The NODUS Ensemble, FIU’s Contemporary Ensemble, perform the music of Earle Brown and Morton Feldman.

Earle Brown, a major force in contemporary music and a leading composer of the American avant-garde since the 1950s, died on July 2, 2002 at his home in Rye, New York. He was associated with the experimental composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff who, with Brown, came to be known as the New York School. Earle Brown was born in 1926 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts and, in spirit, remained a New Englander throughout his life. Like other artists from that region – Ives, Ruggles, Dickinson – he spoke with his own voice and found his own path. To America, these artists were iconoclasts, but to Europe they embodied America – and Brown was no exception: his music has been most frequently performed, studied, lauded, and revered by Europeans.

Morton Feldman was born in New York on January 12th 1926. At the age of twelve he studied piano with Madame Maurina-Press, who had been a pupil of Busoni, and it was her who instilled in Feldman a vibrant musicality. At the time he was composing short Scriabin-esque pieces, until in 1941 he began to study composition with Wallingford Riegger. Three years later Stefan Wolpe became his teacher, though they spent much of their time together simply arguing about music. Then in 1949 the most significant meeting up to that time took place – Feldman met John Cage, commencing an artistic association of crucial importance to music in America in the 1950s. Cage was instrumental in encouraging Feldman to have confidence in his instincts, which resulted in totally intuitive compositions. He never worked with any systems that anyone has been able to identify, working from moment to moment, from one sound to the next.

This programming is supported by the Earle Brown Foundation.

 

The Viola in My Life 3 (1970) by Morton Feldman

Mari-Liis Pakk, viola

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

Music for Cello and Piano (1955) by Earle Brown

Jason Calloway, cello

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

Durations 2 (1960) by Morton Feldman

Jason Calloway, cello

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

Hodograph I (1959) by Earle Brown

Elissa Lakofsky, flute

Andrew Proctor, percussion

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

Spring of Chosroes (1977) by Morton Feldman             

Mari-Liis Pakk, violin

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

November 1952 from Folio (1952) by Earle Brown

Elissa Lakofsky, flute

Andrew Proctor, percussion

Mari-Liis Pakk, violin

Jason Calloway, cello

Chen-Hui Jen, piano

 

 

Students and guests are invited to the free Composers Forum at Miami Beach Urban Studios on April 14 at 12:00 PM.

To learn more about the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, click here. Directed by Orlando Garcia. 

*Photo courtesy of the Earle Brown Foundation