Milton Babbitt

Two partisan views of a controversial issue.

A documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, responsible for creating some of the most memorable television and radio music in British popular culture, including "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Doctor Who (1963).

Drawing on rare performances, interviews, animations, and experimental film, this documentary surveys the formative years of electronic music from 1948 to 1980. Featuring pioneering composers and inventors—including Milton Babbitt and Leon Theremin—the film explores the experimental technologies, academic laboratories, and creative struggles that shaped the early evolution of electronic sound.

The American composer and teacher Milton Babbitt died Saturday, Jan. 29 2011 at age 94. For years, New York-based journalist and filmmaker Robert Hilferty had been constructing a documentary on Babbitt. It was a quirky, loving look at a man regarded by many as a composer of "difficult" music. Hilferty left the film unfinished when he died in 2009. Composer and former Babbitt student Laura Karpman has now completed Hilferty's film.