Into great noise

'I am accustomed to having to compose under a strained variety of practical conditions, but the different external noises of those ambiences have had no discernible influence. I prefer to compose in a room whose quiet is disturbed only by the, relatively, nonmusical noises of a game, preferably football, on the television.'

That is Milton Babbitt, who is seen above, quoted in Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers by Bálint András Varga. The newly published English translation of this book is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary music and looks set to become a fixture On An Overgrown Path for quite a while. Into Great Silence is here and Jonathan Harvey on Milton Babbitt is here.

Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers was supplied as a requested review sample by Boydell & Brewer. Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk