LaMonte Young’s Gradual Unfolding

In 1980 I hitchhiked to New York to hear LaMonte Young perform The Well-Tuned Piano at the Dia Arts Foundation building. I had been interested in his music since I read Robert Palmer’s 1975 piece about him in Rolling Stone, titled “When La Monte Young Says ‘Take It From The Top,’ He Means Last Tuesday.” 1975 was also the year I discovered, and fell in love with, the music of Harry Partch (I was a weirder kid than I am adult, and I’m plenty weird).

My wife gave me Jeremy Grimshaw’s biographical study of Young, “Draw A Straight Line And Follow It” for my birthday (I’m fifty-four! Yikes!). Not being a Mormon, I found some of Grimshaw’s attempts to rationalize Young’s music-theoretical ideas under an LDS rubric somewhat bizarre (LSD seems more likely to me). Regardless, there was a lot of good information in the book which helped me understand more about the composer’s artistic trajectory.

Five Small Pieces For String Quartet

Just Charles & Cello in The Romantic Chord