May 4: Music of Terry Riley & La Monte Young

Prague Music Performance brings the top of the crop in the avant-garde for one-night events; in recent times this has included last year’s guest, Roscoe Mitchell (last standing founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago), and previously John Zorn for his bagatelles 5 hour-non-stop marathon.

This year brings the “Music of Terry Riley & La Monte Young” as minimalist innovators of legendary status who both influenced developments in music from the earliest art rock of the Velvet Underground to No Wave, and inevitably more popular music from disco to electronica.

There will be two compositions performed for this evening, each approximately an hour.

Terry Riley’s “In C” is a series of 53 short musical figures played in sequence by any number of players and with any instruments depending on the whim of the moment. Two hits of the C-note plays over this on piano (or keyboard) and best result is an hypnotic even hallucinogenic journey. The careful attention to modal variations and repetition makes it an iconic step in modern music.

“In C” was first performed in 1964, in San Francisco, and when it was released on album in 1968, the linear notes had the stamp of approval from San Francisco reviewers of classical music and the rising psychedelic rock scene. The classical music reviewer of the Chronicle said this: “You feel that you have never done anything all your life but listen to this music and as if that is all there is or will ever be….” The rock critic of Rolling Stone said this: “All right, so let’s say that what we have here is a ‘trip’, a voluntary, unpredictable absorbing experience….”

Modern classical music and contemporary electronica is rooted in this earliest experimentation.

Similarly, La Monte Young’s “Composition # 7” as a counterpart for the evening is ideal. La Monte Young is lesser known as a minimalist composer (compared to Riley, Phillip Glass or Steve Reich). Yet he preceded them, starting first in California (at Berkeley) then relocating to New York City where he lived for the rest of his life (mostly in seclusion) in his Dream House.

La Monte Young’s Dream House was merely a loft on the Lower West Side, but notable for New York artists as being a space for experiments with continuous light and sound under the auspices of his Theatre of Eternal Music. Eternal music as extended drone pieces influenced by free jazz, Indian ragas or Moroccan trance music. John Cale of the Velvet Underground was a collaborator.

“Composition # 7” written in 1960 and most influenced by John Cage and Zen philosophy consists of two notes: a B3 and F#4 held in suspended time for what seems like an eternity.

Not just any musicians can play these for maximum listening experience, and so for this evening, Prague Music Performance has invited Gareth Davis, Roland Dahinden, Robin Rimbaud, Agathe Max, Pau Solas Masfrets, Arthur Klaasens, John Eckhardt, Daniel Havel and Martin Švec.

And the performance will be in a site-specific arrangement so the audience can move around or lounge at their pleasure. This makes it an interactive experience and one truly unique at that.

For more information, see Prague Music Performance (pmpif.org)