La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an Americancomposer, musician, andperformance artist recognized as one of the first Americanminimalist composers and a central figure inFluxus and post-waravant-garde music.[1][2][3] He is best known for his exploration ofsustained tones, beginning with his 1958 compositionTrio for Strings.[4] His compositions have called into question the nature anddefinition of music, most prominently in the text scores of hisCompositions 1960.[5] While few of his recordings remain in print, his work has inspired prominent musicians across various genres, including avant-garde,rock, andambient music.[6]
Young worked extensively with Zazeela between 1962 and her death in 2024; together, the two recorded, performed live, and developed theDream House sound and light environment.[3] In 1964, he began work on his unfinished improvisatory compositionThe Well-Tuned Piano, iterations of which he has performed throughout subsequent decades.[7] Beginning in 1970, he and Zazeela studied underHindustani singerPandit Pran Nath. In 2002, Young and Zazeela formed theJust Alap Raga Ensemble with their discipleJung Hee Choi.
A number of Young's early works use thetwelve-tone technique, which he studied underLeonard Stein at Los Angeles City College. (Stein had served as an assistant toArnold Schoenberg when Schoenberg, the inventor of the twelve-tone method, taught at UCLA.)[14] Young also studied composition with Robert Stevenson at UCLA and with Seymore Shifrin at UC Berkeley. In 1958, he developed theTrio for Strings, originally scored for violin, viola, and cello, and which presaged his later work. The Trio for Strings has been described as an "origin point for minimalism."[15] When Young visited Darmstadt in 1959, he encountered the music and writings ofJohn Cage. There he also met Cage's collaborator, pianistDavid Tudor, who subsequently wouldpremière some of Young's works. At Tudor's suggestion, Young engaged in a correspondence with Cage. Within a few months, Young was presenting some of Cage's music on the West Coast. In turn, Cage and Tudor included some of Young's works in performances throughout the U.S. and Europe. Influenced by Cage, Young at this time took a turn toward theconceptual, using principles ofindeterminacy in his compositions and incorporating non-traditional sounds, noises, and actions.[16]
During this period, Young created short,haiku-like,conceptual art but dreamlike scores-texts that have become associated withFluxus. For example, Young'sCompositions 1960 includes a number of unusual actions: some of them un-performable, and constituted an early form of poetic conceptual andpost-conceptual art. Most examine a certain presupposition about the nature of music and art by carrying absurdDada-like concepts to an extreme. One,Composition 1960 #10 toBob Morris instructs: "draw a straight line and follow it" (a directive which Young has said has guided his life and work since).[19] Another instructs the performer to build a fire. Another states that "this piece is a littlewhirlpool out in the middle of the ocean." Another says the performer should release a butterfly into the room. Yet another challenges the performer to push a piano through a wall.Composition 1960 #7 proved especially pertinent to his future endeavors: it consisted of a B, an F#, aperfect fifth, and the instruction: "To be held for a long time."[20]
In 1962, based on hisdream chord, Young wroteThe Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer. One ofThe Four Dreams of China, the piece is based on four pitches, which he later gave as thefrequencyratios: 36-35-32-24 (G, C, +C#, D), and limits as to which may be combined with any other.[21] Most of his pieces after this point are based on select pitches, played continuously, and a group of long held pitches to be improvised upon. ForThe Four Dreams of China Young began to planDream House, a light and sound installation conceived as adream chord "work that would be played continuously and ultimately exist as a 'living organism with a life and tradition of its own,'" where musicians would live and create music twenty-four hours a day.[22] He formed the music collectiveTheatre of Eternal Music to realizeDream House and other pieces.[23] The group initially included calligrapher and light artistMarian Zazeela (who married Young in 1963),Angus MacLise, andBilly Name.[3] In 1964 the ensemble comprised Young and Zazeela,John Cale andTony Conrad (a former Harvard mathematics major), and sometimesTerry Riley (voices). Since 1966 the group has seen many permutations and has includedGarrett List,Jon Hassell,Alex Dea, and many others, including members of Young's 60s groups.[24]
On September 25, 1965, theFluxus FluxOrchestra was conducted by Young atCarnegie Recital Hall in New York City, with a program, designed byGeorge Maciunas, folded into paper airplanes and launched during the evening into the audience.
Young and Zazeela's first continuous electronic sound environment was created in their loft onChurch Street, New York City, in September 1966 withsine wavegenerators and light sources designed to produce a continuous installation of floating sculptures and color sources, and a series ofslides entitledOrnamental Lightyears Tracery. ThisDream House environment was maintained almost continuously from September 1966 to January 1970, being turned off only to listen to "other music" and to study the contrast between extended periods in it and periods of silence. Young and Zazeela worked, sang and lived in it and studied the effects on themselves and visitors. Performances were often extreme in length, conceived by Young as having no beginning and no end, existing before and after any particular performance. In their daily lives, too, Young and Zazeela practiced an artificial sleep–wake cycle—with "days" longer than twenty-four hours.[25]
Young considersThe Well-Tuned Piano—apermutating composition of themes and improvisations forjust-intoned solo piano—to be his masterpiece. Young gave the world premiere ofThe Well-Tuned Piano in Rome in 1974, ten years after the creation of the piece. Previously, he had presented it as a recorded work. In 1975, Young premiered the work in New York, with eleven live performances during the months of April and May. As of October 25, 1981, the date of theGramavision recording ofThe Well-Tuned Piano, Young had performed the piece 55 times.[29] In 1987, Young performed the piece again as part of a larger concert series that included many more of his works.[30] This performance, on May 10, 1987, was videotaped and released on DVD in 2000 on Young's label,Just Dreams.[31] Performances have exceeded six hours in length, and so far have only been documented several times.The Well-Tuned Piano is strongly influenced by mathematical composition as well asHindustani classical music practice.[32]
Since the 1970s, Young and Zazeela have realized a long series of semi-permanentDream House installations, which combine Young's just-intonedsine waves in elaborate, symmetrical configurations with Zazeela's quasi-calligraphic light sculptures.[33] In July 1970 a model short-termDream House was displayed to the public at the galleryFriedrich & Dahlem in Munich, Germany. Later, modelDream House environments were presented in various locations in Europe and the United States. In 1974, the two releasedDream House 78' 17". From January through April 19, 2009,Dream House was installed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York as part ofThe Third Mind exhibition. ADream House installation exists today at the MELA Foundation on 275 Church Street, New York, above the couple's loft, and is open to the public.[34]
In 2002, Young, with Zazeela and senior discipleJung Hee Choi, founded theJust Alap Raga Ensemble. This ensemble, performingIndian classical music of theKirana gharana, merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani classical music, with Young applying his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form, and technique.[35]
Young's first musical influence came in early childhood in Bern. He relates that "the very first sound that I recall hearing was the sound of wind blowing under the eaves and around the log extensions at the corners of the log cabin". Continuous sounds—human-made as well as natural—fascinated him as a child. He described himself as fascinated from a young age by droning sounds, such as "the sound of the wind blowing", the "60 cycle per second drone [of] step-down transformers on telephone poles", thetanpura drone and thealap ofIndian classical music, "certain static aspects ofserialism, as in theWebern slow movement of the Symphony Opus 21", and Japanesegagaku "which has sustained tones in it in the instruments such as the Sho".[36] The four pitches he later named the "Dream chord", on which he based many of his mature works, came from his early age appreciation of the continuous sound made by the telephone poles in Bern.[37]
Young was also keen to pursue his musical endeavors with the help of psychedelics.Cannabis,LSD andpeyote played an important part in Young's life from mid-1950s onwards, when he was introduced to them byTerry Jennings andBilly Higgins. He said that "everybody [he] knew and worked with was very much into drugs as a creative tool as well as a consciousness-expanding tool". This was the case with the musicians of theTheatre of Eternal Music, with whom he "got high for every concert: the whole group".[41] He considers that the cannabis experience helped him open up to where he went withTrio for Strings, though sometimes it proved a disadvantage when performing anything which required keeping track of the number of elapsed bars. He commented on the subject:
These tools can be used to your advantage if you're a master of [them]... If used wisely—the correct tool for the correct job—they can play an important role... It allows you to go within yourself and focus on certain frequency relationships and memory relationships in a very, very interesting way.[42]
Andy Warhol attended the 1962 première of the static composition by La Monte Young calledTrio for Strings. Uwe Husslein cites film-makerJonas Mekas, who accompanied Warhol to theTrio premiere, claiming that Warhol's static films were directly inspired by the performance.[45][46] In 1963 Young had joined Warhol's musical groupThe Druds, a short-lived avant-garde noise music band, but, finding it ridiculous, quit after the second rehearsal.[47][48] In 1964 Young provided a loud minimalist drone soundtrack to Warhol's static filmsKiss,Eat,Haircut, andSleep when shown as small TV-sized projections at the entrance lobby to the thirdNew York Film Festival held atLincoln Center.[49]
Lou Reed's 1975 albumMetal Machine Music notes, "Drone cognizance and harmonic possibilities vis a vis Lamont(sic) Young's Dream Music"[50] among its "Specifications".
According to Seth Colter Walls, writing inThe Guardian, while Young has released very little recorded material, with much of it currently out of print, he has had an "outsized influence on other artists."[52]
Just Stompin': Live at The Kitchen – La Monte Young and the Forever Bad Blues Band (Gramavision, 1993)
Trio for Strings (1958) recorded live at theDia:Chelsea Dream House, performed byTheatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble, four discs and a 32-page set of liner notes (Dia Art Foundation, 2022)
Small Pieces (5) for String Quartet ("On Remembering a Naiad") (1956) [included onArditti String Quartet Edition, No. 15: U.S.A. (Disques Montaigne, 1993)]
Sarabande for any instruments (1959) [included onJust West Coast (Bridge, 1993)]
"89 VI 8 c. 1:45–1:52 am Paris Encore" fromPoem for Tables, Chairs and Benches, etc. (1960) [included onFlux:Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine #24]
Excerpt "31 I 69 c. 12:17:33-12:24:33 pm NYC" [included onAspen #8's flexi-disc (1970)] fromDrift Study; "31 I 69 c. 12:17:33–12:49:58 pm NYC" fromMap of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals (1969) [included onOhm andOhm+ (Ellipsis Arts, 2000 & 2005)]
566 forHenry Flynt [included onMusic in Germany 1950–2000: Experimental Music Theatre (Eurodisc 173675, 7-CD set, 2004)]
Piano Pieces for David Tudor #s 1, 2, 3 (1960), performance pieces;
Invisible Poem Sent to Terry Jennings (1960), performance pieces;
Piano Pieces for Terry Riley #s 1, 2 (1960), performance pieces;
Target for Jasper Johns (1960), piano;
Arabic Numeral (Any Integer) to H.F. (1960), piano(s) or gong(s) or ensembles of at least 45 instruments of the same timbre, or combinations of the above, or orchestra;
Death Chant (1961), male voices, carillon or large bells;
Response to Henry Flynt Work Such That No One Knows What's Going On (c. 1962);
[Improvisations] (1962–64), sopranino saxophone, vocal drones, various instruments. Realizations include: Bb Dorian Blues, The Fifth/Fourth Piece, ABABA, EbDEAD, The Overday, Early Tuesday Morning Blues, and Sunday Morning Blues;
Poem on Dennis' Birthday (1962), unspecified instruments;
The Four Dreams of China (The Harmonic Versions) (1962), including The First Dream of China, The First Blossom of Spring, The First Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, tunable, sustaining instruments of like timbre, in multiples of 4;
Studies in The Bowed Disc (1963), gong;
Pre-Tortoise Dream Music (1964), sopranino saxophone, soprano saxophone, vocal drone, violin, viola, sine waves;
The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys (1964–present), voices, various instruments, sine waves. Realizations include: Prelude to The Tortoise, The Tortoise Droning Selected Pitches from The Holy Numbers for The Two Black Tigers, The Green Tiger and The Hermit, The Tortoise Recalling The Drone of The Holy Numbers as They Were Revealed in The Dreams of The Whirlwind and The Obsidian Gong and Illuminated by The Sawmill, The Green Sawtooth Ocelot and The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer;
The Well-Tuned Piano (1964–73/81–present). Each realization is a separately titled and independent composition. Over 60 realizations to date. World première: Rome 1974. American première: New York 1975;
Sunday Morning Dreams (1965), tunable sustaining instruments and/or sine waves;
Composition 1965 $50 (1965), performance piece;
Map of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (1966–present), voices, various instruments, sine waves;
Bowed Mortar Relays (1964) (realization of Composition 1960 # 9), Soundtracks for Andy Warhol FilmsEat,Sleep,Kiss, "Haircut", tape;
The Two Systems of Eleven Categories (1966–present), theory work;
Chords from The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys (1967–present), sine waves. Realizations include: Intervals and Triads from Map of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (1967), sound environment;
Robert C. Scull Commission (1967), sine waves;
Claes and Patty Oldenburg Commission (1967), sine waves;
for Guitar (Just Intonation Version) (1978), guitar;
for Guitar Prelude and Postlude (1980), one or more guitars;
The Subsequent Dreams of China (1980), tunable, sustaining instruments of like timbre, in multiples of 8;
The Gilbert B. Silverman Commission to Write, in Ten Words or Less, a Complete History of Fluxus Including Philosophy, Attitudes, Influences, Purposes (1981);
Chords from The Well-Tuned Piano (1981–present), sound environments. Includes: The Opening Chord (1981), The Magic Chord (1984), The Magic Opening Chord (1984);
Trio for Strings (1983) Versions for string quartet, string orchestra, and violin, viola, cello, bass;
Trio for Strings, trio basso version (1984), viola, cello, bass;
Trio for Strings, sextet version (1984);
Trio for Strings, String Octet Version (1984), 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 basses;
The Melodic Versions (1984) of The Four Dreams of China (1962), including The First Dream of China, The First Blossom of Spring, The First Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, tunable, sustaining instruments of like timbre, in multiples of 4;
The Melodic Versions (1984) of The Subsequent Dreams of China, (1980) including The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer's Second Dream of The First Blossom of Spring, tunable, sustaining instruments of like timbre, in multiples of 8;
The Big Dream (1984), sound environment;
Orchestral Dreams (1985), orchestra;
The Big Dream Symmetries #s 1–6 (1988), sound environments;
The Symmetries in Prime Time from 144 to 112 with 119 (1989), including The Close Position Symmetry, The Symmetry Modeled on BDS # 1, The Symmetry Modeled on BDS # 4, The Symmetry Modeled on BDS # 7, The Romantic Symmetry, The Romantic Symmetry (over a 60 cycle base), The Great Romantic Symmetry, sound environments;
The Lower Map of The Eleven's Division in The Romantic Symmetry (over a 60 cycle base) in Prime Time from 144 to 112 with 119 (1989–1990), unspecified instruments and sound environment;
The Prime Time Twins (1989–90) including The Prime Time Twins in The Ranges 144 to 112; 72 to 56 and 38 to 28; Including The Special Primes 1 and 2 (1989);
The Prime Time Twins in The Ranges 576 to 448; 288 to 224; 144 to 112; 72 to 56; 36 to 28; with The Range Limits 576, 448, 288, 224, 144, 56 and 28 (1990), sound environments;
Chronos Kristalla (1990), string quartet;
The Young Prime Time Twins (1991), including The Young Prime Time Twins in The Ranges 2304 to 1792; 1152 to 896; 576 to 448; 288 to 224; 144 to 112; 72 to 56; 36 to 28; Including or Excluding The Range Limits 2304, 1792, 1152, 576, 448, 288, 224, 56 and 28 (1991),
The Young Prime Time Twins in The Ranges 2304 to 1792; 1152 to 896; 576 to 448; 288 to 224; 144 to 112; 72 to 56; 36 to 28; 18 to 14; Including or Excluding The Range Limits 2304, 1792, 1152, 576, 448, 288, 224, 56, 28 and 18; and Including The Special Young Prime Twins Straddling The Range Limits 1152, 72 and 18 (1991),
The Young Prime Time Twins in The Ranges 1152 to 896; 576 to 448; 288 to 224; 144 to 112; 72 to 56; 36 to 28; Including or Excluding The Range Limits 1152, 576, 448, 288, 224, 56 and 28; with One of The Inclusory Optional Bases: 7; 8; 14:8; 18:14:8; 18:16:14; 18:16:14:8; 9:7:4; or The Empty Base (1991), sound environments;
The Symmetries in Prime Time from 288 to 224 with 279, 261 and 2 X 119 with One of The Inclusory Optional Bases: 7; 8; 14:8; 18:14:8; 18:16:14; 18:16:14:8; 9:7:4; or The Empty Base (1991–present), including The Symmetries in Prime Time When Centered above and below The Lowest Term Primes in The Range 288 to 224 with The Addition of 279 and 261 in Which The Half of The Symmetric Division Mapped above and Including 288 Consists of The Powers of 2 Multiplied by The Primes within The Ranges of 144 to 128, 72 to 64 and 36 to 32 Which Are Symmetrical to Those Primes in Lowest Terms in The Half of The Symmetric Division Mapped below and Including 224 within The Ranges 126 to 112, 63 to 56 and 31.5 to 28 with The Addition of 119 and with One of The Inclusory Optional Bases: 7; 8; 14:8; 18:14:8; 18:16:14; 18:16:14:8; 9:7:4; or The Empty Base (1991), sound environments;
Annod (1953–55) 92 X 19 Version for Zeitgeist (1992), alto saxophone, vibraphone, piano, bass, drums, including 92 XII 22 Two-Part Harmony and The 1992 XII Annod Backup Riffs;
Just Charles & Cello in The Romantic Chord (2002–2003), cello, pre-recorded cello drones and light design;
Raga Sundara, vilampit khayal set in Raga YamanKalyan (2002–present), voices, various instruments, tambura drone;
Trio for Strings (1958) Just Intonation Version (1984-2001-2005), 2 cellos, 2 violins, 2 violas;
^Young, L., & Zazeela, M. (2015). "The Just Alap Raga Ensemble, Pandit Pran Nath 97th Birthday Memorial Tribute, Three Evening Concerts of Raga Darbari". MELA Foundation, New York.
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Husslein, Uwe, ed. (1990).Pop Goes Art: Andy Warhol & Velvet Underground: anläßlich der gleichnamigen Ausstellung in der Hamburger Kunsthalle, 30.11.1990–3.2. 1991. Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Popkultur 1. Wuppertal: Institut für Popkultur.
LaBelle, Brandon (2006).Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. New York and London: Continuum International.
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Grimshaw, Jeremy. 2005. "Music of a 'More Exalted Sphere': Compositional Practice, biography, and Cosmology in the Music of La Monte Young." Doctoral dissertation,Eastman School of Music. Ann Arbor: UMI/ProQuest.
Herzfeld, Gregor. 2007.Zeit als Prozess und Epiphanie in der experimentellen amerikanischen Musik. Charles Ives bis La Monte Young. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 285–341.ISBN978-3-515-09033-9
Lucier, Alvin, ed. 2018.Eight Lectures on Experimental Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.ISBN9780819577634
