"Only" and "Voice, Violin, and Piano" come from New Albion's Only — Works for Voice and Instruments. "Only" features a gorgeous soprano solo by Joan La Barbara. La Barbara, both a friend and student of Feldman, first performed the piece at a memorial concert given for Feldman after his death in 1987. While the initial publishing date of the uncharacteristically short piece was listed as 1976, La Barbara learned that "Only" was actually written in 1947, when Feldman was only 21 years old. "Voice, Violin, and Piano" is characteristic of Feldman's body of work — timbral changes shift subtly, precisely notated and articulated by silences, lending a sense of beauty and mystery to the work.
In 1988, the Holland Festival presented a John Cage musicircus from various locations around Amsterdam and in addition to several of Cage's works, in memorium to Feldman who had died the previous autumn, I was asked to sing "Only." I sang it for the first time on June 23, from the roof of the State Opera House on the Leidseplein, at midnight, in the rain. I am sure only the angels heard it... and, perhaps, Morty. It is so uncharacteristically brief and so openly poignant that I wanted to find out more about the circumstances surrounding its composition. The manuscript I had gave the publishing copyright date as 1976, but none of Morty's friends or students from around that time could shed any light on its mystery. It remained an enigma until I learned that it had been written when Morty was just 21 years old, in 1947. For me, Rainer Maria Rilke's text is an eloquent epitaph for a soul flown too soon.
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