Joseph Baber
# Joseph Baber

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.

## Selected works

Information from and.

* 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 Lindsey)
   * "(Mysteries)" (Emily Dickenson)
   * "Terminus" (Emerson)
   * "Evening Song" (Sydney 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 Sandberg)
   * (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 (Leonie 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
   * 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)
