Morton Feldman
12.01.1926—03.09.1987

Future Performances

Rothko Chapel
27.05.2012, Hove (GB)
For Frank O'Hara
06.06.2012, Buffalo (USA)
For Frank O'Hara
07.06.2012, Buffalo (USA)
Instruments 2
15.06.2012, Köln (D)
Neither
12.07.2012, Berlin (D)

News

  • Salzburger Festspiele
    Salzburg Festival 2011
    Salzburg Festival 2011
    Gustav Mahler, whose anniversaries have been the centre of attention all this year, is also the high [...]
  • New York City Opera Monodrama
    US Stage Première of Feldman’s Neither
    US Stage Première of Feldman’s Neither
    New York City Opera presents the US professional stage première of Morton Feldman’s inimitable mo [...]

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Morton Feldman

The Composer

Morton Feldman was born in New York in 1926 and died there in 1987. Just like Cage, a close friend, he was an American composer – an American artist – an American in the true sense of the word.

He identified himself by differentiating his views on composition from those of his colleagues in Europe. He was proud to be an American because he was convinced that it enabled him the freedom, unparalleled in Europe, to work unfettered by tradition.  And, he was an American also in what may have been a slight inferiority complex in the face of cultural traditions in Europe, something he proudly rejected and secretly admired.

Like any true artist, Feldman was endowed with a [...]

About the Music

Morton Feldman was born in New York on January 12th 1926. At the age of twelve he studied piano with Madame Maurina-Press, who had been a pupil of Busoni, and it was she who instilled in Feldman a vibrant musicality. At the time he was composing short Scriabinesque pieces, until in 1941 he began to study composition with Wallingford Riegger. Three years later Stefan Wolpe became his teacher, though they spent much of their time together simply arguing about music.

Then in 1949 the most significant meeting up to that time took place - Feldman met John Cage, commencing an artistic association of crucial importance to music in America in the 1950s. Cage was instrumental in encouraging [...]

10 of 66 Works

Alabama Song | for ensemble and voice ad lib. 1984
Bass Clarinet and Percussion | for bass clarinet and percussion (2 players) 1981
Cello and Orchestra | for violoncello and orchestra 1972
Chorus and Orchestra 1 | for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra 1971
Chorus and Orchestra 2 | for soprano, double mixed choir and orchestra 1972
Clarinet and String Quartet | for clarinet and string quartet 1983
3 Clarinets, Cello and Piano | for 3 clarinets, violoncello and piano 1971
Coptic Light | for orchestra 1986
Crippled Symmetry | for flute, percussion and piano (doubling celesta) 1983
The 1986 Darmstadt Lecture –

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