Meditative sound magic from New York City: Together with colleagues and friends such as John Cage, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, Morton Feldman formed a circle of pre-eminent individualists within the 20th-century American avant-garde movement. Commencing in New York, it established a current of international significance. Crucial for Feldman's artistic development was undoubtedly his meeting with John Cage (1912–92), with whom he was in close contact after 1950. They inspired each other to create music that parted from the compositional techniques conventional up to that time, which particularly applied to the definition of specific notes, pitches and note durations or regular rhythm.