I did attend a concert of Milton Babbitt's music, with the composer in attendance, at the Library of Congress, apparently on March 31, 2006. Despite my invested interest in John Cage on one hand and so-called "minimalism" on the other, I have to admit that I didn't regret witnessing this event. Though I don't remember writing down anything during the presentation. Congratulation on completing a text having something to do with Milton Babbitt. I can't say that I would regard him as "The Enemy" (in Wyndham Lewis' sense of that term) after my experience.
Barry
On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:50:51 +0000, Gerald Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>BAB(bit)('s)
>
>"Advanced music, to the extent that it reflects the knowledge and originality of the informed composer,
>scarcely can be expected to appear more intelligible than the other arts and sciences to the person
>whose musical education usually has been even less extensive than his background in other fields"
>-- Milton Babbit
>
>1.
>We had to
>imitate Jan Garber one
>night; we had to
>imitate Jean Goldkett the next night. We heard
>everything from the radio; we
>had to do it all by ear.
>We took down their arrangements;
>we stole
>their arrangements; we transcribed
>them, approximately. We
>played them for
>a country club dance
>one night and for
>a high school dance the next.
>
>2.
>Serious advanced
>creation of a commodity
>which has
>little, no, or negative commodity
>value.
>In essence, a "vanity" composer
>"isolation," a variety of attitudes
>has been expressed
>assigning blame
>to the music to the critics to performers
>occasionally to the public.
>DO WELL TO CONSIDER
>means of realizing consolidating
>extending the advantages live
>no longer in the unitary
>musical universe of
>"common practice,"
>but in a variety of universe's
>DIVERSE PRACTICE
>this fall
>from musical innocence is
>disquieting challenging
>irreversible
>full impact of evolution
>"new" music
>
>3.
>Only in politics and the "arts"
>does the layman
>reward himself as an expert,
>a right to have an opinion heard.
>POLITICS=concertgoes=secure
>in the knowledge= "I didn't like it"
>IMAGINE
>a layman chancing upon
>a lecture on "Pointwise Periodic
>Homeomorphisms.
>"I didn't like it"
>"Why not?" Under duress:
>"I found the hall chilly, the
>lecturer's voice unpleasant, and
>I was suffering from the digestive
>aftermath of a poor dinner."
>DISQUALIFIED.
>"I didn't like it"--it was
>"inexpressive," "undramatic," "lacking
>in poetry," etc., etc.,
>tapping that store
>of vacuous equivalents
>hallowed by time for:
>"I don't like it, and I
>cannot or will not state why."
>
>4.
>Composers (and performers)
>wittingly
>or unwittingly
>assuming the character of
>"talented children" and
>"inspired idiots"
>singularly adept at the conversion
>of personal tastes
>into general principals.
>"not music composers" "not composers"
>
>5.
>Granting to music the position
>accorded to other arts
>and sciences promises
>thesolesubstantialmeansof survival for music
>if music is not supported
>the whistling repertory of
>the man on the street
>will be little affected.
>
>6.
>How can we make
>music more like sports?
>I mean, when you think they call...
>I won't name names, but
>the current center fielder of
>the Yankees
>is called the second coming of
>JOE DIMAGGIO He's
>not the second coming of Dom
>DiMaggio! I
>mean this guy, to think of these
>people, I mean the playing.
>I happened to see TY COBB,
>but at the end of his career
>so that isn't what I'm comparing him with... the
>Philadelphia Athletics in '29, '30,
>'31, with Lefty Cochrane and Jimmy Foxx,
>the incredible abilities
>of those people.
>Joe DiMaggio
>would be running
>after the ball
>to field it the moment
>it left the pitcher's arm.
>But football has funny business going on:
>YOU'RE PENALIZED FOR SCORING, now
>they have HASH MARKS
>so every play is played
>from some position on
>the field.
>
>7.
>PARNASSUS...
>Oh, we don't have to go through
>this, you know all about this.
>
>8.
>I tell you
>there's no principal involved. I'm
>not going to be a musical Luddite;
>it's just not that, I cannot start.
>I love to work in isolation, though
>I've often composed in subways
>I have also, I like the idea
>of being able to stand there
>and redo and redo and redo.
>
>9.
>In the most serious sense, it's
>a matter of just being
>THE MASTER OF EVERYTHING
>your decisions are your decisions.
>You convey them to a machine of course.
>Learning how to
>convey them to a machine
>was a big problem at that time.
>the machine was totally neutral.
>There were no set-ups
>or samplers. We had
>to start from scratch and do everything
>from the beginning.
>Then there was the break-in
>and everything was vandalized.
>But "Philomel" is very near and
>dear to my heart.
>- - -
>
>--G. E. Schwartz
