I want to give my compliments to Australia. Ever since your government paid a few million dollars for a Jackson Pollack painting, I figure that it must be a marvellous country.

Later he began to produce his very long works often in one continuous movement rarely shorter than half an hour in length and often much longer. Prior to that time Feldman had earned his living as a full-time employee at the family textile business in New York's garment district. He died from pancreatic cancer in 1987 at his home in Buffalo New York after fighting for his life for three months.

Feldman's works are characterized by notational innovations that he developed to create his characteristic sound: rhythms that seem to be free and floating; pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused; a generally quiet and slowly evolving music; recurring asymmetric patterns. Morton Feldman (January 12 1926 – September 3 1987) was an American composer born in New York City.