Page 55 - BBC Music (January 2020)

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH

Abstract thoughts: (clockwise from right)
the influential painter Jackson Pollock;
Morton Feldman off-duty; Rothko 1955
‘Untitled’; pianist Marc-André Hamelin’s
2017 recording of For Bunita Marcus

(1985) – dedicated to the composer,
conductor and academic with whom
he regularly collaborated – is marked
at ppp, with not a single crescendo to
indicate a change in volume. On the
face of it, the score seems fairly stark;
like most of Feldman’s music, the
emphasis is on space and the importance
of individual notes. But the 36 movements
(or pages, as they are referred to here)
gently build a resonant, characterful work
that is highly meditative. The piece was
last recorded, for Hyperion, by Marc-
André Hamelin, who underlines the
beauty of each minute theme.
The piano features heavily in Feldman’s
oeuvre; he wrote a vast array of solo piano
pieces and included it in several of his
chamber works. Many of
Feldman’s works have generic
titles and reference their
instrumentation, such as Work Buffalo in 1972. He learned and hint at Feldman’s ongoing interest in a
for Two Pianists (1958); Piano the piano from a Russian new harmonic language, one that diverged
Piece (1964) and Bass Clarinet aristocrat who earned her from the serialism in vogue at that time.
and Percussion (1981). This living after the revolution The post-war musical landscape
was a way of underlining the by teaching music and in Europe was shaped by Boulez and
sparse ‘otherness’ of the music. playing piano in a trio Stockhausen, whose aleatory ‘chance’
Others refer to their dedicatees, such as the with her husband and brother-in-law. music and serial techniques were seen as
above-mentioned For Philip Guston, which Madame Maurina-Press (to whom the the basis for modernism. Over in the US,
was a memorial piece Feldman wrote after 1970 work Madame Press Died Last Week however, Cage, Wolff and Feldman were
the death of his estranged friend, plus For unimpressed. ‘Boulez has neither elegance
Stockhausen, Cage, Stravinsky and Mary nor physicality,’ complained Feldman;
Sprinson (1972) and For John Cage (1982). Feldman particularly ‘his sound consists of a million gestures,
The latter was an important figure in all going upward (certainly not to heaven)
Feldman’s life. The two met at a Webern admired the clarity – an etude, a caricature of our times, a
performance in 1950 and Feldman, homage to Artaud and Franz Liszt.’
moving into the second floor of Cage’s of Mondrian’s black- In fact, Feldman’s music is as theoretical
building, became part of a group of artists as Boulez’s and, although more tonal, it’s
later described as the New York School. lined paintings not exactly easy listening. Feldman and his
The collective comprised the likes of colleagues were as committed as Boulez
Christian Wolff, Jackson Pollock, Mark at Ninety is dedicated) was a close friend to pushing the envelope – they just took a
Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Cage’s of the Scriabins and studied with Busoni; different approach.
rejection of traditional composing styles, both pianists’ work featured heavily in In much of his writing, Feldman
as well as the new ones being proposed Feldman’s education. Feldman – ‘Morty’ to refers to paintings and painters to justify
by Boulez et al, helped shape Feldman’s his friends – claimed the period instilled and elucidate his compositional style.
approach, which centred around pitch. in him ‘a sort of vibrant musicality rather He especially admired the clarity of
In For Philip Guston, who Feldman met than musicianship’. His early works such Mondrian’s now iconic black-lined
through Cage, there’s even an incipit based as Piano Piece (1952) demonstrate the paintings, as well as the rhythmic vitality
on Cage’s name (C-G-A-flat-E-flat). composer’s preoccupation with space in Jackson Pollock’s action brushwork.
Feldman was born in New York to and placement of notes, something that Rothko Chapel, a work for soprano, alto,
choir, percussion, celesta and viola was
dominated his style for the rest of his
Russian-Jewish parents. His family
GETTY, BRIDGEMAN worked in textile manufacturing, and career (see ‘Feldman’s style’, p66). These finished in 1971, a year after Rothko’s
suicide. The stillness, brought to life on
Feldman worked in the business until he
pieces are significantly less tonal than
a large scale, is evocative of Rothko’s
later works (such as Palais De Mari, 1986),
gained a professorship at the University of
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 57