Babbitt: "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra", Part One

[Hartcomposer]

Music is not supposed to evoke emotion. That is the most banal cliche. Music does not have to suggest more than it's literal meaning. This music is mentally stimulating, and you as a listener are actively involved. This is how I feel when I listen to Webern and Babbitt. When listening to other music I feel quite differently. The orchestration and change in registers are the beauty in this piece. Music doesn't have to evoke emotion to be beautiful.

[cheesemongerinF]

If music is supposed to evoke an emotion, I now know exactly how Babbitt felt when he had a migraine and diarhea at the same time. To misquote george Bernard Shaw. "there are certain things one must never be forced to do, and one is to listen to the sonic products of Milton Babbitt the second time"!!

[Bagas]

Damn my shawty!

[japanesesweet]

I love this piece- one of Babbitt's best.

This recording was made under slightly difficult circumstances (insufficent recording time)but it still comes across pretty well.

[ctimur]

@japanesesweet under slightly difficult circumstances? like what? and why?

[radicalsimilitude]

This is Babbitt at his most beguiling and complex. Good folks can disagree about whether they "like" this music (I happen to love it), but surely no one will dispute that it represents a complete engagement with the possibilties for art to transform us, even as it transforms itself. I have admired this concerto for years(it was nominated for a Grammy in the New Orchestral Music category), and seeing Babbitt on YouTube is delightful indeed.

[NewMusicXX]

Thanks for your insightful comments. I agree completely - Babbitt is a composer I listen to consistently for pleasure. His music is mentally stimulating and free from distracting emotionalism.

[KhagarBalugrak]

@NewMusicXX, it's free from all that outdated beauty and clarity, all that outdated expressiveness and joy. People like Babbitt have ruined classical music.

[KhagarBalugrak]

@radicalsimilitude, beguiling and complex? More like, at his ugliest and most pretentious. And yes, this piece touches upon new and awful possibilities the old composers dared not touch with a ten foot pole, because they had a conscience.

[sonicpsychiatry]

Babbitt babbling more!!!