An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt

Rating:
Summary: comprehensive, on great theoretical musical eudaemonia
Review: As we gaze over the vast edifice of dodecaphonic music this side of the Atlantic we find a number of profound creations, Stefan Wolpe, Ralph Shapey, Donald Martino, Charles Wuorinen, Ezra Simms, and of course Milton Babbitt. There is a premonition, a harbinger which had marked Babbitt's life, being the first American to welcome Arnold Schoenberg as he arrived from exile,escaping the darkest pages of European history with the then popularity of the fascists in Europe and some cults within the USA,as Father Cooglan, and then Senator McCarthy and Roy Cohn's dithyrambic Purges of left minded American workers.
Andrew Mead does an admirable job, tracing the vast diapasonal musical creations of Babbitt.
Mead admirably divides Babbitt's creativity into useful periods, ones marked with a penchant for theoretical discursis,an elan for the pure structural and durational devices his inventive mind had. It all begins with Schoenberg's evolutionary 12 Tone language,which Babbitt had devloped into further functional divisions of the almost Kabballah like power of the number 12. His Composition for Four Instruments, Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Cello was a primary achievement, although rhythmically tthis period was marked by a persistent provincialism of the parameter of rhythm.It wasb't until the Second String Quartet where such tactile parametric freedoms begin to reveal themselves in an effulgence language.. With the Third creative period Mead identifies here the years 1961 to 1980 we impart ourselves in stil greater expansive dimensions. A number of piano solo works distinguish this period, the "Post-Partitions", and a work I deeply admire the rather modest 'Sextets', for Violin and Piano from 1966,and a revistation of the genre in "Joy of more Sextets" from the displaying the hexachordal-like encysted divisions between both contrasting instruments. There the genre,of Violin and Piano,which emanates from the 19th Century Sonata, was truly redefined discovering newer contexts, within the predictable structure of duet. Babbitt had also developed theories which now aimed to consolidate the vagaries of the infinite permutations and combinatorial mixtures of the 12 tones,his More Phonemena was a summation piece. I am still thrilled by the Piano Concerto a work in the Eighties, where now we see a freer utilizsation of some of these theoretical achievements. He still maintained this penchant for discovering differing contexts for predictable musical genres,and interestingly pursued interesting combinations as the various 'Soli e Duettini', as the one for two acoustic guitars.

Rating:
Summary: First Rate!
Review: I have always admired Milton Babbitt's work, not least for the subtle beauties of his often misunderstood music -- misunderstood only by those who are not up to the challenge of this demanding, olympean music! Andrew Mead's Introduction is exactly what it claims to be, an introduction--but then how could it be otherwise, considering the vast scope of Babbitt's astounding technique--and a very clear and well written one at that. Most important, Mead clarifies the musical responses and exigencies which brought about this impressive technique in very readable english. The bibliography at the end of the book is also excellent, listing some very important articles in the study of twelve tone music theory. Also recommended is Milton Babbitt's own, very readable, "Words About Music".