''Sure on this shining night, op.13 no.3 '' is an

art song An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such son ...

by composer

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

from his 1938

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarel ...

''Four Songs''. The work's text is taken from

James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...

's poem "Descriptions of Elysium" which was published in his 1934 poetry collection ''Permit Me Voyage'' by the

Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Uni ...

. One of Barber's most frequently performed works, the work displays Barber's Neo-Romantic lyricism with its classically oriented formal structure and carefully crafted interplay between solo voice and piano that emphasizes canonic imitation. In 1938 Barber created an orchestral arrangement for the song. Barber later reworked the art song into an SATB choral arrangement in 1961. The song has been recorded by sopranos

Roberta Alexander Roberta Alexander (born March 3, 1949) is an American operatic soprano. She began her career as a lyric soprano in 1975 and spent the next three decades performing principal roles with opera houses internationally. Particularly celebrated for he ...

Elly Ameling Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling (born 8 February 1933) is a retired Dutch soprano, who was particularly known for lieder recitals and for performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Performing with distinguished pianists and ensembles around the gl ...

Martina Arroyo Martina Arroyo (born February 2, 1937) is an American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success. Arroyo firs ...

Barbara Bonney Barbara Bonney (born April 14, 1956) is an American soprano. She is associated with lyric soprano roles in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss as well as lieder performances. Early life Bonney was born in Montclair, New Jersey. As a child she p ...

Greta Bradman Greta Bradman (born 1979 or 1982) is an Australian operatic soprano. Career Richard Bonynge selected Bradman to sing the title role in a concert performance of Handel's '' Rodelinda'' in 2014. Bradman was the subject of two episodes of the A ...

Barbara Hendricks Barbara Hendricks (born November 20, 1948) is an American operatic soprano and concert singer. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland in Basel since 1985. She is a citizen of Sweden following her marriage to a Swedish ci ...

, and

Cheryl Studer Cheryl Studer (born October 24, 1955) is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated ...

; mezzo-sopranos

Sasha Cooke Sasha Cooke is an American mezzo-soprano. Cooke was born in Riverside, California, and grew up in College Station, Texas, where her parents are professors of Russian at Texas A&M University. She earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University and ...

and

Marilyn Horne Marilyn Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the Nat ...

; baritones

Gerald Finley Gerald Hunter Finley, (born January 30, 1960) is a Canadian baritone opera singer. Early life Finley was born in Montreal and studied music at St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Ottawa, the University of Ottawa, King's College, Cambridge and the R ...

and

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a rang ...

; tenors

Stuart Skelton Stuart Skelton (born 1968 in Sydney) is an Australian operatic heldentenor. In 2016 he opened the Metropolitan Opera season with Nina Stemme in Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde''. Discography Studio concert recordings *2008: Mahler – ''Das Lied ...

and Robert White; and choral ensembles

Conspirare Conspirare is a choral ensemble based in Austin, Texas. They were formed in 1991 by conductor and musical director Craig Hella Johnson as New Texas Festival but did not begin to regularly perform until 1999. They have released over 25 albums an ...

The Esoterics The Esoterics is a vocal ensemble based in Seattle, Washington that performs contemporary a cappella choral settings of poetry, philosophy, and spiritual writings from around the world. It was founded in 1992 by director Eric Banks for his Mas ...

, the

Choir of Ormond College Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents. ...

, and the

Cambridge University Chamber Choir The Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) is a federation of the university's main orchestral and choral ensembles, which cumulatively put on a substantial concert season during the university term. Background Music has a long history at Cam ...

. The same portion of the same poem was also set to music by composer

Morten Lauridsen Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus o ...

, as one of the four texts in his ''Nocturnes'' (2005).

References

{{reflist Song cycles by Samuel Barber 1938 compositions Orchestral songs