MORTON FELDMAN

Feldman-Inspired Art

Feldman's Graphic Notation

One thinks of the disparity of his large, strong presence and the delicate, hypersoft music, but in fact he too was, among other things, full of tenderness and the music is, among other things, as tough as nails.

It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the composition... 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.

Music can imply the infinite if enough things depart from the norm far enough. Strange "abnormal" events can lead to the feeling that anything can happen, and you have a music with no boundaries.

To me, I took a militant attitude towards sounds. I wanted sounds to be a metaphor, that they could be as free as a human being might be free. That was my idea about sound. It still is, that they should breathe … not to be used for the vested interest of an idea. I feel that music should have no vested interests, that you shouldn’t know how it’s made, that you shouldn’t know if there’s a system, that you shouldn’t know anything about it … except that it’s some kind of life force that to some degree really changes your life … if you’re into it.

Where in life we do everything we can to avoid anxiety, in art we must pursue it.