Who cares if you read this?
Milton Babbitt, a staple at Princeton University for many years, was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1916. Babbitt gained widespread notoriety for an essay he wrote for High Fidelity magazine, titled “Who Cares If You Listen?” It turns out the provocative stance was actually the result of an editorial decision, and that Babbitt’s original title had been “The Composer as Specialist” – not likely to generate nearly as much controversy.
While he frequently composed in a serial style, Babbitt’s music is often fairly lucid, without undo congestion and with a minimum of soul-crushing dissonances. On the contrary, he often achieved a paradoxical simplicity under the guise of complexity.
In the 1960s, Babbitt became interested in electronic music, apparently for its rhythmic precision, as opposed to any unusual timbral considerations. I find it endearing that he was also fond of jazz and musical theater and that late in life he enjoyed a friendship of sorts with film composer John Williams. (They bonded over Bernard Herrmann.) His one-time student, Stephen Sondheim characterized him as “a frustrated show composer.”
Babbitt himself was a saxophonist. In 1946, he penned a musical, “Fabulous Voyage,” a retelling of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
He was the recipient of an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 1982. Babbitt died in Princeton in 2011, at the age of 94.
Listen here for “Penelope’s Night Song” from “Fabulous Voyage”:
https://soundcloud.com/phillipc…/penelopes-night-song-from
“Composition for Twelve Instruments” (1948):
“Reflections” (1974) for piano and synthesized tape:
Milton Babbitt on electronic music:
John Williams talks Babbitt in The New Yorker
If you’re interested in learning more about Princeton’s important role in the history of computer music and haven’t done so yet, do check out this podcast, produced by the Princeton University Engineering Department.
I profiled the podcast’s creator, Aaron Nathans, in September for the Princeton weekly U.S. 1.
Happy birthday, Milton Babbitt!
