Feder, Stuart 1930–2005

views updated

Feder, Stuart 1930–2005

PERSONAL:

Born May 7, 1930, in New York, NY; died, 2005; son of Irving and Ida Feder; married, May 15, 1961; wife's name Carol; children: Susanna, Adam. Education: Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1952; Peabody Conservatory of Music, 1949-52; Harvard University, M.A., 1953; Albert Einstein College of Medicine, M.D., 1961; graduated from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, 1969.

CAREER:

Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, assistant resident, senior resident, chief resident, 1962-65, staff psychiatrist, 1965-67, clinical assistant in psychiatry, 1966-72, assistant attending psychiatrist, 1972-76; Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, instructor in psychiatry, 1966-69, clinical associate in psychiatry, 1966-72, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry, 1972-76; New York University Graduate School of Social Work, New York, NY, adjunct associate professor of social work, 1971-74; Cornell University School of Medicine, New York, NY, clinical assistant professor of medicine, 1976-86; New York Hospital, assistant attending psychiatrist, 1976-86; Juilliard School, Evening Division, New York, NY, instructor, 1994-2005; Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, visiting professor, 2002. Military service: U.S. Army Adjutant General Corps, 1953-55.

MEMBER:

American Psychiatric Association (fellow, 1988-96; life fellow, 1997), American Psychiatric Association, American Psychoanalytic Association, Psychoanalytic Association of New York at New York University, Medical Society of the State of New York, New York County Medical Society, American Musicological Association, International Musicological Association, Society for American Music, International Society for the Study of Time, New York University Biographical Group.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Richard L. Karmel and George H. Pollock) Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music, International Universities Press (Madison, CT), 1990.

Charles Ives, "My Father's Song": A Psychoanalytic Biography, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1992.

(Editor, with Richard L. Karmel and George H. Pollock) Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music: Second Series, International Universities Press (Madison, CT), 1993.

The Life of Charles Ives, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2004.

Contributor to various books and journals, including the Psychoanalytic Study of Society, Annual of Psychoanalysis, International Review of Psychoanalysis, Music Quarterly, and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stuart Feder was born May 7, 1930, in New York City. He earned his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, then went on to pursue a career as a doctor, studying at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and going on to further his education at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Feder both taught and practiced at a number of institutions, primarily at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and the connected Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he served as a psychiatrist and taught courses in psychiatry, respectively. In addition to his science and medical training, Feder studied music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, from 1949 to 1952, and earned a master's degree in music from Harvard University in 1953. Later, after completing his training his medical studies, he spent time researching the potential uses for music within the realm of psychoanalysis. He also taught music classes both at the evening division at the Juilliard School, and as a visiting professor at the Manhattan School of Music. Feder wrote several books that combine his medical research with his love of music, including works on several composers, whose lives he addresses from a psychoanalytical point of view. He also served as an editor of the Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music books, which offer collections of essays based on the subject.

In Charles Ives, "My Father's Song": A Psychoanalytic Biography, Feder addresses the life and work of composer Charles Ives, and his insistence upon giving up his career early on, from a psychoanalytical point of view. Ives was a musician and composer during the early part of the twentieth century, but much of his work has been lost through the years, as he published very little of what he actually wrote. In 1920, he published his ode to the famed transcendentalist writers and thinkers from Concord, Massachusetts—Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau—"Piano Sonata No. 2," which was also known as "Concord, Massachusetts, 1840-1860." Along with the sonata were a series of essays about the writers, which came just before and just after the musical arrangement. Ives paid for the publication effort himself, and used the essays more as a means of relaying his own political thoughts and personal references than as an insight either into the subjects of his sonata or the music itself. Ives credited his father, George, as the inspiration for his composition, as George Ives was a sometime-band leader who often experimented with superimposing various sounds, as well as with harmony and the tuning of the instruments in order to vary a performance. The sonata was not performed until 1938, at which time the essays caused some level of confusion regarding Ives's purpose and politics, while giving no assistance regarding his intentions for the performance of the musical work. However, after Ives's death, an accounting of his unpublished writings showed him less likely to have been influenced by his father and far more likely to have gone back to rework his music based on the more dissonant tones of modern music. He was eventually proven to have backdated much of his work, and this coupled with a number of other idiosyncrasies provided a strong foundation for psychoanalysis applied as a means of understanding his process. Alan Mandel, writing for American Music, found fault with the way Feder simplified Ives's mind set at times, but commented: "One strong point is the beautiful, vivid writing style of the author. His massive research and thorough consideration of the material lend authority to his themes, in both broad outlines and small details."

Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis takes a look at the end of Mahler's life, a time during which he was experiencing major personal upheavals that had a profound effect on his abilities to function as a composer. When Mahler was fifty years old, he was at the height of his creative career, even though his health was precarious. It was at this point that he first learned that his wife, Alma, was being unfaithful to him. Alma had begun having an affair, despite the fact that Mahler had been very clear prior to their marriage that he expected her to not just be faithful to him, but to devote herself entirely to his well-being and his interests. He wanted far more than a wife, but an acolyte of sorts, devoted to his needs, with her own interests immaterial except as they served to further bolster his own. Alma herself had a beginner's interest in composition, but it was soon squelched by her husband, as Mahler strongly believed that composing was his territory alone, and she should concentrate on her role as his companion. When Alma's infidelity upset Mahler to the point where he could not work, he set off to consult the great Dr. Freud in order to find a solution to his mental unrest. While Mahler left no information behind regarding the meeting, Freud suggested that Alma sought affection elsewhere because her husband had been unable to provide it himself. Nine months later, Mahler was dead. His unfinished symphony reflected much of the turmoil of his marital issues, as much of his earlier work reflected the series of crises that he experienced over the course of his life. Feder focuses on how these crises overlap his music, with the meeting with Freud over his wife's infidelity serving as a major focal point. Critics had mixed reactions to Feder's approach and varying opinions regarding the success of his analysis. R.J. Stove, writing for the New Criterion, commented that "overall,… it is hard to recommend Feder's account." He went on to note that, though it was clear that Mahler and Freud met only for a few hours and had no lasting relationship, "Feder has sought to yoke them in a quasi-Plutarchian double harness, devoting almost as much space to the analyst's intellectual background as to the composer's." However, J. Trygve Has-Ellison, in a review for the Canadian Journal of History, observed that "Feder's book is a superb example of biography as a psychological prosopography. His weaving of personal, musical, and psychological histories together into a thematic whole make for a fascinating read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1993, Kathleen M. Dalton, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song": A Psychoanalytic Biography, p. 960.

American Imago, spring, 2007, Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, review of Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis.

American Journal of Psychiatry, December, 1992, William A. Frosch, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 1741; December, 1994, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music: Second Series, p. 1826; July, 1999, Paul C. Horton, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music: Second Series, p. 1109.

American Music, fall, 1994, Alan Mandel, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song."

Atlantic Monthly, January, 1994, David Schiff, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 106.

Booklist, November 15, 2004, Alan Hirsch, review of Gustav Mahler, p. 541.

Canadian Journal of History, March 22, 2006, J. Trygve Has-Ellison, review of Gustav Mahler, p. 95.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, November, 1992, R. Stahura, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 476; February, 2005, M. Meckna, review of Gustav Mahler, p. 1030.

Chronicle of Higher Education, October 29, 2004, Nina C. Ayoub, review of Gustav Mahler.

Journal of American History, September, 1993, Barbara L. Tischler, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 711.

Journal of the American Musicological Society, summer, 1993, H. Wiley Hitchcock, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song."

Musical Quarterly, summer, 1994, Carol K. Baron, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song."

Music & Letters, May, 1992, Stefan Evers, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music, p. 285; February, 1995, Stefan Evers, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music: Second Series, p. 139; August, 2001, Geoffrey Block, review of The Life of Charles Ives, p. 470.

New Criterion, December, 2004, R.J. Stove, "Composer on the Couch," p. 78.

New England Quarterly, September, 1994, Judith Tick, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 520.

Notes, March, 1994, Isabelle Emerson, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music, p. 1004.

SciTech Book News, October, 1990, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music, p. 3; February, 1994, review of Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music: Second Series, p. 4.

Times Literary Supplement, July 31, 1992, Wilfrid Mellers, review of Charles Ives, "My Father's Song," p. 17; December 10, 1999, review of The Life of Charles Ives, p. 32.