Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American
composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and
electronic music.

Contents
Biography
Honors and awards
Milton Babbitt with the RCA Mark II
Articles synthesizer
List of compositions
Selected discography
References
Further reading
External links

Biography
Babbitt was born in Philadelphia (Barkin & Brody 2001) to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin. He was Jewish (Anon. & n.d.(b)).
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 tojazz 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 Kozinn
( 2011).

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, D.C., and Princeton, where he became a member of the
mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945 B
( arkin & Brody 2001).

In 1948, Babbitt returned to 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 Bruce Adolphe,
Michael Dellaira, Kenneth Fuchs, Laura Karpman, Paul Lansky, Donald Martino, John Melby, Kenneth Lampl, Tobias Picker, and J.
K. Randall, the theatre composer Stephen Sondheim, composers and pianists Frederic Rzewski and Richard Aaker Trythall, and the
jazz guitarist and composerStanley 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, but that "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, 15).
More than 30 years later, he commented: "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, I still am 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" B
( abbitt 1991, 15).

Babbitt later became interested in electronic music. He was hired by RCA as consultant composer to work with its 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).

Although he would eventually shift his focus away from electronic music, the genre that first gained for him public notice, by the
1960s Babbitt was writing 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 onmagnetic 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 inPrinceton, New Jerseyon January 29, 2011 at the age of 94 (Kozinn 2011; Anon. 2011b).

Honors and awards

1965 – Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters
1974 – Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences(Anon. 2011a)
1982 – Pulitzer Prize, Special Citation, "for his life's work as a distinguished and seminal American composer"
(Columbia University 1991, 70; Anon. & n.d.(c)
1986 – MacArthur Fellow
1988 – Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters A ward for music composition.
2000 – National Patron ofDelta Omicron, an international, professional music fraternity Klafeta
( & Beckner 2009;
Anon. 2000)
2010 – The Max Reger Foundation of America– Extraordinary Life Time Musical Achievement Award

Articles
(1955). "Some Aspects of Twelve-Tone Composition". The Score and I.M.A. Magazine12:53–61.
(1958). "Who Cares if You Listen?". High Fidelity (February). [Babbitt called this article "The Composer as
Specialist." The original title was changed without his knowledge or permission by an editor at High Fidelity.]
(1960). "Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants,"Musical Quarterly 46/2.
(1961). "Set Structure as Compositional Determinant,"Journal of Music Theory5/1.
(1965). "The Structure and Function of Musical Theory ," College Music Symposium5.
(1972). "Contemporary Music Composition and Music Theory as Contemporary Intellectual History", Perspectives in
Musicology: The Inaugural Lectures of the Ph. D. Program in Music at the City University of Nework, Y edited by
Barry S. Brook, Edward Downes, and Sherman V an Solkema, 270–307. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-
02142-4. Reprinted, New York: Pendragon Press, 1985. ISBN 0-918728-50-9.
(1987) Words About Music: The Madison Lectures, edited by Stephen Dembski and Joseph Straus. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
(1992) "The Function of Set Structure in the Twelve-Tone System." PhD Dissertation. Princeton: Princeton
University.
(2003). The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt, edited by Stephen Peles, Stephen Dembski, Andrew Mead, Joseph
Straus. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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 Songsfor voice and piano (taken from Fabulous V oyage)
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 Springtimefor 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 (unpublished, unperformed)
1955 Two Sonnets for baritone, clarinet, viola, and cello, two poems ofGerard Manley Hopkins
1956 Duet for piano
1956 Semi-Simple Variations for piano
1957 All Set for jazz ensemble (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, contrabass, piano,
vibraphone, and percussion) (Anon. n.d.a)
1957 Partitions for piano
1960 Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments
1960 Sounds and Words for soprano and piano
1961 Composition for Synthesizer
1961 Vision and Prayer for soprano and synthesized tape, setting of a poem byDylan 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
1968–71 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 Beginningsfor solo clarinet
1978 My Complements to Rogerfor piano
1978 More Phonemena for twelve-part chorus
1979 An Elizabethan Sextettefor 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 Sextetsfor piano and violin
1987 Three Cultivated Chorusesfor 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 byJohn 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 Postludefor piano
1991 Four Cavalier Settings for tenor and guitar
1991 Mehr "Du" for soprano, viola and piano
1991 None but the Lonely Flutefor 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 byJohn Ashbery
1994 Tutte le corde for piano
1994 Arrivals and Departuresfor two violins
1994 Accompanied Recitativefor soprano sax and piano
1995 Manifold Music for organ
1995 Bicenguinguagenary Fanfarefor brass quintet
1995 Quartet for piano and string trio
1996 Quintet for clarinet and string quartet
1996 Danci for solo guitar
 1996 When Shall We Three Meet Again? for flute, clarinet and vibraphone
1998 Piano Concerto No. 2
1998 The Old Order Changethfor piano
1999 Composition for One Instrumentfor 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
2001 A Lifetime or So for tenor and piano
2002 From the Psalter soprano and string orchestra
2002 Now Evening after Eveningfor soprano and piano, setting of a poem byDerek Walcott
2002 A Gloss on 'Round Midnightfor piano
2003 Swan Song No. 1 for flute, oboe, violin, cello, mandolin (or guitar), and guitar
2003 A Waltzer in the House for soprano and vibraphone, setting of a poem byStanley Kunitz
2004 Concerti for Orchestra, for James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
2004 Autobiography of the Eyefor soprano and cello, setting of a poem byPaul Auster
2005–6 More Melismata for solo cello
2006 An Encore for violin & piano

Selected discography
Clarinet Quintets. Phoenix Ensemble (Mark Lieb, clarinet; Aaron Boyd, Kristi Helberg, and Alicia Edelberg, violins;
Cyrus Beroukhim, viola; Alberto Parinni and Bruce W ang, cellos). (Morton Feldman,Clarinet and String Quartet;
Milton Babbitt, Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet). Innova 746. St. Paul. MN: American Composers Forum,
2009.
Concerto for Piano And Orchestra/The Head Of The Bed.Alan Feinberg, piano; American Composers Orchestra,
Charles Wuorinen, conductor; Judith Bettina, soprano, Parnassus,Anthony Korf. New World Records 80346.
The Juilliard Orchestra. Vincent Persichetti: Night Dances (cond. James DePreist); Milton Babbitt:Relata I (cond.
Paul Zukofsky); David Diamond: Symphony No. 5 (cond. Christopher Keene). New o Wrld Records 80396-2. New
York: Recorded Anthology od Music, 1990.
The Juilliard String Quartet: Sessions, Wolpe, Babbitt. Roger Sessions, String Quartet No. 2 (1951); Stefan W olpe,
String Quartet (1969); Milton Babbitt, String Quartet No. 4 (1970). The Juilliard Quartet (Robert Mann, Joel Smirnoff,
violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; Joel Krosnick, cello). CRI CD 587. New ork:Y Composers Recordings, Inc., 1990.
Occasional Variations (String Quartets no. 2 and No. 6,Occasional Variations, Composition for Guitar). William
Anderson, guitar; Fred Sherry Quartet, Composers String Quartet. Tzadik 7088. Nework: Y Tzadik, 2003.
Philomel (Philomel, Phonemena for soprano and piano,Phonemena for soprano and tape,Post-Partitions,
Reflections). Bethany Beardslee and Lynne Webber, sopranos; Jerry Kuderna and Robert Miller, pianos. New World
Records 80466-2 / DIDX 022920. New Y ork: Recorded Anthology of American Music, 1995. The material on this CD
was issued on New World LPs NW 209 and NW 307, in 1977 and 1980, respectively.
Quartet No. 3 for Strings. (With Charles Wuorinen, Quartet for Strings.) The Fine Arts Quartet. Turnabout TV-S
34515.
Sextets; The Joy of More Sextets. Rolf Schulte, violin; Alan Feinberg, piano. New W orld Records NW 364–2. New
York: Recorded Anthology of American Music, 1988.
Soli e Duettini (Around the Horn, Whirled Series, None but the Lonely Flute, Homily, Beaten Paths, Play it Again
Sam, Soli e Duettini, Melismata). The Group for Contemporary Music. Naxos 8559259.
Three American String Quartets. Mel Powell, String Quartet (1982); Elliott Carter, Quartet for Strings No. 4 (1986);
Milton Babbitt, Quartet No. 5 (1982). Composers Quartet (Matthew Raimondi, Anahid Ajemian, violins; Maureen
Gallagher, Karl Bargen, violas; Mark Shuman, cello). Music & Arts CD-606. Berkeley: Music and Arts Program of
America, Inc., 1990.
An Elizabethan Sextette(An Elizabethan Sextette, Minute Waltz, Partitions, It Takes Twelve to Tango, Playing for
Time, About Time, Groupwise, Vision And Prayer). Alan Feinberg, piano; Bethany Beardslee, soprano; The Group
for Contemporary Music,Harvey Sollberger, conducting. CRI CD 521. New York: Composers Recordings, Inc., 1988.
Reissued on CRI/New World NWCR521.

References
Anon. (n.d.(a)). "Milton Babbitt: All Set (1957)". www.hunsmire.net website (accessed 30 October 2012).
Anon. (n.d.(b)). "Jewish Entertainers". Jewish Virtual Library (accessed 4 September 2013).
 Anon. (n.d.(c)). "Special Awards and Citations. The Pulitzer Prizes, website (accessed 3 December 2013).
Anon. (2000). "Delta Omicron Announcements: Two Distinguished Musicians Inducted Into Delta Omicron".
www.delta-omicron.org archives (accessed April 4, 2010; archive from 5 March 2012, accessed 12 June 2017)
Anon. (2011a). "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B"(PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Retrieved April 28, 2011.
Anon. (2011b). "Obituaries: Milton Babbitt". Opera News. 75, no. 10 (April).
Babbitt, Milton (1958). "Who Cares if You Listen?". High Fidelity (February).
Babbitt, Milton (1991). "A Life of Learning: Charles Homer Haskins Lecture for 1991 ". ACLS Occasional Paper 17.
New York: American Council of Learned Societies.
Babbitt, Milton (2003).The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt, edited by Stephen Peles, Stephen Dembski, Andrew
Mead, Joseph Straus. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN 0-691-08966-3.
Barkin, Elaine, and Martin Brody (2001). "Babbitt, Milton (Byron)".The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, second edition, edited byStanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers; New Y ork:
Grove's Dictionaries of Music.
Columbia University (1991).The Pulitzer Prizes, 1917–1991. New York: Columbia University.
Dembski, Stephen, and Joseph N. Straus, eds. (1987).Milton Babbitt: Words about Music.Madison, Wis.: University
of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-10790-6.
Fisk, Josiah, and Jeff Nichols (1997). Composers on Music: Eight Centuries of Writings , second edition. Boston:
Northeastern University Press.ISBN 1-55553-278-0 (cloth); ISBN 1-55553-279-9 (pbk).
Klafeta, Jennifer A., and Debbie Beckner (2009).Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity , National Website.
Front page. (Accessed April 2010)
Kozinn, Allan (2011). "Milton Babbitt, a Composer Who Gloried in Complexity , Dies at 94". The New York Times.
(January 29). Retrieved January 30, 2011.
Mead, Andrew (1994).An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-03314-5.

Further reading
Crawford, Richard, and Larry Hamberlin (2013).An Introduction to America's Music, second edition. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-90475-8.
Westergaard, Peter (1965). "Some ProblemsRaised by the Rhythmic Procedures in Milton Babbitt's Composition for
Twelve Instruments". Perspectives of New Music4, no. 1 (Autumn-Winter): 109–18.

External links
Avant Garde Project AGP72: Piano music ofMilton Babbitt as played by Robert T aub
Schirmer.com: Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt (October 16, 2001)."Milton Babbitt: A Discussion in 12 Parts". NewMusicBox (Interview). Interviewed
by Frank J. Oteri (published December 1, 2001).
Furious.com Milton Babbitt talks about "Philomel"
Two Discussions With Milton Babbitt. Interviewed by James Romig at the Dickinson College Arts w Aards on April 11,
2002.
An interview with Milton Babbitt. Interviewed by Gabrielle Zuckerman, American Public Media, July 2002
Interview with Milton Babbitt, November 6, 1987

Listening

Milton Babbitt interviewfrom National Public RadioPerformance Today program, May 10, 2006
Speaking of Music: Milton BabbittInterviewed by Charles Amirkhanian, 1984
Milton Babbitt (October 16, 2001)."Milton Babbitt: A Discussion in 12 Parts". NewMusicBox (Interview). Interviewed
by Frank J. Oteri (published December 1, 2001).
Art of the States: Milton Babbitt
Recording Concerto Piccolino – Lee Ferguson, vibraphone Luna * Nova New Music Ensemble
Recording None But the Lonely Flute – John McMurtery , flute *Luna Nova New Music Ensemble
Woodwind Quartet (1953), performed by members of theSoni Ventorum Wind Quintet.
Robert Hilferty documentary on Milton Babbitt
Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composeron YouTube (YouTube version of the Robert Hilferty documentary)
 Milton Babbitt "The Revolution in Musical Thought" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1963
Accessed June 26, 2012
Soni Ventorum plays the Woodwind Quartet

Bibliography

Milton Babbitt at Library of Congress Authorities, with 111 catalog records

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