Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt has died.  Among his students were Stanley Jordan:

...Charles Wuorinen:

... and Steven Sondheim:

Here are The Bad Plus playing Babbitt's "Semi-Simple Variations":

Here's an hour-long documentary about Babbitt.  And here's a nice long interview with him from 2001.  Some choice quotations:

• "Anchor Steam was the one beer that was there all through the years.  A lot of people don't like Anchor Steam; they don't like the flowery aspect, but that's a matter of taste."

• "I don't even know what hip-hop is, to be honest with you.  Do you understand hip-hop?  What is all this scratching of records?"

• "I don't think ['serious music'] will survive in any form that I would regard as serious."