THE MUSIC OF SEYMOUR BARAB
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VOICE


VOICE WITH PIANO
FOUR SONGS Boosey and Hawkes

1. Go, Lovely Rose (Edmund Waller)
2. She's Somewhere in the Sunlight Strong (Richard LeGallienne)
3. Minstrel's Song (Thomas Chatterton)
4. I Can't be Talkin' of Love (Esther Matthews)

PARODIES Boosey and Hawkes
Voice and Piano

As some children's jump-rope rhymes might have been set to music by the masters.

1. I'll Never go to Macy's (Handel)
2. Miss Lucy (Donizetti)
3. I was Standing on the Corner (Wolf)
4. Poor Old Lady (Moussorgsky)
5. Charlie Chaplin (Duparc)
6. Spanish Dancer (DeFalla)
'Seymour Barab's ''Parodies,'' a new piece that sets six children's jump-rope rhymes in the manner of great masters of song. The wild anomolies between text and Mr. Barab's deadly earnest musical styles were clever indeed'
— Bernard Holland, The New York Times, 1/12/1986
THE RIVALS (Texts by James Stephens) Theodore Presser Co.
1. The Daisies
2. The Rose in the Wind
3. The Hawk
4. The Rivals

A MAID ME LOVED (Patrick Hannay) Boosey and Hawkes

AN EXPLANATION (Walter Learned) Boosey and Hawkes
VOICE WITH INSTRUMENTS

BAGATELLES ECS Publishing
for High Voice, Recorder and Guitar

1. Prelude
2. Roundelay (John Dryden)
3. Prue (Thomas Moore)
4. The Fly (William Blake)
5. If Love were what the Rose is (Charles Algernon Swinburne)
6. Tom (Thomas Moore)
7. The Owl (Alfred Lord Tennyson)
8. The Pigtail (William Makepeace Thackeray)
"Mr. Barab sustains a determinately antique flavor in most of the eight songs, which not only exploit delicious blendings of instrumental sonorities, but give the singer wonderful opportunities for vocal and poetic subtleties."
— Donald  Helahan, The New York Times, 10/16/1979
BITS AND PIECES ECS Publishing
Soprano, Clarinet and Piano

1. Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount (Ben Johnson)
2. The Rain (Anon.)
3. Did Not (Thomas Moore)
4. Waste (Harry Graham)
5. The Blossom (William Blake)
6. Late Riser (Anon.)
7. Do not Love too Long (William Butler Yeats)
8. There was a King (Anon.)
9. I heard a Linnet Courting (Robert Graves)

Recorded by the Ariel Ensemble on Orion records

"...beguiling..."— 

"...proved refreshing, even though the composer thumbed his nose altogether at the twentieth century--His unabashed Romanticism accommodated the amorous pastoral sentiments of the poetry, which he set nicely."
                      — MUSICAL AMERICA

"A winning sense of humor, occasionally a gentle poignance, and attractive melodies are among the features of this brief song cycle."
                      --THE NEW RECORDS

"Relatively serious settings of poems alternate with absurd little wise-cracks, stressing the creative dichotomy of "light" and "heavy 'art'"
                       —RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

"Barab's way is to combine the vocal line with a hauntingly melodious piano part..."
                       --AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
BAWD BALLADS Seesaw
Voice, Violin, Viola and Cello

1. Sylvia and Cupid (John Dryden)
2. Dick and Rose (Matthew Prior)
3. Coridon and Phyllis (Charles Sedley)
4. Priest and Penitent (G.G. Belli)
5. He and She (Anonymous)
6. Alexis and Celia (John Dryden)
7. Strephon and Chloe (Charles Hanbury Williams)
8. Miss Jane (John Lockman)
9. Elle et Lui (Anonymous)
10. A Maid and a Man (Anonymous)
"...wittily set by Barab" --THE EAGLE
A LITTLE LIGHT MUSIC Seesaw
Voice, Clarinet (or Viola or Cello) and Piano
Texts by the Composer

1. Infallible System
2. Why Johnny Hates School
3. A Learned Man
4. Penny Scale
5. I Love a Latin Band
Recorded by Theresa Treadway Lloyd on Albany Records

LOVERS Seesaw
Voice, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Piano
Texts by Sir John Suckling

1. Careless Lover
2. Patient Lover
3. Rejected Lover
4. Constant Lover
5. False Lover
6. Perplexed Lover
7. Honest Lover

MOMENTS MACABRES ECS Music
Voice, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, String Quartet, Bass 
Anonymous Texts

1. Prelude
2. Old Roger
3. Down by the Greenwood Shady
4. The Walk
5. A Man of Words and not of Deeds
6. Gypsies in the Wood
7. Elegy for Frederick the Great
8. Mama had a Baby

'Seymour Barab's "Moments Macabres," [is]a cycle of children's songs composed in 1976 to British nonsense and counting rhymes as compiled by W.H. Auden. It's a clever soufflé prepared in a masterly way; Mr. Barab's musical punning, sense of timing and tuneful zest could not be more skillful, either in its perky vocal lines or in the dancing ensemble of string quartet, flute, oboe and clarinet.'
— Peter G. Davis, THE NEW YORK TIMES 3/18/79
SONGS OF PERFECT PROPRIETY Boosey and Hawkes
Voice, Wind Quintet and Piano
Setting of poems by Dorothy Parker

1. Song of Perfect Propriety
2. Now at Liberty
3. Ultimatum
4. Renunciation
5. Inventory
6. Social Note
7. A Very Short Song
8. One Perfect Rose
9. Wisdom
10. Men
11. Lullaby
12. Comment
13. Symptom Recital
14. The False Friends
15. Love Song
16. Indian Summer
17. Somebody's Song
18. Song of One of the Girls
19. Bric-a-brac
20. They Part
21. Chant for Dark Hours
22. The Choice
23. The Trusting Heart
24. Coda

Recorded by Barbara Cook on Esoteric Records.

AIRS AND FANCIES ECS Publishing
Voice, Violin, Cello and Harpsichord (or Piano)

1. Music, When Soft Voices Die...(Percy Bysshe Shelley)
2. The Cuckoo (Justin Richardson)
3. Weep You no More, Sad Fountains (Anonymous)
4. Werther (William Makepeace Thackeray)
5. Five Reasons (on a round by Henry Purcell)
6. Autumn (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
7. Why Does He (She) so Long Delay?

"...these songs were alternately sensitive and amusing, nay, hysterical settings..."--GREENFIELD RECORDER

"The evening's biggest winner.."
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
COSMOS CANTATA Seesaw Music Corp.
Soprano, Tenor, Baritone, Chamber Orchestra
Text by Kurt Vonnegut

Recorded by Manhattan Chamber Orchestra on Helicon/ Kleos

VOICE/ 
CHORUS A CAPPELLA


MERRY ARE THE BELLS G. Schirmer 
SATBa

SWEET WAS THE SONG G. Schirmer
SATBa

THE SILVER SWAN G. Schirmer
SATB 

VOICE/ CHORUS WITH INSTRUMENTS

FIRST PERSON FEMININE Boosey and Hawkes
SSA with Piano
Texts by Sara Teasdale

1. Pierrot
2. The Daisy
3. The Song for Colin
4. The Wayfarer
5. The Look
6. Love Me
7. The Kiss

OPERA PLOTZ Seesaw Music Corp.

SATB, Clarinet, Bassoon, Trumpet, Flute, Harp, Oboe, Cello, Bass and Percussion

Comic synopses of some popular operas.
1. Carmen
2. Palleas and Melisande
3. Hansel and Gretel



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