Editing La Monte Young (section)

==Biography==

===1935–1959===
Young was born in a log cabin in [[Bern, Idaho]].<ref name="CalifLibrary">{{cite web |title=La Monte Young papers, 1959–2006 |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft1b69n5jc/ |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref><ref name="IRCAM">{{BrahmsOnline|IRCAM-name=la-monte-young|title=La Monte Young}}</ref> As a child he was influenced by the droning sounds of the environment, such as blowing wind and electrical [[transformer]]s.<ref name="OUP">{{cite web |title=Questions about La Monte Young, music, and mysticism |url=https://blog.oup.com/2012/04/q-and-a-la-monte-young-music-mysticism-grimshaw/ |website=OUPblog |language=en |date=10 April 2012}}</ref> During his childhood, Young's family moved several times before settling in [[Los Angeles]], as his father searched for work. He was raised as a member of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].<ref name="OUP"/> He graduated from [[John Marshall High School (Los Angeles)|John Marshall High School]].<ref name="IRCAM" /> Young began his music studies at [[Los Angeles City College]], and transferred to the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA),<ref name="NYTprofile">{{cite web |last=Miller |first=M[ichael] H. |title=The Man Who Brian Eno Called 'the Daddy of Us All' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/t-magazine/la-monte-young.html |website=[[The New York Times]]|date=22 July 2020}}</ref> where he received a BA in 1958.<ref name="CalifLibrary"/><ref name="IRCAM"/> In the jazz milieu of Los Angeles, Young played with notable musicians including [[Ornette Coleman]], [[Don Cherry (trumpeter)|Don Cherry]], [[Billy Higgins]], and [[Eric Dolphy]].<ref>Henken, J., [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-09-04-ca-31590-story.html "Even Minimalists Get the Blues: Music: Influential composer La Monte Young has put together a roadhouse blues band to return to the stompin’ style of his jazz-influenced youth."], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', September 4, 1993.</ref> He undertook additional studies at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] from 1958 to 1960.<ref name="IRCAM"/> In 1959 he attended the [[Darmstädter Ferienkurse|Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music]] under [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], and in 1960 relocated to New York in order to study [[electronic music]] with [[Richard Maxfield]] at the [[New School for Social Research]]. His compositions during this period were influenced by [[Anton Webern]], [[Gregorian chant]], [[Indian classical music]], Japanese [[Gagaku]], and Indonesian [[gamelan]] music.<ref>[https://brahms.ircam.fr/en/la-monte-young#parcours] La Monte Young IRCAM</ref>

A number of Young's early works use the [[twelve-tone technique]], which he studied under [[Leonard Stein]] at Los Angeles City College. (Stein had served as an assistant to [[Arnold Schoenberg]] when Schoenberg, the inventor of the twelve-tone method, taught at UCLA.){{sfn|LaBelle|2006|p=69}} Young also studied composition with Robert Stevenson at UCLA and with Seymore Shifrin at UC Berkeley. In 1958, he developed the ''[[Trio 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."<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last1=Robin|first1=William|title=La Monte Young Is Still Patiently Working on a Glacial Scale|work=The New York Times |date=August 19, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/arts/music/la-monte-young-is-still-patiently-working-on-a-glacial-scale.html|access-date=April 16, 2016}}</ref> When Young visited Darmstadt in 1959, he encountered the music and writings of [[John Cage]]. There he also met Cage's collaborator, pianist [[David Tudor]], who subsequently would [[Premiere|première]] 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 the [[Conceptual art|conceptual]], using principles of [[indeterminacy (music)|indeterminacy]] in his compositions and incorporating non-traditional sounds, noises, and actions.{{sfn|Duckworth|1995|p=233}}

===1960–1969===
Young moved to Downtown New York City in 1960. In the Spring of 1961 he developed an artistic relationship with [[Fluxus]] founder [[George Maciunas]] at the [[electronic music]] course of [[Richard Maxfield]] at [[The New School]].<ref>Colby Chamberlain, ''Fluxus Administration: George Maciunas and the Art of Paperwork'', University of Chicago Press, p. 64</ref> Maciunas would go on to design the book ''[[An Anthology of Chance Operations]]'', an [[artist's book]] publication from the early 1960s, featuring experimental [[neodada]] art and music composition that used [[John Cage]]–inspired [[Aleatoric music|indeterminacy]]. It was edited by Young and [[DIY]] co-published in 1963 by Young and [[Jackson Mac Low]]. A few months earlier, in December 1960, Young had curated and organized a series of concert-performances by members of the nascent Fluxus movement at the top floor loft of [[Yoko Ono]] at 112 [[Chambers Street (Manhattan)|Chambers Street]] involving visual artists, musicians, dancers and composers — mixing music, visual art and performance together. It was attended by [[John Cage]], [[Peggy Guggenheim]], [[Max Ernst]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]], among others art world luminaries.<ref>[https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/15/369] Yoko Ono 112 Chambers Street at MoMA</ref>

During this period, Young created short, [[haiku]]-like, [[conceptual art]] but dreamlike scores-texts that have become associated with [[Fluxus]]. For example, Young's ''[[Compositions 1960]]'' includes a number of unusual actions: some of them un-performable, and constituted an early form of poetic conceptual and [[post-conceptual art]]. Most examine a certain presupposition about the nature of music and art by carrying absurd [[Dada]]-like concepts to an extreme. One, ''Composition 1960 #10 to [[Robert Morris (artist)|Bob Morris]]'' instructs: "draw a straight line and follow it" (a directive which Young has said has guided his life and work since).{{sfn|Young|Mac Low|1963|loc="Composition 1960 #10 to Bob Morris", p. 117}} Another instructs the performer to build a fire. Another states that "this piece is a little [[whirlpool]] 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#, a [[perfect fifth]], and the instruction: "To be held for a long time."<ref>{{cite book | last=Mertens | first=Wim |title =American Minimal Music | publisher =Kahn & Averill | year = 1983 | pages=26 }}</ref>

In 1962, based on his [[dream chord]], Young wrote ''The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer''. One of ''The Four Dreams of China'', the piece is based on four pitches, which he later gave as the [[frequency]] [[ratio]]s: 36-35-32-24 (G, C, +C#, D), and limits as to which may be combined with any other.<ref>[[William Duckworth (composer)|Duckworth, William]], & Richard Fleming, eds., ''Sound and Light: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela'' ([[Lewisburg, Pennsylvania|Lewisburg]]: [[Bucknell University Press]], 1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=aKJ5PAVGyrwC&pg=PT163 pp. 163–165].</ref> 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. For ''The Four Dreams of China'' Young began to plan ''Dream House'', a light and sound installation conceived as a [[dream 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.{{sfn|LaBelle|2006|p=74}} He formed the music collective [[Theatre of Eternal Music]] to realize ''Dream House'' and other pieces.<ref>Patrick Nickleson, ''The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute'', University of Michigan Press, pp. 56-57</ref> The group initially included calligrapher and light artist [[Marian Zazeela]] (who married Young in 1963), [[Angus MacLise]], and [[Billy Name]].<ref name="allmusic"/> In 1964 the ensemble comprised Young and Zazeela, [[John Cale]] and [[Tony Conrad]] (a former Harvard mathematics major), and sometimes [[Terry Riley]] (voices). Since 1966 the group has seen many permutations and has included [[Garrett List]], [[Jon Hassell]], [[Alex Dea]], and many others, including members of Young's 60s groups.{{sfn|LaBelle|2006|p=71}}

On September 25, 1965, the [[Fluxus]] FluxOrchestra was conducted by Young at [[Carnegie Recital Hall]] in New York City, with a program, designed by [[George 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 on [[Church Street and Trinity Place|Church Street]], New York City, in September 1966 with [[sine wave]] [[Signal generator|generators]] and light sources designed to produce a continuous installation of floating sculptures and color sources, and a series of [[Photographic slide|slide]]s entitled ''Ornamental Lightyears Tracery''. This ''[[Dream House (installation)|Dream 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.<ref>{{cite book | last1 =Young | first1 =La Monte |last2=Zazeela |first2=Marian |title =Selected Writings | publisher =Ubuclassics | year = 2004 | pages=18 }}</ref>

===1970–present===
As of 1970, Young's interests in the [[music of Asia]] and his wish to find precedents for the intervals he was using in his minimalist work led him to Indian spiritualist and musician Shyam Batnager who introduced Young to the recordings of [[Pran Nath (musician)|Pandit Pran Nath]].<ref>[https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/journey-to-the-source-an-interview-with-shyam-bhatnagar] Journey to the source: an interview with Shyam Bhatnagar May 2022 The Wire</ref> Impressed, Young would go on to meet and study and perform with Pran Nath for the rest of Pran Nath's life<ref>Chamberlain, Colby, ''Fluxus Administration: George Maciunas and the Art of Paperwork'', University of Chicago Press, 2024, p. 175</ref> through the partial support of the [[Dia Art Foundation]]. Fellow students of Pran Nath, included Zazeela, [[Terry Riley]], [[Rhys Chatham]], [[Jon Hassell]], [[Simone Forti]], [[Shabda Kahn]], [[Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)|Jon Gibson]], [[Michael Harrison (musician)|Michael Harrison]], [[Yoshi Wada]], [[Don Cherry (trumpeter)|Don Cherry]], [[Henry Flynt]], [[Lee Konitz]], [[Charlemagne Palestine]] and [[Catherine Christer Hennix]].<ref>Patrick Nickleson, ''The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute'', University of Michigan Press, p. 56</ref>

Young considers ''[[The Well-Tuned Piano]]''—a [[Permutation (music)|permutating]] composition of themes and improvisations for [[Just intonation|just-intoned]] solo piano—to be his masterpiece. Young gave the world premiere of ''The 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 the [[Gramavision Records|Gramavision]] recording of ''The Well-Tuned Piano'', Young had performed the piece 55 times.<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=The Well-Tuned Piano: 81 x 25 6:17:50-11:18:59 PM NYC |others=La Monte Young |year=1987 |chapter=Performance History |first=La Monte |last=Young }}</ref> In 1987, Young performed the piece again as part of a larger concert series that included many more of his works.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Maverick Eases into the Aboveground: La Monte Young|last=Palmer|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 5, 1987 |id={{ProQuest|110815286}} }} {{subscription required}}</ref> This performance, on May 10, 1987, was videotaped and released on DVD in 2000 on Young's label, ''Just Dreams''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gann |first1=Kyle|author-link=Kyle Gann|year=2002 |title=Pinned Down by the Piano |journal=[[The Village Voice]]|volume=47 |issue= 36 |pages=122 |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-09-03/music/pinned-down-by-the-piano/ |access-date=November 7, 2012}}</ref> 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 as [[Hindustani classical music]] practice.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gann|first=Kyle|author-link=Kyle Gann|date=Winter 1993|title=La Monte Young's ''The Well-Tuned Piano''|journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]|volume=31|issue=1|pages=134–162|doi=10.2307/833045|jstor=833045}}</ref>

Since the 1970s, Young and Zazeela have realized a long series of semi-permanent ''Dream House'' installations, which combine Young's just-intoned [[sine wave]]s in elaborate, symmetrical configurations with Zazeela's quasi-calligraphic light sculptures.{{sfn|LaBelle|2006|pp=73–74}} In July 1970 a model short-term ''Dream House'' was displayed to the public at the gallery [[Heiner Friedrich#Munich & Köln|Friedrich & Dahlem]] in Munich, Germany. Later, model ''Dream House'' environments were presented in various locations in Europe and the United States. In 1974, the two released ''[[Dream House 78' 17"]]''. From January through April 19, 2009, ''Dream House'' was installed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of ''The Third Mind'' exhibition. A ''Dream 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://melafoundation.org |title=Dream House |website=melafoundation.org |access-date=July 26, 2020}}</ref>

In 2002, Young, with Zazeela and senior disciple [[Jung Hee Choi]], founded the [[Just Alap Raga Ensemble]]. This ensemble, performing [[Indian classical music]] of the [[Kirana gharana]], merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani classical music, with Young applying his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form, and technique.<ref name="notes">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.</ref>