"It’s very difficult for us to listen to something, or to look at something, outside of its style,” Morton Feldman told an audience in 1986. “We don’t know the skills that went into it… Until we’re reeducated not to think of art in terms of aesthetics or style, we really don’t know what it is.” The three chapters of this thesis attempt to capture Morton Feldman’s thought and music in three different ways: addressing, processes of thinking, feeling, and doing (or, analogously, the subjects of historical context, experiential aesthetics, and material practices). The first chapter provides an intellectual history of modern music, c.1950 through a comparative study of writings and interviews with Pierre Boulez, John Cage, and Feldman. Drawing analogies between specific aural and visual sensations, in the second chapter I use the work of abstract painters and sculptors including Jules Olitski, Donald Judd, and Morris Louis to illuminate the effects of silence, surface, space, and saturation in Feldman’s music. In the third chapter, I bear down on Feldman’s last decade, highlighting a shift in the composer’s late style, around 1985. I look at certain aspects of his late compositions relative to the composer’s interest in nineteenth-century nomadic Turkish carpets, emphasizing aspects of patterning and asymmetry in each. Finally, I discuss the radical compositions of Feldman’s last years, using Jules Olitski’s 1970s paintings, in their relation to earlier gestural abstraction, to illuminate issues of scale and naturalism. / text

Thesis (M.M.) -- Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Evan Jones, Florida State University, School of Music. Title and description from thesis home page (viewed 10-6-04). Document formatted into pages; contains 66 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

The present work proposes a new computational algorithm for analyzing Morton Effect using a Successive Iterative Synchronous Response Algorithm (SISRA). Previous studies on the Morton Effect were based on Eigen or Nyquist analysis for stability studies and predicted only an onset speed of instability. The outcome of SISRA is the convergence of response to a steady state orbit in a finite number of iterations. A progressive increase in the response with increasing running speed indicates the former instability. SISRA predicts both the synchronous response for the speed range of concern plus the speed where the response becomes divergent. SISRA is implemented in a Timochenko-beam-based finite-element rotordynamics software suite. SISRA analyzes the Morton Effect as a synchronous response problem with excitations from: (1) mechanical imbalance, (2) induced thermal bent shaft moments, and (3) mechanical imbalance that is induced by thermal bow. A general elliptical orbit can be decomposed into the sum of forward and backward circular orbits. As input, SISRA requires that, at a specified speed, equilibrium position, and orbit: (1) the predicted maximum differential temperature, and (2) the angle between hot spot (position of maximum temperature) and position of minimum film thickness. Two examples from the published literature are considered. SISRA predicted higher vibration levels, even before the motion diverges due to Morton Effect. In some cases, the synchronous response of the system due to Morton Effect is orders of magnitude greater than the response due only to mechanical imbalance. The combined effects of: (1) mechanical imbalance with induced thermal bent shaft moments, and (2) mechanical imbalance with thermally induced mechanical imbalance are also studied. The impact of induced thermal bent shaft moments is found to be greater than the mechanical imbalance induced by thermal bow. A parametric investigation on the impact of the changes of (1) bearing length to diameter ratio, (2) reduced viscosity of the lubricant, (3) bearing radial clearance to radius ratio and (4) overhung mass magnitude is performed to consider their respective impacts on synchronous response. Based on the available input data and the cases considered, reducing viscosity and reducing the overhung mass are found to be the best remedies to alleviate problems arising from the Morton Effect.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-104). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Rotors in fluid-film bearing supported turbomachinery are known to develop elliptical orbits as a result of rotor-bearing interactions, mass unbalance within the rotor, gravitational bending of the shaft and external excitation. In synchronous whirl, where the speed at which the shaft travels about the orbit is equal to the rotational speed of the rotor, temperature gradients may develop across the journal as a result of viscous shear in the bearing's lubricant film. This thermal gradient leads to bending of the shaft in a phenomenon known as The Morton Effect. Such thermally induced bending causes further growth of the elliptical orbit resulting in further bending leading to excessive vibration levels and premature bearing failure. This analysis examines the development of the Morton Effect in medium-speed turbochargers typical to shipboard propulsion engines and the effect that bearing clearance has on thermal stability. Floating ring and tilting pad journal bearings are considered with a single stage, overhung centrifugal compressor and an overhung axial turbine. Results indicate a correlation between bearing clearance and thermal stability in the rotor-bearing system. A model for the aerodynamic force generated as a result of interaction between air exiting a centrifugal compressor and the compressor's annulus in a turbocharger is then developed and applied to the rotor-bearing systems. Results suggest little correlation between this aerodynamic force and the development of the Morton Effect. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4028. Adviser: David W. Patterson. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 270-284) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Unlike most instabilities, which are non-synchronous in nature, the Morton Effect is a synchronous phenomenon. This thermal instability occurs primarily in overhung rotors that are supported by fluid film bearings and is caused by differential viscous shearing within the bearing lubricant. The Morton Effect has also gained much attention within the last decade. Prior studies of the Morton Effect have used complex analysis in the frequency domain to model this instability. However, such an approach makes it difficult to develop a user-friendly design tool for engineers. The current research employs a steady-state analysis to predict the onset of the Morton Effect, and it uses an instability criterion which is based on a threshold unbalance caused by a force equal to 15% of the weight of the rotor. It is hoped that this method will provide a more easily adaptable platform for design and analytical purposes. The current model has demonstrated good agreement with other theoretical models and experimental data. This agreement applies to rotors that are supported by either plain or tilting pad journal bearings and it was found that a worse case scenario for the Morton Effect would involve centered, circular and large-amplitude bearing orbits. A test rotor was also designed and built. Initial experimental data revealed an unusual instability that might have been caused by the Morton Effect. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Music Theory and Composition." Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-47).

Thesis--University of Kentucky. / Includes abstract. Vita. Facsimile of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1978.--22 cm. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-235).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01