Seymour Barab (January 9, 1921 – June 28, 2014) was an American composer of opera, songs and instrumental and chamber music, as well as a cellist, organist and pianist.
[2] The family had little money, but Barab's parents considered culture important,[3] and he was given piano lessons, from an early age, at first with his aunt, Gertrude Yablunky.
This was followed by positions with orchestras in other cities around the United States including Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.
According to Barab, the main reason he was stationed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard was because Eugene Ormandy recruited him as a cellist so there would be a string orchestra "to play for the Officer’s Lunch".
[13] During this time, Barab played with the Philadelphia Orchestra and studied cello with Gregor Piatigorsky, who was teaching at Curtis Institute of Music.
With Noah Greenberg, he later founded the New York Pro Musica Antiqua in which Barab played viola da gamba.
When asked what drew him to composition, Barab answered: "[E]ventually I came to think that [composers] had a much better life than I had, they could do what they did anywhere, but I was kinda stuck with a job or with commitments, that sort of thing.
[17] Barab also suggested that his relationship with a singer, Pat Neway, and the upright piano in his rented Parisian apartment, that led to the start of his composition in France, saying, "I would play and she would sing.
[citation needed] Upon his return from Paris, Barab was offered a position as an assistant professor of cello at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
[19] There he met his second wife, Mary Ann, with whom he had two children, Miriam and Jesse, and he also completed one of his first songs cycles, A Child's Garden of Verses.
[20] The recording of this song cycle, sung by Russell Oberlin, sold well and led to Barab receiving a job as a professor of composition at Rutgers University.
[23] David M. Epstein reviewed the premier in Musical America, stating that the piece is a "humorous affair done with a delightful, light touch.
[citation needed] In 1957, Barab's second opera, A Game of Chance, with a libretto by E. Manacher, premiered in Rock Island, Illinois, and was also received well.
[27] In his other fairy tale operas, Barab continued to cut or contextualize the violence, sometimes tweaking the story to emphasize the moral point.
[23] Gerald Helund, in a review of Phillip Marshall, commented that Barab's libretto is "packed with power, believability, and character with depth, animation and color.