Repetitions in Feldman's "Triadic Memories"

[ricochet]

I have the Universal Edition score. There are no indications outside the stave, apart from 1/2 pedal. Where fragments/measures are to be repeated, there is no indication how many times that must happen (or if it must be done more than traditionally once) - which is exactly what confused me, when I heard Aki Takahashi repeat some parts two to eight times.

Do I have a bad edition or is there something I'm missing?

[retrouvailles]

Have you tried listening to another recording? I also have the UE edition. I doubt there is another edition of it out there that isn't a reprint of the UE edition. Also, it is Feldman. An extra repetition here and there is something that can be justified musically, which might have been Aki Takahashi's reasoning behind her extra repetitions.

[ricochet]

True on both cases (having not checked another recording / repetitions being Feldman's trait), but I would prefer to be convinced. I found two apparently contradictory statements:

"In Triadic Memories, [...], there is a section of different types of chords where each chord is slowly repeated. One chord might be repeated three times, another, seven or eight - depending on how long I felt it should go on. Quite soon into a new chord I would forget the reiterated chord before it. I then reconstructed the entire section: rearranging its earlier progression and changing the number of times a particular chord was repeated. This way of working was a conscious attempt at "formalizing" a disorientation of memory. Chords are heard repeated without any discernible pattern."

Morton Feldman, "Crippled Symmetry," Res (Autumn 1981)

"Fafchamps originally released a version of Triadic Memories on Sub Rosa in 1990 which was based on a 1987 publication of the score. In that particular edition, there were directions over the notes to be repeated but they did not specify how many times the notes were to be repeated in each case so Fafchamps repeated the measures once and moved on to the next one. He later learned that the different measures had different numbers of repetitions with them (clarified on a later publication of the score which he works from here) and felt the need to re-record the piece."

John Kealy on a revision by Fafchamps

[tsaij]

feldman's scores with universal were often published in more than one iteration – i'm not familiar with the publishing history of this particular piece, but palais de mari, for example, was published in manuscript facsimile before it was published in the engraved edition.

it looks like there is indeed an updated publication by universal (UE 21448) which, as you can see from the first two pages preview on their site, is a new engraving. it must have the numbers of repetitions that UE 17326 lacks.  i would also assume that these numbers are present in the manuscript, but i'm not sure if a facsimile was ever published for this particular piece.

https://www.universaledition.com/Triadic-Memories-for-Piano-Morton-Feldman/sheet-music-and-more/detailview/UE21448



i doubt he would leave the repetitions up to chance, and i don't think that kind of liberty would be appropriate in this music. feldman wasn't at all interested in giving the performer that kind of freedom after the 60s, and his scores from the 70s on tend to be quite specific. yes, there is a great deal of pattern and repetition, but always very delicately controlled.