The composer was interviewed by Françoise Esselier 45 years ago, here are his thoughts on Boulez, Cage and Stockhausen.

The following interview with Morton Feldman was first published in the winter 1970-71 issue of VH 101, a French arts journal created by Austrian critic Otto Hahn and French critic Françoise Esselier and published from 1969 to 1972. The list of interviewees is impressive, including Marcel Duchamp and Claude Lévi-Strauss. It is Esselier who interviewed Feldman.

There are several unusual aspects to this interview. The first is that it was conducted in English originally, but the audio tapes appear to have been lost. Therefore, until now, this interview has only been available in French translation.

Given the abrupt beginning of the interview, and from other hints sprinkled throughout, it appears that this must be ‘take two’ of an interview that, for some reason, was not recorded properly the first time. In certain passages it appears that Feldman may be repeating, or perhaps rephrasing an answer given during ‘take one’, and thus making it more concise. At other times it seems that he is improvising and that the second version of the interview has taken a different, unexpected turn.

My ‘re-translation’ into English was facilitated...