Topic: Morton Feldman (1926-1987)

[hvbias]

"Neither" has probably been the fastest I've come to enjoy a Feldman piece, I loved it the first time I heard it. Also in my heavy rotation this week was this CD of For John Cage from Darragh Morgan/John Tilbury that came out last year, so far the finest performance I've heard for it. Seems like the CD was only available for a very short time, but the download is still up.

[Brewski]

On January 20 at 11:00 pm (EST, and yes, a late-night event), pianist Marilyn Nonken will perform Feldman's Triadic Memories, livestreamed from her studio in New York. I have heard her do this piece twice live, and can recommend without hesitation. Registration is required, pay what you wish. (I chipped in $20.)

https://www.bowerbird.org/event/marilyn-nonken-performs-feldman-liminal-states/?fbclid=IwAR3MYIGFljjuX9sJhfl2uy5JXu5WzjkqIvpLZQ9R3VX02MDIEAx0TDmUfew

--Bruce

[T. D.]

FYI,

Read my weekly marketing e-mail, and Berkshire Record Outlet just stocked several Feldman releases on Hat Art. (Also a James Tenney solo bass disc and some Anthony Braxtons, if anyone cares.)
Their website is extremely clunky and slow, but does function if one is patient.

Disclaimer: I'm only a customer and have no other relationship with BRO.

[hvbias]

I really liked Marc-Andre Hamelin's interpretation of For Bunita Marcus (I believe the second slowest one I've heard) but frustratingly Hyperion have added some digital processing like ambience or ringing quality to the middle and upper registers of the piano. For me kills a lot of the enjoyment of this, barely listenable on headphones and just acceptable on speakers. I'm not sure why Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion do this to many of their solo piano recordings.

[petrarch]

Hyperion have added some digital processing like ambience or ringing quality to the middle and upper registers of the piano

Do you have any more details about it? A cursory listen to the samples on their website sounds like resonance and reverberation of the hall it was recorded in.

[hvbias]

Do you have any more details about it? A cursory listen to the samples on their website sounds like resonance and reverberation of the hall it was recorded in.

It sounds artificially added to me because it isn't as obvious in the bass registers and it also sounds more like ringing on the recording than ambiance.

I'll see if Marc-Andre Hamelin has an email and shoot him a question seeing what he thinks, or if it's what he heard in monitoring.

[Daverz]

FYI,

Read my weekly marketing e-mail, and Berkshire Record Outlet just stocked several Feldman releases on Hat Art. (Also a James Tenney solo bass disc and some Anthony Braxtons, if anyone cares.)
Their website is extremely clunky and slow, but does function if one is patient.

Disclaimer: I'm only a customer and have no other relationship with BRO.

No need to be shy about it, some of us have had affairs with BRO going back nearly 30 years.  I still remember filling out the forms in the back of the paper catalogs.

[Mandryka]

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/11432433/of-repetition-habit-and-involuntary-memory-an-brian-kane

Essay on Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. Good essay I think.

[Leo K.]

I've fallen in love with Feldman's Violin and Orchestra - WOW

[Mandryka]

Essay on the first scheduled performance of the second quartet, which was cancelled

https://www.cnvill.net/mflunberry2.pdf


Departing Landscapes:
Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II
and Triadic Memories
Clark Lunberry

[Old San Antone]

Essay on the first scheduled performance of the second quartet, which was cancelled

https://www.cnvill.net/mflunberry2.pdf


Departing Landscapes:
Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II
and Triadic Memories
Clark Lunberry

This quote is important, IMO:

Feldman, echoing Cage, wrote of his earliest compositional orientation that, “Only by ‘unfixing’ the elements traditionally used to construct a piece of music could the sounds exist in themselves—not as symbols, or memories which were memories of other music to begin with” (35).  The stated desire of the composer was to penetrate beneath, beyond, the perceived historical obstructions to hearing, arriving unencumbered at the origins of unmediated sound,into the very heart of its sonorous matter.

[Mandryka]

I've fallen in love with Feldman's Violin and Orchestra - WOW

Some extraordinary sounds from the orchestra.

If there is repetition or variation of “modules” they’re so separated it’s hard to me sure. Very hard for me to get any sense of overall form. His music is totally elusive, ineffable.

I keep coming back to an idea of Stockhausen’s - that moment form is about the eternal present. I wonder if that’s the key to the mystery of Feldman.

[Brewski]

Marilyn Nonken's performance of Triadic Memories, originally streamed in January, is available for viewing during March at the link below. I have now heard her do the piece live three times. If you're curious, don't hesitate.

https://www.bowerbird.org/nonken/?fbclid=IwAR3EA1q1LLZM7d0f-BKh04IQz50Jn7h6SL7gfarASHEwi8zljQcvKKginAg

--Bruce

[Artem]

I listened to Coptic Light recorded on CPO recently and wanted to share a very good description of it from Kyle Gann.

The texture is dense throughout, to the point that details are impossible to grasp; as in a late Mark Rothko canvas, color is applied thickly yet edges remain indistinct. Within each section of the orchestra, pitches are echoed back and forth in varying, off-centered rhythmic placements. As a result, the harmonic structure is actually rather stable over long periods, but manifested in filmy waves of sound in which pitches bouncing around the orchestra are a challenge to the ear’s ability to focus.

https://americansymphony.org/concert-notes/coptic-light/

[Brewski]

I listened to Coptic Light recorded on CPO recently and wanted to share a very good description of it from Kyle Gann.

Thanks! Looking on YouTube, I didn't realize there are so many performances of it (relatively speaking), including the one you mentioned. And Gann does a good job of analyzing why it plays tricks with your ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOxqLdOIzk4

I was at the first performance, in the 1980s with the NY Philharmonic, and didn't quite appreciate it at the time. The only other one I've heard is the live one with Eötvös and the Concertgebouw, which is fantastic.

--Bruce

[Artem]

https://www.cnvill.net/mfrecs.pdf lists 10 recordings of Coptic Light available on cd, which is pretty impressive.

[Brewski]

https://www.cnvill.net/mfrecs.pdf lists 10 recordings of Coptic Light available on cd, which is pretty impressive.

Thanks for making me aware of a source new to me. (I recognize Chris Villars's name, but hadn't come across his site.)

And didn't realize there are 17 versions of Triadic Memories floating about, either!

--Bruce

[milk]

I’m listening to the Pellegrini Quartet’s recording of Violin and String Quartet. This piece doesn’t get mentioned much. Do you think this is a successful work?

[Mandryka]

I’m listening to the Pellegrini Quartet’s recording of Violin and String Quartet. This piece doesn’t get mentioned much. Do you think this is a successful work?

I listened to the last 20 minutes - not your recording but this one. Those Feldman dissonances are really cool in small ensembles like this. And much to my surprise three violins, a viola and a cello sound good together. Do I really want two hours of it though? . . . Not today.

[Mandryka]

Herbert Henck playing Triadic Memories

https://soundcloud.com/user-985460328/sets/herbert-henck-beginner-studio