Milton Babbitt - 100 Years, 5. Large Chamber and Orchestral Works

The intellectual beauty of his music is invigorating and inspiring, and contrary to perceived wisdom, nobody would be interested in his theories if his music wasn’t so potent and unique.⁽¹⁾

His ensemble writing looks fussy in score but in performance always sounds lively, pristine, and clear.⁽²⁾

The techniques Milton Babbitt (1916 - 2011) employed resulted in a series of especially attractive chamber works. In the 65 years that separate the String Trio (1939/1941) from the Encore for Violin and Piano (2006) Babbitt created many chamber masterpieces. We shall now explore the works for ensembles of six to twelve instruments.  In this post we will also touch upon Babbitt's orchestral works which have proved difficult in performance.

Composition for Twelve Instruments (1948) is one of Babbitt's earliest works expanding twelve-tone technique from pitch to other musical dimensions, particularly the temporal.

Although in a single movement, "Composition for 12 instruments" divides obviously and externally into two sections, which are complimentary insofar as the explicitly presented materials of one function as the source material for the other. ⁽³⁾

All Set for jazz ensemble (1957): alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, contrabass, piano, vibraphone, and percussion. This is an exciting jazz composition.

Milton Babbitt called the saxophone the “instrument of the future.” ... He composed at least one saxophone work in each of these [three compositional style] periods.  In the first work, All Set, Babbitt employs the technique of trichords and trichordal arrays which underpins the jazz style of the piece.⁽⁴⁾

Relata I for orchestra (1965) was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music foundation in the Library of Congress. It had a difficult premiere under Gunther Schuller. Scored for three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons (one doubling contra-bassoon), four trumpets, four horns, three tenor trombones, tuba, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, celesta, harp, piano, violins (usually divided into 4), violas (divided into 4), cellos (divided into 2), double basses (divided into 2), its structure is extremely complicated: the woodwinds are treated as three trios, the brass as three quartets. There is a sextet of polylinear percussion instruments of "definite" pitch in bilinear pairs. The strings can be divided in two sextets: bowed strings and plucked strings. There is extravagant use of cymbal, tam-tam, three drums, wood block at beginning and end of the piece. Throughout the tempo is indicated meticulously rendering the piece an exact sixteen minutes and one-half seconds long. ⁽⁵⁾

The notorious complexities of his Relata produced the effect, as played last season by the American Composers Orchestra, of brilliant pinpoints of light.⁽²⁾

Correspondences for string orchestra and synthesized tape (1967) here conducted by James Levine, one of the few conductors to consistently champion Babbitt's orchestral works.



Paraphrases for ten instrumentalists (1979).



Concerto for piano and orchestra (1985). This is a grand score, and more than one writer has asked how one can best listen to this music. For example,

But faced with an extended, discursive score like his 1985 Piano Concerto, how to listen? If you don’t spot those aggregate tone rows in action is it game over?⁽¹⁾

and, given the music's twists and turns:

But that’s when you need to dig your heels in; to take a leap of faith, to listen harder: not attempting to zone into reconfigurations of individual tone rows that nobody this side of Pierre Boulez can hear, but to the shapes, gestures, characterizations, tensions, timbres and interrelationships Babbitt has harvested from his material.⁽¹⁾

Transfigured Notes for string orchestra (1986) commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra. This is a lush score for strings which initially faced considerable performance difficulties.

Riccardo Muti, then music director in Philadelphia, told me that he took the score with him on a ski trip to learn but that a perusal of it was enough to get him to throw his hands up in the air and hit the slopes. Dennis Russell Davies was brought in to conduct, but the orchestra rebelled after a single run-through in rehearsal, and the performance was canceled. Shortly thereafter, Gunther Schuller premiered and made a credible recording of "Transfigured Notes" with a student orchestra at the New England Conservatory of Music.⁽⁶⁾

Septet, But Equal (1992) for three clarinets (one of whom also performs on bass clarinet), piano and string trio.

It begins with a prominent solo by the cellist and then slowly changes between related musical lines throughout the one-movement piece.⁽⁷⁾

Finally, Swan Song No. 1 (2003) for flute, oboe, violin, cello, mandolin (or guitar), and guitar, a late, charming work.



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⁽¹⁾ Martin Cullingford, "Milton Babbitt assessed." Gramophone Feature, 2011. (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/milton-babbitt-assessed (03/06/2016))
⁽²⁾ Greg Sandow, "A Fine Madness." The Village Voice, 03/16/1982. (http://www.gregsandow.com/old/babbitt.htm (03/06/2016))
⁽³⁾ Lendallpitts, "Milton Babbitt, Composition for 12 instruments, ensemble conducted by Ralph Shapey." Notes to YouTube video, 10/31/2009. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_ErRFJRL7g (03/06/2016))
⁽⁴⁾ Don-Paul Kahl, "THE SAXOPHONE WORKS OF MILTON BABBITT – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES, FORM, AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, AESTHETIC, AND RECEPTION." Abstract, donpaulkahl.com, research page. (http://www.donpaulkahl.com/Research.html (03/06/2016))
⁽⁵⁾ Milton Babbitt, "The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt." Princeton University Press, Oct 16, 2011, p. 238. (https://books.google.com/books?id=hotOSQVguXIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA238#v=onepage&q&f=false (03/06/2016))
⁽⁶⁾ Mark Swed, "Critic's Notebook: Open your ears to Milton Babbitt." Los Angeles Times, 02/03/2011. (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/03/entertainment/la-et-milton-babbitt-20110203 (03/06/2016))
⁽⁷⁾ Thomas Harrison, "Music of the 1980s." ABC-CLIO, Jun 30, 2011, p. 159. (https://books.google.com/books?id=cO-f8SMcQCYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA159#v=onepage&q&f=false (03/06/2016))