Re: Young's symmetry

I have a question concerning La Monte Young's current installation
at MELA, which I had the pleasure of visiting last month. Gann's
book American Music in the 20th Century lists the harmonics used,
but it is unclear what the fundamental is. The set begins
4, 7, 9 ... and ends at 2224, so I suspect that the numbers are
frequencies in Hertz. Does anyone know for sure that this is
the case? Does anyone know whether or how Young adjusts amplitudes
and phases?

An amazing work, in any case.

csz@wco.com (Carter Scholz) writes:

>I have a question concerning La Monte Young's current installation
>at MELA, which I had the pleasure of visiting last month.

That was me at the door. I looked at the guest book after your group
left.

>Gann's
>book American Music in the 20th Century lists the harmonics used,
>but it is unclear what the fundamental is.

I can't remember if the fundamental is based on 30 or 60 cycles.

>The set begins
>4, 7, 9 ... and ends at 2224, so I suspect that the numbers are
>frequencies in Hertz.

They're harmonics. The 4 = 1/1, the 7 = 7/4 and the 9 = 9/8
I think the highest ratio is 2224/2048, an octave of the 139th
harmonic. - 139 x 16.

There's an article by Kyle Gann in the Sound and Light book on
La Monte's tunings.

>Does anyone know for sure that this is
>the case? Does anyone know whether or how Young adjusts amplitudes
>and phases?
.
Don't know the answer to that one, so I'll forward a copy of this to him

and see if he responds.

>An amazing work, in any case.

I'd agree with that.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

La Monte Young puts his installations in the same 'key' as the local house
current, treating that frequency as 2^n in the series. I may not be up to
date on the current installation, but I remember the fundamental being
considered to be 15 Hertz. The highest pitches in the complex thus have
very short wave lengths - the slightest move of the head causes an
encounter with the next wave front. The sine waves are in phase. Young
prefers his Amplitudes in an inverse relationship to frequency
(Fletcher-Munsen ignored), but I am not sure how exactly the Rayna is able
to do this.

Carter I think Mr. Beardsley is your man.
But i am pretty sure they are frequencies. Im running 2224 right now on a HP
frequency synth and it sounds correct. The 2224 harmonic is really up
there. Though i would not put it past the Grandaddy.

Carter Scholz wrote:

> From: csz@wco.com (Carter Scholz)
>
> I have a question concerning La Monte Young's current installation
> at MELA, which I had the pleasure of visiting last month. Gann's
> book American Music in the 20th Century lists the harmonics used,
> but it is unclear what the fundamental is. The set begins
> 4, 7, 9 ... and ends at 2224, so I suspect that the numbers are
> frequencies in Hertz. Does anyone know for sure that this is
> the case? Does anyone know whether or how Young adjusts amplitudes
> and phases?
>
> An amazing work, in any case.
>
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