Selected compositions, writings, correspondence, and publicity related to musical programs and other performance events of composer La Monte Young and his wife and collaborator, the artist Marian Zazeela. Many items autographed by Young and Zazeela to Robert Stevenson or John Vincent, former music professors at UCLA.

La Monte Young is a composer and artist known for his works in minimalism and Western drone music, including The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer and The Well-Tuned Piano. Born on Oct. 14, 1935 in a Bern, Idaho log cabin, he was fascinated at a young age by hearing the wind blow around his home and other continuous, droning sounds. Young grew up primarily in Los Angeles and Utah, and attended Los Angeles City College before finishing undergraduate studies at UCLA in 1958. As a high school student, he played saxophone and was active in the Los Angeles jazz community. While at Los Angeles City College, Young studied with Leonard Stein, a former assistant to Arnold Schoenberg, and learned Schoenberg's influential twelve-tone technique. Young was also exposed to Indian music, gamelan, and other Eastern sounds while a student at UCLA. In the summer of 1959, Young studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Darmstadt, Germany, where he encountered the music of John Cage, and also met Cage's friend and collaborator David Tudor. Young returned to California for graduate school at UC Berkeley, where he was a pupil of Seymore Shifrin, and then relocated to New York City to study electronic music with Richard Maxfield at the New School for Social Research.

0.5 linear ft. (1 box)

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