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Analysis Of Rothko Chapel, By Morton Feldman

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In 1970 Morton Feldman wrote a piece of work entitled Rothko Chapel; this work was written in dedication to a chapel in southeastern Texas that shares the same name. Morton Feldman was born, and raised, in New York City, and he was associated with the New York School, where he met John Cage and was introduced to the indeterminacy form of art; indeterminacy refers to the “ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways” (Pritchett, 1993). Feldman grew up with music, he attended music schools throughout his life, so it is evident that he became such a dominate figure in twentieth century music, and a pioneer of indeterminate music.
The timbre of the first part of Rothko Chapel is quite dark and dreary. The use of longer, lower registering notes that are spaced out more so than what would be considered normal, make the piece have an ominous timbre. The fact that Feldman studied the art of indeterminacy is probably the main reason why Feldman’s Rothko Chapel displays such a dark and dreary timbre. This, in turn, leads to a discombobulated sounding texture. At some points the music flows well, when the stringed instruments are dominate, but at other times the texture of the music varies and does not match with the rest of the music; however, this was probably Feldman’s desired sound.
Approximately four minutes into Rothko Chapel, a repeating note can be heard for several minutes that are the piece’s major form of a melody. The note appears to change instrument

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