American composer and academic (died 1987)

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was an important exponent of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown. Feldman's works are characterized by notational innovations that he developed to create his characteristic sound: rhythms that seem to be free and floating, pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused, a generally quiet and slowly evolving music, and recurring asymmetric patterns. His later works, after 1977, also explore extremes of duration.

Born

1926

January 12

Died

1987

Era

1920s

Country

About

Morton, in brief

Morton Feldman was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was an important exponent of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown. Feldman's works are characterized by notational innovations that he developed to create his characteristic sound: rhythms that seem to be free and floating, pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused, a generally quiet and slowly evolving music, and recurring asymmetric patterns. His later works, after 1977, also explore extremes of duration.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

  1. 1926 Born
  2. 1987 Died

Also on January 12

What else happened on this day, through history

See all of January 12 →

The world in 1926

When Morton arrived

Read the year 1926 →

Same-day contemporaries

Also born on January 12

See everything on January 12 →

Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1926

Read about the year 1926 →

Keep going

More to explore