Morton Feldman - Solo Piano
Queen's University Belfast, 2026
Intermission 6 (1953, 8')
Palais de Mari (1986, 24')
Ian Wilson - piano
The Harty Room, Music Building, QUB - 5th November 2026
On the centenary of the birth of Morton Feldman, it's worth reflecting on the distinctive contribution he has made to contemporary music, and the part he played in changing the music of the 20th century. While some of his later works like Coptic Light and Rothko Chapel are still revered and recognised as being important works, the more profound influence of Feldman into the 21st century is in how he, along with similar experimental composers like John Cage, helped forge a new way of exploring and understanding on a deeper level what music is, changing the way we listen to it and giving composers a much greater scope to take those explorations further.
Being born in the same year as Miles Davis and John Coltrane - two other major musicians and composers who were similarly experimental and influential in stretching musical boundaries from a jazz perspective - and coming while concert halls are gearing up for a season to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death - Feldman's work hasn't really had a look-in and an opportunity missed to re-examine his work and its importance. The three pieces chosen by Irish composer Ian Wilson for a solo piano performance at Queen's University in Belfast however give a broad indication of some of the ground that Morton Feldman covered in his lifetime, from the quiet sparse early pieces to his later quieter sparser later pieces. If that doesn't sound like there has been a great deal of progress, the nature of the pieces speak for themselves.
The two earlier works, Extensions 3 (1952) and Intermission 6 (1953) are pieces that are experimental with the form and the in how the piano is used as an instrument. Without going down the treated piano route, each of the pieces are concerned with the placement and weight of notes, the time intervals at which they are played and the length of the notes, allowing them to have room to be themselves, to let them be heard almost in isolation or in repeated pairs. It's not that the sequence of notes that come before the notes that follow have no relationship to each other but rather the relationship is made more noticeable - often forcing you to reflect on why certain choices are made - when each note has been given its place.
Intermission 6 is even more experimental in its compositional quality and the exploration of indeterminacy in Feldman's work, in that it doesn't even specify which notes are to be played, but places the emphasis on the weight and duration of the note, leaving it up to then performer (in this case a composer) to 'write' the work for himself within the space that Feldman has provided. It very much changes the whole way of looking at what music is, what is the role of a composer and the nature of interpretation, in many ways freeing the music and the performer, while still remaining wholly within a Feldman sound world.
That idea of music occupying space and time is very much more in the nature of the composer's later works. Palais de Mari (1986) is a longer work, but genuinely feels much shorter than it is and at the same time longer. What I mean by that is that you don't feel that the music progresses a great deal over its 24 minutes duration between the beginning and the end. Somehow because of this, it doesn't feel as long as it is, but on the other hand, it remains with you long after you leave the hall, still resonating. While the same characteristics we associate with Feldman's music are there - the length of notes and the space around them allowing you time to focus on and hear the relationship between the notes as the piece develops - the focus becomes more on establishing a mood and a meditative quality.
Is it wrong to hear in your head the notes that aren’t played when you listen to a Morton Feldman piece? Feldman clearly has refined Palais de Mari down to the absolute minimum required for it to fulfil its own needs as a complete composition, and it certainly doesn't need any additional 'flourishes' or stylistic interpretation from the performer. Ian Wilson's playing, I should add, retained of course that unadorned purity and precise intonation of the Feldman sound. I guess if you feel the need to "fill it out" in your own mind well, that is a personal matter for the listener. What is probably more essential is that you allow the music in and Feldman gives you everything that is needed here, nothing more and nothing less.
External links: Queen's University Belfast, Ian Wilson