Music is essentially built upon primitive memory structures. Morton Feldman More Quotes by Morton Feldman More Quotes From Morton Feldman 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 Morton Feldman typical piano might We do not hear what we hear..., only what we remember. Morton Feldman remember To me, I took a militant attitude towards sounds. I wanted sounds to be a metaphor, that they could be as free as a human being might be free. That was my idea about sound. It still is, that they should breathe ... not to be used for the vested interest of an idea. I feel that music should have no vested interests, that you shouldn't know how it's made, that you shouldn't know if there's a system, that you shouldn't know anything about it ... except that it's some kind of life force that to some degree really changes your life ... if you're into it. Morton Feldman should-have attitude ideas 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. Morton Feldman abnormal events feelings 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. Morton Feldman gloves purpose art The tragedy of music is that it begins with perfection. Morton Feldman music-is tragedy perfection 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. Morton Feldman drawing simple loss The composer makes plans, music laughs. Morton Feldman composer plans laughing Do we have anything in music that really wipes everything out? That just cleans everything away? Morton Feldman wipe 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 Morton Feldman patterns procedures interesting I never understood what rules I was supposed to learn, and what rules I was supposed to break Morton Feldman understood break If you think you might have secret information listening to me, you're lost. Morton Feldman secret listening thinking For years I said if I could only find a comfortable chair I would rival Mozart. Morton Feldman rivals chairs years Most music is metaphor, but Wolff is not. I am not metaphor either. Parable, maybe. Cage is sermon. Morton Feldman parables cages metaphor What was great about the 50s is that for one brief moment - maybe, say, six weeks - nobody understood art. Morton Feldman six moments art It appears to me that the subject of music, from Machaut to Boulez, has always been its construction. Melodies of 12-tone rows just don't happen. They must be constructed....To demonstrate any formal idea in music, whether structure or stricture, is a matter of construction, in which the methodology is the controlling metaphor of the composition...Only by 'unfixing' the elements traditionally used to construct a piece of music could the sounds exist in themselves--not as symbols, or memories which were memories of other music to begin with. Morton Feldman music memories ideas At one point [Cardew] taught himself to play guitar simply in order to take part in the performance in a composition by Boulez, which is a little like saying he learned Danish to read Kiekegaard. Morton Feldman guitar play order 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 Morton Feldman play art thinking To understand what music has to be, you have to live for music. Who's ready to do that? Morton Feldman be-you ready Compositionally I always wanted to be like Fred Astaire. Morton Feldman wanted
