Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass and Milton Babbitt Set the Words of the Late Poet John Ashbery

John Ashbery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for his surreal and experimental style writing style, passed away on Monday at the age of 90. Listen to archival performances of the settings of his work, “No Longer Very Clear,” from WNYC FM's fiftieth anniversary concert, set by some of America's most renowned composers: Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, and Milton Babbitt. 

Ashbery's Poem "No Longer Very Clear"

(courtesy of NYPR Archives)

 WNYC-FM’s 50^th anniversary coincided with a very difficult time for the station: Mayor Rudy Giuliani had declared his intention to get New York City out of the broadcasting business by selling the licenses to WNYC – AM, FM, and TV (we broadcast PBS and various leased-time programs on UHF Channel 31). We’d just begun the process of negotiating with City Hall to not stand in the way of the sale of the TV license in return for the opportunity to buy the radio license ourselves, but our 51^st anniversary was by no means assured. 

Still, the event at Alice Tully Hall was meant to celebrate the station’s rich history and its deep connection with the contemporary music scene, in NY and around the country. The composer John Corigliano gave John Schaefer the idea of commissioning a bunch of composers to write short pieces for the occasion, and the poet John Ashbery was willing to contribute a new, unpublished poem, so the project quickly turned into a celebration not just of WNYC and the music scene, but of this oblique, dark, and possibly bleakly humorous work by Ashbery. “No Longer Very Clear” touched on familiar Ashbery themes like aging, memory, and regret; more than one composer, in speaking about it beforehand, noted that the title was appropriate to the occasion, with our own future so unclear. 

The concert began with Ashbery reading his work. 

Schaefer gave the composers no rules for setting the text: they could set it all, or part of it, or none of it.

Laurie Anderson set the entire text.

Philip Glass wrote an instrumental response (which now lives a second life as one of his piano Etudes)

Philip Glass' setting of John Ashbery's "No Longer Very Clear"

Milton Babbitt set almost the whole text – and had a hilarious explanation for why he didn’t set a single, short word. 

(And one composer, Raphael Mostel, set only the vowels!) 

These performances were recorded June 13, 1994 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on the occasion of WNYC FM's fiftieth anniversary.