August 08, 2004
American Mavericks
for modern-music-loving monkeys. Listen online if you dare! I have a hard time getting used to Suzanne Vega telling me about Milton Babbit.
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I never really wanted to experience Babbitt's music, mostly because he wrote a famous article called "Who Cares If You Listen?" My attitude was, "Fine then, I won't. Fuck you too." The Babbitt article you linked changed my mind, JG. Now I'm going to have to check some of his work out. Thank you so much. More Babbitt-ry: An apology for "Who Cares If You Listen?" can be found here. And here's an article featuring theatrical composer Stephen Sondheim, wherein he briefly discusses Babbitt's influence (Sondheim's formal composition study was with Babbitt).
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I lament my dial-up connection now more than ever, by the way. As soon as I'm at a computer with a decent connection speed I plan on listening to the program on minimalism.
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Good links, all. We could have a FPP just for Sondheim, who always produces interesting work. The Kitzke interview and Babbit's article raise the question of how artists are influenced by their audience. I hate it when musicians listen to each other too much, and their music starts to sound all the same. How does a 'maverick' strike a balance between pandering to public tastes and introducing new ideas in an acceptable way?