Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music | Adagio for Strings

A 1938 transcription of the slow movement of SAMUEL BARBER'S String Quartet (1930). It has become Barber's best-known piece and probably the most frequently played short work by any American. Because of its somber harmonies, it is often performed at funerals, including the services for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in April 1945 as well as Barber's own funeral in January 1981.