ABSTRACT
Piano Piece 1952 is rather unusual among Feldman's works of the 1950s, and certainly among the piano pieces. This chapter examines Piano Piece 1952 in the light of the structuring of time and pitch in Intermission 5. This analysis demonstrates that a similar manner of proportional structuring of time and pitch is evident, but the unique qualities of Piano Piece 1952 make it possible to examine closely the pitch organisation divorced, in a sense, from rhythm and also without the potential complication of vertically sounded aggregations. In contrast, however, the piece has only appeared twice on CD to the time of writing, 20 compared with Intermission 5's seven times, Piano Piece 1952, it would seem, is not popular Feldman. There is no known primary-source recording of Feldman performing the work. For the sake of clarity in the analytical discussion which follows, it refers to the two parts of the work as Piano Piece 1952a, and Piano Piece 1952b.
