Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Electronic Music

Mario Davidovsky Pulitzer-Winning Composer Dies at 85

It was announced by the American Academy of Arts and Letters earlier today that the composer Mario Davidovsky has died. Davidovsky, who was born in Argentina, studied with Aaron Copland and Milton Babbitt. He was a former member of the composition faculty at Columbia University and a past director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.

Davidovsky emigrated to the United States in 1960. His work, “Synchronisms No. 6,” for piano and electroacoustic sounds played from tape, was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1971. At the time of his death, on Friday, Davidovsky was 85 years-old.

Synchronisms No. 6:

PHOTO (left to right): CPEMC personnel Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, Pril Smiley, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, and Alice Shields, circa 1970

August 28, 2019
Milton Babbitt A Centennial Celebration

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Milton Babbitt. Babbitt, born in Philadelphia, was a staple at Princeton University for many years. It’s telling that he joined both the music and mathematics faculties there. Later, he was also on the faculty of the Juilliard School.

Babbitt gained widespread notoriety for an essay he wrote, titled “Who Cares If You Listen?” It turns out the provocative stance was 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 interest.

While he frequently composed in a serial style, his music is usually pretty lucid, without undo congestion and with a minimum of soul-crushing dissonances. In fact, his language could often attain a paradoxical simplicity amidst the appearance 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. He himself was a saxophonist. In 1946, he penned a musical, “Fabulous Voyage,” a retelling of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

Babbitt was the recipient of an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 1982. He died in Princeton in 2011, at the age of 94.

Listen here for “Penelope’s Night Song” from “Fabulous Voyage”:

“Composition for Twelve Instruments” (1948):

“Reflections” (1974) for piano and synthesized tape:

Milton Babbitt on electronic music:

May 10, 2016
Douglas Lilburn New Zealand’s Musical Pioneer

Being such a huge Sibelius fan, I remember being positively charmed by my discovery of the music of Douglas Lilburn. Lilburn is probably New Zealand’s most celebrated composer.

Lilburn studied journalism and music at Canterbury University College, then part of the University of New Zealand, before embarking for London’s Royal College of Music. There he was tutored by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The two remained good friends, with Lilburn sending his former teacher gifts of New Zealand honey.

Lilburn made his mark at home not only as a composer, but as a conductor and a noted teacher. For decades, he was associated with Victoria University in Wellington, beginning in 1947.

Astonishingly, for one whose own music was so rooted in tradition, Lilburn founded the first electronic music studio in Australasia. This followed visits to electronic facilities at Darmstadt and the University of Toronto.

Actually, his comparatively thorny Third Symphony signaled something of a turning point. Soon after its completion, in 1961, he shifted his attention exclusively to electronics, a field in which he spent the remainder of his career. Many of his works in the medium evoke the New Zealand landscape and the natural sounds he loved so well.

Lilburn died in 2001. He was 85 years old. He has been described as “the elder statesman” and “grandfather of New Zealand music.”

Happy birthday to this antipodean giant!

Liliburn’s “A Song of Islands” (1946):

The composer in the electronic music studio he founded:

PHOTO: Lilburn in a whimsical mood

November 2, 2014

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