University of Virginia Library

Intellectual Force

When we began to talk,
however, I fast realized that I was
indeed in the presence of one of the
great minds of our age. At the
outset, I was so overwhelmed by
the intellectual force, the
inexorable logic, and the wide
knowledge of the man that I
doubted that I would be able to
keep up with him, much less
understand him. It soon became
apparent, however, that Mr.
Babbitt's mind is so clear and so
well organized that he is able to
make the most difficult and
complex concepts in music
understandable to even those with
the most rudimentary knowledge of
the art. He doesn't "spoon feed" his
listeners, though: he requires that
the listener concentrate as
completely and as thoroughly on
the topic under scrutiny as he does,
with the result that one leaves one
of his lectures or a conversation
with him with much the same
feeling of exhilarated exhaustion
that is usually the product of two
or three sets of tennis.