String Quartet No. 6 is the last of six chamber-music works in the
string quartet
The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...
medium by the American composer
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He was a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, recognized for his serial and electronic music.
Biography ...
.
Babbitt's expansive and lyrical Sixth Quartet was written in 1993. It is in two sections, in each of which the work's underlying six-part all-partition
array
An array is a systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns.
Things called an array include:
{{TOC right
Music
* In twelve-tone and serial composition, the presentation of simultaneous twelve-tone sets such that the ...
of fifty-eight aggregates is unfolded separately in each of the four instruments. There are only momentary breaks in each part, which otherwise play continuously throughout the work, giving the sense of an endless flow of music, saturated with florid detail. Changes in muting and playing technique, usually in one instrument at a time, are used to mark off composite pitch aggregates.
The work is based on an all-partition array which is (with a few swapped partitions) the
M5 transform of the one used in ''The Joy of More Sextets'' (1986), for violin and piano.
Recordings
*Milton Babbitt: ''Occasional Variations''. Also with Babbitt:
String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 6; ''Composition for Guitar''.
RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer
The RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer (nicknamed ''Victor'') was the first programmable electronic synthesizer and the flagship piece of equipment at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Designed by Herbert Belar and Harry Olson at RCA, wi ...
, realized by Milton Babbitt;
The Composers Quartet (Matthew Raimondi,
Anahid Ajemian, violins; Jean Dupouy, viola; Michael Rudiakov, cello); Sherry Quartet (Harumi Rhodes, Aaron Boyd, violins; James Myer Hogg, viola; Katherine Cherbas, cello); William Anderson, guitar. CD recording. Tzadik TZ 7088. New York: Tzadik, 2008. Quartet No. 2 originally issued
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch ...
, 1973.
* ''Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album'': String Quartet no. 6 (1993). Performed by the Ars Combinatoria String Quartet: Erik Carlson, Norman Sifronsky, Christopher Otto, Michael Nicolas. Produced and edited by Erik Carlson. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Andrew Munsey. Critical Listening by Ellie Moser, Matthew Barber, and Christopher Otto. https://midnightsledding.net/recordings/babbitt/EC_MB_SQ6.wav
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
*
Barkin, Elaine, and Martin Brody. 2001. "Babbitt, Milton (Byron)". ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...
'', second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...
and
John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
* Mead, Andrew Washburn. 1994. ''An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. .
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1993 compositions
6