This monumental project explores the limits of music and marks the Chicago debut of Morton Feldman’s six-hour-long work. Recognized for works he composed for Merce Cunningham, Feldman wrote his Quartet No. 2 as a durational piece to explore the limits of physical and non-narrative music. A rarely heard and epic achievement, the music creates a trance-like focus.

The MCA invites listeners to fully experience the quiet nature of Quartet No. 2 on the 4th floor. The galleries will stay open for the evening concert, and on select days during regular museum hours the musicians are planning open rehearsals.

Held in conjunction with Merce Cunningham: Common Time

Spektral Quartet on Quartet No. 2:

“These artists were looking for ultimate freedom in their work, a freedom to explore the expanses of their own psyches and the world around them in the broadest sense.

Feldman’s epic scope creates a musical wormhole: even the most attentive listener or avid Feldman fan will find their attention wandering at some point in the span of six hours, an occurrence that is encouraged by the music and the composer. On one hand, the Second Quartet is through-composed, precisely notated in nature: a formidable and detailed blueprint that begets a sense of motion and activity. On the other hand, each listener’s journey through its carefully constructed pathways will be different. Akin to admiring the irregular symmetry of the Afghan carpets that Feldman so loved, a listener can become lost in fascination, attempting to follow a line or pattern to its end.”