For Immediate Release
March 28, 2006
Contact: Donel
Young
Phone: 732/295-2406
80TH ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION OF MORTON FELDMAN'S BIRTH
THE ORCHESTRA OF THE S.E.M. ENSEMBLE
CONCERT APRIL 24TH, NYC
WORKS BY FELDMAN, STEFAN WOLPE AND IANNIS XENAKIS
U.S. RELEASE OF
MORTON FELDMAN SAYS: SELECTED INTERVIEWS AND LECTURES 1954-1987
(HYPHEN PRESS, DISTRIBUTED BY PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS)
Monday, April 24, 8 pm
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts
31 Mercer St, NYC
The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble
Petr Kotik, Conductor
Stefan Wolpe Chamber Piece No. 1 (1964)
Iannis Xenakis Palimpsest (1979)
Morton Feldman For Samuel Beckett (1987)
Tickets $15, $10 s/s
Concert information and reservations: 718-488-7659, info@semensemble.org
Feldman book information: Princeton Architectural Press 212/995-9620 ext. 214
Not
recognized as a major figure during his lifetime, Morton Feldman (b. 1926 in
New York City, d. 1987 in Buffalo, NY) is now one of the most celebrated, performed
and recorded composers of the late 20th Century. The S.E.M. Ensemble is proud
to join in celebrating the 80th anniversary of Feldman's birth in collaboration
with Hyphen Press, London, and Princeton Architectural Press, New York, publisher
and distributor of a major publication of texts by Feldman: Morton Feldman Says
(Edited by Chris Villars, 320 pages, 60 illustrations). The SEM concert includes
Feldman's last composition for orchestra, For Samuel Beckett, and music by Feldman's
composition teacher, Stefan Wolpe, and Iannis Xenakis, whose music Feldman admired
most in his later years.
Music by Morton Feldman constitutes a major part of the S.E.M. Ensemble's current
repertoire. Petr Kotik, founder of SEM, met Feldman in 1966 in London, thanks
to their mutual friend Cornelius Cardew who brought Kotik to Feldman's lecture.
Kotik arrived in the U.S. in November 1969, and he conducted a mini-retrospective
of Feldman's music in Buffalo, NY in January 1970, a program which Feldman suggested.
In 1973, Feldman composed Instruments I for the S.E.M. Ensemble. He worked closely
with SEM and traveled with the group when his piece was performed. In the summer
of 1987, Kotik commissioned Feldman to compose a new piece for SEM. Feldman agreed,
but could not complete the task. He died in September of the same year.
A major event for Feldman was his meeting with John Cage:
At the first meeting [between John Cage and Morton Feldman] I brought
John a
string quartet. He looked at it a long time and then said, "How did you
make this?" I thought of my constant quarrels with Wolpe and also that,
just a week before, after showing a composition of mine to Milton Babbitt and
answering his questions as intelligently as I could, he said to me, "Morton,
I don't understand a word you're saying." And so, in a very weak voice,
I answered John, "I don't know how I made it." The response to this
was startling. John jumped up and down and, with a kind of high monkey squeal,
screeched, "Isn't that marvelous. Isn't that wonderful. It's so beautiful,
and he doesn't know how he made it." Quite frankly, I sometimes wonder how
my music would have turned out if John had not given me those early permissions
to have confidence in my instincts.
- Morton Feldman - 1962 (liner note to an LP - Time Records S/8007)
When Kotik formed The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, he conducted the rarely
performed The Turfan Fragments, a piece known for its complex musical texture.
The hour-long For Samuel Beckett was first performed by the S.E.M. Orchestra
in 1997 at the Music of Extended Duration festival in Prague. It was been released
(along with The Turfan Fragments) on Dog w/a Bone CD DWAB04, available at Other
Music in Manhattan or by calling ROIR at 212-477-0563.
For Samuel Beckett (1987) was commissioned by the Schönberg Ensemble (Amsterdam),
hence the use of single string instruments instead of a full string section.
Samuel Beckett was a writer Feldman greatly admired. He found in Beckett's writings
a parallel to his own music. The following quote most eloquently suggests what
was on Feldman's mind when composing For Samuel Beckett:
… here's something peculiar about it [Beckett's text]. I can't catch
it. Finally I see that every line is really the same thought said in another
way. And yet
the continuity acts as if something else is happening. Nothing else is happening.
What you're doing, in an almost Proustian way, is getting deeper and deeper saturated
into the thought.
In 1943, at the age of 18, Feldman began studying with Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972)
and met several important figures who were students of Wolpe, including Ralph
Shapey and David Tudor (it was Feldman who introduced Tudor in 1950 to John Cage).
Wolpe was an important mid-century figure in New York and his uncompromising
artistic and civic attitude undoubtedly exuded considerable influence on his
students. Wolpe was born in Berlin in 1902, and entered the Berlin Conservatory
at the age of 14. Later, he studied with Ferruccio Busoni and Anton v. Webern.
In 1933, he left Berlin for Palestine, where he headed the composition department
at the Conservatory in Jerusalem (1934-38). In 1938 he came to the United States,
becoming the head of composition at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
Wolpe founded the Contemporary Music School in New York City in 1948, and he
became musical director at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1952.
From 1955 to 1967, he was the chairman of the music department at C.W. Post College
at Long Island University.
Among the composers Feldman most admired in his later years was the Greek composer
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). In the early 1980s during one of Feldman's public
lectures at the Buffalo University, Feldman named the three most important living
composers: John Cage, Iannis Xenakis and himself. Feldman and Xenakis co-conducted
a composition seminar in 1986 in Middelburg, Holland. Xenakis studied engineering
at the Athens Polytechnic, and in 1947, he moved to Paris (where he lived for
the rest of his life). Trained as an architect, he worked on Le Corbusier's architectural
team. The two collaborated on the design of the Philips pavilion for the Brussels
Exposition of 1958. Xenakis often based his compositions, especially his early
pieces, on architectural designs. In his compositional method, Xenakis used different
mathematical principles to generate mass musical textures, including Gaussian
Distribution, the Markov chain, game theory, and probability theory.
The S.E.M. Ensemble is dedicated to the performance and advancement of new music,
with a focus on works that can best be described as post-Cagean. Since its inception
in 1970, SEM has collaborated with composers who also often perform with the
group. They have included, among others, Earle Brown, John Cage, Alvin Lucier,
Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, and a score of other younger
composers. In 1992, the ensemble expanded into The Orchestra of the S.E.M.
Ensemblewith a debut concert in Carnegie Hall, “Tribute to John Cage,” premiering
the complete Atlas Eclipticalis with an 86-piece orchestra, Petr Kotik conducting,
David Tudor at the piano. Since then, the SEM Orchestra has toured Europe five
times and performed in Japan. SEM holds a yearly series of concerts in New York
at the Paula Cooper Gallery and other venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Alice
Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Tonic
and the World Financial Center.
For more information on:
S.E.M. Ensemble: www.semensemble.org
Princeton Architectural Press: www.papress.com
Chris Villars: www.cnvill.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Hyphen Press: www.hyphenpress.co.uk
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This performance is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust,
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Phaedrus Foundation, and private donations.
Special thanks to the Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, for his
support.
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