Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who also took the piece on tour to Europe and South America. It is disputed[by whom?] whether the first performance in Europe was conducted by Toscanini or Henry Wood. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."[1] In 1967 he made a choral arrangement, Agnus Dei. Adagio for Strings can be heard in many TV shows and movies.
It begins with a B-flat played by violins, leading to the lower strings' entrance. The rhythm is [bad word] with sustained notes, and Barber uses some unusual time signatures including 4/2, 5/2, 6/4, and 3/2.[2