Le 1er juillet 2017
de 11h00 à 11h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3209
Séance - Modern American Composers
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Jean-Baptiste Masson
There are only few analysis of Morton Feldman’s (1926-1987) music, especially for his last phase, where he reaches a dramatic extension of duration, with one block pieces lasting 3, 4 or 5 hours. Combined with his language focusing on repetition and scale, his music challenges listening and analysis and requires different approaches.
We aim to show that:
- Violin and String Quartet follows a formal plan;
- through his use of patterns, Feldman plays with specific aspects of the auditory system and memory;
- from the concept to its sonorous representation, the music of Feldman is extremely coherent.
To achieve this, an in-depth analysis of Violin and String Quartet’s score will first revealed the basic material of the piece (the patterns), the form and the compositional methods. Feldman was passionate about rugs and has spoken about the musical inspiration they gave him. As an analogy with the weaving of patterns that finally form a rug, we will adopt the perspective of a time weaved by the repetition of patterns. We will then see that the same produces the different. Putting this in parallel with elements of musical cognition, we will find out that, through his compositional method, Feldman plays with the basis of memory.
Using many examples, both musical and visual, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of Feldman’s music, with a method and results that can be extended to all his last phase.
