Skip to main content

Milton Babbitt Dies

Milton Babbitt Dies - Composer Milton Babbitt, who was known for his complex orchestral compositions and credited with developing the first electronic synthesizer in the 1950s, died Saturday. He was 94.

Paul Lansky, a composer and Princeton University colleague who was once a student of Babbitt's, told The Associated Press he died Saturday at a Princeton hospital. Lansky said he did not know the cause of death.

Born in Philadelphia, Babbitt earned degrees from both Princeton and New York University. He joined Princeton's faculty in 1938 and became a professor emeritus of music there in 1984.

In the 1950s, RCA hired Babbitt as a consultant as it was developing the Mark II synthesizer. He became a founder and director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, where the synthesizer was installed.

He blended electronic music with vocal performances in compositions such as "Vision and Prayer" and "Philomel" in the 1960s and "Reflections" in 1975.

Princeton awarded Babbitt, then 75, a doctorate in 1992, 46 years after his dissertation on the 12-tone system of modern composers was rejected.

Milton Babbitt Dies

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Indoor Exercise

Best Indoor Exercise - There are several indoor exercises you can do to keep in shape. But which are the best? They can be split in to two categories. The first is body weight exercises, meaning you use your own body weight to provide resistance. The second is using some sort of equipment. There are pros and cons to both. The biggest advantage to doing body weight exercises is they can be done anywhere. Whether you're on holiday, travelling for work, or if you just want a quick exercises to do. There are quite a few body weight exercises that can be done. If you wish to work out your abdominal muscles, sit ups or crunches are a good one. Doing pull ups on a door frame will work out your lats and back. Squatting with just your body weight will work out your thighs and calves. There are also indoor exercise machines by the hundreds. There's the traditional treadmill and exercise bikes which can be used indoors. Resistance bands and free-weights are also good ones for indoo...

Kinect Review

Kinect Review - First presented to the world as Project Natal at E3 2009, Microsoft's Kinect sensor peripheral has since been positioned by the software (and hardware) giant as the next phase of Xbox 360's evolution as a platform. A combination of hardware and software, it's been billed as a means for users to interact with their consoles and play games without using a physical controller, using natural gestures, voice commands and face recognition. I've had a final retail Kinect unit at home for a little over a week now, and have had ample time to put the shiny new gadget through its paces. Is it as magical as expected? Will it transform gaming? Or, more importantly, does it even work? Read on past the break for my in-depth review of this ambitious apparatus. Kinect is a single piece of hardware, yet it incorporates several distinct technologies. There's an infrared emitter that floods your play space with invisible light, paired with a CMOS sensor that then l...

'Green Hornet' Star Edward Furlong Jailed

'Green Hornet' Star Edward Furlong Jailed - Troubled former teen star Edward Furlong was thrown in jail Tuesday for allegedly violating a restraining order against his estranged wife, just hours after attending the Hollywood premiere of his new film, “The Green Hornet.” Furlong was arrested during a progress hearing Tuesday morning over the 100-yard, three-year restraining order taken out by Rachael Kneeland, People reported. The “Terminator 2” star was found to have violated the order last month by coming within 50 yards of Kneeland and was booked on $75,000 bail, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office told news outlets. 'Green Hornet' Star Edward Furlong Jailed The arrest is the latest sad chapter for Furlong since Kneeland filed for divorce in July 2009 after three years of marriage. The pair have a 4-year-old son, Ethan. Soon after their split, Kneeland accused Furlong in court papers of rampant cocaine and other drug use and of making threats against...