On the title of ‘For Bunita Marcus’
From the beginning of his career, Morton Feldman made dedications into titles. The earliest was ‘For Cynthia’, a short piano piece named for his second wife. Then came ‘For Franz Kline’, dedicated to the abstract expressionist painter.
Feldman was proud of his association with artists he met through John Cage in the 1950’s. “The temperaments of artists like Rothko, Pollock, [de] Kooning, and Kline are very similar to mine,” Feldman said. “I know their research intimately”.[1] By naming his pieces after them, Feldman cemented his link with a veritable who’s who list of artists living in postwar New York. Names he used include Frank O’Hara (the poet), Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston (painters), Aaron Copland, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Stefan Wolpe (composers), and Samuel Beckett (the writer, poet, and playwright). One name sticks out: Bunita Marcus.
Bunita Marcus was Feldman’s student from 1975 to 1981 at the University at Buffalo, where she earned a PhD in composition. In 1983 Feldman said, “I’m very enthusiastic about this girl. And I think she’s something to be enthusiastic about. I’m never going to have [another] student like her as long as I live. Never.”[2] Although Feldman could be viciously critical of other composers, he had nothing but praise for Marcus and her “natural penchant for doing what she does very, very well.” Her compositions, which he said he “learned a lot from” were “gorgeous” and “elegant”.[3]
Marcus was also Feldman’s intimate companion, on and off, from the time they met. She refused Feldman’s marriage proposal in 1981, but they remained close until his death in 1987. Marcus was by no means his only muse; on the contrary, by all accounts Feldman was a compulsive womanizer. But Marcus, who commissioned and premiered his last piano piece ‘Palais de Mari’ (1986), and to whom this CD’s composition is dedicated, will always be inextricably linked to Feldman’s legacy
[1] Interview with Jean-Yves Bosseur from 1967, published in Ecrits et paroles (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998), page 158.
[2] Dirk de Klerk, transcription, Morton Feldman: The Johannesburg Masterclasses, “Works by Bunita Marcus”, Session 7, July 1983. Published online by Chris Villars at http://www.cnvill.net/mfmasterclasses07.pdf
[3] Ibid.
