Thread: Morton Feldman in depth?

I would like to get into the scores and theory of Feldman's scores. Anything that I should know or research?

There's a world of articles if you google them - can't vouch for quality but they'll be thought-provoking nonetheless

http://www.cnvill.net/mfhirata.htm
http://www.cnvill.net/mfsani2.htm

are two articles that I am going to try to comprehend. Hopefully I can figure those out.

http://www.cnvill.net/mfhirata.htm
http://www.cnvill.net/mfsani2.htm

are two articles that I am going to try to comprehend. Hopefully I can figure those out.

A sample score of Feldman:

mfpacc2.gif

What I find peculiar in Feldman's scores is that the rythmic structure often looks quite complicated, while most of the time the listening experience is very smooth...

Originally Posted by GioCar

What I find peculiar in Feldman's scores is that the rythmic structure often looks quite complicated, while most of the time the listening experience is very smooth...

that is what Iove about Feldman's works- full of contradictions.

Can anyone explain this paper I am linking to me?

http://www.cnvill.net/mfhall.pdf

Read it and didn't understand half of it.

Some of the Feldman works are indeterminate, and give the player a range of possible notes to play, so this tells me that Feldman was not interested in producing "coherent musical ideas" which could be "analyzed," but, rather, to produce effective music, as sound.

Like Cage, Feldman was not so much interested in musical ideas per se as he was in simply creating sounds.

Originally Posted by Albert7

Can anyone explain this paper I am linking to me?

http://www.cnvill.net/mfhall.pdf

Read it and didn't understand half of it.

It's talking about Feldman's graphic scores, which he did on grid paper, and how this evolved through use into a more precise notation. The earlier grid pieces were not as precise rhyhmically as the later grid pieces, in which the grid corresponded more exactly to notated durations.

Feldman eventually dropped the grid system, maybe because it we "too 1960s", and/or because notated scores had more "cred" than graphic scores. Some of the rhythms shown are fairly complex (6:5, etc) and make use of time-signature changes and "irrational" rhythms. But it's usually going by so slowly that the net result is not complex.

Anyway, that's my take on it. These highly-detailed analysis papers are not the sort of thing you read in one sitting. There's a lot of absorption of ideas, and pondering over certain parts before moving on. Try to comprehend every idea as it is presented, without skippiong over. This may take a long time.

As well, this sort of detailed reading is more suited for books or print, so I suggest printing it out, so you can refer to it at various times and locations, such as before going to sleep, during commercials, etc.

Thanks for the help, millionrainbows there. I think that the later works are on the grid system in a more traditional way... the grid system was transmuted into Feldman's pattern-based compositional style which is a key shift.

Plus this past weekend I think that based on Feldman's essays that he wrote that his interest in rug designs was the basis for much of his later works.