Benjamin Boretz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Boretz is a twentieth- and twenty-first-century American music theorist and composer. A graduate of Princeton University, he is author of many articles and texts. Perhaps his most lasting theoretical influence has stemmed from his book Meta-Variations. Additionally, his text-piece "Language, as a Music" has been warmly received by composers and musicians outside of theoretical circles.
Boretz is a co-founder, with Arthur Berger, of the scholarly music journal Perspectives of New Music and, in 1999, issued the first edition of the Open Space Magazine.
Boretz taught music chiefly at Bard College, in New York, U.S., and was music critic for The Nation from 1962-68.
Personal recollections of Boretz by a former student:
- a sharp observer of music, and strangely articulate about what he observed.
- good natured. He had kindness.
- sloppy appearance; an accidental comb-over most of the time.
- hard to understand, not because of how he spoke but because his thinking was so original.
Personal recollections of Boretz by R L Reid (failed composer)
- his observations reminded me of the doubletalk of a cult leader
- his kindness could also be a thin veneer on smiling ridicule
- hard to understand, but my conclusion was that it was because he had nothing to say about music he was critiqueing but rather the request for his critique gave him a podium from which to say whatever was on his mind.
