palais de mari

In this post, I explore further what I mean when I say that Feldman’s music has the character of thought by paying attention to a particular example of this in Palais de mari.

I’ve taken a break from Feldman’s “Palais de mari” for awhile, but am playing it again more and starting to think about how this piece works: how does Feldman make the continuity? Let me begin with something very basic: the articulation of events within the piece.

There is a particular two-chord pattern that develops towards the end of Palais de mari that caught my attention early on. It reminded me of conscious breathing.

One of the first things I noticed in learning Palais de mari is that I had to count constantly. The fact is that rhythm is deceptively hard in Feldman.

I’ve started working on Morton Feldman’s Palais de mari, and I plan to do a number of posts on this piece as it sinks in. And I’ll start at the beginning, writing about the nature of opening ideas in late Feldman.