Morton Feldman

Musician

Forlisteners of contemporary classical and experimental music; people curious about very quiet, long-duration compositions.
2 Reviews 0 Definitions 1 Charts

The Profile

Morton Feldman (1926–1987) was an American composer associated with the New York School, known for very quiet dynamics, long-duration pieces, and a focus on silence and memory.

Feldman wrote pieces of extreme duration, often very soft (ppp), dedicated works to painters and writers, and had associations with figures such as John Cage and the New York School.

Two DeBaser reviews discuss Feldman's late works: Triadic Memories (piano) and For Samuel Beckett (ensemble). Both pieces exemplify Feldman's long durations, very soft dynamics, and attention to silence and memory. Performers mentioned include Aki Takahashi and Marilyn Nonken.

Notable Quotes

❝ Triadic Memories, composed in his later period (1981) and dedicated to the prodigious pianist Aki Takahashi, remains a great starting point, as well as one of the best examples of his personal conception of serialism: a language devoid of form and symmetry, entirely subordinate to the inconsistency of memory.

❝ Soft and enveloping, sensual and hypnotic, the music of Morton Feldman is one of the most original expressions of the last decades of the past century.