CUNY BABBITT MEMORIAL CONCERT

INTO THE BEAUTIFUL (2011)*Zachary Bernstein, pianoDaniel Colson, bass

Jeff Nichols

SOLI E DUETTINI (1989)William Anderson, guitarOren Fader, guitar

Milton Babbitt

VITULATORY STRAINS (2010)Joshua Modney, violin

Daniel Colson

PIANO QUARTET (2010)Kinga Augustyn, violinWilliam Hakim, violaJeremiah Campbell, celloKarina Glasinovic, piano

Cynthia Lee Wong

COMPOSITION FOR FOUR INSTRUMENTS (1948)Patricia Spencer, fluteCharles Neidich, clarinetJoshua Modney, violinChristopher Gross, cello

Milton Babbitt

—intermission—

DANCI (1996)William Anderson, guitar

Milton Babbitt

“LISTENING TO BABBITT”a presentation by Joseph N. Strauswith William Anderson, guitar

DANCI

MY ENDS ARE MY BEGINNINGS (1978)Charles Neidich, clarinet and bass clarinet

Milton Babbitt

A LIFETIME OR SO (2001)Robert White, tenorCyrus von Hochstetter, piano

Milton Babbitt

* World premiere performance

THE PHD/DMA PROGRAMS IN MUSIC

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011, 8 pm Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall

Please switch off your cell phones and refrain from taking flash pictures.

CUNY may not be the first school people think of when they hear the name Milton Babbitt. Perhaps they would first go to the places he taught, Princeton and Juilliard, or remember Columbia, which housed the RCA synthesizer. But by some happy coincidence, CUNY has been a haven for a number of his students, his most dedicated performers, and theorists of his work. This concert celebrates all three dimensions of this association. Although Babbitt’s interest in and influence on the fields of composition and music theory are widely known, he was equally influential in developing a new performance practice of unprecedented rhythmic virtuosity. The performers who worked closely with him to make this possible, and indeed all great performers of music that he cared about, were the subjects of his deepest awe. Charles Neidich, for example, was repeatedly cited as among the most sympathetic teachers at Juilliard, and Robert White’s 1961 performance of “Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments,” a piece Babbitt claimed as his most difficult, was always referred to in tones of reverence. Babbitt wrote “A Lifetime or So” in gratitude for that premiere; it was his last public excursion into the music of his youth, the popular music of the ‘30s. He wrote: “this dalliance with anachronism is a result of my desire to present to Robert White a belated lagniappe for his courageous performance.” The lyrics honor an even more distant collaboration: Babbitt set Richard Koch’s lyrics in the unfinished musical Fabulous Voyage, in 1946. Tonight, on what should have been his 95th birthday, we thus take in the entire spectrum of Babbitt’s output, from his first experiment with arrays in “Composition for Four Instruments,” through a sampling of his more recent music, to a loving homage to Tin Pan Alley. And we affirm our hopes that despite our grief for the loss of our teacher, friend, and inspiration, his music and ideas will survive through the secular resurrection of a teacher in his students and the immortality of a master in his art.

As imperceptibly as GriefThe Summer lapsed away—Too imperceptible at lastTo seem like Perfidy—A Quietness distilledAs Twilight long begun,Or Nature spending with herselfSequestered Afternoon—The Dusk drew earlier in—The Morning foreign shone—A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,As Guest, that would be gone—And thus, without a WingOr service of a KeelOur Summer made her light escapeInto the Beautiful.

— Emily Dickinson

A Lifetime or So— Lyrics by Milton Babbitt and Richard Koch

It is written that love is so permanent,And all very pretty and pat;But anyone boasting a germ of mentalityKnows better than that.

So let us not trust in toujours, dear,For l’amour is no durable mood…Far better too shrewd than too sure, dear,Let’s forgo all forecasting of love everlasting.

How long will our love last,How long, who knows?Maybe just a lifetime or so.Love’s a wayward pastime,It comes, it goes, lasting but a lifetime or so.

Romance is mere capriceFancy free, so changeable a thing;If, by chance, it lingers,Well then, were stuck, but that’s our good luck.

So let's not aim for always,Just count on now;Phases pass, and how can we know…?Love may last, for just a lifetime or so.

I am no more prepared to be termed a musical dotard for suggesting that much music has retreated from the rich, complex resources and intriguing challenges which have yet to be realized and resolved than I am to be called an enemy of the people because I question that morality which suggests that it is more virtuous to stoop to attempt to conquer the masses than to attempt to create a standard to which they might aspire.

Milton Babbitt