Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer, born in New York City. January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area...

A key figure in modern music, Feldman's compositions went through several phases. He was a pioneer of aleatoric music and indeterminate music, and in requiring improvisation. His compositions are characterized by their quietude, slowness, and often by their extreme lengthiness. Modern music is music that is part of either the movement of musical modernism or the era of 20th century music, or is contemporary music. ... Aleatoric (or aleatory) music or composition, is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. ... Indeterminate music was a form of music pioneered by the late John Cage. ... Musical improvisation is the spontaneous creative process of a making music while it is being performed. ...

Biography

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. Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor. ... Wallingford Riegger (29 April 1885 - 2 April 1961) was an American music composer, well known for orchestral. ... Stefan Wolpe (August 25, 1902 – April 4, 1972) was a German-born composer. ...

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. The two became good friends, with Feldman moving into the apartment downstairs from Cage. 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. The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States. ... Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... John Cage For the character of John Cage from the TV show Ally McBeal see: John Cage (Character). ... Harmony is the result of polyphony (more than one note being played simultaneously). ... Serialism is a technique for composing music that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the composer manipulations of those sets to create music. ... Hand-written musical notation by J.S. Bach: beginning of the Prelude from the Suite for Lute in G minor BWV 995 (transcription of Cello Suite No. ... Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk) The I Ching (Traditional Chinese: 易經, pinyin y jīng; Cantonese IPA: jɪk6gɪŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping: jik6ging1; alternative romanizations include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. ... Aleatoric (or aleatory) music or composition, is music where some element of the composition is left to chance. ... Indeterminate music was a form of music pioneered by the late John Cage. ...

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. Pollocks One: Number 31, 1950 solely occupies an entire wall at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. ... Philip Guston ([Montreal, Canada [July 27]], 1913 - [Woodstock, N.Y.[June 7]], 1980) was one of the most important painters of the New York School, which also numbered many of the Abstract Expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. ... Francis Russell OHara (June 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of what was known as the New York School of poetry. ... Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish dramatist, novelist and poet. ... This USPS stamp illustrates Pollocks drip technique. ... The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas that serves as a work of modern art: its walls are covered with fourteen mostly-black color field paintings by Mark Rothko, and the chapel itself was largely designed by the artist. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish dramatist, novelist and poet. ...

In 1973, at the age of 47, Feldman became the Edgard Varese Professor at the University at Buffalo. Prior to that time, Feldman had earned his living as a full time employee at the family textile business in New York's garment district. University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (also known as the State University of New York at Buffalo or SUNY–Buffalo and abbreviated as UB) is located in Buffalo, New York. ...

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. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is a privately funded college in Lower Manhattan of New York City. ... Influenced by the Fluxus art movement, violinist Tom Chiu founded the FLUX Quartet in 1996 with a quest similar to that of some of the Fluxus founders: a search for a living art for all people with an embracing anything-goes spirit. ...

Feldman married the composer Barbara Monk shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in 1987 at his home in Buffalo, New York. Pancreatic cancer (also called cancer of the pancreas) is a malignant tumour within the pancreatic gland. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Further reading

• Hirata, Catherin (Winter 1996). "The Sounds of the Sounds Themselves: Analyzing the Early Music of Morton Feldman", Perspectives of New Music 34, no.1, 6-27.
• Lunberry, Clark (Summer 2006). “Departing Landscapes: Morton Feldman's String Quartet II and Triadic Memories.” SubStance 110: Vol. 35, Number 2: 17-50. http://www.unf.edu/~clunberr/research.html

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Morton Feldman

• Morton Feldman Page
• Geometry.net: Morton Feldman
• Morton Feldman in conversation with Thomas Moore
• Morton Feldman: Structures for String Quartet (1951) by Lejaren Hiller
• GregSandow.com: Feldman Draws Blood Village Voice, June 16, 1980
• Morton Feldman profile at New Albion Records
• The New Yorker: The Critics at Large

Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... USA composer Lejaren Hiller (February 23, 1924, New York City - January 26, 1994, Buffalo, New York) founded the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studio in the late 1950s and collaborated on the first significant computer music composition, 1957s Illiac Suite, with Leonard Issacson. ...

Listening

• Art of the States: Morton Feldman three works by the composer
• UbuWeb: Morton Feldman featuring The King of Denmark
• Epitonic.com: Morton Feldman featuring tracks from Only -- Works for Voice and Instruments