Morton Feldman
For Samuel Beckett

THE REVIEW

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. "For Samuel Beckett" is the last work of the New York composer, written in 1987 for an ensemble of 23 musicians: eight wind instruments plus seven brass, five strings, piano, harp, and vibraphone. The piece lasts just over 45 minutes, depending on the performance. And it is extremely representative of Feldman's style, at least of his final compositional phase, enough to constitute the best introduction to this composer.

Just to quote some data, Feldman wrote music with dynamics almost always in piano or pianissimo, and in this piece, it is always ppp; his last pieces have an abnormally long duration (the second string quartet from 1983 can last from 3 and a half hours to 5 and a half hours; "For Philip Guston" for three performers from 1984 lasts 4 and a half hours), and this one is no exception; the titles of the pieces often merge with the dedication, addressed to painters (Philip Guston or Mark Rothko), composers (John Cage, Christian Wolff), or writers like Beckett: all associations and in some cases close friendships of Feldman.

Thus, listening to this piece means allowing oneself three-quarters of an hour of suggestive oblivion: the music is static, almost immobile, it recalls the phases of breathing (inhalation/exhalation) thanks to the long and sustained sounds of the entire ensemble, with the exception of the trio made up of piano, harp, and vibraphone that punctuates the musical texture with single notes or some chords. Static music but living with internal work, of barely perceptible variations in the individual moments that make up the overall structure of the piece.

If Beckett had stripped language of all accessory elements, by analogy, Feldman creates in this his last piece a quiet and slow music: monotonous, but in a non-negative sense; devoid of development, but not for this reason boring. Music that is born overseas, against the backdrop of the vibrant New York, and thus unfamiliar to certain European conventions. Outside tradition as well as trends, Feldman's music invents for itself a non-tradition, of which this piece for Samuel Beckett represents one of the most successful examples.