Week 29: Happy Birthday, Morton Feldman

Welcome to Week 29 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode. I am posting this on Jan. 11, and the 12th is the 100th anniversary of Feldman's birth, so let's commemorate that by listening to either The King of Denmark or Rothko Chapel.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores and other helpful information. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 29.

Anonymous music from the Medieval era
Lauda sion - score
Stabat mater - score
Dies irae - score
Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium - score
Salve virgo/Ave gloriosa Mater/Domino
Pucelete/Je languis/Domino - score
Sumer is icumen in - score

Petrus de Cruce
Aucuns vont souvent/Amor qui cor/Kyrie - score

Gustav Mahler
Adagio movement from unfinished Symphony No. 10 - score
     recommended recordings: Rattle/Bournemouth SInf.; Bernstein/NY Philharmonic

Morton Feldman
Projection I - look at the score here for a sense of how Feldman's indeterminate pieces of this era work.
Projection II
Projection III
Projection IV
Projection V
The King of Denmark - look at this video for more understanding of how these grid scores work. Also, look for any video performance on YouTube - this is a good piece to see visually because it's for a single percussionist with a lot of instruments.
Rothko Chapel
      recommended recording: Brett/UC-Berkeley choirs

Richard Wagner
Tannhauser - score - libretto and synopsis
     recommended recording: conducted by Solti
     recommended video: conducted by Levine
If you don't listen to the whole opera, at least listen to the Overture and Venusberg music, conducted by Mehta.

The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground and Nico
White Light/White Heat
The Velvet Underground

Leave a comment