Beyond 20 Hz–20 kHz

"It seems to me that the most radical redefinition of music would be one that defines 'music' without reference to sound."
Robert Ashley - 1961
in "Experimental Music"  by Michael Nyman - 1974

 

 

 

MOTUS !

 

" L'homme  est un  organisme vivant qui tape, fait de la mauvaise musique et laisse aboyer son chien. Quelquefois  il ne  fait pas de bruit, mais c'est qu'il est mort " ...

..."Chat et chien - ils vivent en paix côte à côte.
Lorsque j'ai vu cela pour la première fois, j'ai cru à un miracle de dressage, tellement j'étais enclin, venant d'Allemagne, à considérer comme originel l'état où l'on passe son temps à montrer les dents, à hurler, à menacer et à aboyer. Mais après avoir observé d'innombrables fois que chats et chiens vivent ici en bonne harmonie, j'eus l'impression que ce ne devait sûrement pas être le cas." 
Kurt Tucholsky

Kurt Tucholsky qui vécut en France dans les années 20 quittera sa résidence du Vésinet en 1926 pour Fontainebleau, à cause du vacarme insupportable des chiens du voisinage!...
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IIIIIII

"It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of "culture."
John Cage 

III

" ... j'ai toujours pensé aux peintures blanches comme n'étant pas passives, mais... en fait, hypersensibles. ... 

Si bien qu'on pouvait les regarder et pratiquement voir, d'après leurs ombres portées, combien de personnes étaient dans la pièce, ou à quelle heure de le journée il était..."

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg “Erased de Kooning Drawing”
via woody wood cutter

 

III 

"Without music, life would be a mistake. "
Friedrich Nietzsche

  

 

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A good example?

"Love is a good example" is a 1993's piece by Robert Ashley,
recorded & published in 1995 on "A confederacy of dances, vol.2" on Einstein Records.
The free spoken word soundtrack was added to public domain footage from 1946, a private family collection found at the Prelinger archives. 




other rare Ashley' works on "beyond the coda"


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Dust

"Dust" (1998) is a Robert Ashley's  anti-war opera composed in 1998 with solo voices & pre-recorded orchestra.
Commissioned by the Kanagawa Prefectural Concert Hall (Yokohama) with additional funds from Dorothea Tanning.

Imagine a street corner anywhere in the world, where those who live on the fringes of society gather to talk, to each other and to themselves, about life-changing events, missed opportunities, memory, loss and regret.

Five “street people” recount the memories and experiences of one of their group, a man who has lost his legs in some unnamed war. As part of the experience of losing his legs, he began a conversation with God, under the influence of the morphine he was given to ease his pain. Now he wishes that the conversation, which was interrupted when the morphine wore off, could be continued so that he could get the “secret word” that would stop all wars and suffering.

Performed at La Mama (NYC) in 2009 with Robert Ashley, Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Tom Hamilton, Jacqueline Humbert, Joan La Barbara and "Blue" Gene Tyranny.

to look at & listen on Vimeo

  

That morning thing

 "That Morning Thing"  - Live @ The Kitchen, 2011

A 1967's work by Robert Ashley
A mixed-media opera for five principal voices, eight dancers, women's chorus and tape.
Director: Fast Forward

Sound processing and mixing: Tom Hamilton
Lighting design: David Moodey

Curated by Mark Beasley

  

That Morning Thing's complete version online  here on Vimeo

 

 

 

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Celestial excursions

Yesterday night, Robert Ashley did a solo performance for the "Art Press" 40th anniversary, at the Bibliothèque François Mitterand in Paris. Called "Answers and other songs", this lecture was amazing: his recitative voice, thoughtful of the stream and tempo of everyday speech, was alternately ondulating, pitching, singing, drawling with an obvious lucidity and a real sense of humour.
One of the piece he performed was "Love is a good example".

......

"Celestial excursions" is an opera composed by Robert Ashley in 2003.
The opera delves into the wild intermingling of loss, regret, nightmares, old sayings and old songs on the radio. Composed for solo voices and pre-recorded orchestra, the opera's originality lies in a vocal ensemble technique, unique to Ashley, which puts the vocal soloist in the midst of a swirling chorus.
Here are some excerpts of this piece.




"The essence of my music is that the syllables go by as fast as they do in the American English language and the pitch stresses, which make one syllable more important than the other syllable, are all within a range of half an octave. It's like you squeeze it in one direction and expand it in another direction. I've always been interested in tempo because it's a big, big factor in vocal music. The other factors, like melody, have been used up for the time being."  - Robert Ashley (from "The Wire" - august 2003)

Robert Ashley's major works are available on Lovely Music and Alga Marghen
& despite of his great pieces and recordings, i recommend particulary the CD  "Tap Dancing in the Sand"  featuring the MAE Ensemble on the label  Unsounds -  2007

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