New Stuff: John Cage & Morton Feldman

Between 1966 and 1967, John Cage and Morton Feldman recorded over six hours of conversation at WBAI in New York City and broadcast them as “Radio Happenings.”

New Stuff: Morton Feldman

Obviously, Morton Feldman had composed several works based on Beckett's writings.

New Stuff: Morton Feldman

Sensationally, this is an 'opera' which Morton feldman convinced Samuel Beckket to write the libretto.

Miniatures #3

[John] Cage was asked to provide music for a film on the work of Jackson Pollock. The directors, Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg, had thought to use Balinese music, but Pollock wanted something more American; his wife, Lee Krasner, approached Cage. As Cage later told Irving Sadler, "I couldn't abide Pollock's work because I couldn't stand the man." He recalled elsewhere, Pollock "was generally so drunk, and he was actually an unpleasant person for me to encounter. I remember seeing him on the same side of the street I was, and I would always cross over to the other side." This is probably the strongest expression of dislike by Cage on record. Cage refused Krasner's request but referred her to [Morton] Feldman, who accepted it in return for an ink drawing.

David Revill: The Roaring Silence. John Cage: A Life

Indeterminacy 41

Artists talk a
lot about
freedom.

So,

recalling the expression
“free as a bird,”
Morton Feldman
went to a park one
day and spent
some time
watching our feathered friends.


When he
came back,
he said,
“You
know?
They’re not
free:
they’re fighting
over bits of food.”

- John Cage