Editing La Monte Young (section)

==Influences==
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", the [[tanpura]] drone and the [[alap]] of [[Indian classical music]], "certain static aspects of [[serialism]], as in the [[Anton Webern|Webern]] slow movement of the Symphony Opus 21", and Japanese [[gagaku]] "which has sustained tones in it in the instruments such as the Sho".{{sfn|Zuckerman|2002}} 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.{{sfn|Potter|2000|pp=23-25}}

[[Jazz]] is one of his main influences; prior to 1956, he planned to devote his career to it.<ref name=Potter_jazz>{{harvnb|Potter|2000|pp=26–27}}</ref> At first, [[Lee Konitz]] and [[Warne Marsh]] influenced his [[alto saxophone]] playing style, and later [[John Coltrane]] shaped Young's use of the [[sopranino saxophone]]. Jazz was, together with [[Indian music]], an important influence on the use of [[improvisation]] in his works post-1962.<ref name=Potter_jazz/> Young discovered Indian music in 1957 on the campus of [[UCLA]]. He cites [[Ali Akbar Khan]] ([[sarod]]) and [[Chatur Lal]] ([[tabla]]) as particularly significant. The discovery of the ''[[tanpura]]'', which he learned to play with ''Pandit'' [[Pran Nath (musician)|Pran Nath]], was a decisive influence in his interest in long-sustained sounds. Young also acknowledges the influence of [[Japanese music]], especially [[Gagaku]], and [[Pygmy music]].<ref name=strickland_bio3>{{harvnb|Strickland|1991|pp=58–59}}</ref>{{sfn|Strickland|2000|p=125}}

Young discovered classical music relatively late in life, thanks to his teachers at university. He cites [[Béla Bartók]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Pérotin]], [[Léonin]], [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Organum]] musical style as important influences.<ref name=strickland_bio3/> The [[serialism]] of [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and [[Anton Webern]] had the greatest impact.<ref name=strickland_bio3/>

Young was also keen to pursue his musical endeavors with the help of psychedelics. [[Cannabis (drug)|Cannabis]], [[LSD]] and [[peyote]] played an important part in Young's life from mid-1950s onwards, when he was introduced to them by [[Terry Jennings]] and [[Billy 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 the [[Theatre of Eternal Music]], with whom he "got high for every concert: the whole group".{{sfn|Potter|2000|p=66}} He considers that the cannabis experience helped him open up to where he went with ''Trio 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:
{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Potter|2000|p=67}}}}