Morton Feldman

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Leader: ydebru
Criteri di appartenenza: Aperto
Data creazione: 8 Mar 2008
Descrizione:
This composer may be discussed here.

Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer, born in New York City.

A key figure in modern music, Feldman's compositions went through several phases. He was a pioneer of aleatoric music and indeterminate music, and in requiring improvisation. His compositions are characterized by their quietness, slowness, and often by their extreme length, especially in his later music.

Feldman studied piano with Madame Maurina-Press, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni, and later composition with Wallingford Riegger and Stefan Wolpe. He did not agree with many of the views of these composition teachers, and he spent much of his time simply arguing with them.

In 1950, Feldman went to hear the New York Philharmonic give a performance of Anton Webern's Symphony. At the concert, he met John Cage. The two became good friends, with Feldman moving into the apartment downstairs from Cage. Under Cage's influence, Feldman began to write pieces which had no relation to compositional systems of the past, such as the constraints of traditional harmony or the serial technique. He experimented with non-standard systems of musical notation, often using grids in his scores, and specifying how many notes should be played at a certain time, but not which ones. Feldman's experiments with the use of chance in his composition in turn inspired John Cage to write pieces like the Music of Changes, where the notes to be played are determined by consulting the I Ching.

Through Cage, Feldman met many other prominent figures in the New York arts scene, among them Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Frank O'Hara and Samuel Beckett. He found inspiration in the paintings of the abstract expressionists, and throughout the 1970s wrote a number of pieces around twenty-minutes in length, including Rothko Chapel (1971) and For Frank O'Hara (1973). In 1977, he wrote the opera Neither with words by Samuel Beckett.

In 1973, at the age of 47, Feldman became the Edgard Varese Professor at the University at Buffalo. Prior to that time, Feldman had earned his living as a full time employee at the family textile business in New York's garment district.

Later, he began to produce his very long works, often in one continuous movement, rarely shorter than half an hour in length and often much longer. These works include Violin and String Quartet (1985, around 2 hours), For Philip Guston (1984, around four hours) and, most extreme, the String Quartet II (1983), which is over five hours long without a break. It was given its first complete performance at Cooper Union, New York City in 1999 by the FLUX Quartet, who issued a recording in 2003 (at 6 hours and 7 minutes). Typically, these pieces do not change in mood throughout and tend to be made up of mostly very quiet sounds. Feldman said himself that quiet sounds had begun to be the only ones that interested him.

Feldman married the composer Barbara Monk shortly before his death. He died from pancreatic cancer in 1987 at his home in Buffalo, New York.

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  • wingsoftoast

    it's on spotify now!!!!!

    Maggio 2010

  • syater

    'wingsoftoast' -- I have not read the review in the Wire but I picked up the DVD version of 'Trio'. Great audio-fidelity with three choices of audio mix (2 in 5.1 surround, 1 in stereo). Plus, I was delighted to find a thoughtful visual editing job which enhances the experience of the piece rather than distracts from it -- not static but subtle editing that is totally clued into the piece's dynamics, moments of emphasis, flow, etc...... in keeping with the music itself. There is also a half-hour long video essay about the piece, which I have yet to watch but will get to soon. There is much to recommend getting the DVD over the CD, which was only a couple dollars less than the DVD, at least where I found it.

    Maggio 2010

  • wingsoftoast

    (site with loads of audio & video of feldman performances)

    Aprile 2010

  • wingsoftoast

    http://www.cnvill.net/mfonline.htm

    Aprile 2010

  • wingsoftoast

    has anyone got the new mode recording of 'trio'? There's a review in this month's Wire...

    Aprile 2010

  • ydebru

    Thanks for the update, grzymol, regarding the O'Hara eulogy. On another topic, I have been lucky to discover another wonderful piece by our beloved Morty: "Vertical Thoughts", from the cd entitled, "The Ecstasy Of The Moment". Does anyone else here like this piece?

    Marzo 2010

  • grzymol

    that is precisely the point - i have it in a publication on new york poets - o'hara, koch, ashbery and the like, but it is in polish. i searched the internet but didn't find anything. probably didn't try hard enough :)

    Marzo 2010

  • ydebru

    i don't have access to it. where might one start?

    Marzo 2010

  • grzymol

    oh yes i have gone throught it all recently :) btw - has anybody got access to morton feldman's eulogy on frank o'hara? - a great piece of commemorative writing - brief and to the point, but i only have it it in polish translation, tx in advance; all the best :)

    Febbraio 2010

  • ydebru

    i hope that you've all made it through the latest outbreak of phishing scams. i changed my password, removed 'shouting' from my userpage, & notified most all of my friends to be cautious. and what about you? were you affected or not?

    Gennaio 2010

  • fergusmcphail

    Listening to Crippled Symmetry for the first time. Most impressive.

    Febbraio 2009

  • faustseele

    http://www.myspace.com/mortonfeldman1926

    Febbraio 2009

  • Glukoz

    Someday I'll just put one of his longer pieces on my MP3 player and go on about my day. :)

    Febbraio 2009

  • wingsoftoast

    I saw a performance of 'for philip guston' at the royal academy in london a few years ago and you were encouraged to wander about (it was during an exhibition of guston's work) - i didn't stay the whole four hours!!!

    Febbraio 2009

  • Glukoz

    I don't know about Feldman, but with stuff like Warhols' EMPIRE - you'd either walk out in the middle (to perhaps return) or you'd fall asleep (and perhaps wake up in the middle :) )

    Febbraio 2009

  • wingsoftoast

    does anyone know if feldman had any thoughts about how audiences were supposed to behave during his long pieces? Were you supposed to be able to come and go at will or did you have to sit in intense concentration for four hours plus? incidentally, I believe the Ives ensemble performed the second string quartet before the Flux group.

    Gennaio 2009

  • Bram_F.

    'for Samuel Beckett' is arguably the most beautiful music ever written.

    Gennaio 2009

  • ydebru

    The wergo version of 'for philip guston' just came out. it is lovely.

    Luglio 2008

  • Glukoz

    Yo, I'm new. I agree with ydebru, the later pieces are the ones i come back to again and again!

    Maggio 2008

  • lutenist

    A performance of Morton Feldman’s Two Pieces for 3 pianos, by Robert Moran, Loren Rush, and the composer himself: http://www.archive.org/details/C_1969_01_24

    Aprile 2008
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