Milton Babbitt facts for kids
Milton Byron Babbitt (born May 10, 1916 – died January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music expert, mathematician, and teacher. He is especially known for his unique style of music called serial music and his work with electronic music.
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Milton Babbitt's Early Life and Education
Milton Babbitt was born in Philadelphia, USA. He grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He started learning the violin when he was just four years old, but soon switched to playing the clarinet and saxophone. Young Milton loved jazz and music from theater shows. He even played in many local bands! By age 7, he was already making his own versions of popular songs. He wrote many pop tunes for school plays and won a songwriting contest when he was 13. A local newspaper called him a "whiz kid" because he had perfect pitch (meaning he could identify musical notes just by hearing them) and was great at math.
Milton's father was a mathematician, and Milton first planned to study math at the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. But he soon moved to New York University to study music with Philip James and Marion Bauer. There, he became very interested in the music of a group of composers known as the Second Viennese School. He wrote articles about twelve-tone music, which is a way of composing music using all 12 notes of the musical scale in a specific order.
After finishing his degree in 1935, he studied with Roger Sessions at Princeton University. He started teaching music at Princeton in 1938. During World War II, Babbitt also worked on mathematical research.
Teaching and Electronic Music
In 1948, Babbitt returned to teaching music at Princeton. Later, in 1973, he also joined the faculty at the Juilliard School, a famous music school. Many of his students became well-known composers and music experts, including Stephen Sondheim, who wrote music for many popular theater shows.
Around 1960, Babbitt became very interested in electronic music. The company RCA hired him to work with their RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In 1961, he created his Composition for Synthesizer. He was excited about how precisely he could control rhythms with the synthesizer, which was much harder to do with live musicians.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Babbitt wrote both electronic music and music for traditional musical instruments. Sometimes, he even combined them! For example, his piece Philomel (1964) is for a singer and a synthesized accompaniment, which included the recorded and changed voice of the singer Bethany Beardslee.
Later Years and Legacy
By the late 1970s, Babbitt started focusing less on electronic music. His music, like most serial music, often sounded "atonal," meaning it didn't follow traditional major or minor scales. However, in his later works, he sometimes arranged notes from his serial structures to sound like traditional chords or melodies, creating a kind of "double meaning" in his music.
From 1985 until he passed away, Babbitt was the chairman of the BMI Student Composer Awards, an international competition for young classical composers. He lived in Princeton, New Jersey, and died there on January 29, 2011, at the age of 94.
A filmmaker named Robert Hilferty made a movie about Babbitt called Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composer. It shows Babbitt's ideas and thoughts about his music.
Awards and Recognitions
Milton Babbitt received many important awards for his contributions to music:
- 1965 – Became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 1974 – Became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1982 – Won a Pulitzer Prize, a special award for his entire life's work as a great American composer
- 1986 – Received a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a "genius grant"
- 1988 – Won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for music composition
- 2000 – Became a National Patron of Delta Omicron, a music fraternity
- 2010 – Received the Max Reger Foundation of America – Extraordinary Life Time Musical Achievement Award
Milton Babbitt's Compositions
Milton Babbitt wrote many pieces of music throughout his life. His works are often divided into three main periods. He composed for various instruments, including piano, strings, wind instruments, and even jazz ensembles. He also created many pieces using synthesizers and electronic tape. Some of his well-known works include:
- Composition for Four Instruments (1948)
- All Set for jazz ensemble (1957)
- Composition for Synthesizer (1961)
- Philomel for soprano and synthesized tape (1964)
- Reflections for piano and synthesized tape (1975)
- Concerto for piano and orchestra (1985)
- Six String Quartets (written between 1948 and 1993)
Selected Recordings
You can listen to Milton Babbitt's music on many recordings. Here are a few examples:
- Clarinet Quintets: Features his Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet.
- Concerto for Piano And Orchestra/The Head Of The Bed: Includes his piano concerto.
- The Juilliard Orchestra: Features his orchestral piece Relata I.
- Philomel: A recording of his famous piece for soprano and tape.
- Sextets; The Joy of More Sextets: Features his works for violin and piano.
- Soli e Duettini: A collection of his pieces for various solo instruments and duos.
See also
In Spanish: Milton Babbitt para niños
