** condition: M/M ** A rare official release of La Monte Young’s music presenting the 1984 “melodic version” of a 1962 composition, performed in 1990 by The Theatre of Eternal Music Brass Ensemble led by Ben Neill.
“Stylistically, The Four Dreams of China continues the texture of long sustained tones and silences, and the extended-duration time construct set forth in his 1958 work Trio for Strings. Structurally, however, while the Trio for Strings is fixed in time by its method of conventional notation, The Four Dreams of China is the first work Young composed in the style of Trio that involves the process of improvisation. Inspired by the scores of Cage, Feldman, Brown, Wolff and Bussotti, which require performer interpretation, Young evolved a concept of composition that led to rule-based scores and crystallized in The Four Dreams of China. Strict rules in each of the four “Dreams” determine which of the four pitches may be sounded together. Within this framework of fixed rules, the musicians listen to each other and improvise.”
US edition with calligraphy by Marian Zazeela on the CD label and 16-page booklet.