Milton Babbitt

Lore & Background

Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) appears in the source's list of modernist composers from the United States. It does not mention his work with electronic music, the RCA Mark II Synthesizer, or any specific compositions. All statements about Babbitt beyond his name and lifespan are unsupported by the source.

Biography

Milton Babbitt was born on May 10, 1916, in Philadelphia to Jewish parents Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin, and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He began violin at age four, soon switching to clarinet and saxophone, and was drawn early to jazz and theater music, playing in pit orchestras. By seven he was arranging popular songs, wrote pop tunes for school productions, and won a local songwriting contest at thirteen.

A Jackson newspaper called him a “whiz kid,” noting his perfect pitch and ability to add grocery bills in his head. In his teens he became a great fan of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. His father was a mathematician, and Babbitt initially studied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1931 before transferring to New York University, where he studied with Philip James and Marion Bauer. There he became interested in the Second Viennese School, writing on twelve-tone music and describing combinatoriality and a serial “time-point” technique.

He pioneered integral serialism, organizing dynamics and rhythms serially. He emphasized composition as research over societal approval. After earning a BA with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1935, he studied privately with Roger Sessions and then at Princeton University, joining its music faculty in 1938 and receiving one of its first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942.

He married statistician Sylvia Miller in 1939; they had a daughter. During World War II, he divided time between mathematical research in Washington, D.C., and Princeton’s mathematics faculty (1943–1945). He returned to Princeton’s music faculty in 1948 and joined Juilliard in 1973. His students included 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 James K. Randall; theater composer Stephen Sondheim; composer-pianists Frederic Rzewski and Richard Aaker Trythall; and jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan.

In 1958, an article he wrote for High Fidelity, originally titled “The Composer as Specialist,” was published under the editor’s provocative title “Who Cares if You Listen?” without his consent. Babbitt later regretted this notoriety, stating in 1991 that he was more known for that title than for his music. In 2006 he told the Princeton Alumni Weekly, “Now obviously, I care very deeply if you listen.”

Selected discography

The selected discography includes Piano Works (1947–1985) performed by Robert Taub on Harmonia Mundi 905160, featuring pieces such as Three Compositions, Duet, Semi-Simple Variations, Partitions, Post-Partitions, Tableaux, Reflections for Piano and Synthesized Tape, Canonical Form, and Lagniappe. Clarinet Quintets pairs Babbitt’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet with Morton Feldman’s Clarinet and String Quartet, performed by the Phoenix Ensemble on Innova 746. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra/The Head of the Bed features Alan Feinberg, piano, with the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Charles Wuorinen, and Judith Bettina, soprano, with Parnassus conducted by Anthony Korf, on New World Records 80346. The Juilliard Orchestra album includes Babbitt’s Relata I conducted by Paul Zukofsky, alongside works by Persichetti and Diamond, on New World Records 80396–2.

The Juilliard String Quartet album presents Babbitt’s String Quartet No. 4 (1970) with quartets by Sessions and Wolpe, on CRI CD 587. Occasional Variations includes String Quartets No. 2 and No. 6, Occasional Variations, and Composition for Guitar, performed by William Anderson and string quartets, on Tzadik 7088. Philomel features sopranos Bethany Beardslee and Lynne Webber with pianists, on New World Records 80466-2. Quartet No. 3 for Strings appears with Charles Wuorinen’s Quartet for Strings, performed by the Fine Arts Quartet on Turnabout TV-S 34515.

Sextets; The Joy of More Sextets features Rolf Schulte and Alan Feinberg on New World Records NW 364–2. Soli e Duettini includes multiple works performed by the Group for Contemporary Music on Naxos 8559259. Three American String Quartets includes Babbitt’s Quartet No. 5 (1982) with quartets by Powell and Carter, performed by the Composers Quartet on Music & Arts CD-606. An Elizabethan Sextette features Alan Feinberg, Bethany Beardslee, and the Group for Contemporary Music on CRI CD 521.