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The dream chord is a chord that is used prominently in the works of La Monte Young. It is made up of the pitches G-C-C♯-D. The chord is prominently featured in Young's compositions for Brass (1957), Trio for Strings (1958), and The Four Dreams of China (1962).

Young started working with long sounds in 1957 (in the octet for Brass) but his interest in them dates from much earlier. He remembers the sound of the wind in the chinks of the Idaho log cabin in which he was born in 1935. In his childhood he was fascinated by continuous environmental sounds, particularly those of motors, power plants and telephone poles. The 'dream chord' on which some of his pieces are based is the chord he used to hear in the telephone poles.

The chord was used in Young's Theatre of Eternal Music and also by Catherine Christer Hennix, among others.

References

1. Grimshaw, Jeremy (2011). Draw A Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young, p.176. ISBN 978-0-19-991218-6. B-E-F-F♯.
2. ^ Potter, Keith (2002). Four musical minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–33. ISBN 9780521015011. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
3. Alliance canadienne des télécommunications de l'entreprise (1977). Contact. The Alliance. p. 4. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
4. Strickland, Edward (2000). Minimalism--origins. Indiana University Press. pp. 154–155. ISBN 9780253213884. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
5. Kostelanetz, Richard (1968). The theatre of mixed means: an introduction to happenings, kinetic environments, and other mixed-means performances. Dial Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780932360281. Retrieved October 5, 2010.

v t e Chords
By form	Triad Major Minor Augmented Diminished Suspended Seventh Leading-tone Major Minor Dominant Dominant seventh flat five Diminished Half-diminished Diminished major Minor-major Augmented major Augmented minor Altered seventh Nondominant Harmonic seventh Extended Ninth Eleventh Thirteenth Upper structure Dominant 7♯9 Polychord Tone cluster Added / omitted Sixth Augmented sixth Lydian Seven six Specific Alpha Bridge Complexe sonore Dream Elektra Farben Grandmother Magic Mystic Northern lights Petrushka Psalms So What Tristan Viennese trichord General Mixed interval Secundal Tertian Quartal Synthetic chord Tetrad
By function	Diatonic Tonic Supertonic Mediant Subdominant Dominant Submediant Leading tone / Subtonic Altered Approach Borrowed Chromatic mediant Neapolitan Passing Secondary Secondary dominant Secondary leading-tone Secondary supertonic Other Common Contrast Primary triad Subsidiary Substitute
Techniques	Barre Block Chordioid Chord-scale system Guitar Open Power Slash
Other	Arpeggio Chord names and symbols List of chords Factor

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