Editing La Monte Young (section)

===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>