Fadograph of a Yestern Scene, Op. 44, is one of a number of Samuel Barber's works that were inspired by Irish literature, especially that of James Joyce, whose words the composer had used for his Three Songs Op. 10 and for his vocal scena Nuvoletta for soprano and piano, Op. 25. The words for that work were taken from Finnegans Wake, and Barber again dipped into that mighty stream of prose to take a title for an orchestral work that had commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony for the opening of their new Heinz Hall on September 11, 1971. It is not known whether Joyce's prose fragment inspired his work on the piece, or whether he simply used it for a title when the premiere came near. In any case, the etymology of the words can be broken down simply: "fadograph" would suggest a faded photograph in an album, whereas "yestern" not only suggests the word "yesterday," but is a parody of "gestern," which in German means the same thing. By 1971 Barber's parents and sister were long dead, his intimate relationship with the composer/impresario Gian Carlo Menotti had long cooled, and his music was widely dismissed as an anachronism. Joyce's line may have given him comfort.

Fadograph, despite its wonderful title, cannot be counted as one of Barber's strongest works, but it has a gentle and affectionate mood that is sincere. Intimate in feeling and in scope (about seven minutes) and in one movement, it is scored for a standard Romantic orchestra including double winds with auxiliaries, three trumpets in the brass section, celesta, piano and harp, and a standard percussion battery. (Barbara Heyman's standard text Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music describes the piece as being "without key signature"; this is not true, at least according to the 1972 score.) Fadograph is cast in a three-part, through-composed form. The opening section (Moderato, cantando liberamente), almost continually in 7/4 time, alternates two ideas. The first, a modal-sounding melody that rises slowly to a seventh and the dejectedly falls, is set over a delicate accompaniment of harp and strings; the second idea, coming along about a minute in, is a falling theme in triplets, starting in the high winds. After these ideas are cycled though a second time with a degree of variation, a middle section in 3/4 time ensues, based on a tighter and more active theme in solo viola, accompanied by a pizzicato diminution of the first theme in the other strings; after a change of key from three sharps to five flats, the theme, restated by full strings with winds, surges to a warm but not overwhelming climax. The music then dies down and flows into its final section, based on an a six-note variant of the opening theme, which soon settles into a nostalgic Scriabin-like section of A major harmony. Bassoon and low strings bring back the opening music proper, along with its tonal ambiguity, and the piece closes on a decaying A-E open fifth, clouded by gently dissonant arpeggios in the harp and vibes.

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