Saturday, May 26, 2012

Playlist

Live

May 19, 2012
Madama Butterfly - Puccini
Seattle Opera - McCaw Hall, Seattle

I love how this opera focuses inward, opening into the vastness of a single human soul. In Paris of 1906 Americans and Japanese were both exotics. But for those of us living on the West coast, after 100 years of immigration and travel, after Pearl Harbor, after the Internment Camps, after the bomb, this is a picture of us, of our common family, taken long ago by a man in a land much more distant and foreign to Seattle than Nagasaki.

May 24, 2012
New Pieces by S. Eric Scribner
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle


Soundscroll 7 - Bruce Greeley, bass clarinet; Natalie Mai Hall, cello; Mike Sentkewitz, string bass;
Four Places on Planet Earth - Keith Eisenbrey and Matt Kocmierowski, percussion/found objects
Ukiyo-e - S. Eric Scribner, piano

Soundscroll 7 was played at the last Salon, and it is still a lovely thing to be with. I'm not in a position to comment on how Four Places sounds, since I was busy performing it. Steve had four stations around the space, each containing a collection of objects categorized by material. As pre-recorded sounds were played through the speakers, we would putter with the objects at one of the stations for a minute or so, then strike a gong softly and consult a field guide, which would instruct us (based on a code in the score) which station to putter at next. I hope it was as pleasant and interesting to witness as it was to participate. Ukiyo-e consists of four piano pieces of various lengths and age. The third piece was the shortest - brief fragments of figuration plashing up to shimmer in sunlight - but my hands-down favorite was the last, a focused exploration of shadows and weight.

May 25, 2012
John Cage: Music for Solo Performers (and an Ensemble Composition)
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
  
Sonata for Clarinet (1933) - William O. Smith, clarinet
One7 ("For Any Way of Producing Sounds")(1991) - Neal Meyer, voice; Jake Thompson, sound technician
In a Landscape (1948) - Melissa Walsh, harp
Solo for a Sliding Trombone (1958) (from Concert for Piano and Orchestra) - Stuart Dempster, trombone
Four6 ("For Any Way of Producing Sounds")(1992) - Stuart Dempster, trombone; Neal Meyer, voice; William O. Smith, clarinet; Melissa Walsh, harp
Thunderclap in Alphabits Stickers

A thunderclap event in a blue sky day. Not business as usual. Even after all these years a seriously engaged and sympathetic presentation of Cage's music speaks volumes about how concert music persists as a social object of uncertain value.

Committed performances all around. Melissa lifted us into the delicate In a Landscape, Stuart's clowning has rarely been so deadly serious, and William O.'s lyricism continues to shine more brightly the more outlandish the sounds he makes. All of this was glorious but none of it was as much of a jaw-dropping joy as Neal's minutely nuanced performance of One7. I have heard Neal perform text works for decades (and seeing him do so in front of a harp brought an image forth: a thin young man in a white three-piece suit in 1982 ". . . pop bottles füget mir NNNNNNNN . . . ") but the intense focus of this performance blew me away. It is as though he has been working at getting this right for 35 years - and now he nails it. Bravo! And another big bravo for all the work done to put this fabulous thing together.

Recorded

May 20, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 239 (December 1990 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt)

Furiously fast desperate scratching morse. Incessant. The Speaker of the House in some of its finest moments.

May 22, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 579 (July 2000 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Anna K, Neal Meyer)

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood in a gentle bell kit with small drums.


Department of Forensic Morphology Annex (June 2005 - Isaac Eisenbrey, John Eisenbrey, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey)

Department of Forensic Morphology Annex (2004) - Cris Bruch
This metal sculpture appeared on the UW campus one day and so the whole family visited it with soft mallets and recording equipment. I doctored my recording somehow with overdubbing and other effects. I'm not sure it's as great a piece as the object is an object - but it's still fun.



BF Autoharp, Barang, Clay Drum, Frame Drum, Gong, Kora: Amended - Keith Eisenbrey

Six of 12 seven-minute long tracks, with some reverb and such, for eventual use in the electro-acoustic theatrical piano concerto Blood and Fire, Hallelujah. Clay Drum, Frame Drum, and Gong parts are pretty spectacular all on their own.

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 20, 2012
Your Mother Should Know recording an alternate vocal for What's Wanting For? - this time with Karen all sultry & all.

May 21, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 814 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer


Upcoming

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 20, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
 Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Playlist

Recorded


May 14, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 29 (end) - (May 1985, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer)
Scribble - ca. 1985

May 15, 2012 and May 17, 2012
Downtime - Benjamin Boretz - Ian Pace

A recording of Ian Pace's recent committed and sympathetic live performance at SARC. In the midi version on Open Space the piano and the percussion occupy the same sonic dimension. The piano is another percussion sound and the percussion is an extension of the piano sound. In this live performance the space opens dramatically. Now it comes across clearly as a piano concerto - if a vast Calder mobile in a dark room were somehow a piano concerto. I listened twice, on two evenings.

Notes from the 15th:

motion without arrival
repetition spirals paradimensionally

Notes from the 17th:

steps outside 
itself at section 
breaks to find 
itself deep 
inside itself

what is a pitch
inverted as to itself?

what is an instance
reversed as to itself?

I understand there is a studio recording planned for release on Open Space.

Upcoming

Thursday May 24, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Steve Scribner - The Chapel Performance space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
I will be playing found objects wood, metal, stone, and plastic, to a score constructed from field guides.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 20, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM - Note the change of date!
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Playlist

Recorded

May 6, 2012
Piano Concerto No. 1 - Tchaikovsky - New Philharmonia Orchestra, Emil Gilels, Lorin Maazel
Emil Gilels

If you are under the impression that late 19th century Romantic music is an over-lush miasmic love-fest of warm sound, heart-on-the-sleeve puky sweet long line tunes and bloated bombast this recording may give you nightmares. Violently imperialist it certainly is, but sweet it is not. Singularly nasty. Gird your loins, they are out for blood.

May 10, 2012
Deep Down South - Bix Biederbecke [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

1930's high-tenor honey.

How Can You Lose - Art Pepper [from Smack Up]
I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

A masterpiece of rhythmic just-exactly-so. The only flaw in it is the fade-out. I don't want this to go away! I'm still listening!

No Values - Black Flag [from The First Four Years]
Banned Rehearsal 29 (beginning) - (May 1985, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer)
Anna K - 1985

building toward
centering toward
reducing toward
spin
coin
guitar
drum
bell




In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 7, 2012
Banned Rehearsal 812 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer

May 8, 2012
Your Mother Should Know recording additional vocal and bass tracks of What's Wanting For? and a piano & voice demo of Boundary.

Upcoming

Thursday May 24, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Steve Scribner - The Chapel Performance space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
I will be playing found objects wood, metal, stone, and plastic, to a score constructed from field guides.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 20, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM - Note the change of date!
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Play List

Live

April 28, 2012
Orchestra and Organ Concert
Inglemoor High School Orchestra, Jim Rice, conducting; and David di Fiore, organ
University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle

Orchestra:
Sinfonia G-dur - Tomaso Albinoni
Sinfonia No. 2 in D Major - Felix Mendelssohn
Serenade for Strings: III Meditation - Jack Jarrett
Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra with Piano Obligato: I Prelude - Ernest Bloch

Organ:
Grand Jeu with Thunder Effects - Michel Corrette
Air from the Orchestral Suite in D Major - Bach
Nova - Myron J. Roberts
Mozart Changes - Zsolt Gardonyi
Studio sinfonico - M. Enrico Bossi

Together:
Concerto in F-Major Opus 4, No. 5 - Handel

By way of disclosure, UTUMC is my church. The space loves a big full sound, and hearing all those fortissimo open strings at the beginning of the Bloch was a real treat. The Inglemoor students played well and with gusto. David chose solo works designed to display various effects and capabilities of the organ, including the use of a plank on the lower part of the pedal board to imitate thunder. I wonder if that's where Ives got the idea?

May 3, 2012
Amy Denio, John Ewing, John Teske
Gallery 1412 - Seattle

Three of our finest local minstrels improvised episodes of collaborative aural jujitsu. Some fragments: rubbing hands, a big blue sheet thrown over the drum kit, clothespins quivering on the bass bridge, serenade on baritone ukulele, bike horn stuttering between the high-hats - then dropping to the floor plop.

Amy and John T. performed to an interesting activity/score by John Ewing that neatly experientialized the connections between names, scores, appropriate responses, and music. J.E. presented a series of pages, the audience side of which contained a text, and the performer side of which contained an image. Going in neither we nor the performers were told whether the text we read corresponded to the image they saw. The task offered was to determine, based on the performance, whether the image and the text matched or no: Love, A Lynched Black Man, Tunnel, Pope Innocent X, Pope Innocent X, A Mother and Child, Death, Spiral, Ouroboro, Nothing.

May 4, 2012
Seattle Composers' Salon
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Minute Etudes, book 1 - Emily Doolittle - Keith Eisenbrey, piano
Verses from Melissinos Rubaiyat - Yvonne Hoar - Jeremy Mathias, baritone, Yvonne Hoar, piano
Musical Perceptions - Ann Cummings - Ann Cummings, piano, vocals, percussion
Selections from Soundscroll 7 - Steve Scribner - Mike Sentkewitz, string bass; Bruce Greeley, bass clarinet; Natalie Maihall, cello

Emily's pieces are a delight to play, full of oddly fractured diatonic segments and playful rhythms. I'll be performing them again at my recital on the 23rd of June.

Yvonne's Verses, twisted and struggling, fighting itself, taking us bodily, breaking off, oddly breathless. A difficult music concerned with its difficulty. Very nice!

Ann has been a familiar presence at Salon as both performer and interlocutor. This set of three meta-pieces (or quandaries) (or challenges) -  Broken and Not Broken, Sound Reveals My Existence, Present Absent Time -  isn't so much a vehicle for her performer persona as it is a fully realized problem: How can one be one's own public interlocutor as to a question that can't be asked except as a composer, in terms that only exist as a performer?

Steve gamely played the token male on the program, presenting thoughtfully sensual explorations of the proto- and para-articulate universe. These pieces and more will be presented at a concert on May 24th, in which I will play found objects of wood, metal, stone, and plastic.

In Session at The Tintinabulary

April 30, 2012
Gradus 211 - Neal Meyer

I spent time thinking about the experiential morphology of pitch-space, how it is shaped in part by its origin point in directional-space (in several different ways: up-down twists differently than left-right or front-back), and by every other aspect of composition. And yet it is unmistakable in its own right. I find myself mapping pitch-space onto my body, or more specifically, onto an inner sense of my vocal apparatus.

May 1, 2012
Your Mother Should Know recording tracks of What's Wanting For?

Upcoming

Thursday May 24, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Steve Scribner - The Chapel Performance space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
I will be playing found objects wood, metal, stone, and plastic, to a score constructed from field guides.

Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall

Saturday October 20, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM - Note the change of date!
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short