A seminal figure in American avant-garde music, composer, visual artist, and performer, Charlemagne Palestine is globally renowned for his loud, percussive, cascading drones on piano and carillon bells in epic-length concerts that, once upon a time, would end with his blood on the keys. He is among the most enigmatic personalities to have emerged from the New York vanguard art scene of the 1960s and '70s. Though often regarded as a peer of minimalist composers such as Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, (who came to hear his carillon music at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church on Fifth A...