Babbitt, at system
Happy Birthday Milton!
Just found out while streaming David Garland during dinner that today [for another half hour at least] is Milton Babbitt’s 88th birthday.
Hope you’re still up and maybe Googling, guy!
What a treasure, and what a delight to have him around us.
A composer who asserts something such as: “I don’t compose by system, but by ear” thereby convicts himself of … equating ignorance with freedom, that is, by equating ignorance of the constraints under which he creates with freedom from constraints. …A musical theory must provide… a model for determinate and testable statements about musical compositions.
– Milton Babbitt, “The Structure and Function of Musical Theory”
Okay, It still bothers me to know how much he loves American musicals, but nobody’s perfect.
[both image and quote from Camille Goudeseune]