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Morton Feldman (born January 12, 1926, died September 3, 1987) was an American composer. He is best known for his instrumental pieces which are frequently written for unusual groups of instruments, feature isolated, carefully chosen, predominantly quiet sounds, and are often very long.
Feldman was born in New York City. He 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. Feldman was composing at this time, but in a style very different from that with which he would later be associated.
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, and the two became good friends. 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. aleatoric music and indeterminate music.]
Feldman was born in New York City. He 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. Feldman was composing at this time, but in a style very different from that with which he would later be associated.
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, and the two became good friends. 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. aleatoric music and indeterminate music.]
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Rothko Chapel + Why Patterns?
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Shoutbox
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Killer_Artist wrote:
it just sounds like nothing
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ThisMilkyway wrote:
Felman forever.
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Scriabinist wrote:
That's right, I remember now. It's an interesting notion. If someone were to tell me that they thought of Feldman's music as a lot of silence with some notes rather than some notes with a lot of silence, I would not make weird faces at them. If you apply this to the public transit thing you mentioned you wouldn't be wrong to associate 'a lot of silence' with the awkwardness and 'some notes' with the occasionally realized recognition that it's weird. I listened to patterns in chromatic field today while sitting in jury duty and it was pretty funny.
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ut0 wrote:
Scriabinist, I think one of them may have been me. I compared my experience of some of Feldman's music to, not the experience of watching another die, but to the tension I feel around other people when mutual recognition is impossible or discouraged. For example, in America (and other places as well I suppose) our custom in public transit vehicles is to sit or stand wherever we are and stare straight ahead, no interaction of any kind. I guess one can get used to it, but for me it's often a draining experience.
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experimental101 wrote:
Hello, I've made an analysis over experimental last.fm groups, and 10 artists (from >1000) are currently characteristic: Morton is this week in top2, see the others here: http://www.last.fm/user/experimental101/journal
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Scriabinist wrote:
A few months ago one or two people posted follow-up experiences and takes on handmeups' comments below. They were fascinating but have unfortunately been deleted for no reason. Feldman's body of music is one of the closest representations I can imagine of death personified as music. Stasis rather than forward propulsion, an infinite crawling toward the everlasting light. lifelessness is its essence. sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's beautiful, or both, but it's always worth experiencing or contemplating. True master of wandering music. you are a ghost when you listen to Feldman.
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BaxAttacks wrote:
An hour and a half in and I am feeling like my whole understanding of life is slowly being rebuilt.
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LaxATivvz wrote:
String Quartet II is...mindblowing
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smwxs wrote:
and surprisingly got pancreatic cancer instead
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mahleria wrote:
He sure loved his cigarettes.
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handmeups wrote:
I have no problem attributing subjecthood to pieces of music, or any other kind of art.
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handmeups wrote:
Second String Quartet was the first time I watched someone die. It's sadness, and my anxiety, was our knowing my difficulty in accepting it's death and the impossibility of integrating its life into a totality.
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mahleria wrote:
If you have a spare 4+ hours, For Philip Guston will be performed at the wulf, downtown LA, 6/26 @ 7pm.
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legsofbremner wrote:
If you've got a spare 5 hours, give the Second String Quartet a go. Hypnotic!
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bruno__________ wrote:
ask Tchaikovsky, he is on tour too.
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ACS360 wrote:
"Polyphony sucks."
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HummingJaw wrote:
What is up with the recent similar changes?!
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I928 wrote:
♥♪
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NeilGregerson wrote:
exactly
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Areskelian wrote:
v v v I do
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Rothko Chapel Part 4
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Rothko Chapel Part 2
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Feldman: "Rothko Chapel"
Events
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Feb
15
Klangforum Wien: Vexationen
Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria
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Recent Activity
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isobrown tagged Morton Feldman with avant-garde, minimalism and contemporary classical. 11 hours ago
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MrDerry, Killer_Artist and grodinacid added Morton Feldman to their libraries. 13 hours ago
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teeeagon tagged Morton Feldman with when i listen to it i can feel the mind expanding and if it were a cake i could eat it. Friday afternoon
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hamersmith and SchnabelvonRom added Morton Feldman to their libraries. Tuesday evening
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