robert ashley

it does that!!!!

it makes for an incredibly strange running soundtrack. i use it for that probably far too often.

ok!

-------

she makes a double life
she makes two from one and one
she makes a perfect system every day
she makes it work
she stands there in the doorway of her mother's house
looking at the grass and sky and at where they meet
never thinking thoughts like
"that's so like a line"
or
"the difference is so powerful"
or
"which way shall i take to leave?"

my mind turns to my breath
one
my mind watches my breath
two
my mind turns and watches my breath
three
my mind turns and faces my breath
four
my mind faces my breath
five
my mind studies my breath
six
my mind sees every aspect of the beauty of my breath
seven
my mind watches my breath soothing itself
eight
my mind sees every part of my breath
nine
my breath is not indifferent to itself
ten

she never thinks of possibility
or of how probably it is that they have come together
those thoughts never enter her mind
nor do thoughts of sports
she has no desire to improve her muscles
for her piano playing is the only mystery
it's so beautiful and how they do it no one knows

she gets catalogs of every sort in the mail
everything imaginable is pictured
she finds her way among the pictures without hesitation
she is not afraid of happiness
she is entirely without shame
the numbers are made of rubber or something like that
they stretch
they never lose their shape
they are ageless
they don't need repair
they need attention and respect

she thinks about two things that i know of
one is elevation and that comes clothed in light so to speak
she loathes the dark
she sleeps in light
she likes highness
four thousand one hundred twenty-eight feet here
four thousand two hundred eighteen feet there
and the body of the house itself
fourteen dollars and twenty-eight cents here
forty-eight dollars and twelve cents there

the other is proportions
coincidence isn't a mystery to her
the margin is always wide enough
forty-two or forty with twenty is always sixty-two or sixty
and i mean forty-two with twenty can be sixty as well as sixty-two
and the other way around
just as ten and twenty can be twenty-two or thirty
or twelve and twenty can be thirty

she stands there in the doorway of her mother's house and thinks these thoughts
that fourteen dollars and twenty-eight cents is more attractive than fourteen dollars
because of the twenty-eight
no one likes or dislikes zeroes
and that forty-two or forty is fixed in some way

she thinks about her father's age
she does the calculations one more time
she remembers sixty-two
thirty and some number is sixty-two
and that number with ten is forty-two
she remembers forty-two
remembers is the wrong word
she dwells on forty-two
she turns and faces it
she watches it
she studies it
it is the key
the mystery of the balances is there
the masonic secret lies there
the church forbids its angels entry there
the gypsies camp there
blood is exchanged there
mothers weep there
it is night there

thirty and some number is sixty-two
and that number with ten is forty-two
that number translates now to then
that number is the answer
in the way that numbers answer
that simple notion
a coincidence among coincidences
is all one needs to know

my mind turns to my breath
my mind watches my breath
my mind turns and watches my breath
my mind turns and faces my breath
my mind faces my breath
my mind studies my breath
my mind sees every aspect of the beauty of my breath
my mind watches my breath soothing itself
my mind sees every part of my breath
my breath is not indifferent to itself

she waked at ten
she remembers ten
she left the dark at ten
she waked in light
so forty-two or forty or forty-four is fixed
fourteen dollars and twenty-eight cents is more attractive than fourteen dollars
it's just that way
the firmness of it is a consolation

three men have loved her
one a decade on the average
uncertainties are wrong
in this scene there is one shot
giordano bruno comes to mind
whoever he is

she is in the doorway of her mother's house
she faces south
we see it two ways
first is the house behind her
and the great northern constellations
she looks away from difference and discrepancy
magnetic north
true north
the north star path
it's too like the calculations
except that ten and forty-two are fixed together
we are looking west
she is on the right edge of the shot
she is earth
we are the sun

people are gathered in the backyard
this is the celebration of the changing of the light
they do it as often as they can in summer
they come to talk
they pass the time
they soothe their thoughts with lemonade
they say things like
she never had a stitch that she could call her own, poor thing
and
harold's still president over at the bank, ain't he?
and
now if i was doing it
and
she didn't cook much, never really had the time, you know
and
i wouldn't say that, not at all
they are the planets in the scheme of things
giordano bruno shot

the problem is the arc
the changing angle of the shot
it defies geometry
drawings of geocentric solar systems
when you meet them in the books
make us avert our eyes
heresy is heresy
we make one great weird curve
from the east edge of the backyard
looking west
she is on the right edge of the shot
across
following the equator of the backyard
to the west edge
looking east

now she is on the left edge
at some point midway we face
both looking at the center
the center is between us
except that for the purpose of the shot
or the interests of economy
she doesn't move

she is standing in the doorway of her mother's house
the doorway to the back porch
the backyard is the south
behind her the great northern constellation
rises in the majesty of its architecture
well, maybe that's a little too much
let's just say that
contradictions are behind her
and in the backyard
god
this set of circumstances
that is indescribable
with our geometry

a picnic of sorts
a celebration of the changing of the light
and we glide through that chaos facing her
watching her
studying her
not circling her, remember
circling, but not circling her
she is circling
we are circling

now she is on the left edge
caught still in her accounting of those three decades silently
she is so beautiful
a "pre-industrial" equation

god, this is sentimental

this is the hour of the mystery of the barnswallows
one
where do they go in daytime?
two
do they never rest?
three
when you buy them in the store, made in china
on the end of strings
they do exactly what they do alive
four
how is that possible?

the idea of the changing center is not in anything we make
our toy is run down
on the other end of course
the chinese are said to not take pictures
at least not of the outside

six of one
two times three of one
five plus one of one
nine minus three of one
half a dozen of another

it would be perfect if
as we made the great curve
through the heavens of the backyard
providentially or accidentally
depending on your point of view
each of the planets would move exactly in the path
and at the speed
and with the purpose of the expression
of the other idea

maybe that's too much to wish

giordano bruno
i think they burned him
he was too positive
fight fire with fire
in this shot he is wrong about the larger order
whatever that means
there is just the sun and earth
and some center that they share
all other facts in this heaven:
one has climbed the tree
two are eating watermelon
one always says it's getting late
one succeeded at the plant
one works at the bank
the specialists
they are just (dirt lines?) seen wrong

sundown, one
the time it disappears
gloaming, two
the twilight dusk
crepuscule, the twilight, three
the half-light
twilight, four
pale purplish blue to pale violet
lighter than dusk blue
civil twilight
until the sun is up to six degrees below horizon
enough light on clear days for ordinary occupations
nautical twilight
until the sun is up to twelve degrees below horizon
astronomical twilight
until the sun is eighteen degrees down more or less
clair de lune, five
greener and paler than dusk
dusk, six
redder and darker than clair de lune

dear george
what's going on?
i'm not the same person that i used to be.

those closing lines!

thanks!

nb: it is not perfect, there's a few lines i'm not sure of. the above is based on the 'private parts' version, though i consulted both the 'private parts' and 'perfect lives' versions - there's a couple of minor differences between the two.

fucking love this piece of music so fucking much i just can't express it in words. it should be expressed in hugs & smiles and nodding sagely at twilight.

who's this "george"?

i feel the same way ian. i want to share it with everyone i know and don't know.

i once read the entirety of 'the park' aloud to my bf. i was a choked-up mess by the end.

i would totally take that as a marriage proposal.

I put The Backyard on a mix for gf just a few hours ago.

The Park vs The Backyard POLL

(and thanks v much for the lyrics - have looked for them on internet before but to no avail)

Bob Ashley, David Behrman, Chris Mann and Alvin Lucier give a FREE concert in honor of John Cage at The New School on September 7 at 7 pm. 66 West 12th Street.

if only i knew before now i could have taken time off work :(

So, has anyone read the Kyle Gann book on Ashley? Came out in November apparently... wanting to order it from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Ashley-American-Composers-Kyle/dp/025207887X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367108789&sr=8-1&keywords=kyle+gann+robert+ashley

The design looks Chinese.

:(

;__;

It would be a thrill to make work at least half as good as he did

so so so so sad. I feel like some of the deepest connections I have made on this website have been over The Record. This record. THE Record! All of his records! Ian, Joe, Plax, others - all in my thoughts now. Robert Ashley, I Love you.

:/

oh man :-/

yah sad faces

Pretty much speechless.

salute!

in the beginning there were rocks and on those rocks with harder rocks we learned to make a million bruises to spell out things like 'we were here' and 'watch your water' -- they only moved it, the idea of bruises adding up to something, from rocks to skin

pale purplish blue to pale violet
lighter than dusk blue
civil twilight

:(

Sad news to wake up to. RIP

:(

:-(

RIP Mr Ashley, you made some amazing music.

didn't wanna open this thread

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBU8vLIJbSE

I'm glad someone's finally put this version of 'The Backyard' on youtube so I can share it with everybody and maybe someone can explain to me why it kills me every time.

I know the NYT can take its time for an obit on occasion but this is getting embarrassing for them

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/arts/music/robert-ashley-opera-composer-who-painted-outside-the-lines-dies-at-83.html?_r=0

You are slain because of the tabla playing, which is virtuosic and passionate and threatens to explode out of the not-that-simple repetitive pattern but doesn't explode so much as slide around it and through it and into simpler and simultaneously more complicated patterns and because that combined with that text and Ashley's reading of it is just too fucking much.

Very titanically

My perfect introduction to Robert Ashley-- though I didn't know it was him til years later-- was in a car in San Francisco when I was 20. My older brother (then a San Franciscan) had driven me up to Muir Woods and we were stuck in traffic on the way back, all the way over the Golden Gate bridge. We channel surfing and we suddenly hit upon a station playing "Private Parts" and were too transfixed to change channels. My brother was dismissive, he said it was typical San Francisco listening. I asked him what genre it was and he said "acid jazz, I think?" (Later, when I heard real acid jazz: "if this is acid jazz, what was that talking guy?") It was so moving on first listen how such emotional highs and lows were created in such a static sonic environment. I wish I had kids so I could play this music for them

I asked him what genre it was and he said "acid jazz, I think?"

People say the funniest things part x6382462691

http://blog.frieze.com/robert-ashley-1930-2014/

Live perf of Automatic writing on the 30th at Cafe Oto (where else?).

Wanna go but it does clash with another recital :-(

I should go to that. I missed the Ashley weekend they had there in 2012 and I've been annoyed at myself since.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/05/music/four-episodes-from-robert-ashleys-vidas-perfectas
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/arts/music/vidas-perfectas-spanish-version-of-a-robert-ashley-opera.html
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/05/music/on-robert-ashley
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/arts/music/robert-ashleys-work-lives-on-at-the-whitney-biennial.html?_r=0
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/05/music/contrapunctual-music-for-spoken-words-only

I want to say something about myself:
I am not sitting on a bench next to myself, whatever that means.

started listening to the new(ish) version of Improvement and was totally floored by The Airline Ticket Counter - I never really gelled with the 1992 recording but this one seems to find an emotionally affecting quality while still being weird and not like anything else

this opera was staged in Melbourne in 1993 under the musical direction of Robert Ashley - I was visiting and picked it out of a festival programme at random as the most interesting-looking thing on offer - I was 19 and completely bemused by it but the images and atmosphere stayed with me - though I subsequently forgot the name and details - in the Internet age I made some failed attempts to work out what I had seen - then twenty years after the event I was getting into Automatic Writing and reading more about Robert Ashley and made the connection, it was a super-satisfying revelation

amazingly, there is footage of that production on the internet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaO5WMzp3OQ

Very much enjoyed this footage and your backstory, thank you

https://vimeo.com/321877684

the performance the new recording is from is on vimeo and its pretty fabulous, i watched it the other night and i am currently obsessed with the the recording. my favourite part, turning over in my head, is the description of the dance studio from 'Left-Handed Golf':
"The Arcade,
/ an enormous gallery, filled with people,
/ light filtered through the glass above,
/ two stories high, a block long,
/ without rain, perfect temperature forever
/ on stone pavements made beautiful with use.
/ A cathedral, secular, just big enough.
/ Royal chambers on the second floor.
/ Secret stairways, gold lettered windows,
/ locked doors. The studio itself,
/ vast hardwood, perfect in tongue and groove,
/ the likes of which, etcetera. The Arcade
/ builder, Worth, knew what he was up to.”

also very excited to realise that the account that published that has many full performances of later operas from the kitchen (Dust, Celestial Excursions) so worth checking for anyone who like me didn't know filmed versions existed.

Yeah, between that (absolutely wonderful) "Improvements" and the previously unreleased realization of "Foreign Experiences" that came out last year, I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I've gotten out of hearing multiple realizations of these pieces.

Looks like there's a new version of "el/Afficionado" coming later this month as well. Never really connected with that one despite the "Eleanor" cycle on the whole being some of my favorite music of any kind, so I'll be especially curious to hear it.

looking at the timing my guess is that the new production of Improvements was intended to inaugurate a celebration of ashley that has been railroaded by the thing that's railroaded everything. excited about these new recordings as i haven't heard Foreign Experiences either.

Oh! "Foreign Experiences" is maybe an acquired taste but it's one of my favorite weird corners of that cycle, absolutely saturated in the 70's west coast milieu of "divorced guys reading Castaneda", which tbf may or may not be something you're up for. Both of the versions available from Lovely are great, but I have a special fondness for the 2006 CD version that's just Sam Ashley and Jackie Humbert bc Sam's delivery is just so relentlessly freaked out and seething, boiling over with bad vibes in a way that ratchets up the psychic claustrophobia of the piece to a paranoid fever dream.

And as for the more recent productions, no idea whether there was any larger plan there but I'm really happy to see that many of the people (e.g. Tom Hamilton) who were involved with his ensemble have taken an active role in ensuring the survival of the work and mentoring another generation of interpreters.