DOCSLIB.ORG

By-Repetition...Press-Release-2.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
By-Repetition...Press-Release-2.Pdf MMMMM PRESENTS BY REPETITION, YOU START lities such as Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich and Terry a collective and intimate, vast and lively experience of Le Commun, Bâtiment d’Art NOTICING DETAILS IN THE LANDSCAPE Riley. Furthermore, commissioned by the SFTMC, Don the materials on display. History then blends with life, Contemporain (BAC) - Geneva Buchla designed his first modular synthesizer in 1963. investigation with imagination, thought with dreams How do you turn a listening experience into the sub - Throughout the exhibition, a series of documents and, as when listening to the music that the exhibition Exhibition from the 14th December ject of an exhibition? How do you visually reproduce reveals the works produced in the proximity of this ex- features, for the time being, they all come together 2019 to the 19th of January 2020 the idea that some music can be considered like perimental network that, through various associations, as one. painting with sounds, some films like compositions touched upon the meditative, Eastern-inspired ap - with light, and some paintings like scores whose mu- proach of Marian Zazeela and La Monte Young, as well A number of projects have been set up in association Arlo Acton sic unfolds within us? How do you evoke forms and as the new choreographic aesthetics of Anna Halprin with various Geneva organizations, partners of the eden ahbez images that relate to the feeling of immersion within and the psychedelic experiments of Bruce Conner. exhibition, including the recreation of an oratorio by Robert Ashley the space and time of an art gallery? By repetition, North American poet Robert Lax with students from Vincent Barras you start noticing details in the landscape is a quote Landscape HEAD – Genève, Geneva School of Art and Design, Francis Baudevin by North American composer Terry Riley. It is the star- conducted by Vincent Barras; a program of rare artist Stephen Beck ting point of a project in the form of a constellation The structure of the project is based on highlighting, films, some of which hitherto unseen in Switzerland, John Beer that reflects the emergence in the early 1960s in San within this constellation, the career of one of its ac - accompanied by two audiovisual performances at the Jordan Belson Francisco and the Bay Area, of a music expanding into tors, composer Terry Riley, born in Northern California Cinema Spoutnik; a cycle of film essays about music Don Buchla horizons and climates, fostered by the re-evaluation in 1935, by tracking his activities since the late 1950s. presented at the Cinema Dynamo, in association with John Cage of the fundamental virtues of the sound phenomenon From his repetition-based compositions such as In C the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, and a double Suzanne Ciani – psychophysical, spiritual and political – namely ta - created at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in concert at cave12 as well as a collective and multi-ge- Paul Clipson king distance with the European academic heritage. 1964, to the nocturnal improvisations on the electric nerational creation in tribute to Pauline Oliveros at Bruce Conner Gathering close to fifty artists, the exhibition at Le organ of the All Night Flights via his connections with the Théâtre du Galpon. Finally, following the exhibi- Tony Conrad Commun connects the works, films and archives of Fluxus and his intense studying of classical Indian mu- tion, a monography, the first publication dedicated to Maud Constantin a group of historical personalities with works specifi- sic, Terry Riley has continuously renewed his approach Terry Riley, will be jointly published with Shelter Press. Maya Corboud cally produced for the occasion by upcoming artists. to creation. By repetition, you start noticing details in Edited by Vincent de Roguin, it will include the original Walter De Maria It also includes a selection of films at the Dynamo and the landscape begins with his famous immersive ins- contributions of a panel of historians, theoreticians and Ken Dewey Spoutnik cinemas, as well as concerts at the cave12, tallation Time Lag Accumulator, created in 1968 and artists and is due in September 2020. Emilie Ding Alhambra and Théâtre du Galpon. reactivated in 2003, and presented here in a brand- Ecart new version, updated by the composer himself. Still Luke Fowler By repetition, you start noticing details in the landscape a unique and greatly influential figure today, Terry Vidya Gastaldon will be held in Geneva from 13 December 2019 to 19 Riley enjoys many friendships with artists, choreo - MMMMM Beatrice Gibson January 2020. graphers and filmmakers whose works are spread out Anna Halprin throughout the exhibition. MMMMM is a Geneva-based curatorial and editorial, Lawrence Halprin Repetition research and production organization. Established in Barbara Hammer The exhibition itself is thought as a landscape on se- 2019, its activities focus on the history, theory and cur- Catherine Christer Hennix In the early 1960s, a series of innovative experiments veral levels. Imagined as a story that one can browse rent state of the relationship between music and other Charlotte Herzig took shape at the crossroads of music and visual arts, through, the environment includes (as if in concentric artforms. David Horvitz dance, cinema and poetry, which were based on an circles drawn around the main story) the works of ar- Channa Horwitz unusual connection between the body and technology, tists who, at the same time and in other places, have Yann Chateigné Olga Kokcharova nature and the media. Mainly collaborative and relating emerged as though echoing Terry Riley’s music and Wendy Coutau Emma Kunz to the search for a community-based experience, their the Bay Area’s cross-disciplinary experiments. Much Justine Dufour Alicia Bay Laurel & Ramon Sender objective was to place the subject within a new situa- like Channa Horwitz’s modular drawings/notations, Vincent de Roguin Robert Lax tion, caught in a twofold movement, both centripetal John McCracken’s mandalas in Los Angeles or Peter Annie Ianne Serratì Angus MacLise & Hetty MacLise and centrifugal. On the one hand, in connection with Young’s vibratile grids, weaves and lines in New York, Tom Marioni forms of subversion of norms and through a radical they open the project to a polyphonic rather than mo- Agnes Martin use of electronic tools, the aim was to open up the nographic exploration, enabling connections between John McCracken limits of the pieces –, artworks unfolding into their sur- repetition, landscape and community. Finally, going Michael McCLure roundings, films expanding in time and space, music back in time and evoking a discrete perspective of the Guy Meldem compositions transmuting into waves and cycles. On links between Europe and the US, a series of archaeo- Gunvor Nelson the other hand, artists turned perception inward, the logical clues (from Monte Verità to the Californian Pauline Oliveros exploration of intimate landscapes, criticizing the mo- Nature Boys) point to other landmarks for a critical Maggi Payne dern reason, in particular by reducing formal language, genealogy of counter-culture, and a criticism of the Terry Riley opting for the uses of durational strategies, repetitive “minimalist” model that is still too often associated Charles Ross patterns, and specific vibrational frequencies, enabling with this scene (from Adolf Wölfli to Emma Kunz). Dane Rudhyar a sense of attention and an act of listening that was Daniel Weintraub transformative, individual as well as collective, and en- Community John Whitney visioned as a communal assemblage of experiences. Adolf Wölfli By repetition, you start noticing details in the landscape Jud Yalkut By repetition, you start noticing details in the landscape is a collective project. Special commissions entrusted Peter Young focuses on the way in which, at the time in California, to artists, especially Swiss and from Geneva, mix in Marian Zazeela this research was singularly embodied around a place, with the exhibition’s historical material and structure & La Monte Young the San Francisco Tape Music Center, established in its landscape, contributing to the development of a 1962 by composers and artists Morton Subotnick and living space in which to stroll and meditate. Francis Le Commun, Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain (BAC) With the participation of Ramon Sender. A cultural and working space open Baudevin, Emilie Ding, Vidya Gastaldon, Charlotte Rue des Bains 34 Terry Riley to new musical forms through contact with other Herzig and Olga Kokcharova among others, have thus 1205 Geneva, Switzerland artforms and new technology, it welcomed persona - been invited to work within the space itself to provide Free entrance FILMS Between essays and archives, experimental docu - mentaries and artists’ films, the Cinema Dynamo at Echoing the exhibition, the Cinema Spoutnik will host an the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève will host a se- experimental and expanded cinema night, combining lection of films that review various ways of exploring, historical films from the 1960s and 1970s with contem- through cinema, the history of music and of listening. porary interventions. Like Geneva artist Maya Corboud, The program blends historical films (conversations of some artists and filmmakers aim to express their de - composer Robert Ashley with his peers Terry Riley sire to go beyond the screen to favor a plural form of and Pauline Oliveros in Music with Roots in the Aether, poetry. Films are thus considered as multimedia shows, 1976) with contemporary ones (with the presentation live performances and happenings, whose visual and of original excerpts of Daniel Weintraub’s ongoing film, sonic theatrics are constantly changing. The works of Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros). In each Jordan Belson, John Whitney and Tony Conrad refer to of his films, the documentary and experiential dimen- a way of thinking about cinema that depends on one if sions meet, turning the act of listening into a way of its most fundamental characteristics, i.e.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Robert Ashley the Old Man Lives in Concrete
    Joan La Barbara – composer / performer / sound artist – explores the human voice as a multi-faceted instrument, expanding traditional boundaries in composition, using a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques – multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks – that have become her “signature sounds.” Awards include a 2008 American Music Center Letter of Distinction, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, DAAD Artist-in- Residency in Berlin, seven NEA grants and numerous commissions for concert, theater and radio works. La Barbara has created sound scores for film, video and dance and produced twelve recordings of her own works, including Voice Is the Original Instrument, a double CD of her historical compositions for Lovely Music. 73 Poems, her collaboration with text-artist Kenneth Goldsmith, was included in “The American ROBERT ASHLEY Century Part II: SoundWorks” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Messa di Voce, an interactive media performance work created in THE OLD MAN LIVES IN CONCRETE collaboration with Jaap Blonk, Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman, premiered to acclaim at Ars Electronica 2003. La Barbara teaches Music and libretto composition at NYU and is working on a new opera. ROBERT ASHLEY Singers David Moodey has designed for and toured with Molissa Fenley and Dancers since 1986. His design for Fenley’s State of Darkness earned SAM ASHLEY, THOMAS BUCKNER, JACQUELINE HUMBERT, him a Bessie award for lighting design. He has also designed and JOAN LA BARBARA AND ROBERT ASHLEY toured numerous shows for Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parsons and their Electronic orchestra composed by company, Big Dance Theater, and for David Neumann’s feedforward at DTW.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking the Box : the Electronic Operas of Robert Ashley
    k r:~ a r :T4 a : ,Wa T:I'd r I V a 7 r:V a Y,I . UAIf7~ i it Astft% "TM Rocky" (rft CorminusM; ImageTram colorvldflniane. 25 nilns. 50 so= From Perfacf LWt 1979-83. Two phantoms haunt video arts uneasy dreams-tele- whether the parade of advancing technology simply ords and live performances in the U.S. and Europe. It vision and art. For over 20 years the conflicting models passed them by. was completed as"an opera fortelevision"(as its subtitle offered by these fields have pulled at video artists, But at this critical turning point in videos short history now announces), produced by Carlota Schoolman for simultaneously attracting and repelling them. They a number of important artists are coming forth with am- the Kitchen and in association with Ashley and Britain's in havefound themselves trapped between these oppos- bitious projects, some of which havetaken years to pro- Channel 4, and directed by John Sanborn. Finally, ing positions-in most cases relegated to the fringes of duce, that both sum up long periods of work and at the 1984, the work was broadcast to British television the art world while dreaming of (or dreading) TV's mass same time propose new trajectories for the future of viewers on Channel 4 for seven nights in a row, each audience, political influence, and budgets which would video. Two recently completed, long-awaited works- program lasting 25 minutes, 50 seconds. rein- allow them to do their work. By and large rejecting and PerfectLives, 1979-83, the seven-part TV production of Ashley calls Perfect Lives "a comic opera about throughout its rejected by both fields (though frequently yearning for Robert Ashley's epic about traveling musicians in the carnation;' and that theme is woven the rewards each offers), video artists have formed their own community dependent on government grants, an energetic but thin network of exhibition programs, lim- ited access to the general public, and a belief in the importance of their own work.
    [Show full text]
  • Experimental
    Experimental Discussão de alguns exemplos Earle Brown ● Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of open form,[1] a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since—notably the downtown New York scene of the 1980s (see John Zorn) and generations of younger composers. ● ● Among his most famous works are December 1952, an entirely graphic score, and the open form pieces Available Forms I & II, Centering, and Cross Sections and Color Fields. He was awarded a Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award (1998). Terry Riley ● Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music, of which he was a pioneer. His work is deeply influenced by both jazz and Indian classical music, and has utilized innovative tape music techniques and delay systems. He is best known for works such as his 1964 composition In C and 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalist music. La Monte Young ● La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist generally recognized as the first minimalist composer.[1][2][3] His works are cited as prominent examples of post-war experimental and contemporary music, and were tied to New York's downtown music and Fluxus art scenes.[4] Young is perhaps best known for his pioneering work in Western drone music (originally referred to as "dream music"), prominently explored in the 1960s with the experimental music collective the Theatre of Eternal Music.
    [Show full text]
  • UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Experimental Music: Redefining Authenticity Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xw7m355 Author Tavolacci, Christine Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Experimental Music: Redefining Authenticity A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music Performance by Christine E. Tavolacci Committee in charge: Professor John Fonville, Chair Professor Anthony Burr Professor Lisa Porter Professor William Propp Professor Katharina Rosenberger 2017 Copyright Christine E. Tavolacci, 2017 All Rights Reserved The Dissertation of Christine E. Tavolacci is approved, and is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Frank J. and Christine M. Tavolacci, whose love and support are with me always. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page.……………………………………………………………………. iii Dedication………………………..…………………………………………………. iv Table of Contents………………………..…………………………………………. v List of Figures….……………………..…………………………………………….. vi AcknoWledgments….………………..…………………………...………….…….. vii Vita…………………………………………………..………………………….……. viii Abstract of Dissertation…………..………………..………………………............ ix Introduction: A Brief History and Definition of Experimental Music
    [Show full text]
  • Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival on Nature
    ultima oslo contemporary 10–19 september 2015 ultima music festival oslo contemporary music festival om natur 10.–19. september 2015 10.–19. on nature 1 programme THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER Lunchtime concert Henrik Hellstenius Ørets teater III: Ultima Academy Cecilie Ore Ultima Academy Eivind Buene Georg Friedrich Haas In Vain SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER Herman Vogt Om naturen (WP) Alexander Schubert in conversation Adam & Eve—A Divine Comedy Geologist Henrik H. Svensen The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra Ensemble Ernst Ultima Remake Concordia Discors, Études (WP) Oslo Sinfonietta / Dans les Arbres with rob Young 21:00 — Kulturkirken Jakob on issues in the Age of Man 19:00 — Universitetets aula 21:00 — Riksscenen Edvin Østergaard (WP) / 10:00 — Edvard Munch Secondary 12:00 — Loftet 19:30 — The Norwegian National Opera 14:00 — Kulturhuset p. 18 19:30 — Kulturhuset New music by Eivind Buene, plus the Spellbinding piece described as ‘an optical Jan Erik Mikalsen (WP) / Maja Linderoth School Piano studies with Ian Pace, piano & Ballet, (Also 12 and 13 September) p. 31 p. 35 pieces that inspired it illusion for the ear’” The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir Interactive installation created by pupils p. 19 Concert / performance Robert Ashley Perfect Lives p. 38 p. 47 13:00 — Universitetets gamle festsal p. 13 p. 16 Ultima Academy Matmos Ultima Academy p. 53 Installation opening and concert Music Professor Rolf Inge Godøy 22:00 — Vulkan Arena Musicologist Richard Taruskin on David Toop Of Leonardo da Vinci — James Hoff / Afrikan Sciences / Ultima Academy Elin Mar Øyen Vister Røster III (WP) Installation opening on sound and gesture American electronica duo perform cele- birdsong, music and the supernatural Quills / a Black Giant / Deluge (WP) Hilde Holsen Øyvind Torvund (WP) / Jon Øivind Media theorist Wolfgang Ernst 15:00 — Deichmanske Ali Paranadian Untitled I, 14:30 — Kulturhuset brated TV opera 20:30 — Kulturhuset Elaine Mitchener / David Toop 22:00 — Blå Ness (WP) / Iannis Xenakis on online culture and hovedbibliotek A Poem for Norway (WP) p.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN VOICES Robert Ashley and New Opera
    AMERICAN VOICES Robert Ashley and New Opera Alan Lockwood Dust, Celestial Excursions, and Made Out of Concrete, composed and directed by Robert Ashley, La MaMa E.T.C., January 15–25, 2009. he recent operas of Robert tactics of memory and the emotional Ashley—Dust (1998), Celestial realm of old age. Excursions (2003) and Made TOut of Concrete (2007/09)—received As nineteenth-century operatic forms new productions in January in New York such as bel canto mirrored their culture, City, rotating on a ten-night program at Ashley’s operas reflect ours with their La MaMa E.T.C. entitled Robert Ashley speed, incision, and the directness he Three Operas. Ashley, along with the sea- sheathes in off-handed generosity. Since soned ensemble of singers and the crack television came to dominate audience tech team he has worked with—for about expectations, advanced stage works two decades, in most cases—turned the from Beckett’s late monodramas to the theatre’s Annex into a concentrated lab monologues of Spalding Gray and Anna for these wry, austere, and decidedly Deavere Smith have contended with a beautiful works. Each piece had been new manner of passive attention. Ashley retooled since its premiere: Dust, with sees TV as the ideal medium for his a full new staging; Celestial Excursions, work—quick cuts and channel surfing with condensed stagecraft and the addi- seem built into the fabric of his texts— tion of four instrumental preludes in the but his telltale vocal style and spare, third act; and by a thorough shuffling sumptuous music are most powerful in of vocal parts in Made Out of Concrete, live performance.
    [Show full text]
  • Battles Around New Music in New York in the Seventies
    Presenting the New: Battles around New Music in New York in the Seventies A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Joshua David Jurkovskis Plocher IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY David Grayson, Adviser December 2012 © Joshua David Jurkovskis Plocher 2012 i Acknowledgements One of the best things about reaching the end of this process is the opportunity to publicly thank the people who have helped to make it happen. More than any other individual, thanks must go to my wife, who has had to put up with more of my rambling than anybody, and has graciously given me half of every weekend for the last several years to keep working. Thank you, too, to my adviser, David Grayson, whose steady support in a shifting institutional environment has been invaluable. To the rest of my committee: Sumanth Gopinath, Kelley Harness, and Richard Leppert, for their advice and willingness to jump back in on this project after every life-inflicted gap. Thanks also to my mother and to my kids, for different reasons. Thanks to the staff at the New York Public Library (the one on 5th Ave. with the lions) for helping me track down the SoHo Weekly News microfilm when it had apparently vanished, and to the professional staff at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and to the Fales Special Collections staff at Bobst Library at New York University. Special thanks to the much smaller archival operation at the Kitchen, where I was assisted at various times by John Migliore and Samara Davis.
    [Show full text]
  • Once Upon a Time by KYLE GANN TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2003 at 4 A.M
    Once Upon a Time BY KYLE GANN TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2003 AT 4 A.M. I had an interesting experience with New World's historic five-disc set of recordings from the ONCE festival. I was alternating the set with another disc, Mode's new DVD of Elliott Carter. I kept forgetting that I was listening to the ONCE festival, kept thinking I was hearing new Carter works, and I'd start thinking, "Hey, this is better than I expected—Carter's music has gotten sort of playful and atmospheric in his old age." Then I'd realize I wasn't listening to Carter, but to the experimental cutting edge of early-1960s Ann Arbor. Same spiky, atonal pointillism, but what sounds stuffy and relentlessly earnest in Carter's music circa 2000 sounded more naughty and subversive 40 years earlier in the hands of Robert Ashley, Robert Sheff, George Cacioppo, Roger Reynolds, Gordon Mumma, et al. Shrugged off by the music department at the University of Michigan, yet encouraged by visiting professor Roberto Gerhard, these young turks initiated, in 1960, a festival that would achieve international prominence, and that Ashley continued to direct through 1968. The ONCE festival—I have to consciously stop myself from preceding it with the word , which became welded to its name—has the reputation of being the first time composers took performance into their own hands, presenting their own music in defiance of unsupportive local institutions: the original Bang on a Can. (Actually, La Monte Young's series at Yoko Ono's loft deserves to share that credit.) Some of the ONCE composers went on to fame, some didn't, and for 30 years I've wondered what those festivals sounded like.
    [Show full text]
  • OTHER MINDS 14 a Festival of New Music
    OTHER MINDSA festival of new music 14 GUEST COMPOSERS: MICHAEL HARRISON • DOBROMIŁA JASKOT • BEN JOHNSTON • CATHERINE LAMB • CHICO MELLO • JOHN SCHNEIDER • LINDA CATLIN SMITH • BENT SØRENSEN • CHINARY UNG MARCH 5 - 7, 2009 7PM PANEL DISCUSSIONS / 8PM CONCERTS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR • ADAM FONG ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Revelationary New Music www.radiOM.org The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is a proud co-sponsor of Other Minds Festival 14 The Mission of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land upon which the Program is situated. The Djerassi Program annually welcomes the Other Minds Festival composers for a five-day residency for collegial interaction and preparation prior to their concert performances in San Francisco. Now celebrating its 30th Anniversary, the Djerassi Program has hosted 1800 artists of every discipline worldwide since its founding in 1979. Small, diverse groups of artists convene for one-month residencies at our rural ranch where studio space, housing, meals and staff support are provided free of charge. Information and application materials may be obtained at www.djerassi.org. The Djerassi Program is a non-profit 501 (C) (3) organization that relies on contributions from individuals and phil- anthropic organizations for its operations. Yield to Whim We welcome your support! by
    [Show full text]
  • "Music with Roots in the Aether," a 14-Hour Video Program Featuring Seven Contemporary Composers and Their Works at the Mandeville Art Gallery
    "Music with Roots in the Aether," a 14-hour video program featuring seven contemporary composers and their works at the Mandeville Art Gallery May 6, 1981 "Music with Roots in the Aether," a 14-hour video program featuring seven contemporary composers and their works, will be shown in the Mandeville Center Art Gallery at the University of California, San Diego from May 21 through June 12. The series was designed and directed by Robert Ashley, a composer who has featured himself along with Pauline Oliveros of UC San Diego, David Behrman, Philip Glass, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma and Terry Riley in the program. One hour is devoted to an interview with each artist and another hour spent on a performance of each composer"s music. The gallery will be set up to provide a comfortable environment for viewing. "The talk, like the music, is fascinating, and, with the documentary, Ashley has suddenly become the Studs Terkel of the avant-garde," wrote a critic in American Film. In the interviews, the work habits, philosophies and eccentricities of each artist are revealed. The music itself is unorthodox, and, as the title of the program suggests, seems to flow from the upper regions of the artists' consciousness. Oliveros, a member of the UC San Diego Department of Music faculty, discusses meditation and modes of consciousness in her interview. She is a composer who worked with electronic music in the 1960s, but has since moved on to meditational and conceptual pieces that often include the audience. On the tape, she performs a piece called "Rose Mountain Slow Runner," which offers a combination of accordian and voice in a study of beats, tones, timbres and vocal resonances.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN OPERA: ROBERT ASHLEY a Celebration PREFACE
    The Department of Music, Wesleyan University Movement House and Performing Artservices present AMERICAN OPERA: ROBERT ASHLEY A Celebration PREFACE Throughout a long career Robert Ashley did an astonishing thing. He turned speech into music. The origins of speech and music are mysterious. One cannot be sure which came first. One can imagine that the first human utterances were intoned, chanted, if not melodic. Song may have been the precursor of speech. Or they both may have developed simultaneously. It is lovely to imagine early humans singing to each other. Ashley’s speech-song seems to me to be a combination of both. It is fascinating to hear the characters in Bob’s operas singing and talking at the same time. The listener’s attention moves to three places: the meaning of the words, the melody they create and a combination of both. Basically, Ashley regarded speech as music. I remember standing with him at gatherings after concerts in the Midwest, simply listening to people talking. He once remarked that, to his ears, the dull roar of many people talking was symphonic. Once as an accompaniment to a Merce Cunningham event in New York, Bob simply assembled a group of friends to sit on stage and have a conversation. There was no text, no instructions, no enhancements, no musical accompaniment. It was amazing just how riveting this experience was. One left the event wondering how Bob could have made this happen. – Alvin Lucier, March 12, 2014 (for Frieze) Cover photo © Paula Court 1985 WEEKEND PROGRAM Organized by Alvin Lucier, Mimi Johnson, Paula Matthusen Friday, March 2, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
    [Show full text]
  • Wire No.234 Revised
    THE WIRE WWW.THEWIRE.CO.UK ISSUE 234 AUGUST 2003 Robert Ashley Meet the electronic pioneer who took opera into the multimedia age. By Thom Holmes Built for Speed Textually hyperdense and accellerated for the televisual age, the multimedia music theatre of composer Robert Ashley has been called the future of opera, as well as the first to exploit the unique rhythms of the American voice. Following this year’s premiere of his new work Celestial Excursions, Thom Holmes meets the composer to discuss his founding role in the Sonic Arts Union, his love of TV, and his celebration of life on the margins. Photos: Chris Buck other for their living space. Today, the windows are open due to the warm weather. Ashley’s computers, keyboards and recording equipment are clustered in the centre of the space underneath a marquee-like canopy. The tent is there to protect the equipment from falling crumbs of concrete and ceiling plaster while the roof undergoes repairs. Despite the disruption, Ashley never loses his train of thought.’“That’s why so much popular music has to do with love,” he continues. “It puts a label on it and when it’s good, that label really works. It can’t do anything but that, no matter how hard people try. No matter how hard Bob Dylan tried or John Lennon tried, you can’t make popular music into anything except a labelling of your own experience that you never realised needed a label.” He sits up straight and places the palms of his hands firmly on the table in front of him.
    [Show full text]