern. In this thesis, I explore these disparate reactions to demonstrate how the binary oppositions that dominated twentieth century cultural criticism shaped critical assessments of Barber’s work. Building upon the work of scholars like Christopher Chowrimootoo, I argue that examining twentieth century animosity toward the “middlebrow”—a category of cultural production and consumption which mediated between elite modernism and commercial art—illuminates why Barber’s contemporaries responded to his musical contributions in the way they did. Viewing the critical reception to Barber’s music through a middlebrow framework also allows us to understand how Barber remained true to his own musical voice while navigating the stylistic divides that shaped the twentieth century art music landscape.
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