American Music Review
Vol. XL, No. 2, Spring 2011
This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Hitchcock Institute. Look forward to a celebration this fall. Meanwhile, it continues to be an exciting time for us. We have been steadfast in our efforts to connect with the diverse and ever-shifting community surrounding Brooklyn College. Last fall, Ray Allen wrote in AMR about our participation in The Black Brooklyn Renaissance festival; this spring, we hosted "The East Cultural and Educational Center: A Jazz Celebration" as part of our ongoing participation with the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium and their annual Brooklyn jazz festival. Two founding members of The East, Jitu Weusi and Basir Mchawi, were interviewed by Africana Studies scholar W.S. Tkweme, giving fascinating glimpses into the operation of this important Brooklyn institution (including enticing descriptions of the daily menu!). The discussion was followed by music honoring The East. First, Salim Washington led the Brooklyn College Jazz Ensemble in two works by The East regulars, saxophonist Gary Bartz ("Song of Loving Kindness") and trumpeter Charles Tolliver ("Shed Like"). Then Tolliver himself took the stage with his quartet. The enthusiastic capacity crowd was made up of students, faculty, and members of the Brooklyn jazz community, many of whom had vivid memories of The East in its heyday.
In a typically diverse Music in Polycultural America speaker series, we hosted presentations on the "Riot Grrrl" phenomenon (Elizabeth Keenan), the significance of online archives to the exploration of contemporary music (David Grubbs), and the complex musical and ideological issues raised in music for horror films (Jordan Stokes). In April Anton Vishio of NYU spoke on "Milton Babbitt, Time, and Memory," a particularly appropriate event given Babbitt's passing earlier this year at age ninety-four. Vishio reminded us that, despite Babbitt's continuing reputation as composer of forbiddingly complex music, his art is capable of great beauty.
One need only thumb through A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock (University of Michigan Press, 1990) to see Babbitt's strong connection to our Institute's founding director, as well as the composer's sense of humor. Included are Babbitt's Three Cultivated Choruses on texts set by Caccini in "Le Nuove Musiche," dedicated to Hitchcock on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Hitchcock, of course, is well- known for his masterful edition of Caccini's work, originally published in 1980 (A-R Editions). But the use of the term "cultivated" reminds us that Babbitt was fond of the occasionally controversial "cultivated/vernacular" dichotomy Hitchcock first put forth in his 1969 edition of Music in the United States: A History (Prentice Hall). Speaking of that now-famous volume, I recently encountered correspondence between Hitchcock and Babbitt (soon to make its way to the NYPL) written while the textbook was in preparation. They are evidence of a close personal and professional relationship. At one point, Hitchcock exclaims: "God! There's so much I'd like to learn from you!" Even though Babbitt has left us, I suspect we will all be learning much from his music and writings for years to come.
—J.T.
