‘Adagio For Strings’ is a work by Samuel Barber (1910-1981), arranged by himself for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber completed the arrangement in 1936, the same year he wrote the quartet. It was first performed on 5 November 1938 and can also be heard on many film and television soundtracks, such as The Elephant Man (1980), Platoon (1986) and Lorenzo’s Oil (1992). Perhaps most popular is the 1986 Vietnam War movie Platoon, where the Adagio For Stri...