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Babbitt's Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside SMT-V 5.1–5.3 Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside SMT-V 5.1–5.3 (March 2019) Society for Music Theory: Videocast Journal Joshua Banks Mailman (Columbia University) This file includes the abstract, notes, extensive keyword list, acknowledgements, and bibliography for the three-part video essay, “Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside” by Joshua Banks Mailman, SMT-V 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3 (2019). This three-part essay may be found at https://vimeo.com/societymusictheory/videocast5-1mailman , https://vimeo.com/societymusictheory/videocast5-2mailman , and https://vimeo.com/societymusictheory/videocast5-3mailman . * SMT-V is the open-access, peer-reviewed video journal of the Society for Music Theory. Founded in 2014, SMT-V publishes video essays that showcase the latest research in music theory in a dynamic, audiovisual format. The journal features a supportive and collaborative production process, and publishes three to four videos per year. The videos may be found at www.smt-v.org . SMT-V is overseen by an Editor who organizes the vetting of the videos, along with an Associate Editor who aids with the technical details. Members of the editorial board help to vet submitted videos. Those wishing to publish a video on SMT-V should first submit a written proposal summarizing the proposed project. If the proposed project is deemed appropriate, the author will be invited to submit a draft of a storyboard or script. Upon acceptance of the script, the author will be invited to produce a full video in conjunction with guidance and assessment from selected members of the Editorial Board. Details regarding the submission process are found at https://societymusictheory.org/smt- v/submission_guidelines . General Abstract for “Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside” by Joshua Banks Mailman, SMT-V 5.1–5.3 (2019). * This three-part video essay explores the surprising indeterminacy between pre- compositional structures and composed surfaces in Milton Babbitt’s music, and in doing so identifies significant affiliations with music (such as jazz) that is predominantly improvised. It thereby suggests a different way of understanding and appreciating the nature of Babbitt’s creativity. Abstract for “Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside: Freedoms” by Joshua Banks Mailman, SMT-V 5.1 (2019). Milton Babbitt has been a controversial and iconic figure, which has indirectly led to fallacious assumptions about how his music is made, and therefore to fundamental misconceptions about how it might be heard and appreciated. This video (the first of a three-part video essay) reconsiders his music in light of both his personal traits and a more precise examination of the constraints and freedoms entailed by his unusual and often misunderstood compositional practices, which are based inherently on partial ordering (as well as pitch repetition), which enables a surprising amount of freedom to compose the surface details we hear. The opening of Babbitt’s Composition for Four Instruments (1948) and three recompositions (based on re-ordering of pitches) demonstrate the freedoms intrinsic to partial ordering. Abstract for “Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside: Diversities” by Joshua Banks Mailman, SMT-V 5.2 (2019). Babbitt’s pre-compositional structures (partial orderings) serve as a series of game-like rules affecting the composition of surface details we hear. Especially in Babbitt’s late works (post-1980) these partial ordering rules vary drastically in terms of how much freedom they allow. This variance can be modeled mathematically (a computational formula is explained and visualized). This video (the second of a three-part video essay) reveals, in an excerpt from Babbitt’s 1987 sax and piano work Whirled Series, an intricate web of referential details (serial and tonal) that are improvised from the trillions of possibilities enabled by its background structure (partial ordering). The advantages of this peculiar improvisatory compositional situation in which Babbitt places himself are compared to visual art, chord-based bebop jazz improvisation, and to current ethics-infused philosophies of improvisation. Abstract for “Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside: Opportunities” by Joshua Banks Mailman, SMT-V 5.3 (2019). Babbitt’s relatively early composition Semi-Simple Variations (1956) presents intriguing surface patterns that are not determined by its pre-compositional plan, but rather result from subsequent “improvised” decisions that are strategic. This video (the third of a three-part video essay) considers Babbitt’s own conversational pronouncements (in radio interviews) together with some particulars of his life-long musical activities, that together suggest uncanny affiliations to jazz improvisation. As a result of Babbitt’s creative reconceptualizing of planning and spontaneity in music, his pre- compositional structures (partial orderings) fit in an unexpected way into (or reformulate) the ecosystem relating music composition to the physical means of its performance. Notes (referenced by number on the upper right corner of the video screen) 1 (video 1, 0:09-0:20). Generally in the scholarly literature there’s been somewhat of a disconnect between consideration of Babbitt’s compositions and Babbitt the person. That is, connections between these have been somewhat neglected. A counterexample to this disconnect is the recent work of Alison Maggart (2017), which is pioneering for exploring ways in which Babbitt’s generic and particular life circumstances may have contributed to key facets of his compositional style. 2 (video 1, 0:21-0:37). As Babbitt’s Princeton colleague Paul Lansky says: “He was one of a kind. He was a nonstop conversationalist -- he could chat up anyone… I never saw him at a loss for words.” (Quinones 2011) to which another Princeton colleague Steve Mackay adds “He was a hoot. …Milton kept several thoughts going at once and used his vocal register to clarify punctuation. He would juggle six or seven thought balls at a time when he spoke, and it was amazing to listen to.” (Quinones 2011). His Juilliard colleague Joel Sachs (2016) remarks that he “had known [Babbitt] since the 1970s and retain[s] extremely fond memories of our endless chats. His great sense of humor,…his love of schmoozing, and his triple role as artist, intellectual, and Southern Gentleman were always a source of joy. His passion for old popular music often surprised the uninitiated. I shall never forget a Columbia Music Department Christmas party in the 1970s when he sat down at the piano and spun off cocktail music with incredible elegance.” Babbitt’s love of popular music (musical theatre, Broadway showtunes, the American songbook) is further described by his former student Nathan Shields (2011) and well documented in Babbitt’s breezy interview with Frank Oteri (2001). (Babbitt was also the teacher of Stephen Sondheim and Stanley Jordan.) Robert Morgan (2011) characterizes “Babbitt [as] a flamboyant and scintillating lecturer, much admired for his delivery even by those (and there are those who claimed this included almost everyone) who had little idea what he was talking about; and he was frequently invited to speak outside the classroom. His talks were full of personal asides, jokes and barely veiled references to prominent figures both within and outside the field. His ability to pursue a line of thought relentlessly, often spinning off into unexpected byways, letting words, sentences and paragraphs follow one another without break, never failed to impress. (A singer once came up to him after a lecture and told him how much she admired his breath control.)” Babbitt’s love of baseball, beer, and Chinese food is mentioned by many (Abbay 2011, So 2011, Robin 2016a, Mohr-Pietsch 2016) and recounted by David Rakowski (2011), who also describes Babbitt’s sense of playful irony and wit. Babbitt’s chatty dry sense of humor is witnessed in his interview with Bruce Duffie (1987) when Duffie asks Babbitt for a list of recent recordings to broadcast on the radio, and Babbitt offers “Hope you don’t mind a hand-written letter. I’ve run out of secretaries.” When speaking at the first Bang on a Can festival, which emphasizes “downtown” music and was held in downtown Manhattan (Soho), Babbitt poked fun at his own association with “uptown” music, as when introducing his piece he joked, “sorry I got here late, but I got lost––Iʼve never been this far downtown before.’ See Will Robin (2016b). In response to Steve Layton (2011), several friends and acquaintances describe Babbitt’s charming, amusing, witty, friendly personality. “His wit was legendary and provided a much- needed levity to the sometimes tense composers’ forums and juries,” writes one of his Juilliard students. Another writes about a masters degree panel in which another composer “attacked [the student’s] conducting skills, in the most un-warranted fashion and would just not let up. Mr. Babbitt very calmly cleared his throat and then asked [the student] in the most serious manner, ‘Jeff, having lived in Louisiana, what’s the secret to a good Jambalaya?’ I almost cracked up from the relief of the situation and calmly replied, ‘It’s all about the Roux… it has to be burnt a bit.’” Stephen Soderberg’s recounts Babbitt’s self-effacing mischievous side; Babbitt told this story: “Whenever I fly on an airline I find myself sitting next to a stranger, of course. And we introduce ourselves. I always introduce myself as Arnold Schoenberg. I have yet to meet anyone who questions this or thinks it’s strange or even shows any indication this is a name they’ve heard before.” (To hear some Milton Babbitt’s wit drawing laughs from an audience, here are two examples: https://soundcloud.com/daniel-plante-511223801/babbitt-kpfa-interview-pt-1-1984- 11-15-speaking-of-music and https://soundcloud.com/daniel-plante-511223801/babbitt-1994- no-longer-very-clear-marshall ) Notice that none of these above-mentioned qualities of Babbitt’s personality and public style bear a resemblance to those of the European post-war avant-garde composers, such as Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, Berio, or even Messiaen.
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