Having studied with Morty from 1979-1981. I do feel guilty when I fall asleep during his longer works. (I did not call him 'Morty', btw). I appreciate your fair assessment of his work. I recall his fascination with rugs and patterns, as well as framing time and disregarding direction. Aside from teaching me to think (by asking stunningly simple questions you would think no one would ask) he instilled in me the importance of register to convey emotion, much like Ravel, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Feldman's emotional content was understated, but evident nonetheless. One need not cry out in order to behold one's pain. Like him or not, he had his own sound world. No one has duplicated it. Thanks, Dave.

I used to listen to piano and string quartet after a long trail run. I would lay on a picnic table and stare through the tree branches. If I was lucky, a leaf or two would lazily fall onto my body.

Thank you for this! I've been listening to Feldman for years and can't get enough of it. "Neither", his particular take on opera, which is under an hour long, is also a great way into his sound world. Keep on listening!

Excellent intro to a singular voice. Feldman's music is a perfect mirror to the first generation Ab Ex painters he knew(Guston, obviously, but Pollock and de Kooning, too) in its concern with scale. As with an oversized Pollock, it's up to the viewer/listener to find his/her way into the work, and while that imposes a burden it also empowers us to make of these pieces what, and how, we will.

One day when I was home from work sick I tried to listen intently to Feldman's 6 hour long 2nd String Quartet. It was a unique experience. I was not able to focus on it completely for the entire 6 hours without my mind wondering but there were periods lasting more than an hour at a time I would estimate where I was so drawn in to the slowly moving and changing patterns that I was completely lost in it. Of course, I was sick so that probably affected my ability to concentrate but it was quite an experience.

Love Morty!! His String Quartet No. 2 is one of the most important 20th century compositions

Wonderful music. A short early-ish piece called "Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety" is one I come back to time and again.

A favorite! I once got up at 4 am so I could hear the Kronos recording of PIANO AND STRING QUARTET at the proper level without all the noise pollution that comes later in the day around here . And I have absolutely used Feldman to usher me to the kingdom of Morpheus. The experience you describe parallels my own.

Rothko Chapel was perhaps the first Feldman CD I bought in the late 90s or early 2000s or so, once I came to grips with who he was, and what his music was like. I also loved Why Patterns? on that CD, which is like a musical mobile, a musical representation of an Alexander Calder kinetic sculpture. Then I was off and running. I love the Nonken Triadic Memories, an essential Feldman CD, and also lately I keep playing For Christian Wolff (the edition you show- 3 CDs). For Philip Guston is also a must-own. The For Bunita Marcus by Aki Takahashi for me, is also a must-own, and one of the finest recordings of that piece. I also love the Tilson Thomas Coptic Light, which I actually saw performed live at Avery Fisher Hall in the early 2000s or so, as part of a 3 piece afternoon of music. Must students were bored but I was psyched to finally hear a Feldman piece performed live!). Some of Eno's ambient works are similar, superficially, to Feldman, but of course Feldman would never rely on synthesizers! Feldman's music is more "organic," but no less hypnotic. It's weird that most of Feldman's music is so "quiet and low dynamics", yet it's almost never atonal or abrasive in the sense that some of Cage or Stockhausen's music could be very abrasive or atonal and dissonant. String Quartet II is a bit more challenging, given its sheer scale, but I've seen it performed live at Carnegie Hall (2003 or so), and that cemented my opinion that Feldman was trying to achieve with his long pieces, something akin to an "installation" (multimedia-wise) without the installation. In other words, the monumental four or five-hour piece becomes an actual environment or space that you can enter and leave at will, even though it's really only a sound-world, not a physical installation such as the type that Brian Eno has done music for. It's not an installation in some museum, the piece itself becomes the museum! In your head! Anyway, SQII was the longest piece of music I've ever sat live to hear performed, and it was incredible. I confess I did take a brief dinner break during it, though! When I first heard of SQII in the Village Voice in the mid 1990s, I thought it had to be pretentious hogwash(!), but when I finally caught up with Feldman's works in the late 90s and 2000s, I realized my error, and started to become engrossed in Feldman and buying all the CDs, etc. It also got me into other such composers like Iannis Xenakis, Nono, and others. But I keep coming back to Feldman. Also Philip Glass. "Piano and String Quartet" by Kronos is also a must-own CD! (I think it's on Elektra/Nonesuch Records) - Scott B. LI NY

I played King of Denmark in college and have appreciated his music since. I love Why Patterns? in part because it "makes a lady of the glockenspiel." I haven't listened to any of his vocal music... looking forward to checking that out. Thanks David!

Rothko Chapel is a space designed to show a series of very large paintings by the great Anerican artist Mark Rothko. He painted them for the space. Now I want to hear Feldman's homage. Thanx David!

Would love if you did an overview video for Iannis Xenakis!

I meant to also mention how important Feldman's early works are, even though they are so different from his late, monumental pieces. I finally tracked down the Feldman "box set" Ecstasy of the Moment (The Barton Workshop) 3 CD compilation about two years ago, used on eBay, which for years went out of print, even though Virgin Store used to sell it new for $20 (!), and stupidly I didn't buy it then. Anyway, that set contains essential early Feldman pieces when he was in his most experimental "graph paper" indeterminate score phase. It's Feldman at his most primal and stark. Not for everyone, but it's fascinating to trace those works leading up to his later, sprawling works.

You do not need to tell me. I love the music of Feldman. Have done so for many many years. I am so happy you find him as fascinating as I do.

Reminds me of Ligeti's work and the tune at the end, Vaughan William's. Nice piece for James Webb photos. And Hubble.

Brilliant explained, i've been fascinated by Feldman for a couple of years, his music is like none, and it's just as you say (parafrased): you have to go with the flow, and when you're in the right mood, it can be hypnotic because there is almost no emotion involved, it is sound in the most pure sense of the word. Perfect for a late night listening session, in the beginning you're mind tries to resist and you feel some irritation, but when you surrender, it can become a mesmerizing and deeply rewarding experience. Indeed, lying in bed and drifting off (sometimes after a couple of minutes), i felt a bit guilty, but as you say, you don't have to feel guilty at all. He was quite 'popular' in the 80s (i think) in the Netherlands, with a conservatory project in The Hague.

Thank you for this, David. I've been listening to Feldman, on and off, for years. To me, his music usually sounds like it's on the precipice of some abyss. Plus the fact that it's quiet and meditative, makes it perfect to write screenplays too. It evokes unglimpsed mysteries without being distracting.

This video sent me on a treasure hunt! I was able to find good used copies of Rothko Chapel/Why Patterns and Crippled Symmetry (both with the California Ear Unit) and the Hamelin disk of For Bunita Marcus. I found the Bunita Marcus hauntingly beautiful and quite evocative. A very rewarding listening experience. Thanks David!

Feldman is one of my musical heroes. For the piano music, I regularly go back to the John Tilbury box. Rothko Chapel is a great, great work and the Rupert Huber recording is distinguished by the precision of the choral singing. The Tilson Thomas disc of orchestral works (including Coptic Light) is self-recommending. But the late, large-scale works are the ones I love the most. Piano and String Quartet (the Kronos recording is beautiful), Crippled Symmetry, For Philip Guston.

Congratulations Mr. Hurwitz! You have passed the milestone of a thousand subscribers!

I have family in Houston and love the Rothko Chapel. Marcus Creed with SWR is on the way and I’ll give the piece a listen!

Another great work is For Samuel Beckett. A late work with an acceptable duration of a small hour. There are a handful recordings and they are all good. My favorite is the Stephen Mosko (with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players) on Newport Classics. The music is just hypnotic.

David & Hurwitzikins, Yay Feldman. I joke that I play music and turn on the vacuum cleaner (usually I just read). If a piece Commands my attention and makes me stop what I'm doing to listen then I play it over at least 10 times to kind of fix it in my memory. Feldman more often than not does this. (His SQ2 took up the better part of a week) If you guys do listen to the Rothko Chapel, a CD usually has fotos of the amazing place. If you're using youtube or the radio I would recommend you check out fotos online (and looking at the rest of his oeuvre couldn't hurt) Great, David, introducing folks to one of the US's greatest composers. JIM

I have had a very limited listening experience with Feldman, but a CD I really like is a collection of American choral music performed by Marcus Creed and the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart that contains the Rothko Chapel which I find calming, mesmerizing even. The disc also has works of Copland, Reich, Cage, Bernstein, and Barber and is one in a series of choral music designated by country and all performed extremely well by these forces.

Mesmerizing stuff, which definitely triggers my ASMR! Feldman reminds me somewhat of the astonishing Sol LeWitt line drawings at MassMoCA in North Adams, MA, a must-see when the world reopens.

Really good talk, thanks. I notice that I’m not the only one who agrees with you about the usefulness of something like “For Philip Guston” for falling asleep, I’ve commented to friends on this before. I think this is because, and no disrespect to people who are able to work to it, it *seems* as though it’s just going to wash over you as it’s quiet and mostly nothing much seems to be going on, but it doesn’t. It draws you in and almost despite yourself you can’t stop listening. As you say, it’s a new kind of music, and for me it generates a new kind of listening as part of that. So if you have things on your mind, usually why we can’t get to sleep, it’s the end of the day and you want to sleep eventually, this music doesn’t let you think about other things, it makes you focus on it and listen until you slip away. So many other musical things make you listen too, but way over stimulating in this context (and probably make you think about other stuff too much as well). It’s just remarkable but unsurprisingly I’ve never gotten to the end of that work....

Fantastic video. I'm a huge fan already. :)

Love Morton Feldman. Not just good music for insomnia -- but meditation, too. David, would it be possible to make a video request? I'd love to hear you talk about some newer composers that have caught your attention, and which of their compositions you'd recommend. Particularly those with a really unique voice, and aren't just aping the sounds of old.

A brilliant presentation on MF. While not unknown during his lifetime, his music didn’t gain wide critical attention til the CD era was in full swing. Quite a combative personality may not have helped as well!

I knew of Feldman through his association with John Cage (there's a marvelous set of recordings of radio conversations, between the two men from the Sixties - just friends talking about life, art and music often very humourously) but much to my.shame really didn't know any of his music. I then happened to find a copy of Tilson Thomas' Argo album of his orchestral music in a charity shop. I have to be honest, it wasn't immediately appealing to me, but after a time that strange, often quiet meandering style he adopts starts to make sense. I really like the piece Piano and Orchestra, which whilst quiet for most of it's twenty minutes, is still full of a latent tension which briefly explodes near the end. Also Steven Osborne's selection of piano works, included with some equally marvellous George Crumb pieces, are amazing. The spareness and economy in these proves often less is more. Seems like I've got a lot further listening to do though! Thanks as always!

My own favorite Feldman is Triadic Memories, for solo piano - a journey into infinite space. Try Marilyn Nonken on Mode.

You either love it or not..or love it for the first 5 minutes.