I decided to pursue the music of La Monte Young in response to the assignment of posting something that I didn't know much about. His ideas have always struck me as particularly interesting, yet I have heard very little of his actual music. When I found The Tortoise, His Dreams, and Journeys, I was intrigued, particularly because he is performing with John Cale and Tony Conrad. The piece could easily be classified as both minimal and ambient, as it fills the entirely of fifteen minutes with interesting, sometimes pleasant sound. The minimalist aspect of this piece that I am most interested in is the long duration. When an audience is presented with a wall of sound that is relatively unchanging they are forced to identify and actively listen to the minute differences in pitch, tone, and other aspects of music that are generally glossed over in lieu of pattern and rhythm. This is the same concept used in many minimalist pieces I have been exposed to, including Reich's Piano Phase, Tony Conrad's piece that we listened to in class, and on a large scale, even Conrad's "movie" shares this quality of minimal music.