shewasavisitor

Milton Babbitt, American composer and one of the pioneers of electroacoustic music, left this earth yesterday for the silver-lined clouds of afterlife*.

I found out about his passing this morning while simultaneously Youtubing videos of The Social Network trailer… bless the Information Superhighway.

The news of Milton stayed with me throughout my morning, and on my run I had a chance to gather some bloggable thoughts:

He died on a Saturday, which is appropriate because Saturn, according to mythology, is the bringer of old age. Milton was 94.

Stephen Sondheim was one of Milton’s most noteable students. Sweeney Todd‘s dissonance and atonality is a tribute to Babbitt, a man Sondheim greatly admired.

Milton’s music is totally wacky and something few people would want to have on their ipods, but the theory and experimentation behind his compositions is totally amazing, I think. He was one of the musicians we studied in electroacoustic composition, and as one of these, I was greatly enamoured/inspired.

During my radio days, TCC and I used to play Milton’s stuff on our show Peeling the Compass (yes, a pun involving John Peel’s name – and TCC & I played a bit of everything, accordingly).

I often think in some cases that analog>digital, especially when pertaining to the arts. This is one of those times. It doesn’t get any more raw than this, really.

*debateable