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MORTON FELDMAN MINI-FEST

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Friday night, as a belated part of the CalArts Contemporary Music Festival ’86 (the bulk of the festival occured in November in connection with New Music America), the opening of a two- day celebration for Morton Feldman’s 60th birthday took place in Roy O. Disney Music Hall at CalArts with a performance of Feldman’s “For Philip Guston”(1984). (The late Guston was an abstract painter during the 1950s and one of Feldman’s closest friends.)

Three members of the California E.A.R. Unit--Gaylord Mowrey playing piano and celeste, Dorothy Stone playing piccolo, flute and alto flute, and Arthur Jarvinen playing vibraphone, bells, glockenspiel and marimba--tested their stamina on this Feldman piece, which is a bit over four hours long. Despite problems which normally occur when musicians play for four uninterrupted hours, the performance was stunning.

In a post-modern style--that is, avoiding characteristics which might define any of the various styles in what is generally refered to as modern art--”For Philip Guston” is built on four notes (C, G, A-flat, E-flat; a scrambled spelling of “Cage,” as in John), and creates a sparse texture out of permutations and fragments which present themselves very slowly and amidst much silence.

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Typical of Feldman’s music, an obsession with counterpoint and with the interaction of synchronizing elements permeates the music; sometimes the musicians are synchronized, sometimes they’re not. At other times, repetitive patterns take over and then slowly self-destruct.

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