Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano

Morton Feldman - Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano

performers: 

Rene Berman - cello; Kees Wieringa - piano

Excerpts from the liner notes:

It is useless to debate the question '...Is the music of Morton Feldman "good" or "bad"...' John Cage stated in his book Silence: 'Feldman's music Is...' This is not just another cryptic remark by probably the most famous American avant garde composer of this century. On the contrary, it is one of the most sensible things ever written about the music of Morton Feldman. When listening to his Untitled composition for cello and piano (1981) too, one can be surprised by the feeling that this music escapes a judgement of value. Only those who dare to really listen with an open mind (both a challenge and an invitation) get a chance to understand Feldman's music, a chance to enter a new world of sound.

The concept of 'tempo', as meaning the structuring of time in music, is almost destroyed in Feldman's music: in his music the measurement of time, the perception of metre and rhythm becomes practically impossible. In Untitled composition metre has lost its traditional meaning, it just serves as a tool that makes it possible to determine the duration of the notes. This implicates that the listener has to listen to this music with a different attitude than he is used to do. The concept of music as a language that can be molded into a logical, linear form has been put aside by Feldman. To him composing was no longer the ordering of sounds in time. Feldman's works are about the unfolding of individual sounds in total freedom, not hindered by metre - an instrument to order sound in a time structure.

Untitled composition confronts the listener with contradictions. The piece is long, but no clear musical form can be discerned: the composer uses traditional and wellknown instruments, but in a very different way than usual; the music sounds anonymous, but it unquestionably bears the mark of Morton Feldman's musical personality.

Tracklisting:

1. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.1 {5:35}

2. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.2 {6:32}

3. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.3 {6:45}

4. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.4 {12:03}

5. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.5 {10:48}

6. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.6 {10:17}

7. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.7 {5:31}

8. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.8 {8:09}

9. Untitled Composition for Cello and Piano: 1.9 {6:24}

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