Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer,

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

, mathematician, and teacher. He was a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

and

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

recipient, recognized for his serial and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

Biography

Babbitt was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin, who were Jewish. He was raised in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

, 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 Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and theater music, and "played in every pit-orchestra that came to town". Babbitt was making his own arrangements of popular songs by age 7, "wrote a lot of pop tunes for school productions", and won a local songwriting contest when he was 13. A Jackson newspaper called Babbitt a "whiz kid" and noted "that he had perfect pitch and could add up his family's grocery bills in his head. In his teens he became a great fan of jazz cornet player

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke ( ; March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical a ...

". Babbitt's father was a mathematician, and Babbitt intended to study mathematics when he entered the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1931. But he soon transferred to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, 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 The Second Viennese School () was the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils, particularly Alban Berg and Anton Webern, and close associates in early 20th-century Vienna. Their music was initially characterized by late ...

and wrote articles on twelve-tone music, including the first description of combinatoriality and a serial "time-point" technique. Babbitt was a pioneer in integral serialism, serially organizing dynamics and rhythms, not just pitches. He emphasized the importance of composers pursuing composition as research rather than focusing on societal approval. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University College of Arts & Science in 1935 with

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

honors, he studied under Roger Sessions, first privately and then at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. He joined Princeton's music faculty in 1938 and received one of Princeton's first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Babbitt divided his time between mathematical research in Washington, D.C. and Princeton, where he was a member of the mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945. In 1948, Babbitt returned to Princeton's music faculty and in 1973 he joined the faculty of the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

. Among his students are music theorists

David Lewin David Benjamin Lewin (July 2, 1933 – May 5, 2003) was an American music theorist, music critic and composer. Called "the most original and far-ranging theorist of his generation", he did his most influential theoretical work on the development ...

and John Rahn, composers Bruce Adolphe, Michael Dellaira, Kenneth Fuchs, Laura Karpman,

Paul Lansky Paul Lansky (born June 18, 1944, in New York City) is an American composer. Biography Paul Lansky (born 1944) is an American composer. He was educated at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, Queens College and Princeton University, studyi ...

Donald Martino Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Biography Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and ...

, John Melby, Kenneth Lampl,

Tobias Picker Tobias Picker (born July 18, 1954) is an American composer, pianist, and Conductor (music), conductor, noted for his orchestral works ''Old and Lost Rivers'', ''Keys To The City (orchestral work), Keys To The City'', and ''The Encantadas (orches ...

, and James K. Randall, the theater composer

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received Lis ...

, composers and pianists

Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. From 1977 up to his eventual death, he lived mainly in Be ...

and Richard Aaker Trythall, and the jazz guitarist and composer Stanley Jordan. In 1958, Babbitt achieved unsought notoriety through an article in the popular magazine ''

High Fidelity High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) ...

''. His title for the article was originally "The Composer as Specialist" (as later published several times) but, he said, "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". In 1991, Babbitt said of the article's lasting notoriety, "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". In 2006, Babbitt told the '' Princeton Alumni Weekly'', "Now obviously, I care very deeply if you listen ..if nobody listens and nobody cares, you're not going to be writing music for very long". Around 1960, Babbitt became interested in

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

hired him as consultant composer to work with its RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the

Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. It was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Location The CMC is h ...

(known since 1996 as the Columbia University Computer Music Center). In 1960, Babbitt was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in music composition. In 1961, he wrote ''Composition for Synthesizer'', marking the beginning of a second period in his output. Babbitt was less interested in producing new timbres than in the rhythmic precision he could achieve with the synthesizer, a degree of precision previously unobtainable in performance. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Babbitt wrote both electronic music and music for conventional

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

s, often combining the two. '' Philomel'' (1964), for example, is 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 Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...

. By the end of the 1970s, Babbitt was beginning his third creative period by shifting his focus away from electronic music, the genre that first gained him public notice. Babbitt's compositions are typically considered atonal, but it has also been shown that, especially in his third-period music, notes from his serial structures (all-partition arrays and superarrays) are sometimes arranged and coordinated to forge tonal chords, cadential phrases, simulated tonal voice-leading, and other tonal allusions, allowing for double meaning (serial and tonal), like many of his composition titles. This phenomenon of "double meaning" of notes (pitches) in the context of his double-meaning titles has been called ''portmantonality''. From 1985 until his death, Babbitt served as the Chairman of the BMI Student Composer Awards, the international competition for young classical composers. A resident of

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, he died there on January 29, 2011, aged 94. Filmmaker Robert Hilferty's ''Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composer'' broadly depicts Babbitt's thinking, attitudes about his past, and work in footage largely from 1991–1992. The film was not completed and fully edited until 2010, and was presented on NPR online upon Babbitt's death.

Honors and awards

* 1960 – John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship * 1965 – Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

* 1974 – Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 1982 –

, Special Citation, "for his life's work as a distinguished and seminal American composer" * 1986 – MacArthur Fellow * 1988 – Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for music composition * 1999 – American Classical Music Hall of Fame * 2000 – National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international, professional music fraternity * 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. Magazine'' 12:53–61. * (1958).
Who Cares if You Listen?
. ''

'' (February). abbitt 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," ''

The Musical Quarterly ''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including C ...

'' 46/2. * (1961). "Set Structure as Compositional Determinant," ''

Journal of Music Theory The ''Journal of Music Theory'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established by David Kraehenbuehl (Yale University) in 1957. According to its website, " e ''Journal of Music Theory'' fosters co ...

'' 5/1. * (1965). "The Structure and Function of Musical Theory," ''College Music Symposium'' 5. * (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 New York'', edited by Barry S. Brook, Edward Downes, and Sherman Van Solkema, 270–307. New York: W. W. Norton. . Reprinted, New York: Pendragon Press, 1985. . * (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

First period

*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 (unpublished, unperformed) *1955 ''Two Sonnets'' for baritone, clarinet, viola, and cello, two poems of

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...

*1956 Duet for piano *1956 ''Semi-Simple Variations'' for piano *1957 ''

All Set ''All Set'' is the fifth studio album by English pop punk band Buzzcocks. After standardising their line-up of vocalists and guitarists Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle, bassist Tony Barber (bassist), Tony Barber, and drummer Phil Barker for the ba ...

'' for jazz ensemble (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, contrabass, piano, vibraphone, and percussion) *1957 ''Partitions'' for piano *1960 ''Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments'' *1960 ''Sounds and Words'' for soprano and piano

Second period

*1961 ''Composition for Synthesizer'' *1961 ''Vision and Prayer'' for soprano and synthesized tape, setting of a poem by

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

*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 *1966 ''Play on Notes'' for bells and voice *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 *1976 ''A Birthday Double Canon'' for SATB *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 *1978 ''Eppesithalamium'' for solo cello *1979 ''An Elizabethan Sextette'' for six-part women's chorus *1979 ''Images'' for saxophonist and synthesized tape

Third period

*1979 ''Paraphrases'' for ten instrumentalists *1980 ''Dual'' for cello and piano *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 John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

*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 ''Bicenquinquagenary Fanfare'' for 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 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 *2001 ''A Lifetime or So'' for tenor 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 *2002 ''A Gloss on 'Round Midnight'' for 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 by Stanley Kunitz *2004 ''Round'' for SATB *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 Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), ' ...

*2005–6 ''More Melismata'' for solo cello *2006 ''An Encore'' for violin & piano

String quartets

;First period *1948 String Quartet No. 1 (withdrawn) *1954 String Quartet No. 2 ;Second period *1970 String Quartet No. 3 *1970 String Quartet No. 4 ;Third period *1982 String Quartet No. 5 *1993 String Quartet No. 6

Selected discography

*''Piano Works.'' Three Compositions (1947-48); Duet (1956);Semi-Simple Variations (1956); Partitions (1957); Post-Partitions (1966); Tableaux (1973); Reflections (1974) For Piano And Synthesized Tape; Canonical Form (1983); Lagniappe (1985). Robert Taub, piano. Harmonia Mundi 905160. *''Clarinet Quintets''. Phoenix Ensemble (Mark Lieb, clarinet; Aaron Boyd, Kristi Helberg, and Alicia Edelberg, violins; Cyrus Beroukhim, viola; Alberto Parinni and Bruce Wang, cellos). (Morton Feldman, ''Clarinet and String Quartet''; Milton Babbitt, Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet). Innova 746. St. Paul, Minnesota: American Composers Forum, 2009. * ''Concerto for Piano And Orchestra/The Head Of The Bed.'' Alan Feinberg, piano; American Composers Orchestra,

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (, ; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, c ...

, 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 World 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 Wolpe, 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 York: 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. New York: 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 York: 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 World 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

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (January 29). Retrieved January 30, 2011.

External links

Avant Garde Project AGP72: Piano music of Milton Babbitt as played by Robert Taub
*

Interviewed by James Romig at the Dickinson College Arts Awards on April 11, 2002.

Interviewed by Gabrielle Zuckerman, American Public Media, July 2002

November 6, 1987
Milton Babbitt Collection, 1970-2005
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Listening

Babbitt's Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside
Three-part video essay from the Society for Music Theory by Joshua Banks Mailman, 2019.
Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album
(since 2018), produced by Erik Carlson
Milton Babbitt interview
from National Public Radio ''Performance Today'' program, May 10, 2006
Speaking of Music: Milton Babbitt
Interviewed by Charles Amirkhanian, 1984 *
Recording
Concerto Piccolino – Lee Ferguson, vibraphon
Luna Nova New Music EnsembleRecording
None But the Lonely Flute – John McMurtery, flute Luna Nova New Music Ensemble
Woodwind Quartet (1953)
performed by members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet.
Robert Hilferty documentary on Milton Babbitt

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

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babbitt, Milton Milton Babbitt 1916 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American classical composers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American classical composers American electronic musicians American male classical composers American music theorists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music Jewish American classical composers Juilliard School faculty MacArthur Fellows Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music & Arts artists Musicians from Jackson, Mississippi Musicians from Philadelphia New York University College of Arts & Science alumni Nonesuch Records artists Musicians from Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University faculty Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards winners Pupils of Roger Sessions Pupils of Marion Bauer Twelve-tone and serial composers Tzadik Records artists 21st-century American Jews Schoenberg scholars Webern scholars