Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman (1926–1987), born in New York to Ukrainian immigrants, used a special element to conceptualize his music: the timbre. All other dimensions played a subordinate role to its development in primarily slow and quiet works and, in doing so, composed without concise rhythmic or melodious elements. Feldman limited himself to traditional instruments. Since 1977 he has created unusually long, partially multiple hour lasting compositions of a multitude of units resembling small, closed fields that are subtly varied and repeated. Feldman’s youngest works combine this approach during shorter periods of playing with an extreme economy of means.