The Well-Tuned Piano recording made in 1962 cuts off suddenly after only an hour and a half. Young has also been influential to many composers and musicians throughout his life. Dennis Johnson cites Young as an influence in his composition, "The Second Machine", which is based on four single pitches of Young's "Four Dreams of China". Composer and critic Kyle Gann has said that "The Well-Tuned Piano", "may well be the most important American piano work since Charles Ives's "Concord Sonata", in size, in influence, and in revolutionary innovation." Gann has also called the piece "the most important piano work of the late
The Well-Tuned Piano Piano". As an audience member at a live performance of The "Well-Tuned Piano", one is surrounded by the, "pure and intense color sensations," of "The Magenta Lights". These lights are magenta in color and are installed into the performance area and projected throughout the space. Young gives credit to Dennis Johnson, a former schoolmate and composer from UCLA, for inspiring "The Well-Tuned Piano". Johnson wrote an extensive, improvisatory, solo piano piece titled "November" in 1959, a few years before Young began working on "The Well-Tuned Piano". Although the piece is said to be as long as six hours, the tape