Samuel Barber is a 20th century American composer who wrote many pieces, but there is one that stands out as his only true "American" piece. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is a beautiful, nostalgic piece written for a lyric soprano and an orchestra. The work in full is sixteen minutes, and is set to the words of a James Agee poem that shares the same name. Describing a southern summer day, many people enjoy the music because they themselves remember days just like it. Yes, the work is wonderful, but what prompted Barber to write Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was his own love and personal relation to the story behind the words, as well as a commission that ended up solidifying its existence. What was originally a passion project ended up as one of his most beloved pieces.

First, let us take a closer look at the poetry so that we might better understand the reason that Barber loved it so much. As stated previously, the work is set to a poem by James Agee that is also titled Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which Barber originally found through a copy of Partisan Review, specifically and anthology, or collection of poems, stories, and commentary, within the magazine titled The Partisan Reader (Pollack). The poem itself is about the last summer Agee had with his father before he tragically died in a car accident when Agee was only six years old (Kluver). This experience cemented a heavy sense of nostalgia within Agee for the year previous to the tragedy, and he spent his life writing about it, making both Knoxville and a later book titled A Death in the Family. The writing style used by Agee is the main thing that attracted Barber and many others to admire it. Described by Agee himself as "word music," his poetry is filled with almost symphonic sounding description of the scenes laid out in childhood. He speaks of his home neighborhood using vivid, dreamlike language that draws in the use of all of one's senses. One source by Jane Kathleen Dressler notes that Agee once wrote to his former instructor that "[He wanted] to write symphonies," and he did just that, forming such beautiful musical phrases and strong connection to childhood moments that Barber felt compelled to write actual music to it (pg. 4).

Outside of the lyricism of the poem, Barber also connected to the piece because he was experiencing a similar situation to Agee- his aunt and father were sick and declining quickly at the time Barber read this work (Kluver). This personal tie to the true emotions behind it ony made Barber more determined to write his own version of it. Unfortunately, Samuel Barber's dad passed away around the same time that the score of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was completed, and the piece was thus dedicated to his memory. Looking quickly at Barber's own writing style, the piece reflects an earlier form of his writing despite being written later in his life. It uses more traditional key relationships instead of his more common use of dissonance (Broder). This could in and of itself be one of the ways that Barber integrates his own nostalgia into the musical format of the poetry. It reflects a simpler form of music while the soprano, reflecting the narrator of the story, brings in a more dissonant, wandering line. The vocalist's line is almost like a dreamy dance, crafted specifically to include natural speaking inflections. This only further succeeds in making the music more entrancing.

The piece itself was drafted before the work was commissioned by a notable opera singer at the time, Eleanor Steber, and he quickly completed it after the commission was made official in 1947 (Pollack). The following spring, it was performed by Mrs. Steber, and quickly became one of Barber's most admired pieces, bringing audience and performers alike to recall their childhoods with a sweet sense of remembrance. In fact, even Eleanor Steber herself said that Knoxville was "Exactly like [her] childhood," (Taylor, pg. 211). There was another performer close to Barber, named Leontyne Price, who said that she could "smell the south" in it (Taylor, pg. 211). These performers grew up in completely different areas with individual experiences to go alongside them, and yet they both feel an innate sense of connection to the piece. It reminds them of their childhood, and both of them love it. Even generations later, it continues to be performed, and people still feel a strong connection with the dreamy combination of James Agee and Samuel Barber, showing just how widely likeable this piece is.

In total, this work was created because Barber fell in love with a poem made from a place of potent nostalgia. From the lyricism of the poetry written by Agee to the dancing lines of music later added by Barber, this piece is an incredibly beautiful work of art. Representing simpler, kinder times in people's lives, the connection felt by Barber throughout reading and writing the work was continued on in the feelings of every performer and many audiences, tying all of them together in some inexplicable way. To think that it all started with a summer day, when James Agee was too busy being a child to truly appreciate it all. Before he knew what would happen the following year, what he would write, and who it would reach. Who would have thought that it would lead to this?