Milton Babbitt
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| - | '''Milton Byron Babbitt''' (born [[May 10]], [[1916]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[composer]]. He is particularly noted for his pioneering [[Serialism|serial]] and [[electronic music]]. | + | '''Milton Byron Babbitt''' (May 10, 1916 - January 29, 2011) was an [[American composer]]. He is particularly noted for his [[Serialism|serial]] and [[electronic music]], best-known for his composition ''[[Philomel (Babbitt)|Philomel]]'' (1964). |
| + | ==Biography== | ||
| + | Babbitt was born in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] (Barkin & Brody 2001) to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin. He was raised in [[Jackson, Mississippi]], and began studying the [[violin]] when he was four but soon switched to [[clarinet]] and [[saxophone]]. Early in his life he was attracted to [[jazz]] and [[theater music]]. He was making his own arrangements of popular songs at seven, and when he was thirteen, he won a local songwriting contest. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Babbitt's father was a mathematician, and it was [[mathematics]] that Babbitt intended to study when he entered the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1931. However, he soon left and went to [[New York University]] instead, where he studied music with [[Philip James]] and [[Marion Bauer]]. There he became interested in the music of the composers of the [[Second Viennese School]], and went on to write a number of articles on [[twelve tone music]] including the first description of [[combinatoriality]] and a serial "time-point" technique. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree from [[New York University College of Arts and Science]] in 1935 with [[Phi Beta Kappa]] honors, he studied under [[Roger Sessions]], first privately and then later at [[Princeton University]]. At the University he joined the music faculty in 1938 and received one of Princeton's first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942 (Barkin & Brody 2001). During the [[Second World War]] Babbitt divided his time between mathematical research in Washington, DC, and Princeton, where he became a member of the mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945 (Barkin & Brody 2001). | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1948, Babbitt joined Princeton University's music faculty and in 1973, became a member of the faculty at the [[Juilliard School]] in New York. Among his more notable former students are music theorists [[David Lewin]] and John Rahn, composers [[Donald Martino]], [[Laura Karpman]], [[Tobias Picker]], [[Paul Lansky]], and [[John Melby]], the theatre composer [[Stephen Sondheim]], and the jazz guitarist and composer [[Stanley Jordan]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1958, Babbitt achieved unsought notoriety through an [[Who Cares if You Listen|article]] in the popular magazine ''[[High Fidelity (magazine)|High Fidelity]]'' (Babbitt 1958). Babbitt said his own title for the article was "The Composer as Specialist" (as it was later published several times, including in Babbitt 2003, 48–54), and "The editor, without my knowledge and—therefore—my consent or assent, replaced my title by the more 'provocative' one: 'Who Cares if You Listen?' a title which reflects little of the letter and nothing of the spirit of the article" (Babbitt 1991, 17). | ||
| + | |||
| + | More than 30 years later, he commented that, "For all that the true source of that offensively vulgar title has been revealed many times, in many ways, even—eventually—by the offending journal itself", he was "still ... far more likely to be known as the author of 'Who Cares if You Listen?' than as the composer of music to which you may or may not care to listen" (Babbitt 1991, 17). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Babbitt later became interested in [[electronic music]]. He was hired by [[RCA]] as consultant composer to work with their [[RCA Mark II Synthesizer]] at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (known since 1996 as the Columbia University Computer Music Center), and in 1961 produced his ''Composition for Synthesizer''. Babbitt was less interested in producing new timbres than in the rhythmic precision he could achieve using the Mark II synthesizer, a degree of precision previously unobtainable in live performances (Barkin & Brody 2001). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Babbitt continued to write both electronic music and music for conventional [[musical instrument]]s, often combining the two. ''[[Milton Babbitt's Philomel|Philomel]]'' (1964), for example, was written for soprano and a synthesized accompaniment (including the recorded and manipulated voice of [[Bethany Beardslee]], for whom the piece was composed) stored on [[magnetic tape]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | From 1985 until his death he served as the Chairman of the BMI Student Composer Awards, the international competition for young classical composers. Milton Babbitt died in [[Princeton, New Jersey]] on January 29, 2011 at the age of 94 (Kozinn 2011; Anon. 2011b). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==List of compositions== | ||
| + | *1935 ''Generatrix'' for orchestra (unfinished) | ||
| + | *1939–41 String Trio | ||
| + | *1940 ''Composition for String Orchestra'' (unfinished) | ||
| + | *1941 Symphony (unfinished) | ||
| + | *1941 ''Music for the Mass I'' for mixed chorus | ||
| + | *1942 ''Music for the Mass II'' for mixed chorus | ||
| + | *1946 ''Fabulous Voyage'' (musical, libretto by Richard Koch) | ||
| + | *1946 ''Three Theatrical Songs'' for voice and piano (taken from Fabulous Voyage) | ||
| + | *1947 ''Three Compositions for Piano'' | ||
| + | *1948 ''Composition for Four Instruments'' | ||
| + | *1948 String Quartet No. 1 (withdrawn) | ||
| + | *1948 ''Composition for Twelve Instruments'' | ||
| + | *1949 ''Into the Good Ground'' film music (withdrawn) | ||
| + | *1950 ''Composition for Viola and Piano'' | ||
| + | *1951 ''The Widow’s Lament in Springtime'' for soprano and piano | ||
| + | *1951 ''Du'' for soprano and piano, [[August Stramm]] | ||
| + | *1953 Woodwind Quartet | ||
| + | *1954 String Quartet No. 2 | ||
| + | *1954 ''Vision and Prayer'' for soprano and piano | ||
| + | *1955 ''Two Sonnets'' for baritone, clarinet, viola, and cello, two poems of [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] | ||
| + | *1956 Duet for piano | ||
| + | *1956 ''Semi-Simple Variations'' for piano | ||
| + | *1957 ''All Se''t for alto sax, tenor sax, trp, trb, cb, pno, vib, percussion | ||
| + | *1957 ''Partitions'' for piano | ||
| + | *1960 ''Sounds and Word''s for soprano and piano | ||
| + | *1960 ''Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments'' | ||
| + | *1961 ''Composition for Synthesizer'' | ||
| + | *1961 ''Vision and Prayer'' for soprano and synthesized tape, setting of a poem by [[Dylan Thomas]] | ||
| + | ;''Second Period'' | ||
| + | *1964 ''[[Philomel (Babbitt)|Philomel]]'' for soprano, recorded soprano, synthesized tape, setting of a poem by [[John Hollander]] | ||
| + | *1964 ''Ensembles for Synthesizer'' | ||
| + | *1965 ''Relata I'' for orchestra | ||
| + | *1966 ''Post-Partitions'' for piano | ||
| + | *1966 ''Sextets'' for violin and piano | ||
| + | *1967 ''Correspondences'' for string orchestra and synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1968 ''Relata II'' for orchestra | ||
| + | *1968–69 ''Four Canons'' for SA | ||
| + | *1969 ''Phonemena'' for soprano and piano | ||
| + | *1970 String Quartet No. 3 | ||
| + | *1970 String Quartet No. 4 | ||
| + | *1971 ''Occasional Variations'' for synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1972 ''Tableaux'' for piano | ||
| + | *1974 ''Arie da capo'' for five instrumentalists | ||
| + | *1975 ''Reflections'' for piano and synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1975 ''Phonemena'' for soprano and synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1976 Concerti for violin, small orchestra, synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1977 ''A Solo Requiem'' for soprano and two pianos | ||
| + | *1977 ''Minute Waltz (or 3/4 ± 1/8)'' for piano | ||
| + | *1977 ''Playing for Time'' for piano | ||
| + | *1978 ''My Ends Are My Beginnings'' for solo clarinet | ||
| + | *1978 ''My Complements to Roger'' for piano | ||
| + | *1978 ''More Phonemena'' for twelve-part chorus | ||
| + | *1979 ''An Elizabethan Sextette'' for six-part women’s chorus | ||
| + | *1979 ''Images'' for saxophonist and synthesized tape | ||
| + | *1979 ''Paraphrases'' for ten instrumentalists | ||
| + | *1980 ''Dual'' for cello and piano | ||
| + | ;''Third Period'' | ||
| + | *1981 ''Ars Combinatoria'' for small orchestra | ||
| + | *1981 ''Don'' for four-hand piano | ||
| + | *1982 ''The Head of the Bed'' for soprano and four instruments | ||
| + | *1982 String Quartet No.5 | ||
| + | *1982 ''Melismata'' for solo violin | ||
| + | *1982 ''About Time'' for piano | ||
| + | *1983 ''Canonical Form'' for piano | ||
| + | *1983 ''Groupwise'' for flautist and four instruments | ||
| + | *1984 ''Four Play'' for four players | ||
| + | *1984 ''It Takes Twelve to Tango'' for piano | ||
| + | *1984 ''Sheer Pluck'' (composition for guitar) | ||
| + | *1985 Concerto for piano and orchestra | ||
| + | *1985 ''Lagniappe'' for piano | ||
| + | *1986 ''Transfigured Notes'' for string orchestra | ||
| + | *1986 ''The Joy of More Sextets'' for piano and violin | ||
| + | *1987 ''Three Cultivated Choruses'' for four-part chorus | ||
| + | *1987 ''Fanfare'' for double brass sextet | ||
| + | *1987 ''Overtime'' for piano | ||
| + | *1987 ''Souper'' for speaker and ensemble | ||
| + | *1987 [[Peter Jarvis#Selected discography|Homily]] for snare drum | ||
| + | *1987 ''Whirled Series'' for saxophone and piano | ||
| + | *1988 ''In His Own Words'' for speaker and piano | ||
| + | *1988 ''The Virginal Book'' for contralto and piano, setting of a poem by [[John Hollander]] | ||
| + | *1988 ''Beaten Paths'' for solo marimba | ||
| + | *1988 ''Glosses for Boys’ Choir'' | ||
| + | *1988 ''The Crowded Air'' for eleven instruments | ||
| + | *1989 ''Consortini'' for five players | ||
| + | *1989 ''Play It Again, Sam'' for solo viola | ||
| + | *1989 ''Emblems (Ars Emblematica)'', for piano | ||
| + | *1989 ''Soli e duettini'' for two guitars | ||
| + | *1989 ''Soli e duettini'' for flute and guitar | ||
| + | *1990 ''Soli e duettini'' for violin and viola | ||
| + | *1990 ''Envoi'' for four hands, piano | ||
| + | *1991 ''Preludes, Interludes, and Postlude'' for piano | ||
| + | *1991 ''Four Cavalier Settings'' for tenor and guitar | ||
| + | *1991 ''Mehr "Du”'' for soprano, viola and piano | ||
| + | *1991 ''None but the Lonely Flute'' for solo flute | ||
| + | *1992 ''Septet, But Equal'' | ||
| + | *1992 ''Counterparts'' for brass quintet | ||
| + | *1993 ''Around the Horn'' for solo horn | ||
| + | *1993 ''Quatrains'' for soprano and two clarinets | ||
| + | *1993 ''Fanfare for All'' for brass quintet | ||
| + | *1993 String Quartet No. 6 | ||
| + | *1994 ''Triad'' for viola, clarinet, and piano | ||
| + | *1994 ''No Longer Very Clear'' for soprano and four instruments, setting of a poem by [[John Ashbery]] | ||
| + | *1994 ''Tutte le corde'' for piano | ||
| + | *1994 ''Arrivals and Departures'' for two violins | ||
| + | *1994 ''Accompanied Recitative'' for soprano sax and piano | ||
| + | *1995 ''Manifold Music'' for organ | ||
| + | *1995 ''Bicenguinguagenary Fanfare'' for brass quintet | ||
| + | *1995 Quartet for piano and string trio | ||
| + | *1996 Quintet for clarinet and string quartet | ||
| + | *1996 ''When Shall We Three Meet Again?'' for flute, clarinet and vibraphone | ||
| + | *1998 Piano Concerto No. 2 | ||
| + | *1998 ''The Old Order Changeth'' for piano | ||
| + | *1999 ''Composition for One Instrument'' for celesta | ||
| + | *1999 ''Allegro Penseroso'' for piano | ||
| + | *1999 [[Peter Jarvis#Pieces composed for Peter Jarvis|Concerto Piccolino for vibraphone]] | ||
| + | *2000 ''Little Goes a Long Way'' for violin and piano | ||
| + | *2000 ''Pantuns'' for soprano and piano | ||
| + | *2002 ''From the Psalter'' soprano and string orchestra | ||
| + | *2002 ''Now Evening after Evening'' for soprano and piano, setting of a poem by [[Derek Walcott]] | ||
| + | *2003 ''Swan Song No. 1'' for flute, oboe, violin, cello, and two guitars | ||
| + | *2003 ''A Waltzer in the House'' for soprano and vibraphone, setting of a poem by [[Stanley Kunitz]] | ||
| + | *2004 Concerti for Orchestra, for James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra | ||
| + | *2004 ''Autobiography of the Eye'' for soprano and cello, setting of a poem by [[Paul Auster]] | ||
| + | *2005–6 ''More Melismata'' for solo cello | ||
| + | *2006 ''An Encore'' for violin & piano | ||
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Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 - January 29, 2011) was an American composer. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music, best-known for his composition Philomel (1964).
[edit]
Biography
Babbitt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Barkin & Brody 2001) to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin. He was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and began studying the violin when he was four but soon switched to clarinet and saxophone. Early in his life he was attracted to jazz and theater music. He was making his own arrangements of popular songs at seven, and when he was thirteen, he won a local songwriting contest.
Babbitt's father was a mathematician, and it was mathematics that Babbitt intended to study when he entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. However, he soon left and went to New York University instead, where he studied music with Philip James and Marion Bauer. There he became interested in the music of the composers of the Second Viennese School, and went on to write a number of articles on twelve tone music including the first description of combinatoriality and a serial "time-point" technique. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree from New York University College of Arts and Science in 1935 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, he studied under Roger Sessions, first privately and then later at Princeton University. At the University he joined the music faculty in 1938 and received one of Princeton's first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942 (Barkin & Brody 2001). During the Second World War Babbitt divided his time between mathematical research in Washington, DC, and Princeton, where he became a member of the mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945 (Barkin & Brody 2001).
In 1948, Babbitt joined Princeton University's music faculty and in 1973, became a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School in New York. Among his more notable former students are music theorists David Lewin and John Rahn, composers Donald Martino, Laura Karpman, Tobias Picker, Paul Lansky, and John Melby, the theatre composer Stephen Sondheim, and the jazz guitarist and composer Stanley Jordan.
In 1958, Babbitt achieved unsought notoriety through an article in the popular magazine High Fidelity (Babbitt 1958). Babbitt said his own title for the article was "The Composer as Specialist" (as it was later published several times, including in Babbitt 2003, 48–54), and "The editor, without my knowledge and—therefore—my consent or assent, replaced my title by the more 'provocative' one: 'Who Cares if You Listen?' a title which reflects little of the letter and nothing of the spirit of the article" (Babbitt 1991, 17).
More than 30 years later, he commented that, "For all that the true source of that offensively vulgar title has been revealed many times, in many ways, even—eventually—by the offending journal itself", he was "still ... far more likely to be known as the author of 'Who Cares if You Listen?' than as the composer of music to which you may or may not care to listen" (Babbitt 1991, 17).
Babbitt later became interested in electronic music. He was hired by RCA as consultant composer to work with their RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (known since 1996 as the Columbia University Computer Music Center), and in 1961 produced his Composition for Synthesizer. Babbitt was less interested in producing new timbres than in the rhythmic precision he could achieve using the Mark II synthesizer, a degree of precision previously unobtainable in live performances (Barkin & Brody 2001).
Babbitt continued to write both electronic music and music for conventional musical instruments, often combining the two. Philomel (1964), for example, was written for soprano and a synthesized accompaniment (including the recorded and manipulated voice of Bethany Beardslee, for whom the piece was composed) stored on magnetic tape.
From 1985 until his death he served as the Chairman of the BMI Student Composer Awards, the international competition for young classical composers. Milton Babbitt died in Princeton, New Jersey on January 29, 2011 at the age of 94 (Kozinn 2011; Anon. 2011b).
[edit]
List of compositions
- 1935 Generatrix for orchestra (unfinished)
- 1939–41 String Trio
- 1940 Composition for String Orchestra (unfinished)
- 1941 Symphony (unfinished)
- 1941 Music for the Mass I for mixed chorus
- 1942 Music for the Mass II for mixed chorus
- 1946 Fabulous Voyage (musical, libretto by Richard Koch)
- 1946 Three Theatrical Songs for voice and piano (taken from Fabulous Voyage)
- 1947 Three Compositions for Piano
- 1948 Composition for Four Instruments
- 1948 String Quartet No. 1 (withdrawn)
- 1948 Composition for Twelve Instruments
- 1949 Into the Good Ground film music (withdrawn)
- 1950 Composition for Viola and Piano
- 1951 The Widow’s Lament in Springtime for soprano and piano
- 1951 Du for soprano and piano, August Stramm
- 1953 Woodwind Quartet
- 1954 String Quartet No. 2
- 1954 Vision and Prayer for soprano and piano
- 1955 Two Sonnets for baritone, clarinet, viola, and cello, two poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
- 1956 Duet for piano
- 1956 Semi-Simple Variations for piano
- 1957 All Set for alto sax, tenor sax, trp, trb, cb, pno, vib, percussion
- 1957 Partitions for piano
- 1960 Sounds and Words for soprano and piano
- 1960 Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments
- 1961 Composition for Synthesizer
- 1961 Vision and Prayer for soprano and synthesized tape, setting of a poem by Dylan Thomas
- Second Period
- 1964 Philomel for soprano, recorded soprano, synthesized tape, setting of a poem by John Hollander
- 1964 Ensembles for Synthesizer
- 1965 Relata I for orchestra
- 1966 Post-Partitions for piano
- 1966 Sextets for violin and piano
- 1967 Correspondences for string orchestra and synthesized tape
- 1968 Relata II for orchestra
- 1968–69 Four Canons for SA
- 1969 Phonemena for soprano and piano
- 1970 String Quartet No. 3
- 1970 String Quartet No. 4
- 1971 Occasional Variations for synthesized tape
- 1972 Tableaux for piano
- 1974 Arie da capo for five instrumentalists
- 1975 Reflections for piano and synthesized tape
- 1975 Phonemena for soprano and synthesized tape
- 1976 Concerti for violin, small orchestra, synthesized tape
- 1977 A Solo Requiem for soprano and two pianos
- 1977 Minute Waltz (or 3/4 ± 1/8) for piano
- 1977 Playing for Time for piano
- 1978 My Ends Are My Beginnings for solo clarinet
- 1978 My Complements to Roger for piano
- 1978 More Phonemena for twelve-part chorus
- 1979 An Elizabethan Sextette for six-part women’s chorus
- 1979 Images for saxophonist and synthesized tape
- 1979 Paraphrases for ten instrumentalists
- 1980 Dual for cello and piano
- Third Period
- 1981 Ars Combinatoria for small orchestra
- 1981 Don for four-hand piano
- 1982 The Head of the Bed for soprano and four instruments
- 1982 String Quartet No.5
- 1982 Melismata for solo violin
- 1982 About Time for piano
- 1983 Canonical Form for piano
- 1983 Groupwise for flautist and four instruments
- 1984 Four Play for four players
- 1984 It Takes Twelve to Tango for piano
- 1984 Sheer Pluck (composition for guitar)
- 1985 Concerto for piano and orchestra
- 1985 Lagniappe for piano
- 1986 Transfigured Notes for string orchestra
- 1986 The Joy of More Sextets for piano and violin
- 1987 Three Cultivated Choruses for four-part chorus
- 1987 Fanfare for double brass sextet
- 1987 Overtime for piano
- 1987 Souper for speaker and ensemble
- 1987 Homily for snare drum
- 1987 Whirled Series for saxophone and piano
- 1988 In His Own Words for speaker and piano
- 1988 The Virginal Book for contralto and piano, setting of a poem by John Hollander
- 1988 Beaten Paths for solo marimba
- 1988 Glosses for Boys’ Choir
- 1988 The Crowded Air for eleven instruments
- 1989 Consortini for five players
- 1989 Play It Again, Sam for solo viola
- 1989 Emblems (Ars Emblematica), for piano
- 1989 Soli e duettini for two guitars
- 1989 Soli e duettini for flute and guitar
- 1990 Soli e duettini for violin and viola
- 1990 Envoi for four hands, piano
- 1991 Preludes, Interludes, and Postlude for piano
- 1991 Four Cavalier Settings for tenor and guitar
- 1991 Mehr "Du” for soprano, viola and piano
- 1991 None but the Lonely Flute for solo flute
- 1992 Septet, But Equal
- 1992 Counterparts for brass quintet
- 1993 Around the Horn for solo horn
- 1993 Quatrains for soprano and two clarinets
- 1993 Fanfare for All for brass quintet
- 1993 String Quartet No. 6
- 1994 Triad for viola, clarinet, and piano
- 1994 No Longer Very Clear for soprano and four instruments, setting of a poem by John Ashbery
- 1994 Tutte le corde for piano
- 1994 Arrivals and Departures for two violins
- 1994 Accompanied Recitative for soprano sax and piano
- 1995 Manifold Music for organ
- 1995 Bicenguinguagenary Fanfare for brass quintet
- 1995 Quartet for piano and string trio
- 1996 Quintet for clarinet and string quartet
- 1996 When Shall We Three Meet Again? for flute, clarinet and vibraphone
- 1998 Piano Concerto No. 2
- 1998 The Old Order Changeth for piano
- 1999 Composition for One Instrument for celesta
- 1999 Allegro Penseroso for piano
- 1999 Concerto Piccolino for vibraphone
- 2000 Little Goes a Long Way for violin and piano
- 2000 Pantuns for soprano and piano
- 2002 From the Psalter soprano and string orchestra
- 2002 Now Evening after Evening for soprano and piano, setting of a poem by Derek Walcott
- 2003 Swan Song No. 1 for flute, oboe, violin, cello, and two guitars
- 2003 A Waltzer in the House for soprano and vibraphone, setting of a poem by Stanley Kunitz
- 2004 Concerti for Orchestra, for James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
- 2004 Autobiography of the Eye for soprano and cello, setting of a poem by Paul Auster
- 2005–6 More Melismata for solo cello
- 2006 An Encore for violin & piano
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Milton Babbitt" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
