(Thornton), influential American composer of the extreme AVANT-GARDE and early proponent of musical MINIMALISM; b. Bern, Idaho, Oct. 14, 1935. Young studied clarinet and saxophone with William Green in Los Angeles from 1951 to 1954. From 1953 to 1956 he attended Los Angeles City College, and also studied COUNTERPOINT and composition privately with Leonard Stein in 1955-56. He was a pupil of Robert Stevenson at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a B.A. degree in 1958. Young then pursued further training with Lalo Shifrin and Andrew Imbrie at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1958 to I960. He also attended summer courses in new music in Darmstadt, and subsequently studied ELECTRONIC MUSIC with Richard Maxfield at the New School for Social Research in N.Y in 1960 -61 .

In 1963 Young married the artist and illustrator Marian Zazeela, with whom he subsequently gave audiovisual performances in a series of "Sound/Light Environments" in Europe and America. That same year, he edited An Anthology of Chance Operations, Concept Art, Anti-Art, etc., which was published in 1963. Along with his own Compositions I960, it had a strong influence on CONCEPT ART and the FLUXUS movement. Many of his early works consisted of simple (if sometimes ironic) instructions to the performers, as in: "Push the piano to the wall; push it through the wall; keep pushing."

Young's mature work has consisted of created total "sound environments." Listeners can arrive and depart at any time; the musical presentation has been ongoing for several years. In 1970 Young traveled to Northern India to study vocal music with Pandit Pran Nath, who would remain Young's teacher and guru until Nath's death in 1996.

Young has contributed extensively to the study of JUST INTONATION and other "pure" tuning systems; one goal was to create acoustic "clouds" of overtones. He received a Guggenheim fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Among Youngs extensive list of works, many have titles that are as evocative as the piece itself, including:

Poem for Tables, Chairs, and Benches (moving furniture about; University of California, Berkeley, 1960)

The WellTuned Piano (1964-81 )

The Tortoise Droning Selected Pitches from the Holy Numbers of the Two Black Tigers, the Green Tiger, and the Hermit (1964)

The Tortoise Recalling the Drone of the Holy Numbers as They Were Revealed in the Dreams of the Whirlwind and the Obsidian Gong, Illuminated by the Sawmill, the Green Sawtooth Ocelot, and the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer (1964)

Map of 49's Dream of Two Systems of 11 Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery for voices, various instruments, and sine wave drones (1968)

The Subsequent Dreams of China (1980)

The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer for trumpet ensemble (1985)

Young has created several pieces of conceptual music and tape recordings of his own MONOPHONOUS vocalizing achieved by both inspiration and expiration so that the vocal line is maintained indefinitely. He has also performed various physical exercises with or without audible sounds.