Milton Babbitt passes away at 94

Noted composer and one of the original founding co-directors of the Center, Milton Babbitt passed away on Saturday January 29th, 2011, at the age of 94. A full obituary is available on the New York Times web site at this link. Besides his influence and accomplishments generally as a composer, Babbitt was the composer who worked most closely with the RCA Mark II synthesizer at the Center, drawn to the equipment by its ability to precisely specify musical parameters, particularly rhythms.

A fascinating clip of Babbitt discussing his experiences working with the RCA Mark II is available on YouTube, at this link. It appears to be drawn from the online resource "The Video Archive of the Electroacoustic Music", curated by composer Eric Chasalow and  Barbara Cassidy. Their site includes more interviews (it requires Apple Quicktime to view).

WKCR radio is broadcasting a 24-hour memorial marathon of Babbitt's music, beginning tonight (January 31) at 1am (so, actually early in the morning of February 1) and ending at 1am early Wednesday (February 2). Tune in to their broadcast, or online stream, to hear some of this influential composer's many works.

R.I.P. Milton Babbitt

BBC story highlights "earliest" computer music

The BBC has an interesting story up on their web site, which describes what is said to be the earliest recording of music by a computer. An amusing audio clip, beginning with a computer rendition of "God save the Queen", is included. The recording was generated by the Ferranti Mark I, called the "... first commercially available general purpose computer".