Feldman Edition 6: String Quartet No. 2

Feldman Edition 6: String Quartet No. 2 is a classic, 6.5 hour long minimalistic Modern Classical/Chamber Music album that is often highly regarded by the Black and White PFPs and was subject to the TomBejoy Feldman Review Uproar.

## History on AOTY

Feldman Edition 6: String Quartet No. 2 gained recognition in early 2020 when popular AOTY users, such as EMR and Inglume, rated it highly. It proceeded to gain further recognition when the likes of JustSomeGuy, Chode, EarCandy, and TreyLikesBands also rated it positively.

It gained popularity until finally, on November 17th 2020, it reached its goal of 25 ratings. In 2020, 25 ratings was the minimum requirement for charting, and due to its average user rating of 96, it resulted in being placed number 1 on the all time charts, beating out Madvillainy, Kid A, OK Computer, and To Pimp a Butterfly.

However, its success was short lived, as on November 19th 2020, Rob changed the minimum requirement to chart from 25 ratings to 50 ratings. This meant all the hard work from all the users whom undertook the journey through over 6 hours of Modern Classical Minimalism was for naught. The battle was not lost, however, as due to its short-lived time as number 1 of all time, paired with its acclaim amongst AOTY's most respected users, resulted in more recognition. But that was, perhaps, for the worse.

On July 7th 2021, Feldman Edition 6 finally gained the ire of one TomBejoy, resulting in the TomBejoy Feldman Review Uproar. Over the following summer days, more users from the AOTY discord took 6 and a half hours out of their day to listen to this minimalistic classical album. Some threw at it a 50 or a 60, others a 40, and for an unfortunate few a 20 or 25. Later in 2022, some even placed it at a 10 or 15. The average score was never the same again.

The rise and fall of Feldman Edition 6: String Quartet No. 2 is a tragic tale of how everything can be lost in the blink of an eye. At one moment, Feldman Edition was the Ozymandias of AOTY, towering tall over the highly acclaimed rock and hip-hop classics that still reign over the sites users to this day. The next, it was just another album within the database. From a 96 user average at 25 ratings, to a 74 user average at 80 ratings.

## Praise

As mentionned above, the work has been praised by many users on AOTY and other reviewing platforms alike (the negative opinions will be summarized in the next section).

*The New York Times* describes the work as follows: ''...this 1983 opus of titanic duration and fearsome reputation can last anywhere from under four hours to over six, depending on repeats and tempo. Requiring unyielding concentration and unceasing precision to fulfill the composer’s demands, it pushes the bounds of what is physically possible.'' The preceding statement lays forth the idea that it is an extraordinary feat to do anything simple with full focus, for up to six hours straight (with ''full focus'' being emphasised on here). It is proven that the human brain has a limited capacity for continuous and unwavering focus; its ability to hold it decreases over time. With this laid down, it is not difficult to see how much of an extraordinary feat it is to be able to play a 6-hours long piece with the expectation that each note will be played with an expected timbre, intensity and coordination that is held to high standard, with little to no noticeable mistake.