La Monte Young
"We have an enormous responsibility to leave something important. It has to be something that is for the good of the people and you don't do that by giving the people what they want. You do it by giving the people this higher source of information that comes through you that you make manifest in some visible model that actually moves them deeply and into the state where they want to have this experience and go higher into this exalted state." - La Monte Young on his influence and participation in minimalism and music
What initially drew me toward La Monte Young was his questioning the integrity of the musical score. He was the pioneer of minimalism and those who glimpse into his work may understand why; he was not afraid to take the risks. The works that tend to be more performance art driven and have interactive scores such as Vision, Dream House, Poem, and Draw a Straight Line and Follow it particularly sparked my interest. La Monte Young explored the actual minimum possible to a sort of maximal minimal such as heard in his The Well Tuned Piano which was a structured improvisation on an intricately tuned piano. Through his vast education and exposure to sound and music Young was able to capture quite a three dimensional essence in his works. Upon hearing many other influential works it is obvious that upon his "play" into minimalism he also discovered drone music, or, music that emphasizes sustained or repeated sounds such as Two Sounds, Sunday Morning Dreams, Pre-Tortoise- Dream Music along with many others. Personally, the captivating nature of his music is his fearless experimentation and multipolar approach to the compositional environment. In essence, he is an example of the abstraction from the norm that we seek as artists in dance and calls forth an inquiry into the "what is?" of everything.
- Elise Frost
What initially drew me toward La Monte Young was his questioning the integrity of the musical score. He was the pioneer of minimalism and those who glimpse into his work may understand why; he was not afraid to take the risks. The works that tend to be more performance art driven and have interactive scores such as Vision, Dream House, Poem, and Draw a Straight Line and Follow it particularly sparked my interest. La Monte Young explored the actual minimum possible to a sort of maximal minimal such as heard in his The Well Tuned Piano which was a structured improvisation on an intricately tuned piano. Through his vast education and exposure to sound and music Young was able to capture quite a three dimensional essence in his works. Upon hearing many other influential works it is obvious that upon his "play" into minimalism he also discovered drone music, or, music that emphasizes sustained or repeated sounds such as Two Sounds, Sunday Morning Dreams, Pre-Tortoise- Dream Music along with many others. Personally, the captivating nature of his music is his fearless experimentation and multipolar approach to the compositional environment. In essence, he is an example of the abstraction from the norm that we seek as artists in dance and calls forth an inquiry into the "what is?" of everything.
- Elise Frost
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