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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2015
Stepping inside the Dia Art Foundation's transformed gallery space in the heart of Chelsea is a special experience in itself. Darkly dressed ushers closely watch over your every move, preserving what is for the average audience member today a strikingly uncommon concert experience. ‘Turn off all cell phones, remove your shoes, and remain completely silent while in the Dream House’. Free of everyday noise and distractions, this unassuming venue is converted into an almost reverential space of mystical quasi-worship. The air is thick with the fragrance of incense and the floor is covered wall-to-wall with plush white carpet. Blends of deep magenta and rich blue light illuminate the space. In the centre of the room, facing the stage area, are three dark figures – the curators of this numinous sensory environment (La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Jung Hee Choi) – sitting silently on swivel chairs. They sit, literally elevated above the audience, which is relegated to the carpet. There are no chairs for mere onlookers, only small pillows, and not nearly enough for everyone. Most find themselves at points during the marathon-length evening lying prostrate: to rest aching backs and arms, but mostly just to take it all in.
1 The original score, pencilled on the surface of onionskins, is dated 5 September 1958. See Jeremy Grimshaw, Draw a Straight Line and Follow it (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 33.
2 Grimshaw points out in the footnotes to his Draw a Straight Line and Follow it that, ‘a curious edition of the Trio, printed on pocket-score-sized, newsprint-grade paper, with a translucent overlay of a photograph of the composer, was published in the 1960s by the Fluxus group; few of these scores survive, and at any rate performers wishing to play the piece today must contact the composer directly to obtain parts and permissions', p. 200.
3 ‘The compromise I made in 1958 was perhaps the first compromise I made in my music, but it was definitely my last’. La Monte Young, programme notes to Original Longer First Draft of the Exposition Section Alone (Summer 1958) from Trio for Strings (5 September 1958).
4 Charles Curtis interviewed by Natasha Pickowicz in San Diego, Paris Transatlantic, March 2010, http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/curtis.html (accessed 4 October 2015).