La Monte Young

La Monte Young ( born October 14, 1935 in Bern, Idaho ) is an American composer and musician and one next to Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley 's most influential representatives of minimal music in the United States.

Life and work

Young studied from 1951 to 1954 clarinet, saxophone and composition at the University of California, Los Angeles, and from 1958 to 1960 at the University of California, Berkeley. The mid-1950s he played jazz with Terry Jennings, who drew his attention to John Cage. In 1959 he took part in the Darmstadt Summer Course of Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was strongly influenced by classical Indian and Japanese gagaku music and was a member of the Fluxus movement. From this period many minimalist pieces with extremely long-lasting or frequently repeating sequences and belt loops to the extreme with increased playing time. Thus, for example, Composition 1960 # 7 of only two recorded tones with the interpretation statement " to be held for a long time ."

In 1962 he founded the Theatre of Eternal Music, which appeared first in Fluxus concerts. First drones were fast, modal improvisation, about a so-called dream - chord based on the sounds of cis- dgac developed, but which are rhythmically no longer identifiable. In place of the soprano saxophone from the mid- 1960s, the voice (with La Monte Young since 1970 teaching at Pran Nath took ).

Since about 1964 he has worked at the The Well - Tuned Piano compositions and this developed his second composition focus, based on just intonation systems and a complex mathematical calculation: rhythmic phrases appear, only to disappear again; Chords are presented in the tremolo; Arpeggios serve as a starting point for improvisation. The performances of the play have expanded over the years to several hours; of the wealth of the piano tends to remain only the middle layer.

Young is married since 1963 with the artist Marian Zazeela, with whom he has co-developed numerous " Sound / Light Environments ." Increasingly, he worked on it with the fiction ever lasting music. Selected base tones that sound permanently be contrasted with improvised, long-lasting shades. In 1972, he joined with a " Dream House " - performance and installation at the Documenta 5 in Kassel (along with Marian Zazeela ) in the Department of Individual Mythologies: Overview - Performances - Activities - Changes from July 30 to 7 in each of 15: 00 to 18.00 clock on.

La Monte Young practiced despite its classic approach of sustainable impact on many alternative, punk and rock musicians. So call him John Cale, a member of the Young Ensemble " Dream Syndicate " (not to be confused with the eponymous rock band! ) Was, and Lou Reed from the former Velvet Underground as an early source of inspiration.

Works (selection)

• " Trio for Strings " (1958 )
• " The Second Dream of the High -Tension Line Stepdown Transformer " ( Young's first use of electronic musical instruments ), (ca. 1960)
• " The Four Dreams of China " operates with only four moods and frequencies (G, C, C #, D )
• " Composition 1960 # 7 " (1959 /60)
• " 566 for Henry Flint " (1960)
• " The Well - Tuned Piano " ( since 1964 continuously developed ) ( in a mood that is based only on octaves, perfect fifths and Naturseptimen )
• Diverse Environments and art events in collaboration with Marian Zazeela.