1. Conrad, Tony Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. 2. Conrad, Tony “smsigyILIS,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One (set of four compact discs). Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 75. 3. Conrad, Tony “LYssophobia: on Four Violins,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Pages 17-20. 4. Ibid., Pages 75, 66. 5. Lyotard, Jean-Francois The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Page xxiv. 6. Conrad, Tony “smsigyILIS,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 73. 7. Ibid., Pages 75-76. 8. Ibid., Page 66. 9. Conrad, Tony “MINor premise,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 32.
1. Cage, John “The Future of Music: Credo” reprinted in Silence. Middletown, CT.: Wesleyan University Press, 1973. This portion is excerpted only from the part of the text written exclusively in capital letters. The text originated as a lecture given by Cage in 1937 in Seattle, Washington. 2. Of course, this view is itself almost exclusively oriented towards Western-styled Industrial nations. Although some sort of music seems to pervade every culture of the globe, the means of reproducing music besides that in real-time (i.e. actual playing of instruments) is not. 3. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998, page 23. 4. Ibid., page 23. 5. As I write this, I am thinking specifically of the semi-improvisational underground (a more detailed explication of the term “underground” will occur later in this project) music coming out of New Zealand at the present: groups or individual musicians (but certainly not limited to) like the Dead C. and Dean Roberts (which, in turn, have influenced quite a few underground musicians in the “birthplace” of such music, the United States). Then I realize that even pop music, say the kind extant in Thailand for instance, is much different from its American cousin. 6. Although Stravinsky was certainly “neo-Romantic,” the supposedly radical figure of Serialism is credited as being Arnold Schoenberg. 7. Gann, Kyle American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer, 1997. Page 104. 8. Flynt, Henry “Mutations of the Vanguard: Pre-Fluxus, During Fluxus, Late Fluxus,” Ubi Fluxus ibi Motus: 1990-1962. Venice: Ex Granai della Repubblica Alle Zitelle, 1990. Page 114. 9. Interestingly enough, the decision to picket Stockhausen was quite controversial within the Fluxus group as many members were involved in the performance inside the recital hall. I will discuss this particular episode in depth in later chapters. 10. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998., page 6. 11. Pritchett, James The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Page 7. 12. Elliot Carter’s remarks about repetition -- arguably the major component of Minimalism -- as a means of “brainwashing” employed by both advertising and “Hitler’s speeches” is intriguing. Obviously, Minimalism, which developed in America, owed a much smaller debt to Western European cultures, the same cultures which supposedly produced Fascism. Indeed, Serialism may seem more intuitively linked to Fascism because it also grew almost directly out of Western European cultures (although Carter, as well as other Serialists like Milton Babbitt, was American).
From Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 286. 13. Nyman, Michael Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. New York: Schirmer, 1974. Pages 27-28. 14. Pritchett, James The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Page 9. Of course, Pritchett’s agenda, spelled out in the introduction, is to re-introduce Cage as a composer, a concept which Cage’s own works rendered, at the least, moot. 15. Nyman, Michael Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. New York: Schirmer, 1974. Page 27. This quotation is uncited by Nyman. 16. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 6. 17. Duckworth, William and Richard Fleming, eds. Sound and Light: La Monte Young Marian Zazeela. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. Page 47. 18. Pritchett, James The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Page 20. 19. Ibid., pages 18-25. 20. Cage, John “A Composer’s Confessions,” from Kostelanetz, Richard, ed. John Cage: Writer. New York: Limelight, 1993. Page 43. 21. At its premiere, Imaginary Landscapes No. 4 would become its own version of a silent piece: the performance occurred late at night after most radio stations had already signed off [Pritchett, page 90]. 22. Pritchett, James The Music of John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Page 59. 23. Ibid., page 2. 24. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston Street, Buffalo, NY, on January 10, 1998. Page 5. 25. Conrad, Tony liner notes to Four Violins (1964). Released by Table of the Elements, 1996. 26. Flynt, Henry “La Monte Young in New York, 1960-1962” from Duckworth, William and Richard Fleming, eds., Sound and Light: La Monte Young Marian Zazeela. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. Page 47. 27. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 2. 28. Conrad, Tony “smsigyILIS,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 73. 29. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 6. 30. Gann, Kyle American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer, 1997. Pages 187-188. 31. A detailed chronology of La Monte Young’s music will appear in chapter two, “Dream Music: Tony Conrad, La Monte Young, and The Theatre of Eternal Music.” 32. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 6. 33. Strickland, Ed American Composers: Dialogues on Contemporary Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. Page 59. 34. Strickland, Ed Minimalism – Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 121. 35. Nyman, Michael Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. New York: Schirmer, 1974. Page 69. 36. Flynt, Henry “La Monte Young in New York, 1960-1962” from Duckworth, William and Richard Fleming, eds., Sound and Light: La Monte Young Marian Zazeela. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. Page 49. 37. Strickland, Ed American Composers: Dialogues on Contemporary Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. Page 61. 38. Young, La Monte and Jackson MacLow, eds. An Anthology of Chance Operations...(second edition). Bronx, NY: George Maciunas, 1970. 39. Ibid. 40. Ibid. 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid. 43. Strickland, Ed Minimalism – Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. 44. Young, La Monte and Jackson MacLow, eds., An Anthology of Chance Operations...(second edition). Bronx, NY: George Maciunas, 1970. 45. Ibid. 46. Strickland, Ed Minimalism – Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 139. 47. Flynt and Young corresponded after Conrad had met Young. I believe the piece was written before they had actually met. 48. Composition 1960 #7. 49. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 5. 50. Conrad, Tony “MINor premise,” from liner notes to Early Minimalism, Volume One. Released by Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 32.
1. Conrad, Tony “Inside the Dream Syndicate,” Film Culture, No. 41, Summer 1966. Page 7. 2. The majority of these writings were not produced until the 1970s. Tony Conrad: “The implementation of an urban cultural model as opposed to a mass cultural model, that this process really changed people’s understanding of where they located themselves. . . which is why I think [that] postmodernity appeared as a concrete factor in music earlier than it did in some of the other cultural forms, really. Conspicuously, dance, which began having postmodern dance, which was actually by anybody else’s definition modern dance.” Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. page 2. 3. Or, in some instances, does not produce. 4. A purely musical analysis of the Theatre of Eternal Music at the date of writing is practically impossible anyway, because of the completely unavailable nature of recordings of the group (although they do, in some form, exist). 5. An oft-uttered phrase in the Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. 6. Ibid., page 2-3. 7. Ibid., page 1. The exploration of the issue of the relation of mathematics to music will come in a later chapter. 8. Ibid., page 2. 9. Conrad, Tony “LYssophobia: on Four Violins” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 12. 10. Ibid., pages 11-12. 11. Hunt Joel, Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 14. 12. From photocopy of the concert’s program provided to the author by Tony Conrad. 13. “Throughout, the word ‘instrument’ has been used very liberally to refer not only to the usual musical instruments, but to the voice and more generally to any source of (audible) sound whatever.” From Conrad, Tony Three Loops for Performers and Tape Recorders (score). Private copy of the original, 1961. Page 8. 14. Ibid., page 9. 15. Ibid., page 1. 16. See Introduction. 17. Conrad, Tony Three Loops for Performers and Tape Recorders (score). Private copy of the original, 1961. Page 2. 18. Ibid., Page 7. 19. A graph delineated the role of the tape recorders follows on the next page of the score. Instruments proposed in the “Commentary and Suggestions” section are piano (the playing of a single string for glissando effects), slide whistle, singing, and a rod attached to a table with one end free for glissandi. Ibid., Pages 5-7. 20. Conrad, Tony “MINor premise” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 40. 21 Flynt, Henry “La Monte Young in New York, 1960-62” from Sound and Light: La Monte Young Marian Zazeela. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. Page 56. 22. A complete list of contributors: George Brecht, Claus Bremer, Earle Brown, Joseph Byrd, John Cage, David Degener, Walter De Maria, Henry Flynt, Yoko Ono, Dick Higgins, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Terry Jennings, Dennis Johnson, George Maciunas (Ding Dong), Ray Johnson, Jackson MacLow, Richard Maxfield, Robert Morris, Simone Morris, Nam June Paik, Terry Riley, Diter Rot, James Waring, Emmett Williams, Christian Wolff, La Monte Young, Anthony Cox. 23. La Monte Young performed B-flat Dorian Blues at this festival. 24. Flynt, Henry “Mutations of the Vanguard Pre-Fluxus, During Fluxus, Late Fluxus” from Ubi Fluxus ibi Motus: 1990-1962. Venice: Ex Granai della Repubblica alle Zitelle, 1990. Page 101. 25. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Pages 3-4. 26. Flynt, Henry “Mutations of the Vanguard Pre-Fluxus, During Fluxus, Late Fluxus.” from Ubi Fluxus ibi Motus: 1990-1962. Venice: Ex Granai della Repubblica alle Zitelle, 1990. Page 113. 27. Ibid., Page 110. 28. Ibid., Page 114. 29. Who would have many later detractors, including Cornelius Cardew who wrote an essay entitled “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism.” 30. Which, among its many releases, included Richard Meltzer’s The Aesthetics of Rock in 1970. 31. Which seems adapted directly from Flynt’s description of Concept Art. The text of this particular piece states:
To perform this piece,
do not perform it.
This piece is its name.
This is the piece that
is any piece
Watch smoke.
from Kollein, Thomas Fluxus. London: Thames & Hudson, 1995. Page 17. 32. Whose Zen for Head was his interpretation of Young’s “Draw a straight line and follow it:” in performance Paik dipped his head in ink, then pressed it against a long scroll of paper, dragging it in a straight line. Crow, Thomas The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. Page 130. 33. Centered in the art world around Allan Kaprow, who took inspiration from Cage’s Event at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s. 34. Flynt, Henry “La Monte Young in New York, 1960-62” from Sound and Light: La Monte Young Marian Zazeela. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. Page 59. 35. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 62. 36. Whom Young met and married in 1962: the two have hardly been apart since. 37. Conrad, Tony “LYssophobia: on Four Violins” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Pages 12-13. 38. Nagoski, Ian “La Monte Young -Marian Zazeela: An Interview” Halana, No.1, November 1995. Page 29. 39. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 62. 40. Allen Kaprow, who coined the term “Happenings” and labeled his own art events as such, supposedly was present at the Yam Festival, and “threw Young off a hay mound where he had been playing sopranino saxophone.” Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 154. 41. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 5. 42. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 155. 43. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 62. 44. See Chapter Five: “Waking Up from ‘Dream Music’: Early Minimalism and Slapping Pythagoras. 45. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 5. 46. Ibid., Page 7. 47. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Pages 155-156. 47. Conrad, Tony “MINor Premise” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 33. 48. Ibid., Page 45. 49. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 156. 50. Ibid., Page 156. 51. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 7. 52. Ibid., Page 8. 53. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 64. 54. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 157. 55. Ibid., page 158. 56. Young’s definition of a “wall of sound,” in which very loud drones created a stable, unchaging aural phenomenon, is different from that of its common usage in reference to the pop producer and composer Phil Spector, who incorporated masses of orchestral instruments into the pop song format. 57. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Page 155. 58. Ibid., page 158. 59. Ibid., page 158. 60. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 64. 61. Strickland, Ed Minimalism: Origins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Pages 158-159. 62. Conrad, Tony “MINor Premise” from liner notes to Early Minimalism: Volume One. Table of the Elements, 1997. Page 33. 63. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 7. 64. Ibid., Pages 8-9. 65. Ibid., Page 8. 66. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Page 69. 67. Salzman, Eric Twentieth Century Music: an Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974. Page 188. 68. Licht, Alan “The History of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music,” Forced Exposure, No. 16, 1990. Pages 60-61. 69. Cage, John “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) 1965,” A Year from Monday. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1967. Page 16. 70. Hunt, Joel Interview with Tony Conrad at 126 Livingston, Buffalo, NY on January 10, 1998. Page 15. 71. Ibid., Page 15.