Henri Lefebvre predicted that the future of art was urban. Art and the City adopts this statement as its cue; taking into account the performative and relational lsquo;turnsrsquo; of art in more recent times. The book portrays what may be at stake in the emerging triangulation of art; the city and the rights of citizens; concentrating particularly on their mutual contingencies. It goes on to develop approaches to writing about artworks from the point of view of the spectatorrsquo;s first-hand encounter with them in urban contexts.In exploring how artworks present themselves as a means by which to navigate and plot the city for a writing interlocutor; Nicolas Whybrow discusses diverse examples; representing three key modern modalities of urban arts practice. The first; walking; involves works by Richard Wentworth; Francis Alys; Mark Wallinger and others. The second; play; includes art by Antony Gormley; Mark Quinn and Carsten Holler. The third; cultural memory; Whybrow addresses through the controversial urban holocaust memorial sites of Peter Eisenmanrsquo;s memorial in Berlin and Rachel Whitereadrsquo;s in Vienna.
#2823602 in eBooks 2010-10-30 2010-10-30File Name: B00A4BEWQI
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great Introduction to this American ComposerBy CanticleI first encountered the work of Robert Ashley in the early 1980s when I purchased the Lovely Music vinyl LP titled Private Parts: (the record). It contained two tracks; one on each side; called; respectively; The Park and; The Back Yard (which happen to be the first and last acts of Perfect Lives). I took to the music rather quickly listening to its various layers of musical sounds and Mr. Ashleys unique voice intoning the equally unique and unusual texts.That record earned a special place in my mental favorites library (iTunes had yet to be invented) and spurred me on to the purchase of more of Ashleys music. But other than the liner notes (which I read closely and repeatedly) there was surprisingly little information on this mysterious and wonderful composer whose music and words so captured my sensibilities. The publication of this volume; Robert Ashley (one of a great series of books on contemporary composers from the University of Illinois Press) fills this long standing void in the realms of music scholarship and biography.I encountered the authors work at about the same time as I did Ashleys. He was writing fascinating and accessible reviews in the local (Chicago) free newspaper; The Reader. He would later be selected as classical music reporter for New Yorks Village Voice. Kyle Gann; composer; critic; musicologist and new music raconteur contributes a most essential work to help fill that void. His biographical sketch; analysis; bibliographic and discographic references serve also as a much needed exegesis of Robert Ashleys work.As it happens; the author was involved in the premiere of Perfect Lives when he was a student at Northwestern University in Illinois in 1979. He developed and maintained a close connection with the composer and his music.Robert Ashley (1930- ) is an American composer born in Ann Arbor; Michigan. His experience growing up in the American Midwest informed his vision; speech and temperament affecting his compositional style. He spent the formative years of his youth in Ann Arbor. He studied at the University of Michigan with Ross Lee Finney and at the Manhattan School of Music earning; respectively; undergraduate and graduate degrees in music. Ashley declined an offer to pursue a doctorate in speech pathology (one of his many interests) to pursue music. He organized and participated in the ONCE Festival of contemporary music in Ann Arbor from 1961 to 1969. In 1972; he accepted an appointment at Mills College as director of the Center for Contemporary Music succeeding Pauline Oliveros; Lowell Cross and Anthony Gnazzo. In 1978 he left for New York which would become his new creative home base.Ashley and his collaborators have performed internationally and a great deal of his music has been recorded. His collaborators include Alvin Lucier; Gordon Mumma and David Behrman (who along with Ashley formed the performing group Sonic Arts Union); Roger Reynolds; "Blue Gene Tyrrany"(aka Robert Sheff); Pauline Oliveros; filmmaker George Manupelli and many more. There were recent performances in New York and Miami of his early operas and a big new opera Quicksandis reportedly in progress and due to be premiered some time after this book was issued.Gann acknowledges the limitations of his analyses saying quite correctly that Ashleys work will require more time as well as access to the composers sound archive and consideration of his unrecorded works. He never pretends that this is more than a relatively brief treatment of a very large subject. Many works are not analyzed and little attention is given to either the ONCE Festival or the Sonic Arts Union. His collaborations and influences get little space. And George Manupellis films for which Ashley composed soundtracks deserve a book to themselves. Nevertheless there is an awful lot accomplished in under 200 pages.Gann discusses some of Ashleys early works; his involvement in the too little known ONCE festival and his very important time teaching at Mills College where he became director of their Contemporary Music Center. But the real substance of this book comes in Ganns analysis of Ashleys operas which most certainly form the core of his creative output. It is the music that gets the closest attention here. The authors detailed analyses of the rhythmic schemes and harmonic structures that underlie the (mostly spoken or chanted) texts reveal the complexities of these deceptively simple sounding and seemingly impenetrable works and provide a means of appreciating and even understanding these unusual pieces that hardly fit any conventional definition of opera.Gann also discusses some of the literary and intellectual ideas that permeate Ashleys work. The ideas come from a variety of sources including speech; speech pathology; geography; television; film; history; culture; the Tibetan Book of the Dead; writings of the Italian mystic and martyr Giordano Bruno and the writings of scholar Frances Yates in The Art of Memory and Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition among many others.Beginning with the earliest Music With Roots in the Aether and then continuing with the most familiar Perfect Lives the reader is treated to loving and insightful descriptions of the series of works which comprise his trilogy: Atalanta; Perfect Lives and Now Eleanors Idea. He proceeds to subsequent opera projects and "spin off" works. At one point Ashley told Gann that he had figured out the structure for his "next 72 operas". This writer is eager for more on the man; his works and his wide artistic circle.The electronic version of this book (unlike that of Ganns No Such Thing as Silence) contains all the images in the hard copies and is formatted; for the most part; very skillfully.If you already know and love the work of Robert Ashley this volume will deepen your appreciation and if you dont know this mans work this is the book which will tell you why you should.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A lovely rendering; but a guy can wish for moreBy C. M. SienkoIm a self-confessed Robert Ashley fanatic. Ive listened to "Perfect Lives" time after time; during which paragraphs of esoteric text and cadence have melted over my brain. Ive read the story of John Barton Wolgamot a dozen times or more. I want "The Wolfman" played at my funeral. For those reasons and more; I was just a smidge disappointed with Kyle Ganns excellent book.Though I love Ashleys earlier; more abstract work ("The Wolfman;" "In Sara; Mencken; Christ Beethoven..."); the decision to make the operas the central focus was a good one. The first chapter in particular did a great job explaining why Ashleys take on the Opera form is so radical; and yet so natural for the times we live in. He also provided me with several fresh insights into works Ive heard (and read) over and over; so I would never call this book a failure. If anything; I think its a bit skimpy in its analysis.Last year; I gave Ganns "No Such Thing As Silence;" a comprehensive; hyper-detailed analysis of the roots of John Cages most infamous composition; 433"; a 5-star rating. One of the reasons was Ganns tight focus -- examining just one piece of the Cage puzzle with a critical eye; expounding over 200+ pages of influences; strategies; live performances; reactions; and other research -- which made for a great piece of investigative journalism.With "Robert Ashley;" Gann takes roughly the same amount of pages and applies them to dozens of hours (and tens of thousands of words) of Robert Ashleys recorded works; giving us a Cliffs Notes version of each opera; offering many genuine insights and some solid journalism; but also tantalizing us with a burning need to go further. Gann does a lovely job analyzing the architecturally precise musical and textual structures of all of Ashleys operas; showing just how labored these works are -- no "stream of consciousness" here -- while favoring big-picture analysis over textual and narrative minutiae; summations which anyone who is enough of an Ashley fanatic to plunk down $25 for a paperback has likely drawn for themselves already. (200+ pages later; and I still dont know what the hell a "pmonkey bride" is!) Whether this was a choice of the publisher or the author; it does make one pine for a series of "skeleton key"-style books on each opera; the type of which we see in abundance for books like "Ulysses" or "V." (I believe Ashleys operas warrant them.)Gann makes a compelling case that Ashleys operas deserve close scrutiny; and reward whatever dedicated research and scholarship you want to throw at them. That he takes us to the garage; shows us the cherry-red new Mustang; hands us the keys; and then whispers; "theres still 14 more payments to be made on this...theyre in your name;" is a little disappointing. Not a lot. A little. Fanatics of any discipline are bound to be disappointed...it just comes with the territory. If you are a casual fan of Robert Ashley (or a noise gnarler who only listens to the "crazy early stuff"); this will sway you to the cause. If youve already been following the exploits of Raoul; Buddy; Baby; D.; Don Jr.; Linda; Junior Jr.; Now Eleanor; and others; and want a few strong through-lines on which to hang your theories; youll come back to this book (as I will) dozens of times as you revisit each opera anew. If youre hoping for every cloudy thing to be made clear; well buddy; Gann dont serve that wine in half-pints.