Episode Fifteen – Robert Ashley

“Since he began composing and performing in the late 1950s, Robert Ashley has created a wholly original body of work. Continuously productive, his oeuvre encompasses nearly all versions of music and music/sound performance from instrumental and electronic compositions to film music and music videos to multi sectioned, intermediated staged operas. Ashley has also written essays and scores, and published books as well as dozens of audio and video recordings.” This from the opening paragraph of an article written by Arthur Sabatini for Performing Arts Journal in 2005, reveals a snapshot view of Robert Ashley’s profoundly creative life.

Throughout the history of experimental music – especially in the United States - there have been many extraordinary artists whose lives interacted with one another in dynamic ways. From John Cage to Morton Feldman; from Philip Glass to Terry Riley; from Robert Ashley to Alvin Lucier…all shared a unique perspective on music, sound, and performance throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Episode Fifteen of The Relache Chronicles features the work of one of the most fascinating artists from the fascinating genre known as “New Music,” Robert Ashley. Better known for his theater works, operas, if you will, we at The Relache Chronicles will focus on two works that define Bob’s exploratory interests: sound production and technology and instrumental/timbral contrasts within the context of performance. Specifically, we’ll hear excerpts from “The Wolfman,” created in 1964, and a complete recording of “Outcome Inevitable,” composed for the Relache Ensemble in 1992.

Episode Fourteen - Annson Kenney

Annson Kenney was a dynamic presence in Philadelphia from the mid-sixties until his death in late 1981. A visual artist, writer, performer, and composer, Annson was a difficult man to pin down. Although initially trained in music, his imagination and introspection led him far from his role as a contrabass player. In the 1970’s Annson designed a remarkable series of works using classic luminous tubing (neon tubes) that explored a variety of linguistic concepts. Still, he continued making performative works for himself and members of the Relache Ensemble with whom he had close working and personal relationships. On this episode we’ll listen to some of those sonic works and learn about Annson through commentary by his friends and collaborators who share their memories and insights to his life and work.

Critical Band, an extraordinary composition by James Tenney has been described as a “sound poem,” and an “aural flower” slowly unfolding as the pitch tableau becomes evident and clear to the listener. John Cage, a long-time friend of Jim Tenney’s wrote him after hearing the premiere performance a congratulatory note, “…if this is harmony, I take back everything I said to you in the past.” (John and Jim had two quite different concepts of Western harmony.) The world premiere of Critical Band is the single work to be heard and discussed on this episode of the Relache Chronicles, performed by the Relache Ensemble in 1989. It has been described by former members of Relache as the most profoundly important work composed for the group. Listen carefully as you find your way to the critical band, an aural phenomenon that is both revealing and soothing.

William Duckworth – known as Bill to his friends – was a composer, educator and author who wrote for contemporary ensembles and soloists throughout a busy compositional career in the mid to late twentieth century. He was a professor of music at Bucknell University and published five books on twentieth century music and theory. At the time of his passing in 2012, Bill was developing large scale interactive digital works for the internet in collaboration with his wife, Nora Farrell, a computer software designer. He is best known for “The Time Curve Preludes, a work for piano solo and “Southern Harmonies” for choral ensemble. On this episode of The Relache Chronicles we will discuss and listen to an early work of Bill’s titled “Pitch City Breakdown” for amplified piano and “Simple Songs About Sex and War “for mezzo-soprano and synthesizer. Both works are played and sung by members of The Relache Ensemble, with whom he often collaborated.

Episode 11

Episode 11 is the third of three episodes of music and commentary from the New Music America Festival 1987 in Philadelphia, produced and presented by the Relache organization. Sound installations and outdoor performances in some unlikely locations have been part of New Music America festivals throughout the eleven-year history of the festivals. For this episode we have selected three outdoor events and one example of computer influenced works by composer-installations artists Alvin Curran, Bob Goldberg, Joel Chadabe and the collaborative team of Christopher Janney and Joan Bingham. From the bowels of Philadelphia’s Broad Street Subway station to the Delaware River waterway, these works celebrate the diversity of musical events that were part of New Music America 1987 – Philadelphia.

Episode 10 is the second of three episodes of music and commentary from the New Music America Festival 1987 in Philadelphia, produced and presented by the Relache organization. This episode is one of our favorites. It features the premiere performance of accordionist-composer Guy Klucevsek’s “Polka from the Fringe,” a terrific investigation of Polkas in all their glory. Virtuosic, whimsical, outrageous, Guy’s performance at a funky bar in Olde City Philadelphia is a must-hear for all “new music” fans. In some ways these polkas deconstruct the genre. They keep alive the inventiveness inherent in the music of a variety of contemporary composers, with a keen sense of humor. As you will hear, Guy dedicated the performance of “Polka from the Fringe” to Charles Mingus’s remark, “Let the white man develop the polka.” In that spirit, Guy turns the table on this much beloved genre of dance music.

Episode Nine - "Polka from the Fringe" at NMA 1987 Philadelphia (2 of 3)

In 1979, a group of composers, performers, video artists, producers, presenters, and other experimental artists met at The Kitchen, a renowned Downtown NY performance space to present a festival named New Music New York. The following year in Minneapolis, The Walker Art Center produced and presented a festival based on New Music New York that they called the New Music America Festival. For the following 9 years New Music America Festivals were held in a different city each year, produced, and presented by a local arts organization. In 1987, the festival was produced and presented by the Relache organization in collaboration with the City of Philadelphia. Over a 10-day period, concerts, installations, videos, parties, and a seminar called “Talking Music” was presented at venues throughout the city. The Relache Chronicles will reflect upon these events, beginning with Episode 9, New Music America Festival 1987 – Philadelphia.

Romulus Franceschini was a composer, arranger, music editor and assistant curator at the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral music in Philadelphia, his hometown. Raised in the vibrant Italian American community in South Philly, Romulus absorbed the rich classical music that was ever present in Philadelphia, while absorbing the equally rich jazz inflected music of the mid-twentieth century. He studied cello and French Horn; served in a U.S. Army Band in occupied Japan; studied composition and theory with Vincent Persichetti after returning from the service; studied with with Stephan Wolpe and Morton Feldman in New York City; made numerous arrangements for jazz musicians in Philadelphia, including Calvin Massey and John Coltrane, and wrote music for chamber ensembles, voices, and soloists. As an editor at the Fleisher Collection, he was prominent in analyzing the draft and extracting the instrumental parts of Charles Ives’ Fourth Symphony, working in collaboration with conductor Leopold Stokowski, who premiered it in 1964. As Romulus said of himself, “I’m an eclectic composer.” His “eclecticism” was immensely valuable to the growth and maturity of the Relache Ensemble, for whom he served as a guiding force for all things musical. Romulus passed away in 1994. This episode of the Relache Chronicles celebrates the life and music of Romulus Franceschini.