American composer and performer Barbara Harbach, who has written numerous symphonies, piano works, musicals, film scores, chamber music, and much more, thinks of herself primarily as a “melodist” in her music. “People like melodies. They like them combined, taken apart and put back together,” she told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in this Zoom interview.
Harbarch has found much of her inspiration in literary works, historical figures, films, and the work and lives of women, including novelist Willa Cather, Harriet Scott (who, with her husband, Dred Scott, sued for their freedom from slavery in what became a landmark Supreme Court case), pioneer women of Alaska, and others. “When I find something that has a strong feeling to it, or portrays women in a particularly interesting way, or perhaps downtrodden way, or they need some sort of recognition in the world, I like to be there to help to get their story out. My music is their story,” she said. Harbach is also an organist and harpsichordist, and has been a music publisher and editor.
In this interview, she describes her “Celestial Symphony,” music that was first written to accompany a screening of the 1906 silent film, “The Birth, Life, and Death of Christ,” by the early film pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché. Later she developed the music into a symphony. Listen here to the full interview to learn more about Harbach, who moved to Las Cruces with her husband shortly before the pandemic.
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