Robert Ashley: “The music has outgrown the architecture.”
On Oct. 23, Issue Project Room held a screening of Robert Ashley’s 1983 classic made-for-TV-opera “Perfect Lives,” in support of our ongoing fundraising campaign for “Vidas Perfectas,” to be held December 15 – 17 at Irondale Theater in Brooklyn.
After the screening, Robert Ashley, Alex Waterman and Ned Sublette (who will play the narrator, “R,” in “Vidas Perfectas”) stuck around for a Q&A about television, “Vidas Perfectas,” and methods of collaboration. The whole interview is available for streaming below, but here’s an excerpt, just to whet your appetite
(Listen while reading)
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Why is it for television? As I was growing into music, I was more and more disappointed by the musical experience that I saw on stage. One, because it was so old—the instruments are old, the ideas are so old, everything’s so old it’s so boring, you know? Because the music that we’re all thinking of had outgrown the architecture. In the best of circumstances, the architecture and the music—for the people—match. But what’s happened in the last 50–100 years is that the music has outgrown the architecture. There is no architecture to deal with what we’re talking about right here [bong] … and I thought, there’s got to be one, or we wouldn’t be thinking these thoughts. And it occurred to me … that our architecture might be the imaginary space behind the surface of the television screen. In other words, you look at the television screen, you see whatever you see—red, green, blue—behind that there’s an imaginary space and maybe that’s the place for the music of our time. So I started thinking in that way and I haven’t changed my mind a bit. I think Alex is the first to see … if you want your music to feel at home, I would suggest you start knocking on the doors of television and saying “let me in.” Because that’s the space for my music. It has everything in terms of the speed of the music, it can handle any situation, and it can go from not much money to a whole lot of money—and you want to be on both ends [bong].
—Robert Ashley
Full Excerpt:
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Vidas Perfectas
VIDAS PERFECTAS is an all new, Spanish language version of the classic avant-garde television opera from the 1980s: PERFECT LIVES.
Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives challenges the ways in which we perceive the relationship between language and music, mixing chanting, storytelling, meditation and ecstatic revelation. And as the world’s first ‘television opera,’ has almost single-handedly changed the way we think about opera, television, and performance.
In 2010, Issue Project Room was awarded an NEA grant to produce a new version of Perfect Lives in co-operation with Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman. The NEA grant provided the funds necessary to begin, but it constitutes only a fraction of the cost of a live performance run and an even smaller fraction of the cost of the television production.
Vidas Perfectas will be produced for television and appear in seven 30-minute episodes. We are now seeking partners throughout the country to co-produce the remaining episodes in the series. The newly completed installments will premiere at the hosting institution, joined by all episodes completed at the time of staging. This cumulative way of working allows us to spread the fund-raising and labour of creating a 3 hour opera, over a longer period of time. We can get deeper into the music and create shorter, more realistic goals along the way.
At the finish of all seven episodes, we intend to tour the full production (specifically in the U.S., Spain and Latin America), and to mount a complete television version on Spanish- and English language television. Furthermore, we plan to publish the resulting production as a CD and DVD.
DownTown Ensemble play works by Robert Ashley, Jackson Mac Low, and more
Note: A previous e-mail stated that Peter Garland would be performing with the DownTown Ensemble. Rather, David Garland (no relation) is joining the Ensemble to perform his songs.
On June 23 the DownTown Ensemble will feature David Garland performing three of his new songs from his forthcoming album Conversations with the Cinnamon Skeleton and performances by Bill Hellermann of sound/text pieces by Robert Ashley, Daniel Goode, Richard Kostelanetz, Jackson Mac Low and Anne Tardos. Featured performers will be such downtown stalwarts as Peter Zummo, Alex Waterman, Andrew Bolotowsky, and Daniel Goode, Co-director of the DownTown Ensemble.
David Garland will sing, play clarinet, and play a one-of-a-kind, drone-driven guitar. David Garland’s songs are “squeezed between categories looking for the truth.” His first album Control Songs was released in 1987 and his 10th album will come out in July 2011.
Bill Hellermann, well known as a composer guitarist on the downtown scene in the 70s and 80s, has in the last five years redefined himself as a reciter/narrator of texts in experimental music works. As a curator at PS 1, the Clock Tower, and the Alternative Museum he launched the first exhibitions of sound sculpture and audio art, and in the process bringing into usage the term “Soundart”.
Robert Ashley is widely regarded as one of the foremost composers of experimental music. He is best known for his operas Perfect Lives, Atalanta (Acts of God), and the monumental tetralogy, Now Eleanor’s Idea. On this concert Hellermann will perform his rarely performed virtuoso narration piece But, Is It Edible?
Daniel Goode‘s new work Misdirection of the Eye is one of a series of monologues with music written expressly for Bill Hellermann and this latest one focuses on the troubles going on in his home state of Wisconsin, with some asides on the travails of God.
Richard Kostelanetz is one of America’s most prolific and interesting poets. Among his vast output are a significant number of important sound/text works. Tonight’s concert will feature his work Lovings, in which a collection of completely independent sentences are performed by musicians, who interpret the sentences as music, or as spoken words, or as a combination of both.
Jackson Mac Low is widely acknowledged as one of the major figures in 20th century American poetry, with much of his work ranging freely across boundaries into the spheres of music, dance, theater, performance, and the visual arts. The DownTown Ensemble will perform his Music Words (for Phill Niblock) comprised entirely of words and pitch patterns that would never be employed by Phill Niblock.
The DownTown Ensemble also will perform poems set to music by Anne Tardos from her book Uxudo, featuring Toowomba 5 , Work Ants, and Avuncular Proceedings. Ms. Tardos is a poet, composer, and visual artist. She is the author of several books of poetry and the multimedia performance work and radio play Among Men.
The Darmstadt Institute is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Dedalus Foundation and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council
Tom Hamilton with Jacqueline Martelle
Tom Hamilton – electronics
Jacqueline Martelle – flute
Music by Ashley, Lucier, Margolis, and Hamilton
Robert Ashley: El/Aficionado Harmony (arr. Hamilton)
Alvin Lucier: 947
Tom Hamilton: What Fell Through (from Local Customs)
Al Margolis: Rushin’ Lisa
TOM HAMILTON has composed and performed electronic music for over 30 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. His ongoing series of concerts, installations and recordings contrast structure with improvisation and textural electronics with acoustic instruments. Rather than addressing traditional modes of expression, presentation and observation, Hamilton often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener.
Hamilton is a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, participating in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. His CD London Fix received an honorary mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. Hamilton’s performing and recording colleagues include Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Karlheinz Essl, Bruce Arnold, Rich O’Donnell, Jonathan Haas, Jacqueline Martelle, Thomas Buckner and Richard Lerman. He has been a collaborator with visual artists, including Fred Worden (filmmaker), Van McElwee and Morey Gers (video artists), and the late Ernst Haas (photographer).
An active participant in New York’s new music scene, Hamilton was the co-director of the 2004 Sounds Like Now festival, and he has co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series since 1993.
Since 1990, Hamilton has been a member of composer HYPERLINK “http://www.lovely.com/artists/a-ashley.html”Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts. His audio production can be found in over 50 CD releases of new and experimental music, including recordings by Muhal Richard Abrams, Bruce Arnold, David Behrman, Thomas Buckner, George Lewis, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.
Hamilton appears on synthesizer in his own ensembles, and has performed as a member of Slybersonic Tromosome and the Noisy Meditation Band (Peter Zummo), The Spinozas (David Soldier), and Analogos (Michael Schumacher). He has recently performed with Thomas Buckner, Lisle Ellis, Chris Mann, Al Margolis, and Jacqueline Martelle. Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy. His CD London Fix received an award in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. He is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts. His audio production can be found in over 50 CD releases of new and experimental music, including recordings by Muhal Richard Abrams, Bruce Arnold, David Behrman, Thomas Buckner, George Lewis, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Al Margolis, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.
Tom Hamilton has two recent CD releases: “Shadow Machine” (Pogus), with guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil, and “Local Customs” (Mutable), for a small ensemble with electronics.
Flutist JACQUELINE MARTELLE has performed in diverse settings in New York, including Experimental Intermedia, Symphony Space, Issue Project Room, Roulette, Third Street Music School Settlement, Merkin Concert Hall, and Carnegie Hall. She has been a featured artist in the World Music Institute’s Interpretations series. Martelle has presented concerts highlighting the flute in combination with electronic media and has premiered works written for her by Larry Austin, David Behrman, Tom Hamilton, Alvin Lucier, Al Margolis, and Robert Rowe. A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Martelle was given her first flute lesson by a trombonist. Her teachers include Samuel Baron, Israel Borouchoff, and Charles DeLaney. She has recorded for the Pogus, Mutable, Mode, and Centaur labels.
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