Babbitt (1916 - 2011)

[maestro267]

Composer Milton Babbitt has passed away.

http://www.sequenza21.com/2011/01/milton-babbitt-rip/

He was 94. RIP

[Roehre]

In the 1980s the Encyclopaedia Britannica called him one of the greatest American composers of his generation.
RIP Milton Babbitt.

[MrGongGong]

Thats very sad news
a true pioneer

[bluestateprommer]

The New York Times obit is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/arts/music/30babbitt.html?_r=1&ref=music&pagewanted=all

Princeton University hasn't yet posted a tribute page, but I'm sure that will happen in due course.

[Keybawd]

A pioneer indeed. I remember a lecture he gave at the Dartington Summer School back in the 60s - fascinating and wise. Question time was better still - largely taken up by a discussion about Fourier Analyses between Babbit and Otto Frisch (the physicist who 'discovered' nuclear fission and was one of the fathers of the atomic bomb). A memorable occasion.

[3rd Viennese School]

I didn't know Babbit was even alive!
3VS

[bluestateprommer]

Princeton University posted their official announcement and tribute to Milton Babbitt:

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S29/65/20O21/index.xml?section=topstories

On the much lighter side, there's an anecdote from Humphrey Burton's bio of Leonard Bernstein, when LB was preparing MB's Relata II for performance. LB devised a limerick competition for the orchestra, to finish from this starter ($100 was the prize):

"There was composer named Babbitt
Who had a peculiar habit."

The winning finish was from 2nd violinist Martin Eshelman:

"Each day around noon,
He'd go into a swoon
Scoring piece after piece like a rabbit."

[3rd Viennese School]

Another composer that Radio 3 don't play! Not even on Hear and Now. When was Babbitt's last piece and wot was it?
3VS

[Boilk]

Who Cares If You Buy It?

For those of a Babbittian predisposition, there's a new all-Babbitt CD
from the ever-enterprising BMOP... details (and audio clips) here

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Surely "The Customer as Specialist"?

[Boilk]

Surely "The Customer as Specialist"?

Indeed !

[Roehre]

For those of a Babbittian predisposition, there's a new all-Babbitt CD
from the ever-enterprising BMOP... details (and audio clips) ...

Many thanks Boilk

[Serial_Apologist]

Pronouned as in "Titian", I would guess?

[ahinton]

Good to have, of course, although the label's blurb seems not to recognise that the composer has died and, at a whisker under 48 minutes, the product seems rather on the mean side; surely they could have found some more of his music to fill at least another 20-25 minutes?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Milton Babbitt and Moondog

As the Proms celebrates the centenary this year (this coming Tuesday, in fact) with beggar all, and the usual schedules are also not putting themselves out to mark the event, tonight's H&N is probably the most we can expect from the Beeb:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079ltd0

This is a "must-listen (several times)" for me - Babbitt is almost certainly the composer I would name if asked to suggest which I thought was the "most neglected in terms of performance, broadcasts and recordings". I met Babbitt at MusicaNova in Glasgow in 1981 - and loathed the orchestral works that I heard. The piano works that were then played struck me as glittering powerfully with invention and humour. The anomaly was explained on the last night when one of the second violinists in one of the Scottish professional orchestras cheerfully claimed in the pub after the concert that the players hadn't bothered to spend so much time and effort on works that they were only going to perform once. (Even quintuplets defeated them.)

I've followed his work ever since, and find that the performances that do take the necessary time reveal really rewarding works - I can't think of a "better" composer working in the second half of the Twentieth Century; and there are so many great ones from this period.


The programme also includes a discussion of the work of Babbitt's exact contemporary (they were born three weeks apart) Louis Thomas Hardin, the "Viking of Sixth Avenue", also known as Moondog. I hope that we're given the opportunity to hear lots of examples of his Music: the BBC site doesn't make this clear.