Annihilated Angel
March 12, 2013 8:23 AM   Subscribe

His artistic obscurity - relative to the stars of the New York School - had nothing to do with his personality, which was gregarious, funny and stimulating, and everything to do with his music, which was concerned with values of reticence, quietness, faintness, stillness; hardly the sort of thing to make headlines in a world where the avant garde was supposed to épater and outrage. As Michael Finnissy, one of his most stalwart British advocates, put it, "I don't think Morton Feldman's music is ever going to be that popular." There are lots of reasons for this, and they are all good reasons for listening to the music. [1995]

Edward Fox's article on Morton Feldman, from The Wire. Elsewhere, Chris Villars has collected over 100 texts on Morton Feldman from various sources, and The New Yorker's Alex Ross (previously, several times) wrote a profile of Feldman that is equally engaging.
posted by smcg (2 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Moton Feldman, Rothko Chapel, 1971.

"Concerned with values of reticence, quietness, faintness, stillness" is a very good description and one fitting for Rothko Chapel.
posted by 3.2.3 at 8:39 AM on March 12, 2013


Very nice piece, I liked "extravagantly faint gestures" , that is certainly apt.
Ubu has a few recordings of performances, and a long interview from 1967, which I just listened to last week in fact. The untroubled, unhurried quality of his personality in conversation is reflective of his music.
posted by Abinadab at 10:52 AM on March 12, 2013


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