The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25, 6:17:50 - 11:18:59 PM NYC

by La Monte Young

The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25, 6:17:50 - 11:18:59 PM NYC cover art

Capturing a continuous, five-hour performance from 1981, this sprawling masterwork utilizes a specially retuned piano utilizing just intonation. The legendary avant-garde composer creates massive, hallucinatory clouds of resonance by sustaining specific harmonic relationships, blurring the lines between rhythm, melody, and acoustic drone. Due to its length, tuning requirements, and long periods out-of-print, it holds an almost mythical status in minimalist music history.

Genres

  • Microtonal Classical
  • Minimalism

Tracklist

  1. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 1
  2. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 2
  3. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 3
  4. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 4
  5. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 5
  6. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 6
  7. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 7
  8. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 8
  9. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 9
  10. The Well-Tuned Piano Part 10