Welcome back to Pia's Composer Korner, our all too occasional feature by guest-"blogger" Pia Z. Ehrhardt. She classes up the joint! Today's reflection from Ms. Ehrhardt is on the subject of a particular piece by... oh, we'll just let her tell you in her own words: "It has become that time of the year when you listen to Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915, which he wrote in 1947, and you wait for Eleanor Steber's voice to soar and plead when she sings 'One is my mother who is good to me.' James Agee's text struck a chord with Barber whose father was critically ill when he wrote this. This may be the most beautiful piece ever written about a family sitting on quilts under the stars." Pia included a "link" to the piece, I believe, but I couldn't make heads nor tails of it (the "link," I mean, not the Barber) because I'm just that way. (Pictured, James Agee.)
