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Quick facts for kids La Monte Young
Young in c. 1961
Born	(1935-10-14) October 14, 1935 (age 89) Bern, Idaho, U.S.
Occupation	Composer musician performance artist
Spouse(s)	Marian Zazeela (m. 1963; died 2024)
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La Monte Young, born on October 14, 1935, is an American composer and musician. He is known as one of the first "minimalist" composers. This means he created music using very simple ideas, often repeating sounds or holding notes for a long time. He was also important in an art movement called Fluxus.

He is famous for using long, held-out sounds, called "drones," in his music. He started doing this with his 1958 piece, Trio for Strings. His music often made people think about what music really is. Even though many of his recordings are hard to find, his work has inspired many famous musicians in different styles, like rock and ambient music.

Young played jazz saxophone and studied music in California in the 1950s. In 1960, he moved to New York City. There, he became a key person in the downtown music and Fluxus art scenes. He became known for his new ideas in drone music, which he first called "dream music." He worked with his group, Theatre of Eternal Music, and artists like Tony Conrad, John Cale, and his wife, Marian Zazeela.

Young and Zazeela worked together a lot from 1962 until her death in 2024. They recorded music, performed live, and created a special sound and light art space called Dream House. In 1964, he started working on his long piano piece, The Well-Tuned Piano, which he has performed many times over the years. Starting in 1970, he and Zazeela studied Hindustani classical music with singer Pandit Pran Nath. In 2002, Young, Zazeela, and their student Jung Hee Choi formed the Just Alap Raga Ensemble.

Biography
Influences
Legacy
Discography
List of Works
See also

Biography

Early Life and Studies (1935–1959)

Young was born in a log cabin in Bern, Idaho. As a child, he was interested in the continuous sounds around him. These included the sound of wind and the hum of electrical transformers. His family moved several times before settling in Los Angeles.

Young began studying music at Los Angeles City College. He then went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a degree in 1958. In Los Angeles, Young played jazz with famous musicians like Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. He continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1958 to 1960.

In 1959, he attended a summer music course in Germany with Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1960, he moved to New York to study electronic music. His music during this time was influenced by many styles. These included Gregorian chant, Indian classical music, and Japanese Gagaku.

Many of Young's early works used the twelve-tone technique, a way of composing music. He learned this from Leonard Stein, who had worked with the inventor of the technique, Arnold Schoenberg. In 1958, Young created his Trio for Strings. This piece for violin, viola, and cello is seen as a starting point for minimalist music.

When Young visited Germany in 1959, he learned about the music of John Cage. He also met Cage's friend, pianist David Tudor, who later performed some of Young's pieces. Young and Cage started writing letters to each other. Soon, Young was performing Cage's music, and Cage was including Young's works in concerts. Influenced by Cage, Young began to create "conceptual art." This meant his pieces sometimes involved unusual sounds or actions.

New York and Fluxus (1960–1969)

Young moved to New York City in 1960. In 1961, he started working with George Maciunas, who founded the Fluxus art movement. Maciunas helped design a book called An Anthology of Chance Operations. This book featured experimental art and music. Young helped edit and publish it in 1963.

In December 1960, Young organized a series of concerts. These took place at Yoko Ono's loft in New York. The performances featured artists, musicians, and dancers from the new Fluxus movement. Famous artists like John Cage and Marcel Duchamp attended these events.

During this time, Young created short, poem-like pieces of art. These are now linked to Fluxus. For example, his Compositions 1960 included many unusual actions. Some of these were impossible to perform. One piece, Composition 1960 #10 to Bob Morris, simply said: "draw a straight line and follow it." Young said this idea has guided his life. Another piece told the performer to build a fire. These pieces challenged what people thought art and music could be.

Composition 1960 #7 was very important for his future music. It was just two notes, B and F#, played together. The instruction was: "To be held for a long time."

In 1962, Young wrote The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer. This piece was part of The Four Dreams of China. It used four specific musical pitches. Most of his music after this point used selected pitches played continuously. Young began to plan Dream House, a sound and light art space. He imagined it as a "living organism" where musicians could create music all day and night.

He formed the Theatre of Eternal Music to create Dream House and other pieces. The group first included Marian Zazeela (who married Young in 1963), Angus MacLise, and Billy Name. In 1964, the group included Young, Zazeela, John Cale, and Tony Conrad. Over the years, many other musicians joined the group.

In September 1966, Young and Zazeela created their first continuous electronic sound environment. This was in their loft in New York City. They used sine wave generators to make continuous sounds. They also used light sources to create floating sculptures and colors. This Dream House was kept on almost all the time until 1970. Young and Zazeela lived and worked in it. They studied how the continuous sound affected them and their visitors. Their performances often lasted a very long time, with no clear beginning or end.

Later Works and Collaborations (1970–present)

By 1970, Young became very interested in music of Asia. He wanted to find older examples of the musical intervals he was using. He was introduced to the recordings of Pandit Pran Nath, an Indian musician. Young was very impressed and studied with Pran Nath for the rest of Pran Nath's life. Other students of Pran Nath included Zazeela and Terry Riley.

Young considers The Well-Tuned Piano to be his most important work. This piece is for a piano tuned in a special way, called Just intonation. Young first performed it in Rome in 1974. He performed it in New York in 1975, with 11 live shows. By 1981, he had performed the piece 55 times. Some performances have lasted over six hours. The piece is influenced by math and Hindustani classical music.

Since the 1970s, Young and Zazeela have created many Dream House installations. These combine Young's specially tuned sine waves with Zazeela's light sculptures. A Dream House was shown in Munich, Germany, in 1970. Later, other Dream House environments were shown in Europe and the United States. In 1974, they released Dream House 78' 17". From January to April 2009, Dream House was shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Today, a Dream House installation is open to the public at the MELA Foundation in New York.

In 2002, Young, Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi started the Just Alap Raga Ensemble. This group performs Indian classical music. It combines Western and Indian classical music traditions. Young uses his own composing ideas with traditional raga performance.

Influences

Young's first musical influence came from his childhood in Idaho. He remembers the sound of wind blowing around his log cabin. He was fascinated by continuous sounds, both natural and human-made. He described being interested in the hum of telephone poles and the drone of the tanpura in Indian classical music. He also mentioned the sustained tones in Japanese gagaku music. The four pitches he later called the "Dream chord" came from the continuous sound of telephone poles in his hometown.

Jazz was a major influence on Young. Before 1956, he planned to be a jazz musician. Jazz, along with Indian music, was important for how he used improvisation in his later works. Young discovered Indian music in 1957 at UCLA. He found the sounds of the sarod and tabla very meaningful. Learning to play the tanpura was a big step in his interest in long, sustained sounds. Young also recognizes the influence of Japanese music, especially Gagaku, and Pygmy music.

Young discovered classical music later in life through his teachers. He mentions Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, and Claude Debussy as important influences. The composing styles of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern also had a big impact on him.

Legacy

Young's use of long, held notes and special tuning has greatly influenced many musicians. These include Tony Conrad, Jon Hassell, and Rhys Chatham. His work also influenced John Cale's sound in the band The Velvet Underground. Cale said that La Monte Young was a very important part of his musical learning.

Young's music has inspired famous musicians in many styles. These include fellow minimalist composer Terry Riley, experimental rock groups like the Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno. Eno has called Young "the daddy of us all." In 1981, Eno said that Young's piece X for Henry Flynt was a "cornerstone" for everything he had done since.

Andy Warhol attended the 1962 first performance of Young's Trio for Strings. Some believe that Warhol's "static films," which showed still images for a long time, were directly inspired by this performance. In 1963, Young briefly joined Warhol's music group, The Druds. In 1964, Young provided a loud, minimalist drone soundtrack for Warhol's films Kiss, Eat, "Haircut", and Sleep.

Even though Young has released very few recordings, his work has had a huge influence on other artists. Lou Reed's 1975 album Metal Machine Music mentions Young's "Dream Music" as an influence. The band Spacemen 3's album Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music was also influenced by Young's "Dream Music." In 2018, Peter Kember of Spacemen 3 released a tribute album to La Monte Young.

Drone rock musician Dylan Carlson has said that Young's work was a major influence on his band Earth's 1993 album Earth 2. In 2015, Stephen O'Malley of the drone metal band Sunn O))) also named Young as a big influence on his music.

Discography

Studio Recordings

Drift Study 4:37:40-5:09:50 PM 5 VIII 68 NYC (SMS 4 Limited Edition, 1968)
31 VII 69 10:26-10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45-3:11 AM The Volga Delta [aka The Black Record] – La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela (Edition X, 1969)
Dream House 78' 17" – La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela / The Theatre of Eternal Music (Shandar, 1974)
The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from the Four Dreams of China (Gramavision, 1991)
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath – La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela (Just Dreams, 1999)
Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume One: Day of Niagara (1965) – John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela (Table of the Elements, 2000. Not authorized by La Monte Young.)

Live Recordings

The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25 (6:17.50–11:18:59 pm NYC) (Gramavision, 1988)
Just Stompin': Live at The Kitchen – La Monte Young and the Forever Bad Blues Band (Gramavision, 1993)
Trio for Strings (1958) recorded live at the Dia:Chelsea Dream House, performed by Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble, four discs and a 32-page set of liner notes (Dia Art Foundation, 2022)

Compilation Appearances

Small Pieces (5) for String Quartet ("On Remembering a Naiad") (1956) [included on Arditti String Quartet Edition, No. 15: U.S.A. (Disques Montaigne, 1993)]
Sarabande for any instruments (1959) [included on Just West Coast (Bridge, 1993)]
"89 VI 8 c. 1:45–1:52 am Paris Encore" from Poem for Tables, Chairs and Benches, etc. (1960) [included on Flux: Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine #24]
Excerpt "31 I 69 c. 12:17:33-12:24:33 pm NYC" [included on Aspen #8's flexi-disc (1970)] from Drift Study; "31 I 69 c. 12:17:33–12:49:58 pm NYC" from Map of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals (1969) [included on Ohm and Ohm+ (Ellipsis Arts, 2000 & 2005)]
566 for Henry Flynt [included on Music in Germany 1950–2000: Experimental Music Theatre (Eurodisc 173675, 7-CD set, 2004)]

List of Works

Scherzo in a minor (c. 1953), piano;
Rondo in d minor (c. 1953), piano;
Annod (1953–55), dance band or jazz ensemble;
Wind Quintet (1954);
Variations (1955), string quartet;
Young's Blues (c. 1955–59);
Fugue in d minor (c. 1956), violin, viola, cello;
Op. 4 (1956), brass, percussion;
Five Small Pieces for String Quartet, On Remembering A Naiad, 1. A Wisp, 2. A Gnarl, 3. A Leaf, 4. A Twig, 5. A Tooth (1956);
Canon (1957), any two instruments;
Fugue in a minor (1957), any four instruments;
Fugue in c minor (1957), organ or harpsichord;
Fugue in eb minor (1957), brass or other instruments;
Fugue in f minor (1957), two pianos;
Prelude in f minor (1957), piano;
Variations for Alto Flute, Bassoon, Harp and String Trio (1957);
for Brass (1957), brass octet;
for Guitar (1958), guitar;
Trio for Strings (1958), violin, viola, cello;
Study (c.1958–59), violin, viola (unfinished);
Sarabande (1959), keyboard, brass octet, string quartet, orchestra, others;
Studies I, II, and III (1959), piano;
Vision (1959), piano, 2 brass, recorder, 4 bassoons, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and making use of a random number book;
[Untitled] (1959–60), live friction sounds;
[Untitled] (1959–62), jazz-drone improvisations;
Poem for Chairs, Tables, Benches, etc. (1960), chairs, tables, benches and unspecified sound sources;
2 Sounds (1960), recorded friction sounds;
Compositions 1960 #s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15 (1960), performance pieces;
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;
Compositions 1961 #s 1–29 (1961), performance pieces;
Young's Dorian Blues in B♭ (c. 1960 or 1961);
Young's Dorian Blues in G (c. 1960/1961–present);
Young's Aeolian Blues in B♭ (Summer 1961);
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 Films Eat, 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;
Betty Freeman Commission (1967), sound and light box & sound environment;
Drift Studies (1967–present), 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;
Trio for Strings Postlude from The Subsequent Dreams of China (c. 1984), bowed strings;
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 Yaman Kalyan (2002–present), voices, various instruments, tambura drone;
Trio for Strings (1958) Just Intonation Version (1984-2001-2005), 2 cellos, 2 violins, 2 violas;