Album of the Day - Morton Feldman

I decided recently that in addition to its many tonal charms and innovations, I also love the music of Morton Feldman because it could easily have been the soundtrack to a particularly dark and metaphysical Ben Casey episode. There's a haunting, 50s-melodrama twinge to many of my favorite Feldman compositions.

I was going to post either "Why Patterns?" or the entire Ensemble Recherche CD (the latter is out of print, and fetching high prices used) today, then I found them both on BigFatSatanist. Here is the direct link:

Morton Feldman CDs

I also recommend the book, Morton Feldman Says, a collection of interviews and lectures with the composer. I'm still chipping away at it, reading a chapter at a time, but my spirit is always raised when I put it down.

Postscript – My favorite recording of "Why Patterns?" was performed in 1978 by the trio of Eberhard Blum, Jan Williams, and the composer himself on piano (the one on the CD above is by California Ear Unit.) Maybe I'll dub it from cassette and post it later today....