Tune in Today: Why Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ Still Breaks Our Hearts

From presidential funerals to national tragedies, this piece has given voice to collective grief when words fall short.

The funeral services held in the United States Capitol rotunda for President John F. Kennedy included Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” Public Domain

Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” may be the saddest piece ever written. Voted the “saddest classical” work ever in 2004 by the listeners to the BBC Radio’s Today program, this lament is one of the greatest works of music in all of the 20th century.

Arranged from the slow movement of his String Quartet Op. 11, the desolate, anguished harmonies of Barber’s “Adagio” are simple yet profound. What’s more, the origin of this piece comes from one of America’s brightest musical minds.