Babbitt, Milton

Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music Special Edition 3CD + DVD

Average customer rating:

Excellent but uncomplete
Ohm... Ohm... Ohm...
This and...
The Standard Reference for Electronic Music

Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music Special Edition 3CD + DVD

Manufacturer: Ellipsis Arts
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Moog
Theremin - An Electronic Odyssey

ASIN: B000BDGVX6
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Tracks:

Valse Sentimentale - Clara Rockmore
Oraison - Ens D'Ondes De Montreal
Etude Aux Chemins De Fer - Pierre Schaeffer
Williams Mix - John Cage
Klangstudie II - Herbert Eimert/Robert Beyer
Low Speed - Otto Luening
Dripsody - Hugh Le Caine
Forbidden Planet: Main Title - Louis Barron/Bebe Barron
Elektronische Tanzste: Concertando Rubato - Oskar Sala
Poem Electronique - Edgard Varese
Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean) - Richard Maxfield
Apocalypse-Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
Kontakte - James Tenney/William Winant
Wireless Fant - Vladimir Ussachevsky
Philomel - Milton Babbitt
Spacecraft - MEV

Tracks:

Cindy Electronium - Raymond Scott
Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth
Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
Projection Esemplastic For White Noise - Joji Yuasa
Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1 - Morton Subotnick
Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor
Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay
Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari
Vibrations Composees: Rosace 3 - Francois Bayle
Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis
Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals: Drift Study '31/69 c.... - La Monte Young

Tracks:

He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge
Six Fants On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky
Appalachian Grove - Laurie Spiegel
En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani
On The Other Ocean - David Behrman
Stria - John Chowning
Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series - Maryanne Amacher
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley
Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran
Music On A Long Thin Wire - Alvin Lucier
Melange - Klaus Schulze
Before And After Charm (La Notte) - Jon Hassell
Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno

Album Description

OHM+ : the early gurus of electronic music

Special Edition 3CD + DVD

Leaps in technology: oscillators, generators, vacuum tubes, amplifiers, transistors, magnetic tape, integrated circuits, and the microchip— inspired new instruments: the telharmonium, theremin, ondes martenot, electronic sackbut, clavivox, electronium, moog synthesizer, and computers— and artists everywhere hungry for new modes of expression.

This collection is a humble but bold attempt to give form to the wonderful, multi-directional, inevitable birth of electronic music.

"Many of the ideas in this collection have now been so completely assimilated into popular listening that it may sometimes be hard to remember how surprising it all was on first outing. Some of it still sounds pretty exotic. These CDs are important as part of the story of how we got to where we are now-the cultural conversation so far-and as a still fruitful repertoire of future possibilities." —from the Foreword by Brian Eno

Three CDs—42 original music tracks from 1948-1980 112 Page Book—extensive artist interviews, commentaries, and archival photographs Special Edition DVD—over two hours of rare performances, interviews, animations, and experimental video.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent but uncomplete.......2006-11-12

Althought most of the music here is an excellent collection of electronic music history, this 3 CDs lack of the important contribution given by the RAI phonology studios of Milan, Italy in the 50s
(which was bigger than Koln's WDR studios) with Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio and Luigi Nono.
This is a big mistake. Milans studios were the biggest of europe and produced many important electroacoustic pieces.
If the collection aim to describe faithfully electronic music history, it should include this artists too.

Ohm... Ohm... Ohm..........2006-04-01

Back in 2000, Ellipsis Arts released OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, a fantastic and essential three CD set tracing the evolution of "electronica" from Messiaen, Cage, and Xenakis to Schulze, Eno, and Hassell. This set was recently reissued (as OHM+) along with a bonus DVD (which is thankfully now available separately for those of us who already have the CDs.) You can read plenty of excellent reviews of the original 3CD set on Amazon (and elsewhere), so I'm going to focus on the new DVD in this review.

The OHM+ DVD is jam-packed with over two hours of archival and more recent footage that runs the gamut from engrossing to mildly interesting to unwatchably dull.

If seemingly endless "talking head" interviews with Milton Babbitt and Bebe Barron are your idea of video entertainment, you've come to the right place. An interview with John Cage digitally altered beyond all recognition? Check. Swirling psychadelic colored dyes right out of a Saucerful of Secrets-era Pink Floyd concert? No problem.

There are some tastier goodies to be found on this DVD, however...

The segments with Clara Rockmore and Leon Theremin have an appealingly amateurish home movie quality to them. It's also a real treat to see the 1978 footage of underappreciated minimalist guru David Borden and Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company "on the road" hauling around their truckload of big old analog synthesizer equipment. Laurie Spiegel is fun to watch as she tinkers with a big grey metal box called a "Concerto Generator" with an extremely serious expression on her face. And Alvin Lucier's "Music for Solo Performer," where he hooks up wires to his head and produces sounds using his brainwaves and two tympani, simply must be seen to be believed.

The Pixar-ish computer animation accompanying Paul Lansky's "The Dust Bunny" is sort of cute, but it goes on for about 10 minutes too long. Surely most of the OHM target audience already has the DVD of Steve Reich's Three Tales, but it's nice that they included the best part - the ominous yet goofy "Dolly" segment. Many have also probably seen Hans Fjellestad's documentary Moog before, but the six minute excerpt provided here is really about all you need.

It's too bad there isn't a more interesting John Cage segment, and regrettable that there aren't any Stockhausen videos (those would certainly be a riot!)

Overall, though, while the OHM+ DVD is not as consistently engaging as the CD set of the same name, it is a worthy companion to it. And if you don't have either of them yet, the complete OHM+ 3-CD & DVD "special edition" box set is a no-brainer.

This and..........2006-01-06

An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Vol.1 will probably have you set.

The Standard Reference for Electronic Music.......2005-11-03

This package is mind boggling. The DVD includes over 2 hours of rare footage too. If you want to know about the roots of electronic music, look no further.

Average customer rating:

More than the sum of its parts
deft sense of humour shines through every flickering gesture
Amazing but Underperformed
summa
Don't overdo the math

Milton Babbitt: Philomel

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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Occasional Variations
I Am Sitting in a Room
Music Of Silvestre Revueltas
Boulez: Pli selon Pli
Stockhausen: Stimmung

ASIN: B0000030IM
Release Date: 1995-05-30

Tracks:

Philomel: Philomel For Soprano, Recorded Soprano, And Synthesized Sound
Philomel: Phonemena For Soprano And Piano
Philomel: Phonemena For Soprano And Tape
Philomel: Post-Paritions
Philomel: Reflection For Piano And Synthesized Tape

Amazon.com

Milton Babbitt is one of the first major U.S.-born academic composers, and he helped found the enormously influential Electronic Music Center of Columbia-Princeton Universities. His 1964 piece, Philomel, is a pivotal work for Babbitt--and for avant-garde New Music. It combines Bethany Beardslee's wavering, halting soprano with ample helpings of synthesized electronics. Blipping emanations dot Beardslee's vocal testament, and Babbitt explores an astonishing range of what electronics can do, either in duet with a voice or in solo contexts. Rounding out this collection are equally key pieces examining ways that piano can interact with voice and synthesized tape, as well as pieces that further push the envelope on the soprano voice. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

More than the sum of its parts.......2006-04-20

Philomel is amazing. The use of many different 20th century styles and techniques - serialism, musique concrete, electronic music, sprechgesang - is breathtaking in and of itself. However, this work is about more than Babbitt showing how much he knows and what he can do - the styles used are generated by the text, resulting in highly emotional and expressive music. Anyone who doesn't like this should just go watch "American Idol" and leave the rest of us alone.

deft sense of humour shines through every flickering gesture.......2006-01-16

Philomel is an utter delight:fear not,you can cast the maths aside when listening to Babbitt's music because it sounds so good on it's own terms.For once atonal music for the voice which doesn't sound persistently anguished!

Amazing but Underperformed.......2004-10-17

Of the numerous works and studies on this CD, "Philomel" stands out the most. Remember that this was one of the earliest symphonic works involving synthesized sound. Babbitt labored for years on a rickety punch-card era machine without preset channels or sampled sound, beginning from scratch sometime around 1960. It took that long to get the sound that he was looking for.

Regarding the other works on this CD: Sadly, even with the playability of Phon. for Soprano & Piano, Post-Partitions, and even Reflections, these are almost never selected for performance. Post-Partitions is attractive for Babbitt's use of "dyads," if we can even apply that term to music.

summa.......2001-11-22

Erwartung + Kontakte = Philomel.
Love it or leave it.
Do I need to say anything else?

Don't overdo the math.......2000-10-26

Babbitt is interested in how details relate to deeper structure. To achieve this there must be deeper structure, and in Babbitt's music there is the most impressive, Brahmsian depth of structure. Some of the ways of achieving this can be described in mathematical terms, but to make it work so beautifully is wholly a musical issue. One can describe bad music in mathematical terms to, likewise simple music. Babbitt improvises with his material until everthing sounds in a compelling way. Babbitt's music, as well as the music of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms requires 3-d hearing. It's a bit like the computer generated images that require the proper focusing of the eye to see the 3-dimensioanl figures. When one gets Babbitt's music properly in focus, there is nothing quite so satisfying

OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music

Average customer rating:

excellent but uncomplete
To call it music may be a bit limiting.
A worthwhile collection
OhMyGodHowDreadful
Kid Stockhausen

OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Ellipsis Arts
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Beat the Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson
An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Vol. 3: 1952-2004
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Another Day on Earth

ASIN: B00004T0FZ
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Tracks:

Valse Sentimentale - Clara Rockmore
Oraison - Ens D'Ondes De Montreal
Etude Aux Chemins De Fer - Pierre Schaeffer
Williams Mix - John Cage
Klangstudie II - Herbert Eimert/Robert Beyer
Low Speed - Otto Luening
Dripsody - Hugh Le Caine
Forbidden Planet: Main Title - Louis Barron/Bebe Barron
Elektronische Tanzste: Concertando Rubato - Oskar Sala
Poem Electronique - Edgard Varese
Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean) - Richard Maxfield
Apocalypse-Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
Kontakte - James Tenney/William Winant
Wireless Fant - Vladimir Ussachevsky
Philomel - Milton Babbitt
Spacecraft - MEV

Tracks:

Cindy Electronium - Raymond Scott
Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth
Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
Projection Esemplastic For White Noise - Joji Yuasa
Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1 - Morton Subotnick
Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor
Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay
Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari
Vibrations Composees: Rosace 3 - Francois Bayle
Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis
Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals: Drift Study '31/69 c.... - La Monte Young

Tracks:

He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge
Six Fants On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky
Appalachian Grove - Laurie Spiegel
En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani
On The Other Ocean - David Behrman
Stria - John Chowning
Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series - Maryanne Amacher
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley
Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran
Music On A Long Thin Wire - Alvin Lucier
Melange - Klaus Schulze
Before And After Charm (La Notte) - Jon Hassell
Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno

Amazon.com

Opening with Clara Rockmore's reworking of Tchaikovsky with the theremin, and finishing with one of Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, OHM artfully succeeds in its goal of giving a representative (as opposed to the impossible, comprehensive) overview of the first several decades of electronic music. Over 3 discs, 42 compositions, and 96 pages of notes and photos, OHM clearly illustrates the producers' and contributing writers' point that early electronic music is much of the foundation of contemporary music. Herein lies the connective tissue bridging musique concrète, 20th-century classical, electronic experimentation, and the theoretical avant-garde to psychedelia, ambient, dub, techno, electro, and synthpop and the globalization of sound. The groundbreaking uses of loops, sampling, drones, remixes, and cut-and-paste technology are put fully into context. The diversity of music included makes any sort of summation impossible, but that is also the point: electronic music is not really a genre, but an open field of endless possibility. From John Cage's famous "William's Mix" of tape snippets to Karkheinz Stockhausen's electronic orchestral compositions, from David Tudor and Holger Czukay's experiments in unrelated blendings of audio elements to David Behrman's supremely peaceful duet between computers and musicians, the aural renegades on OHM tread where none (save a few of their contemporaries) had gone before. The liner notes convey the incredible amount of hard work and experimentation it took to stitch together many of these pieces in the predigital era. Putting aside the inevitable quibbles about what's missing (much of it due to legal and/or logistical issues), a more complete collection of musical eggheads, eccentrics, and visionaries is hard to imagine. --Carl Hanni

Customer Reviews:

excellent but uncomplete.......2006-11-12

To call it music may be a bit limiting. .......2006-10-24

Some of the tracks on here are "music". That is that they contain all the bits we're trained to experience as music -- melody, etc. Some are not, and the composers would be the first people to tell you that. A lot of these works are reactions to ingrained rules, so they're bound to be jarring.

A more successful way to approach such a broad and varied collection of audio experimentation is to think of it as curated sound. This isn't something to wash the dishes to, or to seduce someone to (although if you did manage to seduce someone with the recordings on this anthology, HOLD ON TO THAT PERSON, because they've got to be a keeper). These are unique sound textures that deserve a close, probably solitary listen, and I think if you're in the right frame of mind, it can be a very rewarding listen.

My main complaint is sequencing: each dicrete piece follows it's own internal logic, so there are more than a couple rough gear changes. However, since each piece is so different, and the collection is so varied, I'm not sure that you could totally escape that.

A worthwhile collection.......2006-01-11

The OHM collection contains some of those ground breaking electronic compositions that have shaped today's styles, from the early electronic instruments of Theremin and Martenot, through Pierre Schaeffer's Music Concrete tape music and the electronic music of Stockhausen and Subotnick, to the mainframe computer output of Risset and Chowning.

It is unfair to mark this collection down due to the production quality and 'musicality' of its contents, to do so would be to staggeringly miss the point of the development of electronic music through the 20th Century. What this collection shows is the ideas behind those at the cutting edge of the genre before many could even conceive of such output. That said it is hard going at points, as experimental music can be.

Highlights for me are no doubt Olivier Messiaen's 'Oraison' on CD 1, David Tudor's 'Rainforest Version 1' on CD 2 and on CD 3 David Behrman's 'On the Other Ocean' and Maryanne Amacher's 'Living sound Patent Pending'.

OhMyGodHowDreadful.......2005-08-15

Ok, this collection is supposed to be early works and, thus not expected to be very sophisticated or polished. But the OHM collection sounds like the first attempt of a spastic cat turned-loose on a Moog keyboard. When it is not boreing, this collection of random and dissonant sounds (I can't call it music) is without any redeeming qualities to make it worth while. Don't get me wrong, I am a long-time fan of Wendy (nie Walter) Carlos and some other real pioneers of electronic music. However, I find that the Ohm collection has no similar qualities and is a major disappointment.

Kid Stockhausen.......2003-01-17

This is required listening for anybody interested in the history of electronic music. Although implicitly aiming for the techno music audience, this audio history is overwhelmingly focused on the classical avant-garde of electro-acoustic composers. The closest you'll get to pop electronica is the Brian Eno track at the end of the third disc. No Kraftwerk, no Moroder, etc. Instead "OHM" manages to point to the continuities between, say, John Cage and artists currently working at the experimental edges of electronica (so-called IDM). It seems to be saying, "You think Kid 606 is visionary? Well check out this Stockhausen track from '59!"

Admittedly, some of the songs are much more interesting to think about than they are to listen to. Some of the early pieces that were made through thosuands of hours of pains-taking tape-splicing could be made today in an afternoon with a digital audio editor and a few effects plug-ins.

Tracks:

Quatrains (1993)
Manifold Music (1995)
My Ends Are My Beginnings (1978)
My Ends Are My Beginnings (1978)
My Ends Are My Beginnings (1978)
Soli e Duettini (1989)
Swan Song No. 1 (2003)

Album Description

Milton Babbitt remains a controversial figure on today's musical scene, with his ideas more frequently discussed than his music is actually listened to. This recording contains the premiere recordings of five Babbitt works that span a quarter of a century. The CD opens with a performance of Babbitt's exquisite "Quatrains", sung by the brilliant young American soprano, Tony Arnold. Set to a text by a Babbitt favorite-John Hollander-"Quatrains" is a work of great delicacy and subtlety. "Manifold Music" shows Babbitt adapting his language to the organ in a most original manner. Exploiting the instrument's potential for colorful registration, Babbitt's demanding score is a spectacular workout for the hands and feet of organ virtuoso, Gregory D'Agostino. "My Ends Are My Beginnings" has, since its composition in 1978, been regarded by many as one of most difficult-to-play works for a solo woodwind instrument. The work's dedicatee, Allen Blustine (long-time clarinetist! for Speculum Musicae), gives a heroic reading of this 17 minute solo. "Soli e Duettini" is one of three works with this title. This work, for two guitars, is played by dedicatees William Anderson and Oren Fader. (This premiere recording was previously issued on BRIDGE 9042). The final work is Babbitt's just completed "Swan Song No. 1". It is a remarkable composition for the unusual combination of flute, oboe, mandolin, guitar, violin and cello. CD Annotator Matthias Kriesberg writes, "The experience of hearing Milton Babbitt, who for so long played off the boundaries of musical dimensions against one another, now reign in the extremes so dramatically as to focus the ear on the centered drama of calm voices interacting, is certainly extraordinary. But should we really be surprised? After all, there is a long, rich history of composers who, having definitively proven their ability to wrest music in an entirely new direction, turned their attention inward, ever inward, to contemplate that place, in the words of W.B. Yeats, `where all the ladders start.'"

Customer Reviews:

swan Song No.1 is the overwhelming highlight for me.......2006-01-16

By a hairs breath,this disc has the edge on the recently issued Naxos compilation of Babbitt's music.
The composers word setting is shown to brilliant advantage in Quatrains (1993):a nice balance between exquisite moment to moment detail and sense of whole.Tony Arnold is the expert and characterful soprano.There's real passion here.
Manifold Music (1983)might be the most controversial piece on the disc as the organ isn't the instrument which springs to mind when one thinks of Babbitt's penchant for finely tuned dynamic shadings and deft figuration.However,repeated hearings reveal that unmistakable wit and astute sense of pitch shining through.There's also a sense of the perverse in the textural problems,a real sense of struggle.
My Ends are my Beginnings (1978)is a very subtle work which i find harder to get a hold of...plenty of delicious detail to savour but it's a very abstract journey and one longs for more contrast between the three movements.Certainly,Allen Blustine seems to have the measure of this 16minute piece.
Soli e Duettini (1989)falls into the same category of cool abstraction which doesn't quite take off.
Swan Song no.1 (2003)is the overwhelming winner for me.Nothing in the least bit resigned about this capricious little gem.
There seem to be some teasing references to Stavinsky's Agon at the beginning and some beautifully judged unisons and moments of genuine warmth (eg.01:19)
Excellent programme notes are another added advantage over the obscure/self indulgent prose on the Naxos disc.

Challenging music.......2005-11-07

Briefly, Babbitt is one tough nut but once his music has been cracked it's a wonderful experience. This is an excellent collection of pieces that are more easily related to because of the instruments used--you want to listen and understand. There's no way to describe Babbit's music (most attempts--pro and con--seem to miss the mark), an explorer simply has to take the plunge somewhere. This is a good place to start.

Note to the record label--THIS IS WITHOUT QUESTION THE WORST ALBUM COVER IN THE LONG HISTORY OF RECORDED AND MARKETED ART MUSIC. GENERALLY, YOUR GRAPHICS ARE SIMPLY TERRIBLE ANYWAY BUT THIS PARTICULAR RELEASE TAKES THE GRAND PRIZE. ITS HIDEOUS, GROTESQUE, OFF-PUTTING, AND DAMNED UGLY. IT'S DIFFICULT RECOMMENDING SUCH A VISUALLY VILE THING. PLEASE TRY TO FIND BETTER GRAPHIC ARTISTS, IT WILL HELP YOUR SALES!

Average customer rating:

Excellent, and New
Genious.

None But The Lonely Flute

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000030IC
Release Date: 1995-02-28

Tracks:

None But The Lonely Flute
Trio For Flutes
For Morton Feldman
And The Whole Air Is Tremulous
Indigenous Music II: Flute
Ryoan - JI

Customer Reviews:

Excellent, and New.......2004-02-28

This CD is full of something that is all too rare, originality. I loved it. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. This album pushes the what music is, and should be, to a high level. It's well worth the buy for someone who wants to study good new music.

Genious........2001-11-26

The music is obviously written by composers that are serious about their work but not serious about what the audience thinks. It is unique, beautiful and sometimes wierd. The performance is quite wonderful and amazing. I am sure that there are not many, if there are any, that can play the flute so masterfully as Dorothy Stone. Thank you for this amazing music. It took me quite a while to learn to listen to this music but my patience and attention to it has been well awarded.

Average customer rating:

Guitar piece of exquisite poetry.
featuring two serialist string quartets

Occasional Variations
Milton Babbitt , William Anderson , Performer: Sherry Quartet , and Performer: Composers Quartet
Manufacturer: Tzadik
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00009WVRO
Release Date: 2003-07-22

Customer Reviews:

Guitar piece of exquisite poetry........2006-05-01

There's a classic Babbitt moment 1 minute into the 6th Quartet where out of all the animated atonal chatter emerges a blatantly tonal (eb major)motif.Almost Ivesian in it's sense of being all embracing,this jarring incident seems to provoke some hysterical pizzicato which proceeds in a most forceful manner.The architecture of this 26 minute piece becomes easier to discern on repeated hearings.
Occasional Variations is the most graceful,charming and delicate of electronic pieces and the second quartet is amusingly punctuated by octaves.A cooler discourse than the later 6th quartet.Not so immediately likeable.
Babbitt has a special affinity for the guitar and the 1984 Composition on this disc leaves me dumbstruck in its wistful musings punctuated by tremolandos.I definitely prefer this to Babbitt's Soli and Duetti which also feature guitar.
In terms of look,this is the most lovingly thought out of albums ,but the poor listener is only provided an unintelligble piece of writing by Babbitt on his Occasional Variations so not much help on that front!

featuring two serialist string quartets.......2005-06-30

That Milton Babbitt is a composer I should hear I figured out several years ago when I became interested in contemporary classical music. Babbitt was an American pioneer, taking the 12-tone music of Schoenberg and Webern further into total, or integral, serialism. Now I finally have, thanks to this superb Tzadik release of his music. The problem has been finding a recording that appeared promising -- Babbitt has certainly not been over-recorded, and I was not enticed by works for soprano or piano (ie, the ubiquitous PHILOMEL on New World).

I love string quartets, and so when I belatedly realized that OCCASIONAL VARIATIONS features two of Babbitt's string quartets, I knew his time had come. As it turns out, this is the premiere recording of String Quartet No. 6, written in 1993. The performers are the Sherry Quartet, named after the intrepid cellist Fred Sherry, who worked with the players in mastering the (need I say?) fiendishly complex score, and served as producer. The disc leads with No. 6, which is 25'45 long. String Quartet No. 2 (13'03) is programmed third. A 1952 composition, it sounds less daunting by comparison, more sparse, performed by the Composers Quartet. Both are fantastic works, which require, and compel, repeated listening to appreciate. Where are the recordings of Babbitt's other quartets? They stand beside Elliott Carter's quartets as pinnacles of the late 20th century (see my review of the Juilliard Quartet's recording of the Carter quartets).

The other two works serve as variations with the string quartet form -- "Occasional Variations," a 9'54 work for synthesizer from 1968-71, and "Composition for Guitar" (1984 -- 7'27), both fascinating works which provide contrast in terms of texture as well as solo lines versus the complexity of four interweaving lines. I am particularly struck by the guitar work, performed by William Anderson, which incorporates Babbitt's affinity for jazz.

Tzadik's liner notes are frustratingly minimal. Tzadik discs always *look* good, and this one is no exception -- the black-and-white cover photo of Babbitt sitting in front of the synthesizer at the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1960 is a nice touch. But you have to look on the Tzadik website to learn that this is the first recording of the 6th Quartet, and only the fine print reveals that the other three recordings were all previously released, in 1973 (Quartet No. 2), and the other two in 1990. I'm not sure why the disc's title is not STRING QUARTET NO. 6, or STRING QUARTETS -- perhaps Zorn & Co. thought Babbitt's reputation as an electronic composer would be a better selling point with young hipsters, or just thought OCCASIONAL VARIATIONS made a catchier title.

This disc definitely provides an excellent introduction to a great American composer. Many thanks to John Zorn and Tzadik!

Babbitt: Concerto For Piano And Orchestra/The Head Of The Bed

Average customer rating:

Throw Your Analysis Out And Just Listen
piano concerto=masterpiece of american music
Between Scylla and Charybdis
Close-mindedness = willfull ignorance
nice

Babbitt: Concerto For Piano And Orchestra/The Head Of The Bed

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Occasional Variations
Charles Wuorinen: On Alligators
Babbitt: The Joy of More Sextets
The Music of Milton Babbitt: Premiere Works
Elliott Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord; Sonata for Cello & Piano; Double Concerto for Harpsichor

ASIN: B0000030DN
Release Date: 1992-12-08

Tracks:

Concerto For Piano And Orchestra
The Head Of The Bed

Customer Reviews:

Throw Your Analysis Out And Just Listen.......2006-11-15

The previous review by scarecrow surely seeks to discredit twelve tone music with his/her nonsensical quasi-intellectual ramblings. First of all, there is no such word as epigoni, so don't feel small when you the reader don't understand what a "fatuous market Glassite epigoni" is (a foolish scottish freemason imposter for hire?). But, one is most certainly an intellectual epigone(correct spelling) who seeks to purchase music for the mere joy of analysing it's mathmatical forms. Composers of this ilk are trying to speak to your soul and more often to your gut, not your brain! For a better introduction, listen to Schoenberg's A Survivor From Warsaw. This is disturbing music meant to convey the fear, confusion, and existential dread that is lurking within the shadows of pop culture. War is the father of this form of music and you must only react naturally and forget about tone rows unless you seek to perform or compose them. Yes, this is not music with an incredibly high replay value, but in the most noble tradition of human art, it documents our times.

piano concerto=masterpiece of american music.......2006-03-25

The concerto was not recorded under the most ideal of situations (union rules insisted the orchestra took a 20 minute rest for every hour of recording)and the strings in particular sound a bit hard pressed.However,in part it all adds a sense of frisson to the proceedings and Feinberg traverses his way through the thickets of notes with incredible heroism.
The concerto is one of my favourite Babbitt pieces...i hate the elitist way some of his fans talk about his music as if you require an advanced degree in ear training/mathematics to derive any pleasure from it.Even on a first hearing,there's something quite wild and zany which captures ones attention.Further listenings reveal unexpected relationships...what at first seems inexplicable, seamlessley blends into the whirlwind of impetuous activity.
by contrast,i've never been so taken with 'the head of the bed'...more straightforward and cool.Like pierrot lunaire with the edge taken out.

Between Scylla and Charybdis.......2005-10-27

The lousy review below is actually damn funny, but in a black humor way I'm sure the author never intended. Please check out his other reviews--they're all of Milton Babbitt recordings and he actually mentions Spengler, of all people. I notice it's getting hip among the kids again to mention Spengler. Instead he should bring up Gibbon; it's the failure to stay with and appreciate developments in meaningful artistic complexity and expression (as opposed to pseudo-complex Hippie-art, clutter, for example) that, to a degree, lead to civilizations eroding away. Seventy years ago Schoenberg sounded crazy, now far less so and frankly (dear ghost of Arnold) I do whistle his tunes now and then, especially that great one from the Opus 43b Theme and Variations. If we move along in any sense (and I've my doubts these days), in seventy years Babbitt and Carter will be as easy as R. Strauss (well, at least as understandable--Strauss ain't easy!). I'm kidding of course, but it should be at least entertaining to a lot of folks. Should, but won't. Seventy years from now we'll be lucky if we're banging on logs and playing polo with goat entrails and congratulating ourselves on our genius.

The "good" review above is even funnier, damn hysterical even, and also in a way the author certainly never intended. Music like this is tough enough but a musical person will find their way through it...eventually. Have faith. Byzantine chatter like that above ("excoriated'? "ex cathedra"?! Even Mencken--80 years ago!-- had sense to only use an expression like that with considerable irony as any educated individual in these dopey modern times should!) is one of the several things that drove progressive art music right out range of our cultural radars and straight into the remaindered bins. Look how well, say, Artforum magazine managed to destroy the art world by burying it beneath an avalanche of post-modern and social-critical hooey. Anyone who would read through the precious and arcane appraisal dangling there over our heads, and who would agree with it, is already in Babbitt's camp! Anyone else will just moan and click through to a less pontificated-about work of musical art, or write stupid negative reviews mentioning Spengler. With that in mind, has anyone noticed how there's less and less appealing art (including literature) these days and more and more verbal blather about it all? It's as if no one knows how to be creative and all that's left is this ghost-like, bloodless, self-conscious critical stance. I'll take banging on logs any day to this, and we have.

The Head of the Bed?--it's fine--but I love this Piano Concerto. It's hard to convey why, it's actually kind of fun, like the Wourinen Piano Concerto, another modern fave. I could write for days about Babbitt's entertaining music without ever using the word dodecaphonic. Sorry, reviewer... and sorry, Milton. It's never really been a cool thing to claim that you don't care about your audience, especially when you know that can never be true.

[PS time has passed and I just reread the review above that I excoriated a bit and I've decided I was far too kind. I know it was written five years ago and so soon after 9/11 that maybe the reviewer just lost his grip on syntax and basic communication skills and such, yet still...]

Close-mindedness = willfull ignorance.......2004-01-06

I know I'm not gonna change anyones minds by this. I just think it's a little sad that some people can be so judgemental about music they don't understand. This music is not "sick". It's just difficult. And why would anyone think Reich is "disqusting" just because he's not an "avant garde" comnposer? I listen to everything from Bach and Bartok, to Monk and Jimi Hendrix, To Tool and Pantera, Not because I think it's "cool" that I listen to this stuff, but because I enjoy it. Music is music. And it can only expand your mind if your mind it not closed to begin with.

nice.......2001-11-22

Two beautiful pieces by America's best composer in all times. American music is not only the big orchestra business (Gershwin), Broadway musicals in symphonic dress (Bernstein), brainwashing disgusting minimalistic pop music (Reich, Glass), or chance & noise (nothing wrong just with this, unless it is all one can do...). Note that a lot of people do not like his music. Do not care about them. After all, who cares if they listen?

Average customer rating:

Visions in Metaphor

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005NF2U
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Tracks:

Postmark [Fearful Symmetries]
Accompanied Recitative
Postcard from Home
Mirrorrim
Postcard from Kansas: Welcome to Interstate-70
Pensive Soliloquy
Continuum (Postscript '97)
Memo 6
Visions in Metaphor
Facades
Wings
e et Rondeau

Average customer rating:

New Music For the Piano

Manufacturer: Composers Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005JY5Z
Release Date: 2001-05-01

Tracks:

Fanfares
Two Prlds
Capriccio
Polarities No.1
Partitions
Pno Ste No.3
Syncopations
Humoreske, Op.49
Nocturnal Interlude
Etude
Rag - Blues - Rag
Allegro On A Pakastani Lute Tune
Six Prlds, Op.20B
Son, Op.53, No.3
Two Bagatelles
Prld For A Pensive Pupil
The Pig Town Fling
Image
Six Bagatelles
Two Bagatelles
Incantation

Album Description

CRI is proud to present its new series, CRI Archives, which will feature the coupling of digitally-remastered works from its historic archive with archival presentations of portions of the original packaging. The first release in the series, New Music for the Piano with pianist, Robert Helps, features 21 works which were originally released by RCA Red Seal label in 1966. The LP was subsequently re-released by CRI in 1971. Both LP releases were under the auspices of The Abby Whiteside Foundation which compiled the collection of new piano works. The new CD package features not only the mastery of Helps as performer but also new program notes commissioned from Alan Rich, the noted music critic of L.A. Weekly. This disc remains the only source for most of these recordings which represent a cross-section of the movements and leaders in American composing just past the mid-20th-century mark. Includes works by Dahl, Gideon, Babbitt, Powell, Gould, Hovhaness, and Perle, among many others.

Average customer rating:

American Song Potpourri
Kalish plays like a pig.
a beautiful rendition of 20th Century American Song

Songs of America

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Beautiful Child Of Song
The Three Poems By Robert Frost: Dust Of Snow
The Three Poems By Robert Frost: The Rose Family
Four American Indian Songs, Op. 45, No. 4: The Moon Drops Low
Home Thoughts
White Moon
Joy
The Widow's Lament In Springtime
Three Solitary Songs: American Primitive
The Sleeper
Mutability: My Father
Nothin' But Love
I Love You Truly
Her Greatest Charm
The Junk Man
Lost
Five Songs For Contralto: Little Four Paws
Time To The Old: Dozing On The Lawn
Song (She Is Not Fair)
The All-Enduring
Lethe
Poems Of Love And The Rain: Interlude
Time, You Old Gypsy Man
Suite, Three Ladies: Grandma (Millie)
Stein Times Seven: Stein Times Seven: No. 6
Cabaret Songs: Waitin
Twelve Poems Of Emily Dickinson: There Came A Wind Like A Bugle
Sunrise, For Voice, Violin, And Piano

Customer Reviews:

American Song Potpourri.......2000-08-01

The 28 songs on this CD provide a broad spectrum of American art songs. JanDeGaetani possesses a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice and ideally expresses the proper emotions these songs require. Gilbert Kalish's piano supplies the necessary support without getting in the way of the singer. All in all, this is a good collaboration.

Kalish plays like a pig........1999-12-02

While I enjoyed De Gaetani's singing, Kalish's piano playing reminded me of a player piano.

a beautiful rendition of 20th Century American Song.......1999-06-06

This is a great album. It spans the spectrum of 20th Century American music from the tonality and romanticism of Stephen Foster to the experimentality of John Cage.

Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert Kalish, with their understanding and sensitivity to the music of their time, combine to form a duo that sets the standard for interpretation of this music.

Students, professionals, and general classical music lovers will cherish this CD in their library.

If you want an introduction to American Music of this Century, this album provides the most accessible doorway to the widest array of styles I have heard.

Music Composers:

Music Composers

Music Composers