The Monotone Symphony is an orchestral piece written in 1949 by artist Yves Klein. It consists of 20 minutes of one continuous note, followed by 20 minutes of performed silence.
His artistic search was towards the ‘immaterial’ which is manifested not only through this symphony but also through his Klein-Blue monochrome paintings and fire paintings.
The Monotone Symphony transports the audience in to a trance-like state, or the ‘immaterial world,’ and listening to it in its entirety is like a spiritual journey.
He has been reported to say, three days before his death in 1962: ‘I will soon have the biggest studio in the whole world and creating only immaterial.’
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