AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES                                                                 105 a-d

Milton Babbitt

With Vivian Perlis

Juilliard School New York, New York

January 25, 1983

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cassette Side a                                                                                         pp. 1‑24

Piece written for student orchestra‑‑demarcation between juvenalia and serious works‑‑ confidential work for government‑‑teaching music and mathematics at Princeton during War‑‑move to Washington‑‑seven year hiatus from music‑‑beginning to compose again after War‑‑writing film scores and musical comedy‑‑commissioning of Second Quartet‑‑private study with Roger Sessions‑‑offer to teach at Princeton rescinded‑‑Music Department at Princeton‑‑Sessions' move to Berkeley‑‑Sessions' second marriage‑‑Sessions' First Piano Sonata‑‑relationship to Roger Sessions‑Ivy League story and composers‑‑Sessions' return to Princeton‑‑music in the universities‑‑difficulty of not writing music during w ar‑‑war experiences‑‑process of composition.

Cassette Side b                                                                                           pp. 24‑48

Deadlines for commissions‑‑writing for friends without payment‑‑lack of rehearsal time for new pieces‑‑emphasis on performance and competition in music schools‑performance of Copland work‑‑current compositions‑‑mathematics and composing‑effect of article, "Who Cares If You Listen"‑‑interview in  High Fidelity re: Copland‑‑Composers' Collective in the '30s‑‑Hans Eisler‑‑Schoenberg and Martin Bernstein‑‑transference of mainstream of development of contemporary music to United States from Europe by emigrés‑‑study with Sessions‑‑music theory‑‑proliferation of composers‑‑influence of uncle‑‑NYU in the '30s.

Cassette Side c                                                                                            pp. 49-72

Intellectual debate representing democracy, communism, fascism, socialism‑‑I.A. Richards‑‑Clifford Odets, Irwin Shaw‑‑Sessions in this political climate‑‑Mark Brunswick, Goddard Lieberson‑‑Bartok at Columbia‑‑going abroad in 1952‑‑Copland/ Sessions letters‑‑Nadia Boulanger‑‑David Diamond‑‑Copland/Sessions relationship‑teaching and composing‑‑contrast between composers and other academicians‑hardships of a life in music‑‑mathematics and music‑‑listening to music‑antagonism of orchestral players to composers‑‑publishing‑‑Ives.

Cassette Side d                                                                                            pp. 72‑85

Sessions' students in the '30s‑‑contemporary performance groups‑-

disappearance of composers active in the '30s‑‑disposition of manuscripts‑‑ideas

 for future works‑The Hit of the Bed‑‑John Hollander‑‑electronics‑‑Showcase

 concert in Washington.

Milton Babbitt

with Ingram Marshall

Juilliard School

New York, N.Y.

December 12, 2000

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side i:                                                                                                                                    pp. 1-26

Left to Our Own Devices--Images for Saxophone and Tape--Violin Concerto: composed but never realized--publishers--working with RCA synthesizer--problems of live performance--performers in the sixties and seventies and at present--computers--ensemble difficulties in his music--tempo--Canonical Form--Tableau--dynamics--dynamics in Solo Reqiuem--Bethany Beardslee--Harvey Sollberger--preference for female voices in his output--Tenor and Six Instruments--Two Sonnets for Baritone and Instruments--Helen Forrest--involvement with pop music--Phonemena--Philomel--his musical language--misrepresentation of twelve-tone music--lack of knowledge of who Schoenberg was--Andrew Wiles--what is a “good listener”--lack of interest in contemporary music among the community of intellectuals--John Hollander--Vladimir Ussachevsky--The Head of the Bed--Phonemena--poets and literary people--Vision and Prayer on poetry of Dylan Thomas--John Berryman--Stravinsky.

Side j:                                                                                                                                    pp. 26-53

More on Stravinsky--Paul Horgan’s book on Stravinsky--anecdote about Stravinsky--Charles Wuorinen--Stravinksy and younger composers--Schoenberg--Stravinsky’s Sermon, Narrative, and Prayer--Stravinsky’s interest in twelve-tone music--Stravinsky and teaching--David Diamond--Babbitt’s teaching and Princeton--his Ph.D. thesis--Ph.D. for composers--honorary degree--teaching at Juilliard--other composers at Juilliard--students at Juilliard and Princeton--some Babbitt students: Donald Martino, Jim Randall--Perspectives of New Music--Peter Westergaard--Steven Sondheim--Words About Music--First Piano Concerto--Second Piano Concerto--Relata II--difficulty of getting tapes of performances--cancelled summer concerts at the Museum of Modern Art--James Levine--Transfigured Notes--Second Concerto--Levine’s arrangement with Deutsche Grammaphon to record American works--Group for Contemporary Music--Arthur Weisberg--New Music Consort--Speculum Musicae--Parnassus--David Diamond--John Cage--Composition for Four Instruments--Cage piece using conch shells.

Side k:                                                                                                                        pp. 53-70

Relationships with European composers--Boulez--Franz Xaver Ohnesorg--teaching at Darmstadt--Relata I--working in England at Schott--Musica Nova--honorary degree from University in Glasgow--book Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century by A. Whittall--Paul Griffiths’ book--universities and composers--Robert Morris--Mel Powell--Benny Goodman--Powell’s Two-Piano Concerto--Babbitt’s family--his family’s support of his music--walking in New York--Louis Alter’s Manhattan Serenade--future of American serious music.