"January [1837] Last Year's Bills"
George Cruikshank from The Comic Almanack an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
December 28, 2024
Invention in G minor, BWV 782 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld
a force pulls the tonal sense downwards
the gravitational metaphor
would only be appropriate
if there were some other object
in
a mutual relation
mass seeks mass
Keyboard Sonata in C Major, Kk. 255 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
a key
is a set of pitches
in a specific set of relations
to
a root note
the root's pull
varies considerably
composition
as an art
of adjusting pulls
among pitches
Sinfonia for Double Orchestra in E-flat Major, Op. 18 #1 - Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür
the clear light of reason
in fine clothes
exchanging bon mots and
witticisms
dances well too
musique etiquette
for the pinnacle of civilization
in the best of
possible worlds
L'infedeltà delusa (end) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne, Antal Doráti
the relation
of orchestra to singers
is almost adversarial in this
recitative
marking the rhetorical articulations of the singer
dramatic expression
matched
in musical expression
making
of the whole
a single image
of expression
neither strictly dramatic
nor strictly musical
multimodal expression
drama mode/music mode
nothing like a wild vocal cadenza
to re-attract attention
in this aria
the orchestra is quite supportive
and
sympathetic
in this dialog
the orchestra is keeping itself out of the argument
entirely
a neutral party
Rondo in C Major, Wq. 56/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
the art of retracing steps
and looking again
the internal segments of the Rondo
are each a fresh vantage
Symphony in D Major (2nd Version), K. 385 "Haffner" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Japp Schroder, Christopher Hogwood
our hero faces unforeseen keys
undaunted
he works them all back
out
to their happy place
all the trappings of theater
are unnecessary
for Mozart
to
conjure
an apparent drama
Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Neal O'Doan
the theme is shown its weaknesses
right away
in variation
one
voices
at the poles
of a fibrillating figuration
potent
as a moment of stillness
from where
within
any
and all
manner of motions
might flow
this molto adagio variation
is in no meter
except its
a poem
of a single long line
fingery figuration play
intricacies within intricacies
this one
is grave
the ornate floating melody
is an analog
of the violin solo
that floats above that late swath
of the Missa Solemnis
difficult questions are posed at any juncture
Aufenthalt, D. 957 #5 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
firm beats pounded in
Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
for all the florid ornamentation
not a note out of place
Kinderszenen, Op. 15 #1, Von fremden Ländern und Menschen - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
bednight tales for happy sleeps
Bei einer Trauung - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim
grief torn
Poem in D-flat Major, Op. 41 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
slender arms
draped in diaphony
a brash suitor
an accommodation mutual
La Terrasse des Audiences du Clair de Lune - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs
a cityscape spreads out below us
toward the river
gardens and
rooftops
avenues and streets
a city
full of places
endless
past the horizon
Zanzibar Boat-Song - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]
scenes from a charmed life of ease
all needs served
events kept
away
Sarambeque - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke
ragtime in a new lingo
a homogeneous mood
Prelude 2 - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin
there's a whole Sonata compressed into this Prelude
Cold Iron Bed - Jack Kelly and his South Memphis Jug Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
old fellows
in chairs
on the drugstore porch
street
observers
tale telling tempo
blues
If Dreams Come True - Billie Holiday (with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra) [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
interestingly structured sax lick to open
song structure
a winning
shape
Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 1 (beg.) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]
even spaced apart
into separate weeks
these tracks
run
together
a curious
and compromised document
concerned with music
without quite engaging as such
Good Night - Lockrem Johnson - Florence Mesler, Lockrem Johnson
regarding history
and our relations to it
we can usually place a
music
within a broad culture-time
with its contemporaneous musics
or
we can extend that music
back
through our image
of a person
we have met
and imagining them
in their
past
a continuous presence
String Quartet in G Major - Florence Price - Catalyst Quartet
which would not be out of place
a century before
I hate to say it
but this
(quite lovely)
music
has a
hint of antebellum nostalgia to it
nevertheless
this is quite engaging throughout
mint juleps and all
waited upon hand and foot
Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves on The Trees) - Eddie Fontaine [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo's Milieu]
popularizing strategy
write poetry for singing
that tells stories
about the members
of the target audience
Times Five - Earle Brown
musics made of interswappable parts
no two performances the same
but
they are presumably all made of the same stuff
our paths through the garden
don't affect the geology underlying
it
composed on a slab
organ harvest festival
live demonstrations
great fun
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - Louis Armstrong [from Disney Songs The Satchmo Way]
loves the word-play
and we do too
If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
ritual come on
flashing red neon ad
I Know Some Lonely Houses Off the Road - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt
a recitation
KEEAK 830228 - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [recorded at Bard College, February 28, 1983]
Aaron was at Princeton that year
and came over for a visit
he must
have brought his synthesizer along
it spurts and blurbles in one speaker
me on piano
in the other
at the time
I was under an impression
that maximal stereo
separation of parts
was a worthy aspiration
I have since changed
my thinking
we start well
but lose focus midway
we trade music bits
then
approximate a flat line
Kaval Sviri - [from Le Mystere Des voix Bulgares Volume 2]
no mistaking that solid sound
Banned Rehearsal 334 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [July 9, 1993]
the all night pajama store
John plays on
we can make this noise
and carry on a witty repartee
at the same time
one wonders
what conception
John had at the time
of what we were doing
in this
what did
'on tape'
mean
to a 2-year old?
sound being inherently irrational
we make music of it
out of
fear
this is really really jingly
why Ohio why?
daddy's doing
Aquemini - Outkast [from Aquemini]
language from an obscured scene
occults itself
Gradus 39 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 3, 2024]
announce yourself
episodes of musical silence
alternate
with
episodes of musical sound
sound can cease
without impeding musical flow
Interface Chapel - Matthew Barber - Ossia New Music Ensemble [from Open Space/Perspectives of New Music 2]
a tuning
and a lingering
into a pitch patch
admirably
straightforward presence
a chamber music sense
of intra-ensemble
sociality
they play with each other
for us
and each other
a chamber-symphony
in many short movements
an ensemble of parentheses pairs
discussing their mathematics
there may be pairs of parentheses
that practice rogue
possibilities
?)?(?
gloriously flagrant disregard
of stray
out-of-rung notes
silence is approached reverently
sound respects silence
and
silence respects sound
Carson Farley Comments about "Film Music" - [recorded live at Seattle Composers' Salon, January 5, 2018]
about being a composer
if
one imagines that
to be a
profession
translate it quickly into a finished product
Gradus 378 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 20, 2023]
a list concluding with the sixth D
followed by another list
deep within this forest
you may find the sixth D
it is surely there
right where I put it
Ds don't disturb themselves
I reckon
way I figgers it
forest
has ways of distraction
from questing
where notes
lose their names
Madrigals, Book IV: Cor mio, mentre vi miro - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
a poem's voice
as a madrigal
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXIX. Du Schalksknecht - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
in Monteverdi
the beauty of language
in Schütz
the
beauty of its import
beauty
as a metaphor
for truth and authority
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BuxWV 76 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
seeking relief
from the oppressions of the world
to rest
within eternity
with joy and gladness
I would hence
a moral contemplation
so be honest
Premier livre de clavecin: Triosieme Ordre (ut) : Les Pelerines - La Marche - La Caristade - Le Remerciement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
arms gracefully holding fabric out
for display
legs turned
so that
the fashion hosiery
is clearly discernable
the honing
of ones outward appearance
Benvenuto Cellini, Act 1, Premiere Tableau, Scenes 4-7 - Hector Berlioz Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet
extraordinary
recitative into ensemble
finale
Abismo de sed - Carlos Guastavino - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo
emblematic demotic aspects on display
is the higher brow treatment
a boon
to those aspects
or an
appropriation
for display?
Indianola - Wilbur Sweatman [from That Devilin' Tune]
a dance craze?
if
this is what I think it is
it is icky and
racist
musically sophisticated or not
De Sejo - Heitor Villa-Lobos - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo
what is the business
this music is in?
America, Rhapsody for Orchestra; III. Future - Ernst Bloch - Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Gerard Schwarz
pro-capitalist industrial banner
indoctrination
industry gets
tiresome
and dire
back to the prairie heartland
Art
as
propoganda
social coercion
built in
at the end
the
audience
is requested
to stand
and belt out
a jingoist
hymn
primed
from that stand
to give themselves
a
mighty ovation
(I had never felt so uncomfortable
at a concert before)
what's ovate about ovation?
(wave your flag dear)
Deep Elm Blues - The Lone Star Cowboy [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
songs among the guys
not for polite company
You Took Advantage of Me - Bud Freeman [from That Devilin' Tune]
for tapping to in taps
West Kinney Street Blues - Skoodle-Dum-Do and Sheffield [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
another red-light address?
Lost On The River - Hank Williams [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
his voice isn't pretending to be another kind of music
it is honest to
itself
Shake a Hand - Faye Adams [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
seal the deal
all the while
the piano player
is shaking
hands
all over the keys
Invention (midi) - Benjamin Boretz
bouncing pong-like against its bounds
Goodnight My Love - The Fleetwoods [from Come Softly To Me]
lovely electric keyboard sound
quite the come-on
Abraham, Martin and John - Dion
a somewhat sophisticated conceit
With a Child's Heart - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
what a crazy way to grow up
Racing In The Street - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]
the tough
refrain
from learning
from experience
too
long
we pause
to allow you young toughs
to let that sink in
2000 Miles - The Pretenders
every sound has been expertly filtered
for purity of essence
this poem is really stupid
Retrato de Euchababilla en le Noche - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [realized February 13, 1988]
my interest in this process
(slowing down a tape of a performance)
was not merely sensual
I was also interested
in what latent
musics
might emerge
to what extent
does expanse
affect our rhythmic perspective?
a long soliloquy
with percussion commentary
in the yard
is rather gloomy
and rather grand
Time Capsule - Dylan Hicks [a Rescued Record]
self parody
a la The Dictators
schlock TV
fan theme
songs
you wouldn't want to put it in a time capsule
but did anyway
Banned Rehearsal 494 - Peter Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 9, 1998]
taut to twang
at the thick of it
this music
is worrying its chewbone
intently
that sounds like Pete
is he on this tape?
{NB: not listed on the
box hm.}
hiccups in the corner
released from the ultra-taut
we decompress
slowly
to find the evening's sonority
{journal entry of April 15, 2006:
sparring
fade
development into quieter space
our each own
muttering corner
but
material in general
is spat out
with venom
no finesse
but blatant
but also
not
quite simply evacuation
Pete Comley must have been with us
hiccups
as we develop a face
guided by piano
and guitar
undulations
study in smooth
and choppy
Wurlitzer pedal still working fine at this point
build
again
lots of shout
& feeling
& release
in
this one
a kind of
subverted rock-anthem energy
late-night
in the bar
misbalanced
musicy
piano scribbling
not too
off-putting
but definitely
upfront in the mix
right from the
start
control grabbing
others try too
most notably the drums
which are wonderful
I wonder who?
Aaron perhaps?
or
Neal?
more aggressive playing than Karen
more subtle touch than
Aaron's usual
but it could be
. . . perhaps Pete?
the
transfer was I think pretty darned clean}
Shouldn't We Talk II - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 19]
does the sharing of abstract properties
provide coherence
or allow
it
or guide it?
Wash Day 080218 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, February 18, 2008]
homely sounds
could be music
but
do they need to be?
might there be
aesthetically regarded sound experiences
for which
musicality
is irrelevant?
we hear
a household appliance
running its mechanism
the sounds of
the motor
the rotating drum
the thumping
clothes
and dishes being stacked
(different machine)
(different room)
perhaps some liquid burbling
among the
clothes
somebody's calling on the phone
that rings
with
Banned Rehearsal squawk
must be a rinse cycle
for the water runs
now we're at the shore
and begin to spin
so that
we
can wear dizzy duds
now it pees interminably
new activity for the
machine
all done
In Session at The Tintinabulary
December 28, 2024
Jordan - Keith Eisenbrey
I hadn't had much time to put this one together the Sunday before, and then I decided it needed some touch-ups, which I did on this day.
December 29, 2024
Epping - Keith Eisenbrey
this week's shape note tune arranged
December 30, 2024
Banned Rehearsal 1116 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
new toys for Christmas!
December 31, 2024
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz
other than some sloppiness about some of the simultaneities this is a lovely recording
January 1, 2025
Detritus 5 - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
