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Instrumental

Orchestra:

• Generatrix, 1935, inc., withdrawn
• Composition for Str Orch, 1940, withdrawn
• Sym., 1941, inc., withdrawn
• Into the Good Ground, film score, 1949, inc., withdrawn
• Relata I, 1965; Relata II, 1968
• Ars combinatoria, small orch, 1981
• Conc. for Pf and Orch, 1985
• Transfigured Notes, str orch, 1986
• Conc. no.2, pf, orch, 1998

Chamber:

• Str Trio, 1941, withdrawn
• Composition for 4 Insts, fl, cl, vn, vc, 1948
• Composition for 12 Insts, wind qnt, tpt, hp, cel, str trio, db, 1948, rev. 1954
• Str Qt no.1, 1948, withdrawn
• Composition for Va and Pf, 1950
• Ww Qt, 1953
• Str Qt no.2, 1954
• All Set, a sax, t sax, tpt, trbn, db, pf, vib, perc, 1957
• Sextets, vn, pf, 1966
• Str Qt no.3, 1969–70
• Str Qt no.4, 1970
• Arie da capo, fl, cl + b cl, pf, vn, vc, 1973–4
• Paraphrases, fl, ob + eng hn, cl, b cl, bn, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, pf, 1979
• Dual, vc, pf, 1980
• Str Qt no.5, 1982
• Groupwise, pic + fl + a fl, vn, va, vc, pf, 1983
• Four Play, cl, vn, vc, pf, 1984
• The Joy of More Sextets, vn, pf, 1986
• Fanfare, 4 hn, 4 tpt, 3 trbn, tuba, 1987
• Souper, spkr, fl, cl, vn, vc, pf, 1987
• Whirled Series, a sax, pf, 1987
• The Crowded Air, fl, ob, cl, bn, pf, mar, gui, vn, va, vc, db, 1988
• Consortini, fl, pf, vib, mar, vc, 1989
• Soli e Duettini, 2 gui, 1989
• Soli e Duettini, fl, gui, 1989
• Soli e Duettini, vn, va, 1990
• Counterparts, 2 tpt, hn, trbn, tuba, 1992
• Septet, but Equal, 2 cl, cl + b cl, vn, va, vc, pf, 1992
• Fanfare for All, 2 tpt, hn, trbn, tuba, 1993
• Str Qt no.6, 1993
• Accompanied Recitative, s sax, pf, 1994
• Arrivals and Departures, 2 vn, 1994
• Triad, cl, va, pf, 1994
• Bicenquinquagenary Fanfare, 2 tpt, hn, trbn, tuba, 1995
• Pf Qt, 1995
• Qnt, cl, 2 vn, va, vc, 1996
• When Shall We Three Meet Again?, fl, cl, vib, 1996
• Little Goes a Long Way, vn, pf, 2000
• Swan Song #2, fl, ob, vn, vc, 2 gui, 2002

Piano:

• 3 Compositions for Pf, 1947
• Duet, 1956
• Semi-Simple Variations, 1956
• Partitions, 1957
• Post-Partitions, 1966
• Tableaux, 1972
• Minute Waltz (3/4 — 1/8), 1977
• Playing for Time, 1977
• My Complements to Roger, 1978
• About Time, 1982
• Don, pf 4 hands, 1981
• Canonical Form, 1983
• Playing for Time, 1983
• It Takes Twelve to Tango, 1984
• Lagniappe, 1985
• Overtime, 1987
• In his Own Words, spkr, pf, 1988
• Emblems (Ars Emblematica), 1989
• Envoi, pf 4 hands, 1990
• Preludes, Interludes and Postlude, 1991
• Tutte le corde, 1994
• The Old Order Changeth, 1998
• Allegro Penseroso, 1999

Other solo instruments:

• My Ends are my Beginnings, cl, 1978
• Melismata, vn, 1982
• Sheer Pluck (Composition for Gui), 1984
• Homily, snare drum, 1987
• Beaten Paths, mar, 1988
• Play it Again Sam, va, 1989
• None but the Lonely Flute, fl, 1991
• Around the Horn, hn, 1993
• Manifold Music, org, 1995
• Composition For One Instrument, cel, 1999
• Concerto Piccolino, vibr, 1999;

Vocal

Dramatic:

• Fabulous Voyage (musical, R. Childs, R. Koch, Babbitt), 1946

Choral:

• Music for the Mass I, SATB, 1940, withdrawn
• Music for the Mass II, SATB, 1941, withdrawn
• 4 Canons, female chorus, 1968 [after Schoenberg]
• More Phonemena, 12vv, 1978
• An Elizabethan Sextette, female chorus 6vv, 1979
• Glosses, boys’ choir, 1988

Solo vocal:

• Three Theatrical Songs, 1v, pf, 1946 [from musical Fabulous Voyage]
• The Widow’s Lament in Springtime (W.C. Williams), S, pf, 1950
• Du (Stramm), song cycle, S, pf, 1951
• Vision and Prayer, S, pf, 1954, unpubd, unperf.
• 2 Sonnets (G.M. Hopkins), Bar, cl, va, vc, 1955
• Composition for Tenor and 6 Insts, T, fl, ob, vn, va, vc, hpd, 1960
• Sounds and Words, S, pf, 1960
• Phonemena, S, pf, 1969–70
• A Solo Requiem (W. Shakespeare, Hopkins, G. Meredith, Stramm, J. Dryden), S, 2 pf, 1976–7
• The Head of the Bed (J. Hollander), S, fl, cl, vn, vc, 1982
• The Virginal Book, C, pf, 1988
• 4 Cavalier Settings (R. Herrick, T. Carew), T, gui, 1991
• Mehr “Du” (Stramm), Mez, va, pf, 1991
• Quatrains, S, 2 cl, 1993
• No Longer Very Clear, S, fl, cl, vn, vc, 1994
• Pantuns, S, pf, 2000
• From the Psalter, S, str orch (Sir Philip Sidney), 2002
• Now evening after evening, S, pf (D. Walcott), 2002

Works with tape:

• Composition for Synthesizer, 4-track tape, 1961
• Vision and Prayer (D. Thomas), S, 4-track tape, 1961
• Ensembles for Synthesizer, 4-track tape, 1962–4
• Philomel (Hollander), S, 4-track tape, 1964
• Correspondences, str orch, tape, 1967
• Occasional Variations, 4-track tape, 1971
• Concerti, vn, small orch, tape, 1974–6
• Phonemena, S, tape, 1975
• Reflections, pf, tape, 1975
• Images, sax, tape, 1979

Brought up in Jackson, Mississippi, he started playing the violin at the age of four and several years later also studied clarinet and saxophone. He graduated from high school in 1931, having already demonstrated considerable skills in jazz ensemble performance and the composition of popular songs. His fatherâs professional involvement with mathematics (as an actuary) was influential in shaping Babbittâs intellectual environment. In 1931 Babbitt entered the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of becoming a mathematician, but he soon transferred to New York University, concentrating on music under Marion Bauer and Philip James. He received the BA in music in 1935. As a student and during the ensuing years, Babbitt immersed himself in the intellectual milieu of New York, encountering influential philosophers such as Sidney Hook and James Wheelright, developing a life-long engagement with analytical philosophy, and reading widely in rapidly emerging and sometimes short-lived journals such as Symposium and Politics. His early attraction to the music of Varèse and Stravinsky soon gave way to an absorption in that of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern — particularly significant at a time when 12-note music was unknown to many and viewed with scepticism by others.

After graduation Babbitt studied privately with Sessions, wrote criticism for the Musical Leader, and then enrolled for graduate work at Princeton University, where he continued his association with Sessions. In 1938 he joined the Princeton music faculty and in 1942 received one of Princeton’s first MFAs in music. His Composition for String Orchestra, a straightforward 12-note work, was completed in 1940.

During World War II Babbitt divided his time between Washington, DC, where he was engaged in mathematical research, and Princeton, as a member of the mathematics faculty (1943-5). Musically, these were years of thought and discovery, rather than of actual composition; they resulted in 1946 in a paper entitled The Function of Set Structure in the Twelve-Tone System, which was the first formal and systematic investigation of Schoenberg’s compositional method. (The paper, which remained unpublished, finally gained Babbitt the PhD in 1992.) Between 1946 and 1948, shuttling between Jackson and New York, he once again directed his energies to composition, writing some film scores and an unsuccessful Broadway musical.

In 1948 Babbitt rejoined the music faculty at Princeton, eventually becoming Conant Professor of Music (1960); in 1973 he became a member of the composition faculty of the Juilliard School. He has also taught at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, the Berkshire Music Center, the New England Conservatory of Music and the Darmstadt summer courses. He has received several honorary doctorates and other honours, including a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award (1959), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1960â61) and membership in the National Institute (1965). He became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974, received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 1982, and in 1986 was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (he also received its Gold Medal in Music in 1988). Throughout his career, he has been actively involved in contemporary music organizations, including the ISCM (he was president of the American section, 1951â2), the American Music Center, Perspectives of New Music (as a member of its editorial board) and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (as director from 1959). A prolific writer of articles and reviews, he has also travelled widely as a lecturer perceptive and adept at logical extemporization: his 1983 Madison lectures are published under the title Words about Music. He is also an inveterate follower of popular sports, a raconteur and punster, and an omnivorous reader.

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