Joseph Baber Explained

Joseph Wilson Baber Jr. (September 11, 1937 – March 19, 2022) was an American composer, violist, and composition teacher living in Lexington, Kentucky.

Life

Baber was born in 1937 in Richmond, Virginia, and died in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Kentucky from 1971 to 2021, and the longtime principal violist of Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.^[1]

Selected works

Information from ^[2] and.^[3]

• Op. 1: Duos for Violin and Viola
• Op. 2a: Longfellow Songs
  • "It Is Not Always May"
  • "The Aftermath"
  • "Serenade"
  • "The Rainy Day"
  • "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls"
  • "Snow-flakes"
• Op. 2b: Emersonian Hymns
  • "The Informing Spirit"
  • "Compensation"
  • "Thine Eyes Still Shined"
  • "Thought"
  • "Terminus"
  • "To Ellen"
  • "Nature"
• Op. 3: Miscellaneous Instrumental (1960)
• Op. 4: Wise Men And Shepherds, Christmas cantata (1951)
• Op. 5: Instrumental Works for Winds
  • Sonnet for Solo Oboe, Flute and String Orchestra
  • Meditation for Solo Bassoon
  • Sketches for Flute and Piano
• Op. 6: Cavalier Lyrics (1960)
  • "Song (Sedley)"
  • "Why So Pale and Wan" (Sir John Suckling)
  • "Take, O Take Those Lips Away" (Shakespeare)
  • "The Constant Lover" (Sir John Suckling)
  • "To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her" (Sir George Etherege)
  • "Of the Last Verses in the Book"
  • "To Blossoms" (Robert Herrick)
• Op. 7: Serenade for String Orchestra
• Op. 8: Serenade for String Trio (1975)
• Op. 9: Shakespearean Madrigals
  • "Fie on Sinful Fantasy"
  • "Tell Me Where"
  • "I Am Gone, Sir"
  • "Who Is Sylvia?"
  • "When Icicles Hang By the Wall"
  • "Weep No More, Ladies"
  • " Mistress Mine"
  • "It Was a Lover and His Lass"
  • "Under the Greenwood Tree"
• Op. 10: Overture to As You Like It
• Op. 11: Kingdom of the Heart's Content for Piano (Seasonal Sketches)
• Op. 12: American Songs (1957)
  • "Words" (John Hay)
  • "The Dying Lover" (Richard Henry Stoddard)
  • "The Dark Hills" (Edwin Arlington Robinson)
  • "Nancibel" (Bliss Carman)
  • "To a Golden Haired Girl in a Louisiana Town" (Vachel Lindsay)
  • "(Mysteries)" (Emily Dickinson)
  • "Terminus" (Emerson)
  • "Evening Song" (Sidney Lanier)
  • "The Runner in the Skies" (James Oppenheim)
  • "Force" (Edward Rowland Sill)
• Op. 13: Bagatelle-Preludes (for piano)
• Op. 14: Incidental Music (Michigan)
  • Music for the play Tiger at the Gates (Jean Anouilh)
  • Music for the play Our Town (Thornton Wilder)
  • Honor's Concert Prize piece, Music for String Orchestra
  • Castelnuovo-Tedesco Variations for Piano
  • Sketchbooks: impressions in shorts score of mid-western scenes
  • Preludes for Piano, written for Virginia Bodman (1959–1962)
• Op. 15: Two Sonatas for Viola and Piano
• Op. 16: Twelve American Pastorals for SSA and Cello Ensemble (Harmonium)
  • Afternoon on a Hill (Edna St Vincent Millay)
  • On a Dayward Height
  • Valley Song (Carl Sandburg)
  • (Indian Summer) (Emily Dickenson)
  • Wind in the Sunlit Trees (Conrad Aiken)
  • Former Barn Lot (Mark Van Doren)
  • Wild Peaches (Elinor Wylie)
  • A Winter Piece (William Cullen Bryant)
  • Daisies (Bliss Carman)
  • The Road (John Gould Fletcher)
  • Meadowlarks (Sara Teasdale)
  • The Spice Tree (Vachel Lindsey)
• Op. 16a: Five Pastorals for Soprano and lower strings
• Op. 17: The Klausli Service (Music for Richard Klausli and the Plymouth Congregationalist Church)
• Op. 18: Songbook: Miscellaneous Uncollected Songs
  • Eldorado (Edgar Allan Poe)
  • The Traveller (Vachel Lindsey)
  • "A Boy's Will" (Longfellow: Stanzas 1 & 2 of My Lost Youth)
  • I Will Build a House
  • In the Train (Teasdale)
  • A Vagabond Song (Bliss Carman)
  • The First Snow-fall (Lowell)
  • Wood Song (Teasdale)
  • Afternoon on a Hill (Millay)
  • A Winter Piece (Bryant)
  • Meadowlarks (Teasdale)
• Op. 19: Shakespearean Songs for high voice and piano
  • Full Fathom Five
  • Willow Song
  • Take, O Take Those Lips Away
  • Under the Greenwood Tree
  • Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred
  • The Master, The Swabber, The Boatswain
  • Take, O Take Those Lips Away (second version)
  • It Was a Lover and His Lass
  • Blow, Blow, Thy Winter Wind
• Op. 20: Organ Preludes on Protestant Hymn Tunes
• Op. 21: Trio for Violin, Viola and Violoncello
• Op. 22: Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra
• Op. 23: Sonata for Violin and Piano
• Op. 24: Overture: The New Land
• Op. 25: Trio for Oboe, Viola and Piano
• Op. 26: Concerto No. 1 for Viola and String Orchestra
• Op. 27: Psalms for Chorus SATB
• Op. 28: Concerto No. 2 for Viola and Orchestra
• Op. 29: Songs of Love and Loss
  • Pity Me Not (Edna St Vincent Millay)
  • The Net (Sara Teasdale)
  • Men Loved Wholly Beyond Wisdom (Louise Bogan)
  • This Quiet Dust (Emily Dickenson)
  • Where No Thoughts Are (Anna Hempstead Branch)
• Op. 30: String Quartet
• Op. 31: Incidental Music (Illinois)
  • Keyboard Toccatas (for Dwight Peltzer) (1969)
  • Scherzo for Viola and Piano (1969)
• Op. 32: Divertimentos
• Op. 33: Songbook: Miscellaneous Uncollected Songs
  • Go and Catch a Falling Star (John Donne)
  • In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations' (Thomas Hardy)
  • The Widow's Song (Pinkney)
  • Up-Hill (Rossetti)
  • Mnemosyne (Trumbull Stickney)
  • Cradle Song of the Infant Jesus for Soprano, Viola and Organ (Old French Noel) (2012)
• Op. 34: Works for Unaccompanied String
• Op. 35: Music from the Kansas College Co-operative Composers Project
  • Prelude for Band (1970–1971)
  • Scherzo for Chamber Orchestra (1970)
  • Carol (SATB)
  • Alleluias (SATB)
  • To Everything There Is a Season (SATB)
  • I Beseech You, Therefore, Brethren (SATB) (1971)
• Op. 36: Three Madrigals on Lyrics by Thomas Campion for Solo Voices
  • "I Care Not for These Ladies"
  • "Rose-cheek'd Laura, come"
  • "Now winter nights"
• Op. 37: Mephisto Rhapsody for Violin and Piano (1971)
• Op. 38: Partita for Keyboard (1975–2008)
• Op. 39: "Fox and Bear" – A Children's Guide to the Orchestra for Narrator and Orchestra
• Op. 40: Frankenstein: Opera in 4 Acts (with John Gardner) (1969–1980)
• Op. 41: Five Fantasias on Finnish Folk Songs for SATB and Piano 4-hands
  • Kalliole Kukkulalle
  • Minun Kultani
  • Lapsuuden Ystavalle
  • Ranalle-Istaja Neito
  • Rukkaset
• Op. 42: Rumpelstiltskin: Opera in 2 Acts (with John Gardner)
• Op. 43: Landscapes for Soprano and Nine 'Cellos (T. S. Eliot)
• Op. 44: Missa Brevis for Women's Chorus SSA and Organ
• Op. 45: Rhapsody for Two 'Cellos and Orchestra
• Op. 46: Symphony No. 1 in E minor (1979)
• Op. 47: Six Sinfonias for Piano
• Op. 48: Music for St. Michaels (Church of St Michael the Archangel, Lexington)
• Op. 49: Three Fantasias for String Quartet
• Op. 50: Ere We Be Young Again (Robert Louis Stevenson)
  • Good and Bad Children
  • Looking Forward
  • Whole Duty of Children
  • At the Seaside
  • Singing
  • Rain
  • Where Go the Boats
  • The Swing
  • My Bed Is a Boat
  • Envoy
• Op. 51: Two Marches in the American Style for Orchestra (1981–1991)
• Op. 52: Samson and the Witch, Opera in 1 Act (with John Gardner) (1995)
• Op. 53: Songs from Shakespeare
  • When Daisies Pied
  • How Should I Your True Love Know
  • Where the Bee Sucks
  • Come unto These Yellow Sands
  • You Spotted Snakes
  • Orpheus with His Lute
  • Who Is Sylvia
• Op. 54: Requiescat for Violin and Orchestra (1983) – in memoriam of John Gardner
• Op. 55: 'The Wild Swans at Coole' and other songs on poems of William Butler Yeats (1986)
  • The Wild Swans at Coole
  • Brown Penny
  • Made Quiet
  • First Love
  • Remorse for Intermperate Speech
  • Tom O'Roughley
  • To a Child Dancing in the Wind
  • Two Years Later
  • When You Are Old
  • The Lake Isle of Innesfree
• Op. 56: Songs for School Children (c. 1984)
  • Some One (Walter de la Mare)
  • How Doth the Lowly Crocodile (Lewis Carroll)
  • Ariel's Song (William Shakespeare)
  • Who Has Seen the Wind (Christina Rossetti)
• Op. 57: Songbook: Miscellaneous Uncollected Songs
  • A Lover Pleads with His Friends for Old Friends (Yeats)
  • Beloved Rivers (Marjorie England) (1987–1989)
  • And That Is Life (Paul Laurence Dunbar) (1990)
  • Full Moon (Sara Teasdale)
  • The Philosopher (Millay)
  • Home-Coming (Léonie Adams)
• Op. 58: 'Dark of the Moon' for mezzo-soprano (Sara Teasdale)
  • Winter
  • September Night
  • Wisdom
  • Low Tide
  • "She Who Could Bind You"
  • Foreknown
  • At Tintagil
  • The Fountain
  • Epitaph
• Op. 59: Symphony No. 2 in D (1987–1991)
• Op. 60: Shiloh, for tenor, horn, and piano^[4]
  • The Portent
  • Misgivings
  • Malvern Hill
  • Shiloh
• Op. 61: The Shepherd's Calendar, suite for solo English Horn
• Op. 63: Heartland: A Runaway Summer Overture for Orchestra (1990)
• Op. 64: Steel Town, Capriccio for Chamber Orchestra (1990)
• Op. 65: Summer Music: Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano
• Op. 66: The Kentucky Suite for Orchestra
• Op. 67: St Louis Suite for Clarinet and Piano
• Op. 68: Fantasia for String Quartet
• Op. 69: Organ Preludes (1995)
• Op. 70: Songs for Our Children
• Op. 71: "Echo" and "The First Spring Day" for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet and String Orchestra
• Op. 72: Two Songs for a Christening for Soprano and Organ or Strings
• Op. 73: Heartland: September Towns
• Op. 74: Madrigals from Shakespeare (1997)
  • Under the Greenwood Tree
  • How Should I Your True Love Know
  • It Was a Lover and His Lass
  • Willow Song
  • Take, O Take Those Lips Away
  • O Mistress Mine
• Op. 75: Songbook: Miscellaneous Uncollected Songs
• Op. 80: An American Requiem (1999–2003)
• Op. 81: Introduction and Allegro for Six Cellos
• Op. 89: Two Movements Concertante for Oboe and Small Orchestra (2003)
• Op. 90: Sonata for Three Cellos and Piano (2006)
• Op. 91: Album of American Ghosts (2006)
• Op. 94: Suite Concertante for flute and string orchestra
• Op. 99: River of Time: An Opera in 2 Acts (with Jim Rodgers) (2009)^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Joseph Wilson Baber, Jr. obituary. Lexington Herald-Leader. March 24, 2022. legacy.com.
2. Baber Archive. (n.d.). Opus Catalog and List of Performances. Lexington, Kentucky: Baber, J.
3. Hauser, R., McKee, D., & Rumbley, E. (2016). Joseph Baber papers 2005ua015. Retrieved from University of Kentucky Special Collections.
4. Web site: Joseph Baber College of Fine Arts. finearts.uky.edu. 2017-01-15.
5. Web site: Review: UK Opera Theatre's River of Time Copious Notes. Copley. Rich. 2017-01-15.