Theatre of Eternal Music

The Theatre of Eternal Music, sometimes later known as The Dream Syndicate,[1] was a mid-1960s avant-garde musical group formed by La Monte Young in New York City.[2] The group explored minimalism and drone music (then called "dream music"), employing sustained tones and just harmonic tuning in lengthy, all-night performances.[3] The core of the group consisted of Young (voice, saxophone), Tony Conrad (violin), Marian Zazeela (voice, lighting), Angus MacLise (percussion), and John Cale (viola), with additional participants including Terry Riley, Billy Name, Terry Jennings, Jon Hassell, Alex Dea, and Jon Gibson.

Theatre of Eternal Music
OriginEast Coast, USA
GenresDrone, avant-garde, minimalism
Years active1962–1966, 1969-1974
LabelsShandar, Table of the Elements
Associated actsThe Velvet Underground
Just Alap Raga Ensemble
various other musicians
Past membersLa Monte Young
John Cale
Angus MacLise
Terry Jennings
Marian Zazeela
Tony Conrad
Billy Name
Jon Hassell
Alex Dea
Terry Riley
Sterling Morrison
Jon Gibson

Archival recordings of the group's influential 1960s performances remain in the possession of Young, but none have ever seen official release.[4] A dispute over compositional credit between Young and other members (notably Conrad and Cale) resulted in Young's apparent refusal to release any of the material.[4] Nonetheless, a bootleg recording of a 1965 performance was controversially released in 2000 as Day of Niagara.[4]

History

The Theatre of Eternal Music gave performances that consisted of long periods of sensory inundation with intervals of unconventional harmonic combinations, which moved slowly from one to the next by means of "laws" laid out by La Monte Young regarding "allowable" sequences and simultaneities. Combined with Young's interest in sustained tones and Hindustani classical music was Tony Conrad's knowledge of just intonation and the mathematics of tuning, along with his introduction of electronic amplification.[5] The group was initially defined by Young's jazz-influenced saxophone improvisation, but soon moved fully toward drone music under the influence of Conrad and Cale.[5]

The group initially featured Young, Marian Zazeela, Angus MacLise, and Billy Name. In 1964 the ensemble contained Young and Marian Zazeela, voices; Tony Conrad and John Cale, strings; and later in 1965 Terry Riley, voice. Many of the group's performances took place in a Young and Zazeela's New York loft. The Theater of Eternal Music's discordant sustained notes and loud amplification influenced Cale's subsequent contribution to the Velvet Underground in his use of both discordance and feedback.[6] Cale and Conrad have released noise music recordings they made during the mid-sixties, such as Cale's Inside the Dream Syndicate series (The Dream Syndicate being the alternative name given by Cale and Conrad to their collective work with Young).[7]

Most of the pieces performed by the Theatre of Eternal Music have long titles. Likewise, the works are often of extreme length, many pieces having no beginning and no end, existing before and after a particular performance. The Theatre of Eternal Music ensemble’s masterwork, begun in 1964, is titled The Tortoise His Dreams and Journeys and is divided into several sections, of which "Map of 49’s Dream: The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Light-Years Tracery," is the only one of which a fragment can be found on the disc Dream House 78' 17" (with Jon Hassell on trumpet, Garrett List on trombone, Zazeela on voice and Young on electronics).[8]

Dispute over credits

Few of the group's recorded performances from the 1960s have ever seen public release, and remain in the possession of Young despite protest from other group members.[4] A dispute over compositional credit developed between Young and members Conrad and Cale.[4] Requests for copies of these recordings were met with Young's insistence that they sign an agreement acknowledging Young as the sole composer of the music, which they refused to do.[9] In 2000, the record label Table of the Elements released a bootleg recording of a 1965 performance as Day of Niagara; the recording was not authorized by Young.[4] Young responded to the complaints of Conrad and Cale in an essay which reaffirmed his status as sole composer.[10]

Discography

See also

Further reading
  • Paul Hegarty, Noise/Music: A History (2007) Continuum International Publishing Group
  • Hermann von Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1885) 2nd English edition. New York: Dover Publications
  • LaBelle, Brandon. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (2006) New York and London: Continuum International Publishing, p. 71
  • Joseph, Branden. Beyond the Dream Syndicate : Tony Conrad and the arts after Cage : a 'minor' history. New York: Zone Books, 2008.
  • Jim Samson, Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900–1920 (1977) New York: W.W. Norton & Company
  • James Tenney, A History of "Consonance" and "Dissonance" (1988) White Plains, NY: Excelsior; New York: Gordon and Breach
  • Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties (2003) Pantheon, New York

Notes
  1. S. Murray (April 30, 2000). "Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume I: Day of Niagara (1965)". Pitchfork.
  2. Newmusicbox.org La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela at the Dream House: The Theatre of Eternal Music (2003)
  3. Hoberman, J. (April 9, 2016). "Tony Conrad, Experimental Filmmaker and Musician, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  4. Murray, S. "Inside the Dream Syndicate, Volume I: Day of Niagara (1965)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  5. Bridges, Brian. "Product of Culture-Clash: the Theatre of Eternal Music and the early New York Downtown Scene". Maynooth Musicology.
  6. Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties (2003) Pantheon, New York, p. 157
  7. Steven Watson, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties (2003) Pantheon, New York, p. 103
  8. LaBelle, Brandon. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (2006) New York and London: Continuum International Publishing, p. 71
  9. Grubbs, David (2014). Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording. Duke University Press. p. 30.
  10. Young, La Monte. "Notes on The Theatre of Eternal Music and The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys" (PDF). MELA Foundation. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
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