‎Benjamin R. Levy (ed)‎
‎In Search of Morton Feldman. A Portrait of the Composer at 100‎

‎, Brepols, 2026 Hardback, Pages: 316, Size:210 x 270 mm, Illustrations:23 b/w, 11 tables b/w., 75 musical examples, Language: English. ISBN 9782503624716.‎

Reference : 70647

‎Summary There is something inscrutable about Morton Feldman. His music resists analysis, first through its indeterminacy and later through its vast scale. His personality was also contradictory - a fascinating balance of tenderness and toughness , as Christian Wolff states in the book's preface. Familiar biographical narratives, for example his connections to the New York School of composers and artists or his discovery of Turkish rugs, seem to transform as subtly as his music in their frequent retellings. Indeed, the more we examine his life and creative output, the more questions seem to arise. In this spirit of open inquiry, the present volume offers a mixture of analytical and musicological studies spanning the whole range of Feldman's career, as well as his continuing legacy. The essays cover topics ranging from his literary entanglements with Rilke in Only (1947) and Pasternak in Swallows of Salangan (1960), to timbre in his free-durations pieces of the 1960s, and ample discussion of the late works, including studies on memory in Violin and Orchestra , time in Piano and String Quartet , enharmonic spelling and intonation in String Quartet no. 2, and the defining themes of the Beckett-related works of his final decade. The final two chapters address the reception of Feldman's ideas in the works of James Tenney and Linda Catlin Smith, prompting a reconsideration of the composer's important position not just in American music, but in the broader scope of the Western tradition. TABLE OF CONTENTS Christian Wolff Preface Benjamin R. Levy Introduction: In Search of Morton Feldman Looking Back Through the Early Works Brett Boutwell Feldman's Only and the Residue of the Past David Cline Historical Symbolism and The Swallows of Salangan Thomas DeLio Feldman's Sound: Durations III, No. 3, Revisited Approaching the Later Music Roger Reynolds Considering Morty Amy C. Beal and Nathan Cobb Surface, Translation, and Repetition in Morton Feldman's Beckett Works Benjamin R. Levy Morton Feldman's Art of Memory J rg Henneberger Microtonality in Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. 2: A Hypothetical Attempt at Decoding Feldman's Enharmonic Notation Ray Fields Time in Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet Assessing Feldman's Legacy Marilyn Nonken Jim You Never Sent Me A Letter : Feldman, Tenney, and Spectralism Antares Boyle That Second Infinity : Linda Catlin Smith's Continuous Variation Technique and Its Precedents in Feldman and Schoenberg Abstracts and Biographies Index of Names‎