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Babbitt, Milton

Babbitt, Milton

▪ American composer
in full  Milton Byron Babbitt  
born May 10, 1916, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
 
 American composer and theorist known as a leading proponent of total serialism—i.e., musical composition based on prior arrangements not only of all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale (as in 12-tone music) but also of dynamics, duration, timbre (tone colour), and register.

      Babbitt attended public schools in Jackson, Miss.; he played violin as a young child and then turned to piano, clarinet, and saxophone. In his youth he loved jazz and other popular music. After beginning mathematics studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he transferred to New York University as a music major. In New York City he also studied privately for several years with the composer Roger Sessions (Sessions, Roger).

      Babbitt's Composition for Synthesizer (1961) displayed his interest in establishing precise control over all elements of composition; the machine is used primarily to achieve such control rather than solely to generate novel sounds. Philomel (1964) combines synthesizer with the voice, both live and recorded, of a soprano. More traditional in medium is Partitions for Piano (1957). Babbitt wrote chamber music (Composition for Four Instruments, 1948; All Set, 1957) as well as solo pieces and orchestral works. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Babbitt continued to use serialist techniques in his later works, which include Arie da capo (1974), The Head of the Bed (1982), Play It Again, Sam (1989; written as a viola solo for Samuel Rhodes), Swan Song No. 1 (2003), and Concerti for Orchestra (2004).

      Babbitt was a member of the music faculty at Princeton from 1938 to 1984, and he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in 1971. He also taught composition at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood Music Center) in Massachusetts and at the Darmstadt Music Festival in Germany. His interest in electronic music brought him the directorship of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In 1959 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1982 he received a lifetime Pulitzer Prize in composition.

      Babbitt was unapologetic about the difficulty of his music, arguing that understanding “advanced music,” like “mathematics, philosophy, and physics,” requires extensive background and effort. Nonetheless, he saw his music as belonging in a tradition that flowed from Johannes Brahms (Brahms, Johannes) through Arnold Schoenberg (Schoenberg, Arnold) and Anton Webern (Webern, Anton). The composer and conductor Gunther Schuller (Schuller, Gunther) said conducting Babbitt was “a great thrill, to get inside that music with those marvelous sounds and textures,” and critic Alex Ross wrote that Babbitt's “music…shuffles and shimmies like jazz from another planet.”

      As an active participant and thinker, Babbitt wrote extensively about music. His writings are collected in Milton Babbitt: Words About Music (1987; edited by Stephen Dembski and Joseph N. Straus) and The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt (2003; edited by Stephen Peles).

Additional Reading
Andrew Mead, An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt (1994).

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Universalium. 2010.

  
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  • 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 1 Biography 2 Honors and awards 3 Articles …   Wikipedia

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  • Milton Babbitt — Milton Byron Babbitt (* 10. Mai 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; † 29. Januar 2011 in Princeton (New Jersey)[1][2]) war ein US amerikanischer Komponist und Hochschullehrer. Er war einer der Pioniere der Seriellen und Elektronischen Musik.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Milton Byron Babbitt — (* 10. Mai 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) ist ein US amerikanischer Komponist. Babbitt begann 1931 ein Mathematikstudium an der University of Pennsylvania und wechselte später nach New York City. Nach dem Studium nahm er… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Babbitt,Milton Byron — Babbitt, Milton Byron. Born 1916. American composer whose works, including Vision and Prayer (1961) for soprano and synthesizer, combine serial music and electronic effects. * * * …   Universalium

  • Milton Babbitt's Philomel — Philomel , a serial composition composed in 1964, combines synthesizer with both live and recorded soprano voice. It is Milton Babbitt’s best known work and was planned as a piece for performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, funded by the… …   Wikipedia

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  • Milton — /mil tn/, n. 1. John, 1608 74, English poet. 2. a town in SE Ontario, in S Canada. 28,067. 3. a town in E Massachusetts, near Boston. 25,860. 4. a male given name: a family name taken from a placename meaning mill town. * * * (as used in… …   Universalium

  • Babbitt, Milton (Byron) — (n. 10 may. 1916, Filadelfia, Pa., EE.UU.). Milton Babbitt, compositor estadounidense. Compositor estadounidense. Estudió con el compositor Roger Sessions en la Universidad de Princeton y después se incorporó a ese plantel. Se convirtió en uno de …   Enciclopedia Universal