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Feldman, Morton
Steven Johnson
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09435
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
(b New York, Jan 12, 1926; d Buffalo, NY, Sept 3, 1987). American
composer. Influenced by abstract painting, his music often employs
alternative notational and organizational systems that contribute to
a compositional style centred on gestural, timbral and non-metric
relationships.
1. Life.
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2. Works.
While the graphic scores leave pitch choice to the performer and
suggest only approximate durations, they clearly define density,
timbre, areas of differing rhythmic activity and the overall shape of
the sound. Relatively distinct sections, therefore, do appear in this
music. Passages in Intersection 2 (1951) for the piano are
distinguished by thick or thin textures, or by variances in the
frequency of events; some passages are hectically diverse, while
others maintain a more consistent level of activity. When performed
with atonal materials, as Feldman intended, the scores produce
abstract fields of quiet, slow-moving events, floating free of metric
emphasis and purified of references to the past. After 1953, however,
discouraged by a lapse of appreciation by some performers, he
abandoned graphic notation as a main technique, returning to it only
occasionally in such works as Atlantis (1959), Out of ‘Last Pieces’
(1961), The King of Denmark (1964) and In Search of an
Orchestration (1967).
In the later 1950s and during the 1960s Feldman began writing
pieces that specified pitch but left duration indeterminate. This
method took several forms. The Piece for Four Pianos (1957)
introduced a technique that can be described as non-synchronous
time. The work’s one-page score presents a series of atonal chords
and a few isolated tones placed on staves without barlines (ex.1).
The four pianists read the same part, beginning the piece together
but each progressing at their own pace. Feldman described the
result as ‘reverberations from an identical sound source’. The music
divides into segments defined by density, registral position, or the
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repetition of a single event or small group of events. Its sectional
character helps the listener hear the irregular echoes of one player
against another.
Peters Edition
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Ex.2 DeKooning, first system
Peters Edition
The various notational strategies of the 1950s and 60s had a minimal
effect on the sound of Feldman’s music. When he returned to fully
conventional notation around 1970, however, there was a slight yet
perceptible change. The first works of this period, the first three
Viola in My Life pieces (1970), introduced a conspicuous new
lyricism. Short bursts of viola melody appear amidst the familiar
sparse textures and quiet atonal sonorities of the work. Because he
had so consistently avoided melody in the past, these bursts sound
almost tuneful, even though they remain fragmentary by
conventional standards. Frequent use of crescendo and decrescendo,
largely absent from both earlier and later compositions, give the
music an uncustomary expressivity. In some passages, such as the
end of Viola II, consonant pitch collections heighten the lyricism.
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return literally or in spatially varied forms. Many constructions use
all-adjacent pitch classes (or pitch class clusters), a technique
favoured by Feldman throughout his career.
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Ex.3 Crippled Symmetry, a passage from near the beginning
Peters Edition
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groups of gestures repeat consecutively as many as 12 or 13 times.
This helped Feldman achieve his goal of disorienting the listener’s
memory, emphasizing the stationary character of individual gestures
and de-emphasizing patterns that might arise from progressions of
different gestures. He compared himself to Mondrian in this way, an
artist who did not want to paint ‘bouquets, but a single flower at a
time’.
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opening gesture of Triadic Memories remain constant, for instance,
but its sonic character steadily changes as its upper and lower
elements gradually exchange registers. In passages of the second
kind, Feldman habitually shuffles and re-shuffles the order of
gestures. According to the composer, such modular construction
allowed him to avoid the occurrence of predictable patterns while
preserving the self-contained, inorganic character of his musical
gestures.
Works
Stage
Samuel Beckett, Words and Music (incid music for radio play),
1987
Orchestral
Intersection I, 1951
Atlantis, 1959
Structures, 1962
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The Viola in my Life [IV], va, orch, 1971
Orch, 1976
Vocal
Choral
Chorus and Insts, SATB, hn, perc, cel, vn, vc, db, 1963
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Chorus and Orch II, S, chorus, orch, 1972
Voices and Insts, chorus, 2 fl, eng hn, cl, bn, hn, perc, pf, db,
1972
Solo
Only, 1946
Journey to the End of the Night (after L.-F. Céliné), S, fl, cl, b
cl, bn, 1949
For Franz Kline, S, vn, hn, vc, tubular bells, pf, 1962
The O’Hara Songs (F. O’Hara), B-Bar, vn, va, vc, tubular bells,
pf, 1962
Rabbi Akiba, S, fl, eng hn, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, perc, pf, 1963
Vertical Thoughts III, S, fl, hn, tpt, trbn, tuba, perc, cel + pf,
1963
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Voices and Insts II, 3 high vv, fl, 2 vc, db, 1973
Chamber
5 or more insts
11 Insts, fl, a fl, hn, tpt, b tpt, trbn, tuba, vib, pf, vn, vc, 1953
The Straits of Magellan, fl, hn, tpt, pf, amp gui, hp, db, 1961
Numbers, fl, hn, trbn, tuba, perc, cel, pf, vn, db, 1964
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Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety, 2 fl, brass, tubular
bells, cel, vc, 2 db, 1970
The Viola in My Life [I], fl, vn, va, vc, perc, 1970
The Viola in My Life [II], fl, cl, pf, perc, vn, va, vc, 1970
For Frank O’Hara, fl + pic + a fl, cl, perc, pf, vn, vc, 1973
1–4 insts
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Structures, str qt, 1951
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Str Qt II, 1983
Keyboard
Ens
2 Pf, 1957
Illusions, 1950
2 Intermissions, 1950
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Intermission V, 1952
Pf Piece, 1952
3 Pieces, 1954
Pf Piece, 1955
Pf Piece a, 1956
Pf Piece b, 1956
Pf Piece, 1963
Pf Piece, 1964
Pf, 1977
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Writings
Essays, ed. W. Zimmermann (Kerpen, 1985)
Bibliography
GroveA (W. Bland/K. Porter, J. Wierzbicki) [incl. further
bibliography]; KdG (S. Claren)
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R. Ashley: ‘Morton Feldman’, Contemporary Composers
on Contemporary Music, ed. B. Childs and E. Schwartz
(New York, 1987), 362–6 [interview]
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