performed by Gunther Schuller’s ad hoc string orchestra Just let the music wash over you in its totality, and you might be surprised what rich and totally new listening rewards you will reap. -Gunther Schuller, on Transfigured Notes (cover image by … Continue reading Babbitt: Transfigured Notes
performed by William Purvis (sorry, no YouTube today, but hop on over to the Naxos page featuring this album to hear a few snippets of this vibrant, varied work for solo horn.) Doesn’t anyone here know anything about baseball? … … Continue reading Babbitt: Around the Horn
performed (in the only existing recording I am aware of) by the Fine Arts quartet, the dedicatee of the work As with any relatively intricate composition, further rehearings or — more realistically— further recalling should lead the listener from those local coherences … Continue reading Babbitt String Quartet no. 3
performed by the Composers Quartet There was until recently no YouTube Video to share, but one has appeared, and I’m not sure how long it will stay up. There’s only one (studio?) recording of this piece, to my knowledge, and … Continue reading Babbitt String Quartet no. 2
performed by the people listed here, directed by the very friendly Erik Carlson “… entire twelve-tone compositions may be seen to be consequences of the structure of the original sets on which they are based, thus revealing “those attributes of … Continue reading Babbitt: Composition for Twelve Instruments
played by any of the people in the recordings listed here, or as below (more detail on the performers later, but they are listed in the YouTube video’s info “… the general lesson of Composition for Four Instruments is that … Continue reading Babbitt: Composition for Four Instruments
performed by Robert Taub. The CD is available here The first of these three pieces is above on YouTube, and if it’s even the least bit intriguing, I would highly recommend buying the album. Here we are, at a place I have … Continue reading Milton Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano
Epilogue: Total Serialism a.k.a Influential People: Milton Babbitt It’s been a while. If you haven’t read or don’t remember a three-part series I wrote a few months back on the beginnings of the twelve-tone system, go check out the first … Continue reading Dodecaphony: Part 4 (a.k.a. Influential People: Milton Babbitt)
To continue our discussion of the twelve tone scheme and the Second Viennese School, we’re going to talk today about the method itself. I’m going to be up front with you, though. I’m not a professional musician, I am not … Continue reading Dodecaphony: Part 2
or The Composer as Specialist from Hi Fidelity, February 1958 Wikipedia article here Original article here (PDF) Bach, Beethoven, Brahms…. Jump ahead, jump ahead and there’s Babbitt. But there’s also obviously a lot in between. Last week’s post was a … Continue reading Thoughts on Babbitt’s "Who Cares if You Listen"
Fugue for Thought 