AN ESSAY ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND LEGACY OF LA MONTE YOUNG, GAVIN BRYARS AND STEVE REICH

An essay by Jon Santos, Year 12

ETERNAL THEATRES

LA MONTE YOUNG
La Monte Young, the father of minimalism, started out as a jazz musician, beating Eric Dolphy at a saxophone audition for a college big band [1] and playing alongside controversial stalwarts of the scene such as Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry [2]. Young attended classes in Darmstadt, Germany under Karlheinz Stockhausen [3], where he came across the works of John Cage. Youngs earlier works employed the use

of the twelve-tone system and were influenced by Indonesian gamelan music and Gregorian chant (a factor which would show up in some of his seminal work). Whilst at Darmstadt, Young met David Tudor one of Cages collaborators and began an exchange with Cage. Tudor and Cage performed some of Youngs work after the meetings - Young reciprocated the gesture, playing some of Cages work in America. After moving to New York in the 60s, he made connections with associates of the fledgling Fluxus movement, which combined different mediums of media and experimentation with political strands. The movements influence shows in some of Youngs work, incorporating indeterminacy and uncommon sounds [4] in some works (similar to how Cage, who was a precedent of Fluxus, did in some of his works) and scoring other works in a manner akin to the Fluxus aesthetic his Compositions of 1960 instruct the performer to carry out extreme actions: for example, in Composition 1960 #2, he instructs the performer to build a fire in front of the audience. In Composition 1960 #7, Young instructs the performer to sustain a chord consisting of a B and an F# for a long time. The compositions structure would serve as the basis for the majority of his work afterwards in the 1960s, Young devised a concept known as the Dream House, a light and sound installation in which Young, Marian Zazeela and other musicians would perform drone-based music for more than 24 hours per day. This lead to one of the few documents of Youngs work, Dream House 78 17 containing two Dream House performances recorded in 1973, Young utilizes sine wave generators as an instrument, featuring alongside Jon Hassell and Garrett Lists horns and Young and Zazeelas vocals, which contain a strong influence of Hindustani classical music on one piece, an extract of Youngs ongoing work The Tortoise, His Dreams and His Journeys whilst the voices and horns are improvised in certain parts of the composition to complement each other, Young notes that the lack of harmonic content of the sine waves makes accompanying them with regular instruments and human players extremely difficult [5]. In his recording of Drift Study IV, the sine tones are determined and set at certain frequencies as to interfere with each other [5], altering the sound and volume when viewers of the Dream House move within the installation, as documented in one performance on this recording. The excerpt of The Tortoise, His Dreams and His Journeys contains the use of drones or static harmonies, very few repetitions of melodies and the lack of a steady meter, as the majority of Youngs body of work does. Other works, such as Drift Study IV, only contain static movement, as there is a lack of harmony. Both works, especially Drift Study IV are merely documented as excerpts in this recording Youngs work, from 1962 onwards, are primarily intended to be experienced by the viewer themselves in an interactive manner. Jon Santos 2

Dream House 78 17 was primarily created because of the very scarce recordings that documented Youngs work, and because of the space that Young and Zazeela work with in their Dream House installations, it is unlikely that the listener will experience the effect that Young and Zazeela intended to create.

GAVIN BRYARS
Gavin Bryars also started out as a jazz musician, like Young Bryars played bass alongside musicians like Derek Bailey [6] who were well known amongst improvised jazz fans. His interest in improvisation soon shifted to composition in the mid-1960s, working with John Cage in the United States and collaborating with fellow avant-garde composer Cornelius Cardew [6] (who also met John Cage after coming across his work [7]). This new-found interest soon led to Bryars two seminal pieces created early in his career, The Sinking of the Titanic which incorporates indeterminacy, closely linked with the performers ability to choose sound sources relating to the Titanics sinking and using them as a piece of music and Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet a piece which bases itself on a loop of a homeless man singing a religious song. The loop itself was sourced from material that Bryars was using for a documentary based on homeless people in London [8]. However, the soundtrack never materialized and Bryars was given the material that he had originally recorded. Bryars would go on to compose operas and pieces for string quartets, theatre productions and dance companies one composition, in fact, was written for fellow Cage collaborator Merce Cunningham. Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet starts off with the aforementioned loop gradually fading in without any accompaniment. After three minutes, a string quartet slowly becomes introduced, followed a brass and horn quartet. Near the end of the 25-minute piece, other instruments such as harp, organ and glockenspiel can be heard in the piece. Whilst the piece contains a very striking melody, repetitive orchestral structure essentially, the piece itself is 13 bars long and the use of additive process (to an extent) in gradually introducing other instruments and sections, Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet is different to other minimalist compositions in that the emotional delivery of the stanza is made even more prominent by the orchestration, especially in the way dynamics are used in introducing sections throughout the piece each section has a very slow crescendo until it reaches a fortissimo and remains so until the end of the piece. Bryars notes that the composition convinced [him] of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected Jon Santos 3

the tramp's nobility and simple faith [8]. Contrary to the somber presence felt on the composition by some listeners, Bryars composed it as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism [8] , though the exploration of emotion in this composition would be found later in works by religious minimalist composers such as Arvo Part and Alan Hovhaness.

PICTURED: A road map of Gavin Bryars Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet outlining where certain sections should be introduced (for example, the loop slowly fades in until three minutes into the piece, where the string quartet follows.)

STEVE REICH
Steve Reich, after studying piano as a child, originally started out as a jazz drummer. Following his graduation from college with a degree in philosophy, Reich studied composition in Juilliard College and Jon Santos 4

individually with fellow composer and jazz pianist Hall Overton. Reich also worked with the San Francisco Tape Music Centre alongside other well-known and seminal minimalist composers, with Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros and a one-time collaborator of Reichs, Terry Riley also being involved with the collective [9]. It was Reich who suggested the eighth-note pulse which runs throughout Rileys piece In C, and Reich himself was one of the performers at the pieces premiere [10]. Like Young, Reichs early compositions also made use of twelvetone composition but Reich abandoned the method in favour of using tape as a medium to create pieces which involved a process called phasing, which involves the same phrase being played on two instruments or tape reels in a steady tempo, but with miniscule differences between the two phrases tempi, leading to the instruments gradually shifting out and back into unison. From this method arose two of Reichs seminal pieces, Its Gonna Rain and Come Out. Reich then approached the phrasing process with Violin Phase, composed in the same approach with another piece created in the same period, Piano Phase in this composition, two violins are recorded and played together in unison, then gradually fade out of sync, initially resulting in a delayed effect and, subsequently, a canon. The resulting canon and new melody created between the violins is complemented by the addition of a third violin halfway during the piece. While the piece contains a semblance of melody, harmony and a steady meter (the piece is most likely performed in 6/8 time), Violin Phase is based solely on one bar which is repeated throughout the 14minute duration the notes are most likely played in staccato, a very detached manner. The use of phasing, as Reichs trademark compositional technique, briefly leads to the two violins going out of time because of the lack of synchronization between them, hence the delayed effect. However, it transitions to a chugging effect, cultivating from the staccato playing and the eventual change to a canon of sorts.

Jon Santos

PICTURED ABOVE: An excerpt of the chart for Steve Reichs Violin Phase note the fourth violin accenting the first three violins which are, at this point, already out of sync the first two violins are already one beat apart from each other.

Though La Monte Young is the least prolific composer in terms of available output (Young has a large catalogue of compositions and works, most of which are largely unreleased or scarcely available), his use of static sine tones and ragas has had a significant impact on the minimalist movement to a significant degree, Young has influenced many musicians in the ambient and drone music field, and to a lesser extent, rock musicians. Two members of the Velvet Underground, John Cale and Lou Reed, incorporated minimalist techniques into their music Cale, a collaborator with the Theatre of Eternal Music, utilized a droning viola on the track Heroin, near the tracks climax. The entirety of Reeds album Metal Machine Music (a precedent of noise music) features no structured compositions instead, it consists of an hours worth of extreme guitar feedback, influenced by Youngs efforts with the Theatre of Eternal Music. Brian Eno, himself a well-known experimental rock musician and a member of Roxy Music, was inspired by Youngs use of repetition and Reichs use of phasing. In fact, these influences lead to Eno using the phasing technique on the track The True Wheel on his album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (released in 1974) and subsequently releasing a series of ambient music which also made use of phasing and repetition. Reich has had a greater influence on straightforward rock musicians and electronic musicians: many post-rock bands (musicians that incorporate rhythms, scales, harmonies and other elements that are uncommon in rock music) have been influenced by Reich and other minimalist composers, as have prog rock group King Crimson [9]. Reich has also had a significant influence on electronic musicians this influence is made clear on the 1999 tribute compilation Reich Remixed, which contains reworked arrangements and interpretations of Reichs compositions by well-known and seminal electronic musicians that have been indebted to Reich to varying degrees [9]. Jon Santos 6

Online + Literary References

1. A La Monte Young Web Page, Gann, K. [Date accessed: March 29th, 2010] <http://www.kylegann.com/lmy.html>. 2. "MELA: La Monte Young - Bio", MELA Foundation [Date accessed: April 16th, 2010] <http://melafoundation.org/ly1para8.htm>. 3. La Monte Young [Date accessed, April 16th, 2010] <http://20thcenturyclassical.com/young%20link.htm>. 4. Duckworth, W. Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers. New York: Da Capo, 1999. 233. Print. 5. Liner notes to Dream House 78 17, La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela, Shandar label, 1974 6. Gavin Bryars | Gavin Bryars, Bryars, G. [Date accessed: April 16th, 2010] <http://www.gavinbryars.com/info/biography>. 7. Ambarchi/Rowe, Cornelius Cardews Treatise, Modisti [Date accessed: April 16th, 2010] <http://modisti.com/musicbox/?p=4995>. 8. "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet | Gavin Bryars", Bryars, G. [Date accessed: April 16th, 2010] <http://www.gavinbryars.com/work/composition/jesus-blood-neverfailed-me-yet>. 9. Steve Reich Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Date accessed: April 16th, 2010] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Reich>. 10. Steve Reich [Date accessed: May 1st, 2010] <http://20thcenturyclassical.com/reich%20link.htm>.

Jon Santos