Morton Feldman (born January 12, 1926, died September 3, 1987) was an Ameri… Read Full Bio ↴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. [See aleatoric music and indeterminate music.]
During this period Feldman continued to work in his family's garment business, and was proud of not being dependent on benefactors. Eminently quotable and impressively self-confident, Feldman set his sights high, saying he wanted to be "the first great Jewish composer". The fact that this statement implies, that Mendelssohn, Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg were NOT great composers simply underlines Feldman's iconoclastic attitude.
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, written for the building of the same name which houses paintings by Mark Rothko) and For Frank O'Hara (1973). In 1977, he wrote the opera Neither with words by Samuel Beckett.
In 1973, Feldman became the Edgard Varèse Professor at the University at Buffalo. Despite being accepted into the academic community, he continued to be skeptical about the value of academic composers, and was suspicious of deliberately "innovative" music. Typical Feldman quote: "Innovation be damned, it's a boring century!"
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 in 1987 at his home in Buffalo, New York.
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. [See aleatoric music and indeterminate music.]
During this period Feldman continued to work in his family's garment business, and was proud of not being dependent on benefactors. Eminently quotable and impressively self-confident, Feldman set his sights high, saying he wanted to be "the first great Jewish composer". The fact that this statement implies, that Mendelssohn, Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg were NOT great composers simply underlines Feldman's iconoclastic attitude.
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, written for the building of the same name which houses paintings by Mark Rothko) and For Frank O'Hara (1973). In 1977, he wrote the opera Neither with words by Samuel Beckett.
In 1973, Feldman became the Edgard Varèse Professor at the University at Buffalo. Despite being accepted into the academic community, he continued to be skeptical about the value of academic composers, and was suspicious of deliberately "innovative" music. Typical Feldman quote: "Innovation be damned, it's a boring century!"
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 in 1987 at his home in Buffalo, New York.
For Samuel Beckett
Morton Feldman Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Morton Feldman:
Intersection 3 For Piano Intersection Happened years ago From the headaches From the …
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Andréa Stillacci
I went to this performance in Paris and it was breathtakingly deep...thanks a lot for posting this! Keep up the great work!
Brian Hutzell
I've just been reading Beckett's "Complete Dramatic Works," and I work in an art museum that display's Philip Guston's portrait of Feldman, so this is appropriate listening for me!
OnceTheyNamedMeiWasn't
Amazing! I'll be looking for New England forever if this is the kind of thing they play there. Thanks so much for this and great video too!
Steve Fleetwood
Love Feldman, so doomladen yet so beautiful.
Stourley Kracklite
What about doomlederhosen?
Raymond Deane
"Doomladen"? That's interesting - I don't respond that way, but I'm open to it! Feldman's later music is so mysterious.
metomp
Building in tension
Holding fast our attention
Morton's intention
John Minster
Morton's a genius.
RogerAntony Bennett
Pushing the colour to the limit, terrific video & audio......
david mcmurray
You must have so much deep fun forming these videos to this marvelous ly unusual music.