The Note Man on the Word Man: Morton Feldman on Composing the Music for Samuel Beckett’s Words and Music in The Beckett Festival of Radio Plays

Abstract In undertaking new American radio productions of all of Samuel Beckett’s extant radio plays, Words and Music presented a singular difficulty. The music composed by John Beckett, the author’s cousin, at the time of the play’s conception, was withdrawn soon after the production’s premiere on the BBC in November 1962 (and its subsequent French production, as Paroles et musique), and remains unavailable. But the play cannot be produced without music, since it appears as ‘Bob’, an actual character in the play. As we formulated our plans for The Beckett Festival of Radio Plays, Samuel Beckett reconfirmed to me, as apparently he had to Katharine Worth and other enquirers, that it would be ‘impossible’ for us to use the John Beckett score and that we would therefore have to provide our own. Yet it seemed to me that Beckett had a special fondness for the play and was pleased that it might be revived with what he called a ‘fresh go’. He suggested Morton Feldman as the composer.