- Christian Wolff
String Trio for Robert Ashley (2009)
- C.F. Peters Corporation (World)
Programme Note
The String Trio for Robert Ashley was written shortly after my attending several Ashley operas, by which, as on earlier occasions, I was very moved: the humor, the somehow both involved and detached pathos (especially in "Dust"). Also (again, especially in "Dust") the vernacular elements (finely wrought pop song moves and the "bland" synthesized background music) in an avant-garde/experimental (I suppose Bob would hate those terms) setting. The Trio is simply a tribute, not necessarily referring to any of that. It's written both freely and with continually changing micro-systems (guiding pitch choices, rhythms, counterpoints), in a series of mostly short units falling into three larger sections (but they are also internally diverse), ending with a kind of triple canon (two voices for each of the strings) based on the tune of "Which Side Are You On?"