# 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 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
** 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)