Aspects of the organisation of pitch and time in the early piano music of Morton Feldman

Abstract

Morton Feldman's music has often been described as 'indeterminate', or even assumed to have been generated by chance. In recent years, however, a number of writers have shown through analysis that the organisation evident in many of Feldman's works is quite detailed and sophisticated, although his compositional methods and procedures are not always easy to reconstruct. The primary aim of this dissertation is to investigate the design of Morton Feldman's music of the early 1950s with regard to the organised structuring of both pitch and time, as the axes of a twodimensional conceptual space (or canvas). The study is founded upon the analysis of three strikingly different works: Intermission 5, Piano Piece 1952, and Intermission 6. In the investigation of these works, I show that despite their differences they have much in common in terms of the ways in which pitch material is deployed, and in the organisation of time. The study of the sketches and early manuscripts has in many cases provided vital clues to the organisational procedures, and clarified the properties of the structures themselves. The approach combines both formal and contextual analysis, with an emphasis upon primary-source documents. In examining Intermission 5, I show that this work displays notably clear partitioning of the time-canvas and a structured deployment of pitch materials on several levels. Taken together, these form, in Feldman's words, 'crystalline' structures, or 'structural cells'. Although outwardly dissimilar, I demonstrate that Piano Piece 1952 is built on very similar principles, and also offers an opportunity to examine more closely Feldman's deployment of recurrent pitch-sets as motifs or figures. Finally, with a study of Intermission b, Feldman's only mobile-form work, I discuss the highly structured nature of the work in the original sketch in relation to the apparently free-form published version, opening a discussion of some of the essential ambiguities and tensions of Feldman's music. The second part of this doctoral submission is in the form of a composition folio. This selection of works composed during the term of my PhD represents a creative response to several technical aspects of the Feldman research. The pieces are composed for traditional concert instruments, and follow Feldman's lead in exploring possibilities of gesture produced by abstract means, tending to avoid overtly linear, developmental or instrument-based figuration. In addition, the several pieces explore in various ways certain possibilities of Feldman's methods of organising time and pitch materials, as discussed in the dissertation. Show more