Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet: Analysis, Aesthetics, and Experience of a 20th-Century Masterpiece

Morton Feldman viewed Piano and String Quartet as his capstone work—the culminating example of the aesthetic that Feldman spent his life seeking. Written in 1985, the year before Feldman’s death, this single movement, roughly eighty-minute composition was heralded by Steve Reich as “the most beautiful work [of Feldman’s] I know.”
Ray Fields presents a detailed analysis of the complete piece and examines the elements that contribute to its formal and expressive design. He discusses the sonic ...