Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldmanwas an American composer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth12 January 1926
CountryUnited States of America
Morton Feldman quotes about
cages metaphor parables
Most music is metaphor, but Wolff is not. I am not metaphor either. Parable, maybe. Cage is sermon.
ready be-you
To understand what music has to be, you have to live for music. Who's ready to do that?
remember
We do not hear what we hear..., only what we remember.
thinking secret listening
If you think you might have secret information listening to me, you're lost.
perfection tragedy music-is
The tragedy of music is that it begins with perfection.
interesting patterns procedures
The most interesting aspect for me, composing exclusively with patterns, is that there is not one organizational procedure more advantageous than another, perhaps because no one pattern ever takes precedence over the others
feelings abnormal events
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.
art purpose gloves
Art in relation to life is nothing more than a glove turned inside out. It seems to have the same shapes and contours, but it can never be used for the same purpose. Art teaches nothing about life, just as life teaches us nothing about art.
loss simple drawing
I have a very dear friend, a great painter, called me up very upset, the work wasn’t going well… He asked me to come to his studio -- which I did -- I looked around at the work, dozens of sketches, drawings, large pictures, and I was very close to his work, intensely involved with his work, and he asked me, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I said, ‘Simple – it’s a loss of nerve.
laughing composer plans
The composer makes plans, music laughs.
piano might flutes
Any professional knows that the flute and the piano is a boring combination. All you've got to arrive at is a kind of typical gestural crap, right? You might agree, though you wouldn't call it gestural crap
finally handle life minor second
I've been living with the minor second all my life and I finally found a way to handle it.
thinking people way
I never feel that my music is sparse or minimalist; the way fat people never really think they're fat. I certainly don't consider myself minimalist at all
art thinking play
For me it's the instrument. If I want to think of a flute and the state of the arts I hear a vibrato; I don't know what a flute is unless the person plays it for me