&ensp Subscribe to this feed. Overtime(1987), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, June 10 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
This is the third of the three pieces that comprise the Time Series. This work has never before been made available in commercial recordings.
Overtime by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Emblems (Ars Emblematica)(1989), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, June 10 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
Emblems by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
The Old Order Changeth(1998), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, June 10, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
The Old Order Changeth by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Tutte Le Corde(1994), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, March 6, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
This was the first piece of Babbitt’s I ever studied, a few weeks after performing it for the first time I firmly decided to devote the next year(s) of my life solely to studying Babbitt’s music. I didn’t know anything about Babbitt’s compositional methods, had not read any of his essays or the scholarly literature, obviously this had absolutely no bearing on the kind of effects this piece worked on me. I think of this often whenever I encounter the kinds of prejudices and mental handicapping so many people approaching this music labor under.
Even after learning all of the other works this piece remains my favorite, hats off Milton!
Tutte Le Corde — Milton Babbitt by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
Preludes, Interludes, and Postlude(1991), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, March 6, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
This is a great piece, written in 1991. It’s a bit lighter than most of the other large-scale piano works. Unlike Tutte Le Corde or Allegro Penseroso this piece goes through a number of different sections, each with a different tempo marking — ranging from quarter=60-quarter=96. The tempos are fairly quick through most of it, though — 72 is about average for the majority of the works, this one is consistently in the upper 80′s and higher. But the texture is overall fairly transparent, I suppose it must have been a conscious thing, though it seems unlike him, but the slower sections definitely tend to be thicker and spread across more registers as well.
Preludes, Interludes, and Postlude — Milton Babbitt by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Allegro Penseroso(1999), Milton Babbitt
Live Recording, March 6, 2008
Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
This is Allegro Penseroso, written in 1999 it is the most recent of Babbitt’s piano works. It was written for Marilyn Nonken, who has a fantastic recording of it out on the CRI label. This piece has something of a special place for me because I heard her play it at the Univ of Illinois back in 2000, which was a particularly formative experience for me. Then, a first year doctoral student, I marveled at this music, had never heard anything like it, or like her(!), and wondered how one manages to play it. 8 Years later and here I am playing all of it. So I began the series with this piece.
Personal history aside, I really feel it’s one of his best, along with Tutte Le Corde. It’s difficult to sum up in a general way how particular Babbitt piano works differ form each other but Allegro Penseroso and The Old Order Changeth share something that sets them a little apart, even from other works of the ’90′s. They somehow have a more or less constant motion to them, not quite so many contradictory metrical relationships as About Time for ex., there’s more a kind of motorized groove to these two somehow.
Allegro Penseroso — Milton Babbitt by Augustus Arnone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
