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Milton Babbit
Milton Babbitt was born in Philadelphia in 1916. His father was a mathematician, which influenced Babbitt later in life. He grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, learning the violin which he began at age four, and the clarinet and saxophone. When he was just fifteen years old, he graduated high school, and had developed ability as a jazz musician and pop music composer. In 1931, Babbitt enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of studying mathematics as his father did. He soon found that he was more interested in composing music than studying math, and he transferred to New York University. Four years later, he received his bachelor's degree, studying Varèse and Stravinsky. Babbitt found the music that most interested him, though, when he discovered twelve tone music. After graduation, he began to take composition lessons with Roger Sessions and write music related articles. He identified the possibility of using electronic instruments in classical music. Babbitt began work on his graduate degree, becoming a member of the faculty in 1938 and receiving his degree in 1942. He was awarded the Joseph Bearns Prize for one of his compositions. During World War II, he worked both as a math professor at Princeton and a mathematician for the government. Babbitt worked on his compositional skills for the next few years, and in 1948, returned to the Princeton faculty. A year later, he won his first New York Critics Circle Citation for a composition entitled Composition for Four Instruments. A composer of twelve-tone music, Babbitt invented a technique known as combinatoriality, where segments of twelve-tone rows interact with segments of other rows with identical pitch classes. He also coined the terminology used in the discussion of twelve-tone music: pitch class, time point, and the five parameters of sound (pitch, duration, intensity, timbre, envelope). Because of his extensive knowledge of mathematics and music composition, Babbitt was approached during the 1950s by RCA to help develop one of the first synthesizers. He agreed to become composer-consultant and he became the first person to work with their new Mark II synthesizer. In 1959, Babbitt became one of the founders of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Studio and won an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was appointed Conant Professor of Music and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960. One year later, Babbitt completed his first entirely synthesized work,Vision and Prayer. Babbitt continued to develop compositions for synthesizer. In 1964, he completed what was considered to be his best known electronic piece, Philomel . A year later, he earned a membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He earned a Brandeis University Gold Medal in 1970. He continued composing for electronics, completing a composition entitled Phonemena in 1975. In 1982, Milton Babbitt received a lifetime Pulitzer Prize in Composition for contributions in twelve-tone and electronic music. Milton Babbitt has also been recognized for his outstanding contributions to music by several universities: the University of Glasgow, Middlebury College, the New England Conservatory, New York University, Northwestern University, and Swarthmore College have all awarded him honorary degrees. Milton Babbitt teaches at Princeton University and Juilliard as Professor of Composition and remains active as a composer. He is a member of the Committee of Direction for the Electronic Music Center of Columbia-Princeton Universities and a member of the Editorial Board of Perspectives of New Music.