Yes, But Is It Edible?: The music of Robert Ashley, for two or more voices

(Text below from New Documents)Some years ago, Will Holder and Alex Waterman proposed to Robert Ashley that musicians and non-musicians might produce new versions of his operas, by way of typographical scores. The bulk of this book is a result of that proposal: scores for Dust (1998) and Celestial Excursions (2003). These operas' characters have, until now, been solely produced by and are the stories exchanged between Ashley and his "band" (singers Sam Ashley, Joan La Barbara, Thomas Buckner, and Jacqueline Humbert); in landscapes (technological, imaginary, acoustic, organisational, sonic, ocular) produced by "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Tom Hamilton, David Moodey, Cas Boumans, and Mimi Johnson—the result of a 30-year relationship. As such, any "scores" were written for this intimate readership. It hadn't been considered that any one outside this "band" might produce this work.The scores for Dust and Celestial Excursions are preceded by a selection of Ashley's work, from 1963 to 2008, drawing