Beaten Paths (1988). Milton Babbitt

I was listening in the car to the local classical radio station ("warning: may cause drowsiness") and lo and behold, the taped announcer promised music by Villa-Lobos and new music somehow related to New Jersey. They played Brazilian Medley but it's now an hour later and nothing related to the Garden State. And the last 10 works played list hasn't been updated for awhile. ??? Fortunately, one can never get enough of that Muffat and Albinoni.

So, how does one find notable composers from New Jersey? The composers guild of new jersey lists numerous candidates but it's not clear if these are residents or what.

When I think of New Jersey composers, the ones who come to mind are Milton Babbitt, John Harbison, and Benjamin Lees. A quick google reminds me of Paul Lansky and Steven Mackey, both at Princeton. And I was wrong about Lees -- I must have been thinking about his Delaware commission. Out here on the West Coast, all those I-95 Eastern states (NJ, DE, PA etc.) blur together. Wikipedia reports, among other arcane facts, this:

I-95 is the only long-distance Interstate in the original plans that is not yet completed. Due to the cancellation of the Somerset Freeway, the section in Pennsylvania is not contiguous with the main section in New Jersey.

Back to the music, the odds of a commercial radio station playing Babbitt or Lansky are zero. Maybe Harbison or Mackey?

From the program notes of Milton Babbitt's solo marimba piece Beaten Paths:

Of the multiple references of the title Beaten Paths, probably the least apparent is that which suggests the adaptation of properties of other of my works to a medium in which I cannot realize fully or at all salient characteristic traits of much of my music.

Napster has the Naxos reissue recording of Beaten Paths. Not safe for KDFC listeners...

Comments

[Devin Hurd]

I believe George Antheil is the pride of Trenton, NJ.

[richard friedman]

Correct. Trenton June 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheil

The revival of Antheil's Ballet Mechanique is now on DVD:
http://otherminds.org/shtml/Badboymadegood.shtml