It's beautiful to see that Morton Feldman's music has been receiving more attention from music writers in recent years. Feldman was not only friends with many composers from the New York scene, but he primarily identified with visual artists such as Mark Rothko, Philip Guston (until the friendship abruptly ended), and Jackson Pollock.

This love for the methods, mindset, and abstraction of visual art of his days is evident in Feldman's graph scores. A while back, I wrote about David Cline's book "The Graph Music of Morton Feldman," where Cline meticulously analyzes and interprets these graph scores.

While the notation itself is not overly complex, the composer's prefaces often lack clarity, leaving performers with unanswered questions. The crux lies in interpretation, navigating concepts of idiom, style, and freedom not immediately apparent from the score or recordings.

Pianist John Snijders delves deep into one of these graph scores, specifically the eponymous work Ixion from 1958. Feldman composed Ixion for Merce Cunningham's 1958 dance piece Summerspace, with set and costume design by Robert Rauschenberg.

Snijders explores crucial elements for effective performance practices, examining differences between the ensemble and two-piano versions, questioning whether they are variations of the same piece or distinct compositions sharing only title and structure. He also draws connections between Ixion and the artistic practices of Jackson Pollock.

For musicians planning to perform Ixion or another graph score by Feldman, this book is a treasure trove. The comparison between the ensemble and two-piano versions is impressive. Snijders contextualizes Ixion and the origins of Feldman’s graph scores in a cultural-historical context. Moreover, he draws from his own experience performing Feldman's work and his encounter with the composer in Middelburg.

@anthony_fiumara

This book was published in September 2023 by Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory. Listen to a BBC radio interview with John Snijders on this book.