Saturday, March 16, 2024

Playlist

Preface

"The Ghostly Passengers in the Ghost of a Mail"

Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"

Texts

Recorded

March 10, 2024

Symphony in D Major, K48(48) (#8) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood

cadence is a tonal structure event
within an episode of figurations
an articulation
that often doesn't stop for itself
except at major divisions
or
it might stop at points
if it can clarify
the length of spans of figurations in play
so that
those spans of figurations
can play games 

second and third movements
each begin with phrases
marked by stopped cadences
fourth too
his rhetorical tool chest
becomes loaded
with phrase length options
as well as cadential options
lively at every moment

Sonata in C minor, Op. 17 #2 - Johann Christian Bach - Bart van Oort

I'm working on this piece
(on clavichord)
Bart plays a fortepiano
accomplishes some of the ornaments with nicely done tempo fluctuations
sensitive dynamics within phrases
not static
the point of the recapitulation
is to play the former material
with new details
and in different key relationships
not
to be the same
but
to be the same
differently

Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 11 #1 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley

figures are puppets
and interact as puppets in a stage
the plot need not concern us
if they are intent on their interactions 

tempting to attempt to listen to this
with the rapt attention of a young child
at puppetry 

can we listen with such wide-eyed innocence?
or has that ability been lost to us ?

Clementi seems to not be capable
of causing alarm
in such an innocent

Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 24 - Johann Ladislaus Dussek - Taija Hakkila

Dussek's show
might delight such a one
less
leans heavily on innuendos
and flirty games 

to enter this post-repeat portion
is to enter a different world
winding halls and sudden encounters
perhaps in dreamland 

one needs a fondness for witty repartee 

a sequence of modulations in quick succession
is a journey through new spaces
we identify with the figures traveling through these spaces
not with the spaces

Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Stephen Kovacevich

a personal favorite of mine
he plays the first movement gently 

do I identify with the figures here?
less so:
these figures are their tonality
they don't pass through it
if we do
say
in the post-repeat world
it's more like
we are worrying over things
in our minds
not passing through them 

a key is an aspect of a problem
the problem clarifies itself
with a cheerful stroll
on a nice day 

ends with a remarkable dissociation
of the parts of beats 

those beats
are each
in two places
at once

Variazioni in C Major, Op. 14 - Friederich Kuhlau - Loredana Brigandi

the goal is to use the most non-descript theme possible
in order to display
imagination
and skill
and cleverness
each variation is a different character

Sonata in F minor D625 505 (#11) - Franz Schubert - Paul Badura Skoda

back to figures as characters
but also
as the sung expressions of those characters

Schubert is what he sings 

a land of fancy
and of mysteries
and sorrows

Semiramide Overture - Gioachino Rossini - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Jascha Horenstein

an overture can introduce us
to the concept of character
that will be in play
within the opera proper 

singable
memorable
melodies
establish
that melody
is where it's at 

sudden bursts
promise us exciting drama
and dire pronouncements 

the music is part of the stagecraft
all sorts of characters
just imagine the craziness they are about to be in
pies will fly! 

an extensive overture
we are well into his world
by the time the curtains open

Polonaise in F minor, Op. 71 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin

we are now in a more expansive world
(because) we are on a smaller stage

Impromptus on a Theme by Clara Wieck, Op. 5 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

the theme is a thought
about its opening school-book figure
the impromptus
are thoughts about a thought 

an impromptu
is a thought
from a hypothetical
or fanciful character

the characters that speak those thoughts
are lots of fun
somebody down there is shaking the ladder
but thoughts of another
give peaceful reverie
whistley hopes 

this impromptu is impersonating a fugue

March 11, 2024

Scherzo in D minor, Op. 10 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann

tripping over themselves
to stay in the same plot line

Incidental Music to A Midsummer Nights Dream, Op. 21/61 - Felix Mendelssohn - Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen, Rafael Kubelik, Edith Mathis, Ursula Boese, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Wolfgang Schubert

all is balance and lightness
even among the hee haw crowd 

when I was living in Red Hook
my walking would often pass a farm
at which a donkey resided
I was interested to note
that the sound it made
was more
haw hee
than is popularly promulgated 

overtures written
not for any specific production
but for some idealized version
in cultural consciousness 

direct repetition
is an easy balance enforcement 

but always entertaining
and marvelously orchestrated
doesn't get as bogged down
by Masterpiece Piety
as does Elijah 

the movement that rehashes
the hee haw material
from the overture
is not nearly as much fun as it was
the first time

Il lamento - Franz Liszt - Claudio Arrau

we are taken to the theater
upon whose stage
a lament is presented
we identify
with the character
who sings the lament
on the stage
created by the music
as the stage
so made 

vanishes behind the fervor

Allegro from the F.A.E. Sonata - Johannes Brahms - Yehudi Menuhin, Hephzibah Menuhin

composed like someone writing a solo with accompaniment
rather than
as a chamber piece for violin and piano

5 Gedichte für ein Frauenstimme (Wesendonck Lieder) - Richard Wagner - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, Christa Ludwig

aching long lines
long aching lines
long lines aching 

arching long lines
lines arching long
lines long arching 

forestalling cadence
no holding still ever
striving further
the world looks different
from each further step
gazing hopelessly
out the dark window
poems
set in lines
in a drama 

for Wagner
there was no him
without a stage
and a big one at that 

veer off on four
that keeps it both still
and moving
for as long as feasible

March 12, 2024

Willie Has Gone to the War - Stephen Foster - Gregg Smith Singers

gentle parlor music
while the armies slaughter each other

Concerto in A minor - Edvard Grieg - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Bella Davidovich

this has some lovely tunes in it
and proceeds with clarity
the keyboard writing
is perhaps a bit florid
modeled on Schumann's Concerto I suppose
but without the contrapuntal workings beneath it
the melodies sure do sing though

each step in his modulations
are presented in full
it is demonstrated
that no corners were cut
no untoward leaps were made 

music composed
as a sequence of themes
to hum on your way out 

the accompanimental figures
know their lots in life
and keep to them 

the flautist played their third movement solo beautifully 

a little trumpet fanfare
announces the big tune show-stopper

Symphony in E-flat Major, Op. 10 (#3) - Antonín Dvořák - London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz

this opens so many times
I don't know where I am anymore 

every few bars
the subject changes
a movement
of strange on-goings 

the curtain opens
a village scene
morning 

our hero desponds

the path to hope
lies through the darker tonalities

less concerned with taking all the steps to get places
than Grieg 

points to
and is
then
at 

here comes our hero
in shiny white armor
possessor of a quiet family farm
in Idylicville 

imagine if he had ever found a librettist
with as crazy an imagination
and an audience that could keep up

E-flat
of course
we get a hint of Das Rheingold 

later at the ball
candelabras and intrigue and drama
unwinds onto the dance floor
words are exchanged
and glances
and cuts 

adventure and troubles
oh the suitors!
worthy and un-

Symphony in F minor, Op. 36 (#4) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz [from a broadcast of May 8, 1992]

I bothered to tape this off the radio
because I thought the live performance was pretty fine
the radio-compression weakens it near fatally
its size is diminished
no room to be big
no room to be small
it all fits snugly
into the confines
of the FM signal 

no situation
is safe from exposure 

the audience is allowed their cough
before all the pizzicattos let loose 

and the sudden FF
of the fourth movement
is reduced down to the size of a closet
a pity
because the conversational fortissimo
is half the fun

Nocturne (from 2 Canons) - Ethel Smyth - Liana Serbescu

a canon is a tactic
to connect moments
between voices
as they go by
and continue
to be going by
it bumps us out of time

March 13, 2024

Russian Easter Festival Overture - Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

the subject remains intact
and in view
even out in the street 

a folio of illustrations
ends with a full-page spread

Vexations - Eric Satie - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 16, 2010]

My half-hour
of what may be the Seattle premiere
I was on early on a Sunday morning 

I haven't thought about it much since then
and I don't speak French
but my recollection is
that the indication to play it 840 times
was not a clear cut instruction
but an ambiguously suggestive possibility 

"Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses." 

true or not
I like the idea of couching performance
instructions as open-ended possibilities
or subjunctives 

the piece itself asks questions of itself
from every angle you care to observe from 

an unaskable question
after which
we went out for breakfast
I enjoyed the project
more than I feared I would

Das Klagende Lied - Gustav Mahler - Concertgebouworkest, Amsterdam; Bernard Haitink; Heather Harper; Norma Procter; Werner Hollweg; Netherlands Radio Chorus; Meindert Boekel

song cycle
embedded in a symphony
or in an oratorio
or all three
at once 

the song has little purchase
on the other parts of this music
in danger
of slipping off
into who knows what strange realm
we
are trapped in this music
as are those
who must be the characters
in the unfolding tale 

companion piece to Gurrelieder
another monstrosity  

the difficulty lies
in the fact
that
I have no plausibly appropriate category
for what this is
or might have been meant to be
and keep trying to make one thing
or another
out of it
but
it doesn't go like any of those things
really
it's a wholly unique mess 

I am forced to hope
that was the intent

March 14, 2024

Poeme tragique, Op. 34 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

a moment of turning
a flash scene
a glance

Passacaglia, Op. 1 - Anton Webern - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Hans Swarowsky

Webern
as the ecstatic voluptuarian
digging into the heart of chromatic polyphony
wielding a scourge

Brouillards - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

what might have been a melody
enters
atop the burbling
but only a few notes
outline
where it would have been

Poem for Flute and Orchestra - Charles Griffes - Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson

what is poem about it?
high-toned literate voice
speaking in formal measures 

who knows
perhaps there is a particular poem as its model 

to transport us
to a mind
like that of poetry's

Farewell Blues - Isham Jones [from That Devilin' Tune]

staggering home
arms across shoulder
keeping everybody
in a loose jointed
vertical position 

we all sing
everybody's songs at once

Every Day of the Week Blues - Pink Anderson, Simmmie Dooley [from Really The Blues]

rather than have the guitar
provide the other
of the dialog
there is
another singer
in that function

Suite for Clarinet and Bassoon - Johanna Beyer - Jackie Glazier, Marissa Olegario

simultaneous lectures
come together at the hinges
or chokepoints
squeezing through the same moment
to continue on their independent journeys

Jim Jam Stomp - Joe Marsala [from That Devilin Tune]

almost
if not a quite
be-bop up-tempo and attitude
hot jazz
not the other kind

Divertimento for Small Orchestra (after Couperin) - Richard Strauss - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz

there was an urge
to enlarge
and re-color
the intimate musics
of earlier centuries 

is it just a desire
to share this music
with a larger audience
(amplification)?

or was there a discomfort
with its intimacy? 

or
simply
a performance
on the instrument of Strauss's
personal virtuosity
with extemporaneities unfolding 

an old man's diversion
while waiting out the war 

the last surviving denizen
of turn-of-the-century
German music culture
playing
with old French court music culture

Milk'em in the Morning Blues - Tennessee Ernie Ford [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

topical social music
for rural America
but
it probably isn't actually about dairy life
as such
I suspect innuendo
wink wink

Concerto pour Harp, Op. 323 - Darius Milhaud - Orchestre de L'opera de Lyon, Kent Nagano, Frederique Cambreling

calling on the rhetoric of a culture
can call unexpected accoutrements
here
calling on the Satie-esque
brings Satie's crowd with him
and his scent 

neo-classicism
begins to feed on itself

music as a place to be
a company to keep
rather than
a drama to undergo
or an ordeal to endure 

genteel social
effervescent
movement two bubblies 

and if neo-classical
is a music
in consideration of another music
then
what happens
when the music doing the considering
is the music under consideration?
surely strange toadstools
will appear
another life form
gets in on the action
of rot
and decay
then back to chipper chipper
back to life in business
rebuilding itself
four movements
four seasons
a time for each
no histrionics here
we are French
we'll tie it into a decorative knot
and we're done

Run Rudolph, Run - Chuck Berry [from The Best of Chuck Berry]

a careful poet
who restricted his forms
to a tight circle of rhythms 

cry sleep drink and wet
whizzin' like a saber jet

That's The Way Love Is - Bobby Bland [a Rescued Record]

with vintage surface noise
back when things were recorded all at once
everybody in the same room
where folks could hear each other 

dipthwhip

Lingua II: Maledetto - Kenneth Gaburo - Alan Johnson, Elinor Barron, Bruce Leibig, Sherry Dorn, Bonnie Mara Barnett, Robert MacDougall, Bruce Rittenbach

a new thought is heard from
out of left coast 

the turning of the screw 

everlasting wriggler
the Nile Delta
was irrigated by an endless 

what
||: meaning what? to what end? :|| 

acting on the short end of a lever
arousing my scent pouch to a fury
in canon 

the paleotecnical phase
horse-driven
Archimedean muggymuddled
the unified thread standard 

breathe-in
ex-spire 

a new screw is announced
obsolete screw warehouses
a dedicated man
not just the facts
but the sludge around them

all memorable

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 10, 2024

Madrid - Keith Eisenbrey

March 11, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 1096 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

March 12, 2024

Was mein Gott will, das gscheh allzeit - Aaron Keyt

Von Gott will ich nicht lassen - Aaron Keyt

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 15: 2014

Early 2014 found me completing the first part of Études d'exécution imminent - the project that would keep me busy into 2021. Another was written for Ben Boretz, in celebration of his 80th. J was composed while thinking about the late J. K. Randall. The six movements of Another are Sphinxes, Scarabs, Pools, Potions (first batch), Potions (second batch), and Smoke, which movements can intermingle in performance and sometimes do, and so I include here three quite different versions for your enjoyment - two on clavichord and one live version on piano.

J and the second version of Another were recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, The Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, in 2016; the other tracks were recorded at my home in 2015.

Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com

All are free for download.

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2021






Saturday, March 9, 2024

Playlist

Preface

"I don't quite recollect how many tumblers of whiskey toddy each man drank after supper; but this I know, that about one o'clock in the morning, the baillie's grown-up son became insensible while attempting the first verse of  'Willie brewed a peck o' maut;' and he having been, for half an hour before, the only other man visible above the mahogany, it occurred to my uncle that it was almost time to think about going, especially as drinking had set in at seven o'clock, in order that he might get home at a decent hour. But, thinking it might not be quite polite to go just then, my uncle voted himself into the chair, mixed another glass, rose to propose his own health, addressed himself in a neat and complimentary speech, and drank the toast with great enthusiasm. Still nobody woke; so my uncle took a little drop more, - neat this time, to prevent the toddy disagreeing with him, - and, laying violent hands on his hat, sallied forth into the street."

Charles Dickens, from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"

Texts

Recorded

March 2, 2024

Symphony in A Major, Op. Posth. 90, "Italian" (#4) - Felix Mendelssohn - San Francisco Symphony Herbert Blomstedt

1
the living of others can seem picturesque from outside its daily grind
a fantasy of Italy seen from the dour North 

2
we turn from our ideas of what we see
to our gracious living on top of it 

3
we bring back our pleasant memories of travel
and spread them around our homes as décor
this movement is over-stuffed and occasionally tedious 

4
everybody loves a Tarantella
even one as obsessed with its correctness as this one
there are no clunky moves in this world

Traumerei (aus Kinderszenen, Op. 15) - Robert Schumann - Vladimir Horowitz [from Horowitz in Moscow]

brief subsidence in the harmonic stability
a passing cloud

Sonata in D-flat Major, Op. 730 - Carl Czerny - Martin Jones

1
we are traveling from our comfort
to a new comfort 

a storm sweeps our path
wind and rain
but we have solid homes
able to shield us from such troubles 

2
again we open in a secure feeling
bring in drama to provide contrast
all will be well 

3
a bit of vigorous exercise for the constitution 

4
difficulty of execution is treated as a positive good
wanders about the typical paths without particular aim or wild imagination
everything by the book

Prelude to Lohengrin, Act III - Richard Wagner - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

frenetic strings
brash brass
pleasant reeds
Germanic self-mythology

March 3, 2024

Romanze in A minor - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann

this melodic figure has a top (first) segment
and a bottom (next) segment
the key of this piece is defined by the gap between them
it should be noted
that the two segments are quite near in register
but there is no mistake between them
the dimensions of that gap arise in the ear-mind
a solid chunk of music

Der 94st Psalm - Julius Reubke - David di Fiore [from The Grand Organ of the Castle Church of St. Catherine in Kremnica]

the Avenger God Psalm
in the person of one who pictures vividly what the words are saying
as one reads along with the Psalm
the soundtrack to the inner reader's imagination
(love those low pipes)
a cantata without words out loud

victory in battle as a sign of divine favor
a pernicious notion
goes way back 

we love our battle scenes

Symphony in F (No. 00) - Anton Bruckner - Orchestre Symphonique Minstre Cultre D'URSS, Gennady Rozhdestvensky

clearly this argument has been raging long before we got here
the most big R Romantic of his neck of history
Wagner was something else entirely 

not even Bruckner faced off two dolce flutes against a wall of fortissimo brass
because it was a good idea
for him
it was part of the full working out of an idea
a necessary move

a composed-in virtual echoic chamber 

this is a strange sounding symphony

Brucknerian non-sequitur
a pesky sprite such as a cat can be
takes on fiendish proportions
no balance or tedium avoidance
the Brucknerian fake-to-the-tight-end modulation
picks himself up off the dirt
listens to the forest birds
modulation as a matter of soul survival

March 4, 2024

Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 - Johannes Brahms - New York Philharmonic, Westminster Choir, Bruno Walter, Irmgard Seefried, George London, John Finley Williamson

from the center of the chest
house of convictions and social cohesion
moral bedrock
a grim march from cradle to grave
words of comfort ex machina
back to the grim march to meet thy doom
fortissimo junction
alternative
a choice to be made

this requiem is mostly an extended theological dialog
has a choral "I" 

were Brahms to have composed an opera
I'm sure his characters would be given ponderous tomes of lines to sing 

throwing figures around like confetti

everybody loves a good day of judgment movie spectacular

heroic cadence
righteousness-er counterpoint than yours
writes this stuff because its the morally correct thing to do

The Tempest, Fantasia after Shakespeare - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., Antal Dorati

takes its time (marvelously) to get things going
nice bit of orchestration too
I guess he didn't want to open with the storm and blow his wad all at once
this seems to me like it needs a dance to complete it
costumes dancing around without inhabitants
a strange puppet show
no one but Tchaikovsky ought to feel competent enough to wield the tune bird
kind of a strange take on the play if you ask me

Andante maestoso "Vexilla Regis prodeunt" (from Via Crucis) - Nederlands  Kamerkoor, Reinbert De Leeuw, piano

plain
unadorned
uniform
every note a monk

Etude "Allegro Deciso", Op. 16 #1 - Ferruccio Busoni, Wolf Harden

a composer-instrumentalist can approach the composition of an etude
from any or many of several standpoints
it might even just be a quick sketch of an idea for something else

Suite for Violin and Orchestra - Frederick Delius, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley, Ralph Holmes

like a floral arrangement
a Suite is a less fraught genre than Sonata
absolvement
moments not movements

Symphony in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World" (#9) - Antonín Dvořák - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter

for years
as a child
this recording
of this symphony
was half of what a symphony was
the other half was Shostakovich's 9th 

the peculiar clunkiness of these transitions
were what stood for composition

no wonder I grew up so confused 

Dvořák as an unwitting identity warrior
English Horn stands for pastoral
sylvan
in the lap of nature
prayer rises to bliss 

we have entered the wilderness of contrapuntal disintegration
time to pull out the magic pan pipes
a vigorous horse ride
will help you feel better

what's this
a forest naiad on loan from Europe?

Old Black Joe - Thomas Craig [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

body in the lower pipes
loose jointed piano playing
unrepentantly elastic pulse

Madama Butterfly, Act I - Giacomo Puccini - Coro e orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Alb erto Erede, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Campora, Nell Rankin, Giovanni Inghilleri, Piero de Palma, Fernando Corena, Gianna Diozzi, Melchiorre Luise, Michele Calvino, Luigi Pizzeri

busy bowing
officious administration
colonizers eroticize the exotic from a distance
effective moment
after effective moment
as if these folks were caricatures of passionate Italians
youth and beauty arrive on the clamshell of an other civilization

the problem with modeling the going of your opera
on that of spoken drama
is that one is held in check by the dramatic weakness of the play you are working with
situations that are believable in the artificial world of recitative and da capo arias and set pieces
fall on their face in naturalistic declamation
based on the rhythms of stage acting 

Pinkerton arrives with a whiff of the Star Spangled Banner

March 5, 2024

Saga-Drom (The Dream of Gunnar), Op. 39 - Carl Nielsen - Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt

in the north
tales begin in dim morning twilight
clues are sparse
first farm chores occupy the landscape
a study in lighting

The Land of Cotton - Hedges Brothers & Jacobson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

each line has its own tempo
vaudeville locution

The Tales of an Old Grandmother - Sergei Prokofiev - Nathan Milstein, Georges Plademacher

establishing a remove from the listener
we observe within the frame provided

Variations on a Noël - Marcel Dupré - Douglas Cleveland

variations concern themselves
with the structures of the theme
as they might be discovered or imagined
in different lighting
identical pose
the theme
remains unchanged
even if hurried along
now and then
the theme is the structure of its melody 

for a piece that really is about tone colors
this recording is a a bit murky to my ear

Z mrtvého doma, Act 1 - Leoš Janáček - Vienna Philharmonic, Charles Mackerra, Jiri Zahradnicek,  Ivo Zidek, Vaclav Zitek, Dalibor, Jedlicka, Antonin Svorc, Jaroslava Janska, Vladimir Krejcik, Richard Novak, Beno Blachut, Zdenek Svehla, Eva Zigmundova, Zdenek Sousek, Jaroslav Sousek

comes apart as it comes together
pushes the characters around
excellent writing for timpani back there

Evocacao - Heitor Villa-Lobos - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz - Robert Bonfiglio

film score music
nothing below the surface immediacy
affects anything on screen

String Quartet, Op. 28 - Anton Webern - Juilliard String Quartet

a pitch indexes a moment in music space
a matching pitch indexes a matching moment in music space
distances can be calculated within different frameworks
within or across music spaces

Ode (Triptychon for Orchestra) - Igor Stravinsky, London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas

doings in the background amid the lower voices
could be street scenes
elaborate caper plots going down

Sonata I (from Sonatas and Interludes) - John Cage - Adam Tendler

prepared piano is a solution
to the itch to have an instrument
just like the piano
but with different sounds
a pianistically regimented virtual orchestra
proto-midi

There Is Only One - Four Leaf Clover Quartet [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

love the sloppy piano player back there

Moscow, Cheryomushki, Act 1 - Dmitri Shostakovich - Residentie Orchestra The Hague, Russian State Symphonic Capella, Gennady Rozhdestvensky

a windup puppet opera
complete with circus parades
or a play
in which the characters stop for a moment
to be in an opera
and sing a song
get stuck on a word
or take the stage in the local pub
or on a stage where the audience is right there to sing to
clear the stage for a big dance number
everybody gets a few lines to fill with couplets
one does not expect the sound of an explosion
nor I suppose of a motor car 

music to back the spoken dialogue
cinematic
non-diegetic music
as a description of a social situation

Prisoner of Love - James Brown [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

I presume that in concert this went on considerably longer

Voice of the Bard (William Blake) - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]

the melody he sings lurches around to the lengths of Blake's syllables

Seaside Bar Song - Bruce Springsteen [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and the Beat]

desperately seeking California

Three Songs -  Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey, Kenneth Jaffe [recorded live at The Studio Theater, Meany Hall, University of Washington, May 16, 1979]

the texts are by Walt Kelly
for which I neither asked for nor was I granted permission to use
but
I think I did a rather nice job of setting them for a 20-year-old
attempting songs for the first time

March 6, 2024

Untitled - Joe's Smokin' Pals [form Bard Sampler 82 & 83]

a story of sorts
with guitar on top

Sonatina - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Purple Stripe]

this is the original recording I made on clavichord
somewhat the worse for dubbing among tapes
otherwise a solid performance
included as part of a cassette album for limited distribution among correspondents

A Matter of Life and Death - Steven Mackey - Elizabeth Di Felice [from Open Space 4]

morse-ic rhythms slicing through
once again the urge to have a piano
but differently sounding
pulling the attention toward the sensual

Minute Etudes - Emily Doolittle - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, June 23, 2012]

this was the first time I had worked these up
I gave them another try a year or so ago
a bit sloppy here and there
some finger puzzles only partially worked out
possibly a bit too tricky and exposed for me
to be able to accomplish live
with any reliability

Autonomous Systems: Red Rocks - David Dunn

as I understand it
David is attempting
among other things
to use analog means to generate a sound world
that might be the kind of sound world understood by non-human critters
and broadcasting that sound
into an ongoing natural environment
in hopes of eventually establishing a basis for inter-species communication

Like a Bird on the Deep - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at the Tintinabulary, Seattle, June 14, 2015]

the hymnodic "me"
of 19th Century American hymnody
a relic of The Great Awakening

"of shreds and patches" - Elaine Barkin [from Open Space 34]

what stands for cyclic
is poked and prodded apart
its shreds surround it widely 

Grumpy Toad is my favorite

Greenwood 180101 - Keith Eisenbrey

at New Year's Moment
in one of Seattle's minor downtowns
we hear the fireworks
while waiting for our bus
locked out of my own phone

Mississippi John Hurt Tribute - Jeremiah Lawson - Jeremiah Lawson

mixing my metaphors
just like they're cookie dough 

rhymes "-phors" with "dough"
works with the tune

O Pulchra Facies (De Virginibus, Antiphona) - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia [from Spiritual Songs]

springs from a deep slow music
in droning viols

Madonna, Io Ben Vorrei - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ

statements begin with imitation that can be followed
until you can't
to come together at the cadence
it's a rhythm of the melodic color
of the cadence points
in sequence

Antverpské renesančné tance - Anonymous - David dei Fiore, Matúš Kucbel

David sent me this more recent recording of these pieces
this time with percussion
what the sound lacks in fidelity it makes up for in how much fun they're having

Jubilate Deo omnis terra - Peter Philips - The Choir of Royal Holiday, Robert Gough

each shift of note within the polyphonic texture
a new sense of the vowel
as a structural node within the poem-music

O Lieber Herre Gott - Heinrich Schütz - La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe, Agnes Mellon, Greta de Reyghere, Monique Zanetti, Howard Crook, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Herbe Lamy, Renau Machart, Peter Kooy, Peter Lika

rising in stepwise sequence
perfect clarity

Erhalt uns Herr, bei Deinem Wort - Dieterich Buxtehude - Stella Simone

trills and mordents
provide a pitch with an explicit context
on top of its implicits 

a twisted two minutes

March 7, 2024

David et Jonathas, Act II - Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Pinchgut Opera, Antony Walker, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Dean Robinson, Paul McMahon, David Parkin, Andrei Laptev, Anna Fraser, David Greco, Cantillation, Anders J. Dahlin, Simon Lobelson, Richard Anderson, Sara Macliver, Ashley Giles

chess moves in the plot
matched by intricate and vigorous part writing 

tune strands
conglomerated meters
deceptive moves into false hemiolas

La Logiviere - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

close attention and memory might get us through

Invention in D Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

allows the figures to create what meter they might
or
letting the written meter guide
a contrast to be exploited

Noel Suisse - Louis-Claude Daquin - Marie-Claire Alain

rhythmic head rhyme
a binding tool

How Excellent Thy Name - George Frideric Handel - University of Puget Sound Chorale - Thomas Goleeke

the English hire a German to flatter God for them

Keyboard Sonata in B minor, Wq. 65.13 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

an interior space
we'll take the slow tour thank you 

check out all the nooks and cupboards 

half cadence through the side door
his downbeats modulate on the spot
into elsebeats
meter
inflected by figurationally implied alternate meters

La de Vatre - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset

this garment is lavish with fine textiles
hoops and coiffures

Symphony in C Major, Hob. 1 #9 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Austro Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Ádám Fischer

now where have we landed?
quick bowing
second movement is a location
circumscribed
controlled access
the lines in this period
all rhyme at the head
so we know where we are in it

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 3, 2024

Costellow - Keith Eisenbrey

March 7, 2024

after Halt in Gedächtnis Jesum Christ - Aaron Keyt

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 15: 2014

Early 2014 found me completing the first part of Études d'exécution imminent - the project that would keep me busy into 2021. Another was written for Ben Boretz, in celebration of his 80th. J was composed while thinking about the late J. K. Randall. The six movements of Another are Sphinxes, Scarabs, Pools, Potions (first batch), Potions (second batch), and Smoke, which movements can intermingle in performance and sometimes do, and so I include here three quite different versions for your enjoyment - two on clavichord and one live version on piano.

J and the second version of Another were recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, The Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, in 2016; the other tracks were recorded at my home in 2015.

Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com

All are free for download.

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2021






Saturday, March 2, 2024

Playlist

Preface

"THE LORD:

Appear quite free on that day, too;
I never hated those who were like you:
Of all the spirits that negate,
The knavish jester gives me least to do.
For man's activity can easily abate,
He soon prefers uninterrupted rest;
To give him his companion hence seems best
Who roils and must as Devil help create.
But you, God's rightful sons, give voice
To all the beauty in which you rejoice;
And that which ever works and lives and grows
Enfold you with fair bonds that love has wrought,
And what in wavering apparition flows
That fortify with everlasting thought.

(The heavens close, the Archangels disperse.)

MEPHISTO (alone):

I like to see the Old Man now and then
And try to be not too uncivil.
It's charming in a noble squire when
He speaks humanely with the very Devil."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - from "Faust", translated by Walter Kaufmann

Texts

Recorded

February 25, 2024

Theme and Variations in C Major - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

let's be square
let's be square again
we'll be square for awhile
quite charming
but square

we'll be so
in the face of anything else
that might happen
out there
in figuration land

Serenade for Wind Instruments in D minor, Op. 44 - Antonín Dvořák - London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész

ceremonial and celebratory
but not cheerful
more like a parade of judges
and other very self-important people
trailed by urchins and their caretakers

a most pleasant picnic
the kiddos play spinning games

turns trills appoggiaturas
all the old graces persist
as signifiers of lyrical flowingness 

to play a note
one must understand its place within its utterance
one's understanding of it
becomes it
but
in a variously fraught synthesis
of it
and of understanding 

what did I mean by that?
by that
I meant
that
that I meant 

the judges process off
with no loss of self-importance

Khovantchina, Act I - Modeste Mussorgsky - Sofia National Opera, Atanas Margaritov, Dimiter Petkov, Todor Kostov, Lyoubomir Bodourov, Stoyan Popov, Nikola Gyuzelev, Alexandrina Milcheva-Nonova, Milen Paounov, Maria Dimchevska, Dimiter Dimitrov, Nadya Dobriyanova, Verter Vrachovsky

drunkenness from the night before
interrupts the peaceful morning 

conversational
not in the rhythms of actual conversation
but in the schematic presentation of pulse-organized music
or
this singing isn't pretending to be speaking
this singing completes its sentences
balancing its phrases  

the stage populates with chorus members
the Greek chorus has become an active character
voice of the people
and suddenly
the maiden enters
in peril
at the top of her lungs 

he keeps setting her off 

the audience is addressed
as a narrator might provide some analysis
or commentary 

a drama of musics
acts out
in the drama of stage 

that sounds like the curtain

Don Juan, Op. 20 - Richard Strauss - Staatskapella Dresden, Rudolf Kempe

impatience
then total focus to overwhelm
irresistible
only to refocus
cadence through a chromatic thicket
adventure time

this is presumably Byron's Don Juan we have here

February 26, 2024

Karelia Suite, Op. 11 - Jena Sibelius - Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi

music arises from below
or from a distance
the victorious parade past
in their wake a waste of sorrow

taking apart Das Rheingold's opening upward sweep 

Spring will come one morning without permission
whistling merrily off to the happy fields
pompous palace
busy streets

Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 23 (#3) - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

struggling through an impasse of so many possibilities
round and round
testing each door over and over
rattle the hinges 

melody and figuration cross paths in opposite directions

Quartet in F Major - Maurice Ravel - Budapest Quartet

fantastical limpid delights
nymphs and naiads
civilized polish over what is not spoken of
painted in muted tones and flowing lines
faerie peril
faerie weariness
faerie furioso 

hangs on its penultimates
to turn elsewhere

Quartet in B Major, Op. 7 (#1) - Béla Bartók - Juilliard String Quartet

expressionist anguish
it melts alone
they meet in secret
furtive glance across shoulder
stern words
keep it quiet
a flickering screen
a slow pantomime 

string quartet as expressionist theater

Peccadilles Importunes - Eric Satie - Frank Glazer

a mechanical device
deflationistical

4 Songs, Op. 13 - Anton Webern - London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, Heather Harper

the illusion of melodic cohesion interrogated 

doublings of instruments set aside with derision 

imitation dissected
divided for study

Der Geburtstage der Infantin - Franz Shreker - Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Lothar Zagrosek

far from the cares of the kingdom's subjects
a princess
functionally
was a pawn
in a global game
of keeping peace
by arranging marital relations
among a set of dysfunctionally inter-related ruling families 

lush expansiveness of nostalgia for the Empire
as it once stood in our fond remembrance

February 27, 2024

An American in Paris - George Gershwin -  Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

imbuing Paris
with the image
of the heartland
of America's self-mythology 

a series of vignettes
complete with fleeting chinoiserie 

may as well be a broad appeal movie 

sound-stage Paris
though I think Gene Kelly & Company improved on it 

great tunes
but arranged more like a medley than like a piece

we must be back near the hotel
there are the car horns honking

Chinatown - Louis Armstrong [from That Devilin' Tune]

a seriously noisy surface from the vinyl 

energetic performance
live?
guess so there's the applause

An Outdoor Overture - Aaron Copland - London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland

music for another hokey ballet?
{NB, no, not so it would seem} 

sharp orchestration
using simple means with an ear open

change scene
play with tune bits for a bit
then play the tune the bits are from 

get all big
change the scene 

narrative

Evocations - Carl Ruggles - Buffalo Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas

grumpy
occult
bad news
music turned inward
American Expressionist

Lord Will Make a Way - Elder A. Johnson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

wild vocal yodels
right into the guitar's upper squeal

Have I Waited Too Long - Faron Young [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

home on the range
cowpoke dance

Break-Up - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

an excellent example of his pianistic shenanigans

Adoramus Te Christe - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [recorded live April 16, 1963]

nicely done Mom!

School Boy (William Blake) - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]

a translation
using pitch to follow the rhyme

Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

comes at you from all angles

Eppesithalamium - Milton Babbitt [from Eric Carlson's Slowly Expanding Milton Babbit Album]

everything a conversation could be

No Art In The West - The PKs [recorded live in the Bickleton Manse, 1983]

great drum playing Karen!
back in youth
when the image was clear and clean

It's Christmas All Over The World - London Symphony Orchestra, Placido Domingo [from Joy To The World]

the sea sun of joy
brings us by a sudden lurch of recirculation
slam whap
into the ridiculous
(type: fucking;
as in
"fucking ridiculous")

Banned Rehearsal 316 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [January 3, 1993]

our common play time
nursery school rules
don't be a hog
don't stomp on others 

our own uniquely liberated intonation 

improvisationally developed linguistics

this was recorded in the Northwest Room
now lair of young men
before we framed in the half-garage
it has a right-in-your-face sound to it 

the boy speaks in single word poetry natively
briefly 

punctuational yawns

is this music?
why would it want to be? 

it is a record of an episode in our lives
an intentionally staged phonograph 

what does music hide?
keep obscured behind? 

stupendously too much for direct-to-cassette mastering
so gloriously resplendent tintinnabulation
pan pipery
bow bouncing
box thumping 

we demonstrate
that our free reeds
are free of a common intonation 

and the Aaronsbundler makes a cameo 

a surface to rub vigorously

the outfielder is not responding at all 

jolly John!
playing ball off the headbone
and the unmistakable shriek of 18 month old glee
I deliver the lecture toward correct parenting 

boncy ball boncy ball boncy ball

my foot is completely numb

Hold On Be Strong - Outkast [from Aquemini]

slow entry
timed perfectly with the tea kettle whistle 

I have no recollection of why I have this album

Preludes 1 - 4 - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 6, 2006]

I love how his rhythms trip over themselves
catching up with their continuations

nicely sensitive playing there past me
yes I have my moments

Again a Gun Again a Gun Again a Gun Again a Gun - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]

a thornbush opening
clearing into trumpet
helped by drums and bass ministrations
relaxing down to just the bass
taking time
the winds
entry with drum
who plays with the bass
while reed and brass lengthen the line
set a time plan
now we're all cheering on the drums

Puppet Pieces - Kam Morrill - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, July 20, 2018]

cues for a never-to-be puppet show

Wire Sculpture for Ben - Craig Pepples - Julia Hsu [from Open Space 43]

the pitch of the sounds leads through itself
we view these notes lengthwise

Banned Rehearsal 1067 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, January 2, 2023]

we trend toward quiet
but a case is opened
and out comes the banjo
joined soon by seed pod rattle
xylochatter
tenor banjo
xylophone
snare drum
plus additional percussion
as might be handy 

not a performance of music
but an episode of playing with sounds and noise makers

February 28, 2024

O Vis Aeternitatis - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia, Barbara Thornton, Laurie Monahan [from Canticles of Ecstasy]

furling into emptiness
outside of its confines
the wicked world

Baci soavi e cari: Quanto ha di dolce amore - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini

and here we are
in it

I suppose there is word painting in there
if one knew the language
but also
clearly
working with the sounding rhythm of the words
as they form their poem

O quam suavis est a 8 - Peter Philips - The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, The Choir of Royal Holiday, Robert Gough

flowering from concord
dancy rhythms for sacred use

Erhore Ich Wenn Ich Rufe - Heinrich Schütz - University of Puget Sound Women's Chorus, Sylvia Munsen

tempos in tempos

Praeludium in D Major, BWV 139 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

a procession with great anticipation
sit down folks
this is serious business
an extensive prelude
must have been quite the event

Messe pour les Covent - François Couperin - Barbara Baird

fills its container
roots reporting in
all committees present
every moment of ceremony is filled with experience
music
if nothing else
is available 

this is intense 

I wish the engineers hadn't cut off the reverberation of the ends of these pieces

Médée, Act I - Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Les Arts Florissant, William Christie

begins honestly enough
with a ballet in praise of the producer
a master of the small moments
playful bass lines
the procedure is irregular
but the result is gracious 

opera number:
an enactment of a dramatic moment 

narrative clues 

this is a ballet
you may chatter

we live in an age of revivement
of recollection
and reenactment 

conversation hinge aria plate
it splays feelings out into the world
at right angles to time's flow

music and language share a time scale
or several
in our cognitive apparatus

each character always in character
puppet-like
must be a happy act ending
the chorus scatters confetti and rice and tickertape
trumpets no less
how thrilling

music is a means of keeping chaos constructively in order

Nach dir, Herr, verlangt mich, BWV 150  - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling

endless weeping figures

the choral me
a construction of notes
moralistic
keep things in line
constructing the bones of a Lutheran Liturgy
competing with the whole of the past 

does the choral me exist before Bach?
as a ghost behind the Mass perhaps
dunno
but
if it did
did it contain so may individuated voices?

units within the choral me

Sonata in C Major - Daniel Purcell - Stanislav Surin [from Hudba v Trnavskej Katedrale]

polite life loves its happy endings
and endless flattery

Acis and Galatea, Act II - George Frideric Handel - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwoard Dawn Kotoski, David Gordon, Glenn Siebert, Jan Opalach, Seattle Symphony Chorale

but alas
no happy happy happy shall last
plate upon plate
four upon four
confounds accounting

the chorus was instructed to enunciate the k of hark
so that it wouldn't sound like they were singing har har har
so
the enunciation aids the comprehension of the text (the words)
but not of the music
which is as perfectly clear with har as with hark
(the enunciated k does not make it less silly) 

whining
disdaining
over and over
life is a pain
indeed! 

altogether too fond of melismatics that run on and on
here comes the party crasher

morendo endo for Acis
poor chap
he is no more
no more
no more

February 29, 2024

Concerto in D Major, RV 93 - Antonio Vivaldi - Chamber Orchestra of St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Vladimir Altschuler, Marco Tsessos

a movement is a costume
an impression to be made in an extended moment

Noell 11, en Recit en taille - Louis-Claude Daquin - Marie-Claire Alain

ornate upper registers
clear and functional bass
a two voice counterpoint
as a contrasting continuation

Keyboard Sonata in C Major, Wq. 65.8 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

very polite when folks are paying attention
but playful when backs are turned
rarely lands where one knows he must have
same platform
different geometry 

loves phrase ends cut short
or spilling off into glittery figure play

La Felix - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset

the naming conceit in French keyboard pieces
a piece is
or depicts
an object
animate or un
or a state of moment (mood)
often
the specific connection is lost to time
and generations of speculation

Sinfonia in E-flat Major - Johann Christian Bach - Camerata Budapest, Hanspeter Gmür

1
a burst of sound
then fiddly stuff
signifying theatrical expectancy
the appearance of a second subject
means
you'll have to be patient
so  get all your sitting down
and fidgets
done with 

2
such polite grace
on all points of etiquette
the picture of idealized society
the form without the subterfuge 

3
then we can be happy and gay
all is innocent peace
(pre-fall)

I finti eredi (Giuseppe Sarti) - Franz Joseph Haydn -  Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Antal Doráti, Aldo Baldin

there is a clear practical benefit
for operas to be constructed of individual pieces
they could then be swapped in  and out
as occasion suggests 

hey Joe
could you crank out a tenor aria for tonight?

Symphony in G minor K173dB(183) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood

we are led by the hand
our attention is taken and directed
nothing is hidden 

interrupting continuation 

the cellar is a few steps deeper than that sir 

we love our easy chairs
parasol boat
floats blissfully
but with feelings
(inner drama)
in hinted words 

full blown Sturm und Drang
very fashionable
at all the finest opera houses
and concert halls
so exciting

Sonata in D Major, Op. 10 #2 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley

a two-movement sonata form
from Clementi no less
charming as always

there is a notion about keys
that they are associated with specific things or ideas
if they were
then that would be like a mass synesthesia within a cultural milieu
or defining its own cultural milieu 

is culture itself a mass synesthesia?

Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 5 #3 - Jan Ladislav Dussek - Tulja Hakkila

and another!
all the rage
composes with coquetry
all the passion of an elopement adventure
in the dead of night
for your imagination to wander upon
each key
a window into the story so far
whole lotta banging going on
adventures of a lovable me
so charming
living the Don Juan life
Chico Dussek
who me?

Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Artur Schnabel

I worked on this one for quite awhile
it's a pretty radical piece in its way
for its plainness if nothing else
each bit is exactly that bit
and not its neighbor bit
with an appassionato melody in the second section
out of thin air
such specific figurations
tears pulse apart
and wrestles the parts to the ground in triumph

Symphony in D Major, D82 (#1) - Franz Schubert - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Böhm

1
I am being grand indeed
but there's trouble hidden in me

no doubt produced here
on a grander scale than Franz ever heard it with 

go straight
until lost
then turn
keep going
you'll find it for sure 

so exquisitely tasteful
hold up
where is this from
the inside does not match the outside
oh the tragicomic irony of it
reveals an undertow 

3
makes hay out of the extra figure
thrown in for fun
differentiated menuet
and more homogeneous trio?
definitely 

4
all are working to the common end
an exciting theater of spectacle and noise

Caprice - Niccolò Paganini - Nathan Milstein

gymnastic theater
circus act
or the image of a circus act
as something else

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 55 #1 - Friedrich Kuhlau - Loredana Brigandi

lessons in compositional comportment
suitable for all sexes or mixed company 

another two-movement-er

Polonaise in B-flat Major, Op. 71 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

the key has been redecorated in the strangest taste
lovely but idiosyncratic

In Session at The Tintinabulary

February 25, 2024

Castle Street - Keith Eisenbrey

February 26, 2024

Banned Telepath 102 South - Steve Kennedy

Banned Telepath 102 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

Banned Rehearsal 1095 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

February 27, 2024

274 Jesu, geh voran auf der Lebsenbahn - Aaron Keyt

274a after Jesu, geh voran auf der Lebsenbahn - Aaron Keyt

February 29, 2024

203 O König Jesu Christe - Aaron Keyt

243 - Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt - Aaron Keyt

277 Mir ist Erbarmung widerfahren - Aaron Keyt

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 14: 2011-2012

After having worked closely as a pianist with the prelude cycles of my local colleagues Lockrem Johnson, Greg Short, and Ken Benshoof, and being a long-time admirer of the cycles of Chopin and Scriabin, I began to wonder what a set of preludes written by me, one in each key, would be like. 

"Welcome to my planet. I come in peace." started as an idea for something else entirely that took on a life of its own. Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com

All are free for download.

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2021