Trio for Strings is a 1958 composition for violin, viola, and cello by American composer La Monte Young. It consists almost entirely of sustained tones and rests, [1] and represents Young's first full embrace of "static" composition. [2] It has been described as a central work of musical minimalism. [3]
Young composed the Trio as a recent college graduate in Los Angeles, imagining it as an impractically lengthy piece. [3] He ultimately reduced it to an hour for the first public presentation of his work. [3] The piece is indebted to Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone technique and the late works of Anton Webern, [2] but was also influenced by Young's fascination with the long tones of Japanese gagaku and Indian raga. [3] It was Young's final serialist composition. [2] A set of four notes which recurs in the piece became known as the "Dream Chord" and would be explored further in Young's subsequent works. [3]
For decades, Young did not release any recordings of the Trio or publish the score, making it difficult to hear aside from bootlegs circulated privately. [3] Since 1986, he has worked with cellist Charles Curtis to develop alternate versions of the piece. [3] In 2005, Young premiered a new "Just Intonation Version" of the Trio for a sextet, performed by the Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble under the direction of Curtis. [2] A series of 2015 performances at Dia Chelsea extended the piece to three hours in length. [3] This version was officially released in 2021 by the Dia Art Foundation under the title Trio for Strings Original Full Length Just Intonation Version (1958–1984–1998–2001–2005–2015) featuring Curtis and Reynard Rott (cello), Erik Carlson and Christopher Otto (violin, viola).
The composition has been described as an "origin point for minimalism." [3] [4] The New Yorker called it "a sensuous and transcendent work" and "for many, the seminal work of musical minimalism." [5] Author Edward Strickland called it "the first work in full-blown musical minimalism" following Young's transitional pieces for Brass (1957) and for Guitar (1958). [6] David Paul of Seconds stated that the piece, "with its silences and long tones, paved the way for music based on tonality, drone and infinite time spans, brushing aside elaborate formal development in favor of the contemplation of pure sound." [7] The composition precipitated Young's 1960s improvising ensemble the Theatre of Eternal Music and his development of Dream House environments with Marian Zazeela. [3]
Artist Andy Warhol attended an early performance of the piece along with film-maker Jonas Mekas, who claimed that Warhol's static films were directly inspired by the performance. [8] [9] Composer Terry Riley credited the piece with paving the way for his influential 1964 composition In C , stating that "What La Monte introduced was this concept of not having to press ahead to create interest. He would wait for the music to take its own course." [10] According to Young himself, "Nobody ever took an interest in writing sustained tones without melodies over them before me." [3]
On January 29, 2022, Dia Art Foundation published a Zoom internet discussion between La Monte Young, Jung Hee Choi and Andy Battaglia, editor at ARTnews magazine, about Trio for Strings on YouTube.
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, improvisation, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music. Subsequent works such as Shri Camel (1980) explored just intonation.
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
La Monte Thornton Young is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best known for his exploration of sustained tones, beginning with his 1958 composition Trio for Strings. His compositions have called into question the nature and definition of music, most prominently in the text scores of his Compositions 1960. While few of his recordings remain in print, his work has inspired prominent musicians across various genres, including avant-garde, rock, and ambient music.
Mario Davidovsky was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions called Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.
Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre of music that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy compositions featuring relatively slight harmonic variations. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it in 2000 as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism". Music containing drones can be found in many regional traditions across Asia, Australia, and Europe, but the genre label is generally reserved for music originating with the Western classical tradition. Elements of drone music have been incorporated in diverse genres such as rock, ambient, and electronic music.
Buxton Daeblitz Orr was a Glasgow-born Anglo-Scottish composer and teacher.
Alexander Kuzmich Vustin, also Voustin or Wustin was a Russian composer. His works, including the opera The Devil in Love, were played and recorded internationally.
Marian Zazeela was an American light artist, designer, calligrapher, painter, and musician based in New York City. She was a member of the 1960s experimental music collective Theatre of Eternal Music, and was known for her collaborative work with her husband, the minimalist composer La Monte Young.
Bruce Mather is a Canadian composer, pianist, and writer who is particularly known for his contributions to contemporary classical music.
Joe Cutler is a British composer who grew up in Neasden and studied music at the Universities of Huddersfield and Durham, before receiving a Polish Government Scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. He has taught composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2000, and since 2005 he has been the Head of Composition there. In 2015 he was made Professor of Composition. He is also the co-founder of the instrumental ensemble Noszferatu.
Dream House 78' 17" is a studio album by minimalist composer La Monte Young, artist Marian Zazeela, and their group the Theatre of Eternal Music. The album was originally released in 1974 by the French label Shandar. The length of the record, almost double what was then normal, was extremely unusual in its time.
Donald Henry Kay AM is an Australian classical composer.
Terry Jennings was a Fluxus-related California-born American minimalist composer and woodwind performer.
Inside the Dream Syndicate, Vol. I: Day of Niagara or simply Day of Niagara is a bootleg recording of a 1965 performance by the minimalist music group the Theatre of Eternal Music, a.k.a. the Dream Syndicate. Contributors include future Velvet Underground members John Cale and Angus Maclise, composers La Monte Young and Tony Conrad, and artist Marian Zazeela. It received a release in 2000 by the label Table of the Elements against the wishes of Young.
David Serkin Ludwig is an American composer, teacher, and Dean of Music at The Juilliard School. His uncle was pianist Peter Serkin, his grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin, and his great-grandfather was the violinist Adolf Busch. He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. His choral work, The New Colossus, was performed at the 2013 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
The dream chord is a chord that is used prominently in the works of La Monte Young. It is made up of the pitches G-C-C♯-D. The chord is prominently featured in Young's compositions for Brass (1957), Trio for Strings (1958), and The Four Dreams of China (1962).
The Theatre of Eternal Music was an avant-garde musical group formed by La Monte Young in New York City in 1962. The first group (1962–1964) of performers consisted of La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Angus MacLise, and Billy Name. From 1964 to 1966, Theatre of Eternal Music consisted of La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, John Cale (viola), and Tony Conrad (violin), with sometimes also Terry Riley (voice). Since 1966, Theatre of Eternal Music has seen many permutations and has included Garrett List, Jon Gibson, Jon Hassell, Rhys Chatham, Alex Dea, Terry Jennings, and many others, including some members of the various 1960s groups. The group's self-described "dream music" explored drones and pure harmonic intervals, employing sustained tones and electric amplification in lengthy, all-night performances.
The Just Alap Raga Ensemble is a Hindustani classical music ensemble, based in New York City, formed in 2002 by La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi. The ensemble performs music in the tradition of the Kirana Gharana, a style inherited through Young and Zazeela's long discipleship under master Indian vocalist, Pandit Pran Nath. The music features extended alap sections and sustained vocal drones in just intonation over tamburas.
Jung Hee Choi is a South Korean-born artist and musician, based in New York City, working in video, performance, sound and multi-media installation. Since 1999, Choi has been a disciple of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the study of music and art. Choi, with Young and Zazeela, is a founding member of The Just Alap Raga Ensemble, and has performed as vocalist with the ensemble since 2002. Choi's work has been presented in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including FRAC Franche-Comté, France; Berliner Festspiele, Germany; Dia Art Foundation, Guggenheim Museum and MELA Foundation Dream Houses, NYC; FRESH Festival, Bangkok; and the Korea Experimental Arts Festival, Korea. The New York Times listed Choi's Tonecycle for Blues performed by her Sundara All Star Band as one of The Best Classical Music Performances of 2017.
Dream House is a sound and light installation, and occasional performance venue, created by minimalist composer La Monte Young and multimedia artist Marian Zazeela. The installation features Young's continuous sine wave drones and Zazeela's lighting and design.
| Music |
|
|---|---|
| Related | |
