Abstract

After John Cage extended the field of musical sounds to include all audible sound in the early 1950s, in the early 1960s La Monte Young adopted the strategy of including all sound into the musical world to innovate the traditional Western music and introduced the "inaudible" sound. This paper deals with the condition of how this "inaudible" but "perceptible" sound can be introduced into the musical world by investigating Young's "word pieces" . I argue, first, that Young introduces the "inaudible" sound by declaring the audible judgement on sound unnecessary. Secondly, I consider the condition which secures this declaration, by concentrating on the process how Young reconsiders Caegan One Sound and reconstructs his own conception of sound and listening. By showing how the process of the "act of listening" has acquired the creative ability not only to transform sound but also to generate sound from nothing, in conclusion, it becomes clear that, by giving the creative ability to the "act of listening", Young introduced the "inaudible" sound and extended the field of musical sound to include all "conceivable" sound