AJSabatini.com
Published Articles and notes on Robert Ashley
by Arthur J. Sabatini
Sometime in the early 1970s on a radio series produced in Philadelphia, NOIZE, I heard Robert Ashley’s extraordinary voice and music. By then, Ashley had been well into his career. I was particularly drawn to his versions of storytelling, ideas, sonic and staged images, and grand operatic vision. Eventually I saw the extrordinary television opera, Perfect Lives and, over the years, many of his stunning staged productions. His work - deeply American, yet cosmic, real, mystical, intelligent, profound, epic, perfect, smart and celestial - resonates with me, and others, to this day. In addition to attending performances and living with his art over the years, we met and talked from time to time and I wrote several articles, gave papers and taught classes on his work. In the 1990s, I drafted several chapters of a book on him, titled Perfect Music for American Lives, Foreign Experiences and Celestial Excursions, but it was put aside as I knew he was still working. Currently, I am compiling and editing a collection of my writings and reflections on Robert Ashley. I am continuously writing about him and in contact with others and hope to work with someone on an anthology of writing about Ashley. My most recent article, "Robert Ashley: Language, Texts and Performance,” addresses Ashley’s career and numerous essays and other works in which he wrote about language, speech and performance.
On a personal note, Bob was always generous, reflexive, eager to share ideas and listen. I am grateful for his patience and the stories and thoughts he shared with me. As a composer, musician and performer, he created his music and multi-media operas in collaboration with others and wanted that to always be acknowledged. As a writer, singer and storyteller his ideas are remarkable, and his voice is distinctive and irreplaceable. His is, to use his own words, ‘one of the great ones.’
Journals and Books
"Robert Ashley: Language, Texts and Performance” Studient Zur Wertungsforshcung, Critical Research Studies in Music. 19 pages, Wein, London 2023.
"Robert Ashley: Defining American Opera." PAJ/Performing Arts Journal, 27:2 (78) 2005. pp. 45-60.
"ReViewing Robert Ashley's Music With Roots in the Aether: the first opera for television." Millennium Film Journal, Fall (42) 2004. pp. 53-70.
“The Sonic Landscapes of Robert Ashley.” In 20th Century Theater and Landscape. Elinor Fuchs and Una Chauduhi, eds. University of Michigan Press, 2002. pp. 322-349.
"Performance Novels: Notes Toward an Extension of Bakhtin's Theories of Genre and the Novel." Discours Social/Social Discourse, 3, 1990. pp.135-145.
Papers and Talks
2012. “Questions by, for and about Robert Ashley.” Sonic Arts Unions Music Series, International House, Philadelphia, PA
2009. “Beatitute in Robert Ashley‘s Perfect Lives.” Mss. Review for Journal of the Society for American Music. (anonymous)
2001. "Sonic Allegories: Ashley's Perfect Lives and Duckworth's Cathedral." Institute for Electro-Acoustic Music, Academy, Krakow, Poland.
1998. “The Landscapes and Sonic Allegories of Robert Ashley.” International Association of Philosophy and Literature, UC - Irvine.
1994. "Avant-Gardes & Music of Robert Ashley," Duke Univ. in NYC.
1993. "The Dialogics of Narrative in Robert Ashley's Performance Novels." Modern Language Association, 'Literature and the Other Arts.’
Price. Peter. Resonance: Philosophy for Sonic Art. NY, Dresden: Atropos Press, 2011. pp. 262-273. (Chpt., “Robert Ashley and opera after opera’s
second death” referencing Sabatini’s articles.)
See also Sabatini on Music:
2013. “Fred Ho’s Operatic Journey.” In Yellow Power! Yellow Soul: The Radical Art of Fred Ho. Eds., Roger Buckley, Tamara Roberts. Urbana:
University of Illinois. Press. 63-93.
2015. “Philadelphia’s Musico-Sonic-Optical Unconscious; or, from the legacy of a glass harp and Philadelphia’s Sonic Unconscious.” In America and
the Musical Unconscious. Julius Greve & Sascha Pöhlmann (eds.). New York, Dresden: Atropos Press. 383-420.
2014. “Orpheus in Performance in the 21st Century.” Myths Revisited. Istanbul 2nd International Aksit Gorturk Conference Papers.” 208-218.
2011. “Daniel Lentz.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. (updates 1999 entry).
2010. “Richard Lerman.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. (updates 1999 entry)
1989. "Silent Performances: On Reading John Cage." Bucknell Review: John Cage at 75. Ed. Richard Fleming, William Duckworth.
Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. 74-96.
Collaborative Project (Tentative): A COMPANION TO ROBERT ASHLEY’S CHARACTERS
Names and identities of original the characters, their relationships (and real people, too) that appear in his work, especially as they are in the music,
which he called a ‘character.’ As with similar books with the characters in Joyce or Faulkner, two of Bob’s favorite writers, the idea would be to identify
and describe who is who in all of the music and operas, who the musicians and collaborators are, what they are about and how are they part of each piece
and the larger story of the work. It would be of interest to know if characters are based on or reference “real people” and that they have to say about each
other. There could be categories added like: dates of performance, recordings, landscapes, famous last words. Could be a website.