fox and bear, op. 39
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Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras commissioned this work as a contribution to UNICEF’s “Year of the Child” campaign in 1973. After the death of his first wife, Kazu-e, in the summer of 1972, Baber found serious composition difficult until the idea of fulfilling this commission by using a Japanese folk tale took shape. Fox and Bear uses the concept of a Peter and the Wolf style children’s guide to the instruments of the orchestra. A narrator introduces the characters of the story, taken by various instruments and sections of the orchestra, then tells the story of a trusting bear and a wily fox. The work was first performed in a pair of concerts in the Spring of 1973, with Joseph Ceo conducting the CKYO senior orchestra and Wesley Morgan narrating. The Lexington premiere was repeated at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where it was recorded for NPR’s Performance Today.
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