The Art of Touch – the piano music of Morton Feldman

Details:
The Art of Touch was a four-concert survey of the complete piano music of American composer Morton Feldman. The project
was funded by the Arts Council of England, the Britten-Pears Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Holst Foundation and the University
of Sheffield. Further performances were given in The Warehouse, London; Manchester Metropolitan University; and the
University of Southampton.

Portfolio:
‘Interpretation and performance in Bryn Harrison’s être-temps’, co-authored with Professors Nicholas Cook and Eric Clarke and
composer Bryn Harrison, Musicae Scientiae, vol.9, 2005, pp.31–74; ISSN 1029-8649. The publication included a CD recording
of the first performance of Harrison’s work which is associated.

Context:
The aim of The Art of Touch was to present almost all of Feldman’s works for solo piano (omitting a very few early works which
remain unpublished) within the space of a single weekend, lasting four concerts in total, thus placing Feldman’s music within the
clear context of his development and work as a whole. This is characteristic of the work of Dr Thomas, which seeks to offer
concert projects as a form of research, initiating discussion and further research as a result of a clear contextualisation of the
subject of the concerts.

The project also included three specially commissioned works by Bryn Harrison, Michael Parsons and James Saunders.
Presenting their works alongside those of Feldman demonstrated how ideas and techniques featured in Feldman’s music have
been transformed and developed in music of later generations. The newly commissioned works formed part of a project
conducted with Professor Eric Clarke (then University of Sheffield, now University of Oxford) and Professor Nicholas Cook (then
University of Southampton, now Royal Holloway), exploring the interpretative process from inception to first performance of a
new work. This led to the co-authored paper included in the portfolio