Playlist

Recorded

March 24, 2019

Puyallup, WA ca 1966

The Witch (Live) - The Sonics [from Boom]

somewhere in the back of the palate of those wailing shrills is an emulation of Screamin' Jay

Nice Work If You Can Get It - Thelonious Monk [from The London Collection]

so he's a singer at one with rhythm

a Satie-esque end game

New Lace Sleeves - Elvis Costello [from Trust]

this song's kind of all over the map

Fire - Bruce Springsteen [from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 1975-1985]

odd bridge

an out of affect experience

briefly

it jars a bit I think

Immediate Impact Zone - Infamous Menagerie [from Kill Rock Stars]

its implied architecture

repetition structures

social inventions

mini ritual

about as great a thing as it could be

Dudley's Song - Dean Evenson [from Native Healing]

not completely without merit in the pitch play department

though rather enclosed, as in a vitrine

Sweat Sex - Thee Emergency [from Can You Dig It]

comin' on like The Who and all

full stadium roar

an altar call

Sow Took The Measles - Train Case [June 2011]

I take pride in the fact that I convinced Karen and Neal to record the songs they were playing for their Mom. 

Opus - Jon Forshee - Joshua Charney, piano [from Open Space CD 36]

playful figurations

downright melodramatic!

all riled up

a really tremendous solo piano piece, probably some several gradations over my technical abilities. {frowny face}

Mt. Rainier National Park

March 26, 2019

Got To Get You Into My Life - The Beatles [from Anthology Vol. 2]

bared of orchestra

organ, bass, drums, vocals

lifted from the mix

or the rest of the mix leached away

how ideas are tried

Child of Heaven - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [December 1971]

from my Mom's private tape

Track 8 - Empire Brass Quintet [from American Brass Band Journal Revisited]

another unnamed track that came into the mix through Karen's family

Banned Rehearsal 97 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

chorale tune is the thing

shabby by this time with no rehab done

correcting part work or grading

we spin some disks

let's shout

sight singin'

somewhere in this book is a good chord

sorry

false alarm

March 28, 2019

Laugh or Cry - The Vagabonds [a Rescued Record]

somewhere between the Buzzcocks and Simon & Garfunkel

this 45 was found in a box

Lost Tracks - Dean Evenson [from Native Healing]

Mt. Rainier National Park

piety without content

mood mix

so seeming mistrustful of what it could be

of what any bit could be

form lines reverberated out, dissipated

Liebeslied (Amended) - Keith Eisenbrey [Chapel Performance Space June 5, 2010]

When I returned to Seattle in 1984 Ben Boretz gave me the original pencil score of his (now withdrawn) unfinished composition Liebeslied (for a pianist alone) - composed in the early 70's. I copied it (in ink on vellum, and later with engraving software) and performed it several times over the next couple of decades. At some point Ben suggested that I re-compose it. Liebeslied (Amended) was my first go at it, my amendments consist of making a half-hearted but personally intriguing stab at drawing out the opening section, and revoicing a few of the big chords in the middle. This was not a particularly successful performance, due to my usual chronic rushing - and I still have trouble getting my paws around those big crashy chords.

Hammer in a Bag - Pouch

Sean Delaney's go to move is a Godzilla shriek 

containing multitudes

as shrieks go, high class indeed

Huge Guy in the Mosh Pit - St. Rage [June 25, 2016]

And it's Neal and Karen again! Your Mother Should Know impersonates Karen's fictional high school garage rock band. This recording benefits from being turned up loud. Sloppy but earnest.

March 29, 2019

Hear Us - Era of Peace - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [April 1966]

the choral first person

as an operatic invention

derived from the congregational first person

the creepy politics of combinations

subversive anti-individualist propaganda

Nutty (take 1) - Thelonious Monk [from The London Sessions]

playing a polyvocal game with a sensibility that concerns where within phrase length spans one can play loose and off and where one is to play flat and plain

in order to play at platformers or web slinging

on the audio grid

The Emerald City (from a broomstick)

Forest Fire - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters - In God We Trust]

grown men impersonating 10 year old boys

as they thought themselves 

bethinking themselves

besmirched

This Is My Day - Julian Lennon [from The Secret Value of Daydreaming]

this arrangement is crying just crying for a big orchestra and a 100 voice backing choir

those synths just don't quite cut it

Loch Ness - The Velvet Sidewalk [from Kill Rock Stars]

some musics are sudden floriations

others are the belowground parts of the soil fungus

we rot music

Track 2 - The Seattle Chamber Music Festival [July 2001]

oh such glorioso amateur intonations! so robust! spritus maximus.

discointonations

dis-co-intonations

disco into nations

a half reeler silent accompaniment

morally upliftingly 

Workin' Man's Blues - Bob Dylan [Key Arena, 2006]

playin' the old guy 

playin' the old tunes

does anybody believe in this anymore, what he's saying?

Sow Took The Measles A - Train Case

When I first started recording them I kept a bunch of versions. this is one.

Karen has a superpower. She can sing.

The Ship - Brian Eno [from The Ship]

the soundtrack

to the film

of the finding

of the ship

das Rheingold's anacrusis

instrument of death to all

its sepulchral nature even at birth

vowels shaped at liminal register deep

epitaphony 

reverberance plucked by cotton candy tongue out

the after wave

And Your Bird Can Sing - The Beatles [from Anthology Vol. 2]

you can't see me

the poster child of isolation recording

Echo Song - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [December 1971]

works it out nice

within its chamber 

the layers of media transfer 

as they successively disengage

Untitled Track - Throbbing Gristle [from Greatest Hits]

like something Pete Comley might have said

Banned Rehearsal 98 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

heart felt cry of bluesy oh city to ope

sprite at its funmaker makiest

"It Hurts" - Neal's sudden song

when we aim we are dead on laser bent

we are the generatoration 

that shreds the past

we are the past shredders

Port Macquarie, New South Wales, 1986

"this is banned rehearsal number ninety eight / the last banned rehearsal in this house for a long time"

actually probably the last ever full session

karen and I made some assembly rechoireds and some telepaths, but by the time there was a quorum again we had moved to the Front House, in front of the Half House, Greenwood, where we were

this hits on a large quantity of cylinders heretofore never known

intervals energize persistence

a sister worthy shaman fellow

accuracy presumes rectitude

precision does not

we dredge down

on

one 

to

one

(funny that karen should worry about echoing in her books the girl boy boy dynamic of Harry Potter plots, when banned rehearsal was all of that long beforetimes)

Love's a Hard Game to Play - Stevie Nicks [from Timespace]

a sexy viola register there Stevie

pretty hot

In Session at the Tintinabulary

March 25, 2019

Banned Rehearsal 978 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

I played piano because I just had it tuned and because it's fun

March 29, 2019

"Mrs. Ramsay rose, Lily rose." - Keith Eisenbrey

Frankie and Johnnie [from Études d'exécution imminent] - Keith Eisenbrey

Port Macquarie, New South Wales, 1986

Karen has been in Portland for a conference since Wednesday, so Friday morning I took advantage of the relative quiet of a morning with nobody else up and about to record some takes and tests. Mrs. Ramsay (yes, it's from Virginia Woolf) is a piece I wrote shortly after Slow Blues and that I don't have a solid studio recording of yet. Frankie is an opera that comprises the 13th Etude of my work in progress Études d'exécution imminent. I hope to work on patching these together tomorrow to see if they tick. 

Playlist

Recorded

March 16, 2019

Psycho (Live) - The Sonics [from Boom]

dip dap digi digi do || Waoww!

My Melancholy Baby - Thelonius Monk [from The London Collection]

an opportunity to touch exquisitely
articulate press and delicate release

Daily Records - The Who [from Face Dances]

stage confessional
stage in life
soliloquy

you
are at a show

Banned Rehearsal 96 - Karen (Meyer) Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

no rush getting to session mode

your blogger, Neal, and Karen, 1986

but when we do it is done

I have a place
I read Intermezzo V with a ukulele at my belly

Neal has a high regard
of the arranging of my tapes in three neat little stacks
a hero's task

a journey
everything cold
and now slowly open the eyes

Some Things Have Holes (a sudden song by Neal)

then two thirds of us wander off session briefly
drum beat pitched on 3 and 1 (in 3)

I'm So Sorry About That (another one by Neal)
tracing excuse to repentance to silliness of not my fault, reverts to blaming the victim
Karen, finally, has had it

March 17, 2019
I'm Waiting for the Man - Moe Tucker [from I Feel So Far Away - Moe Tucker Anthology 1974 - 1998]

like slow dance nothings whispered in your ear

Symphony #1 - Beethoven - Philharmonia Northwest, Roupen Shakarian

no feathers ruffled here

one might re-argue the familiar critique of this, i.e. that it isn't a Symphony it's a piece for wind band with strings, in terms of: it uses too many resources for the type of piece it is. It tries to goose the style just by noising it up. Too many out-of-doors instruments in-of-doors for what is still pretty much an in-of-doors piece

Coming Home - Dean Evensen [from Native Healing]

I hate being snarky about this, it's just my tone.

the idea is that if music is [A] Healing, then you will feel [B] Better
and that there is a cause and effect relationship between this music and Healing

but I may be misunderstanding the relationship completely
A does not cause B
but brings B within A
i.e. feel Better by being here in Healing where we feel fine

Banned Rehearsal 704 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer

on the porch

Mt. Rainier National Park 2006

we sure been doin' this a long time hain't we?
steady on the quiet water
it's never the same jungle out there on the drifting banks as the drifting banks drift by

we pluck back at the quiet evening
now and then we get all excited about something and run off to scribble

but we return

for Milton - Samuel Adler - Michelle Ross [from Milton Babbitt: A Composers' Memorial]

enters fully into the whole concert piece mode

Half a Bus Closer to Home - St. Rage [June 2016]


St. Rage is the fictional band in my wife's soon to be second editioned debut novel "The Gospel According to St. Rage." In this recording they are impersonated by Karen Eisenbrey and Neal Kosály-Meyer, both of Your Mother Should Know, and were recorded by me. My favorite part is the angelic teen chorus in shiny "Homework!" harmony.

Playlist

Recorded

March 10, 2019

Volta I/Volta II - Thomas Simpson - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

The game here isn't fancy imitation, it is the play of motions at each moment.

The Witch (alternate take) - The Sonics [from Boom]

here was raised their Ebenezer

Misterioso - Thelonius Monk [from The London Collection]

ticking sixths
and sets of trichords

little diatonic bits at top and bottom
of each ticking sixth
tempo play of ticking
within the ostensible beat

With a Shout - U2 [from October]

call to arms
drums to introduce it

they mean it
all of them

Banned Rehearsal 95 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer


we discuss the immensity of 95
ocarina duet or trio
ocarina, flute (2 of), and conch shell

Liberated Intonation: staking a claim for most particular as to pitch but not shackled by any rationalist strictures
nor Partch nor Rameau nor Schenker

shamanrite
crow spread
intonation of mouth shape congruence
MOWTH

the trick is this:
to be gloriously dissonant
and resplendent in consonance
at once

intonation so pointed as to allow the wobble as an equal partner
as so as
so to as
to as to

hello?!

(gets to places I wish Aku had got to)

I will speak truth
the greatest sci fi score maker sound ever is the Wurlitzer Funmaker Sprite in the hands of Banned Rehearsal

tarry the twice told tale

this ceremony is to purge the rational

and throughout: the terroir of background furnace noise

Hum Bom - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]

rhyme and rhythm

Le Tombeau de Couperin - Maurice Ravel - W.A. Mozart - Philharmonia Northwest, Roupen Shakarian

effortless butterfly flying
it flits
then more frogs
then flowers

neo-classical is its own exoticism

Track 1 - Seattle Chamber Music Festival 2001 [from my mom's private collection]

robustly recorded

wrassled!

a epic battle ballad in 16mm

Total Energy - Thee Emergency [from Can You Dig It]

strobe effect badge: achieved!

March 14, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 793 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer


we are quiet
the familiar entertainer acts as a decoy
we are led by the familiar into peril
it, the familiar, drifts off
we remain

alien worlds leak through from distant wave planes
what counts as big is so so gently, so with such color
what presses in, what pokes in, what washes through

and their proportional irrations

Johnny Law - Robbers' Roost [from Live in Minneapolis]

interaction: the banished meets the banisher

In Session at the Tintinabulary

March 11, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 977 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt

Neal had a work thing, but we carried on

Playlist

Live

March 8, 2019

Maple Leaf Reservoir Park - March 2019

Morsel Trio
Chapel Peformance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Emily Acri, violin; Chris Young, cello; Steven Damouni, piano

pre: nervous energy hums chest high among those who prepare their desires: what are they for, their desires? what about their desiring makes their nerves dance?

Note: I don't mean bad nervous, not at all. Rather: expectant, alive.

Morsel - Luke Fitzpatrick

cinematic
slow back panning shots of frozen immobilities
drama of ceremony
Rite of Winter
oracle

what remains for aye after dragon's passing?
a long low lingering ice

The old is dying and the new cannot be born - Daniel Webbon

modern dance, even unscreened, must tell the tale in its own movements
triadic harmony and diatonic tunes
skirt mighty close to the edge of tonal disambiguity but never cross

Memories from Within a Valley Fog - Charles Corey

careful is its use of the bigger now
until it lets loose

since when let loose
it evaporates

at several rates

Light and Matter - Kaija Saariaho

not afraid to get similarities of sound and resonance from the various instruments all digging into the same dirt spades clanking

not to paint an encompassing world but to portray the spirit of the single minded, adventuring

whiff of political energy (Dmitri?)

what could be the tune
struggling mightily with what would be an harmonic undertow

Massive kudos to this superb young trio for this ambitious program of strong and completely believable compositions - three quarters local! More like this from each and every one of you, please!

Installed

March 7, 2019
Piano Drop
Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle

On a beautiful afternoon late in April of 1968 a thrift store-purchased piano was dropped from a helicopter onto a farm near Duvall. Several thousand had gathered to picnic and observe. It missed the woodpile, and those gathered, landing with a less than spectacular thump in the sod. Its harp and what of the frame it remained attached to was rescued to a basement to wait for its next adventure.

In honor of that long ago plunge to earth a successor to one of the institutional perpetrators laid the remains upon a table in a room and called upon the local composing community to comment and respond. Among those who took the bait was my band-mate Aaron Keyt. He asked Karen and me, and his wife Jennifer Chung, to help perform Piano Gusting, which involves blowing through straws at contact microphones placed or clipped to various parts of the wreck and plugged into handheld battery powered amplifiers.

The recordings of the dozen or so pieces have been strung together to play into the room on a loop. A video projection constructed from films and stills taken at the event plays on one of the walls. Print displays contain some press of the original event, some information about the current event, and related graphical content.

It's a bit like visiting a tomb inhabited by clearly joyous spirits. Oh that good feeling vibe of hippieful happenings, and how they linger! I arrived earlyish in the morning and stayed through all, I think, of the sound loop. Just about the time I thought I was hearing sounds I had heard before (about an hour) the Jack Straw lobby began to fill with 5th graders. Life does go on.

Recorded

March 1, 2019
The Hustler - The Sonics [from Boom]

aspirations of the high school geek guy surfer dude wannabe

Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland - Thelonius Monk [from The London Collection]

experimentation
exploration

big nix on the expostulation

Blood on the Floor - Throbbing Gristle [from Greatest Hits]

fades out longer than it is
hint of an artifact, audio catalog entry

Banned Rehearsal 93 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

FW in progress

chains and expanses and repetitions

vectors accumulate causes before the beginnings of 'em (prevenience!)

her mirth is uncontrollable
quietly joined by music box wound very slow

a text constructed of the images of the root objects mentioned in the text

scribicide

recording is a phonograph of the place I lived hidden beside and illuminaudiating the insides of the old howits

a ramskin

face to the east face to the west face to face addressing the plane

cuts off in the middle of the prankquean

Everybody and Their Dog - Fitz of Depression [from Kill Rock Stars]

The size or focus of the guitar sound in comparison to the bass and drums disconnects the sense of beat location unity. Each focus has its own exact locus of it-ness.

High and Inside - Keith Eisenbrey [from Preludes in Seattle, June 2006]


a terrific "what if" piece
Q: What [would it be like] if [A were B]?
The answer is the image of the specifics of the question.

A: structural refraction of imputed overtones, in this case. (is that what the guy in the paper meant by "outdated minimalism?")

In my own ever so humble opinion it's a pretty sophisticated hunk of meta-minimalism.

for Milton - David Saperstein - Peter Jarvis, vibraphone [from Milton Babbitt: a composers' memorial]

toy piano, as sound making tool, is more like a vibraphone than like a piano. (duh!)
The key is the what of what is struck not the how of how it is struck. A truer toy piano would be more like a hammer dulcimer I think.

delightful actorly narration

Gradus 291 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 2016]

world building
work world
work shop building
world work
building shop world work
world in which to work
world work shop
even quotes my Sonata g e g e g e g e

defies editing into anything to be tossed at the market

Difference between:
A. composer as originator of the score
B. composer as the image the audience constructs in their own heads as the image of the source of the sound speaking

(this is getting downright Taylorish)

using the one note that's out of tune as the lovely and natural focus

March 3, 2019
Paduan XII and Galliard XII - William Brade - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

a picture of a courtly dance
or a stage tableaux with actual folks peopling it

Variations on a Romance Wq. 118/6 - C.P.E. Bach - Miklos Spanyi

instructions on compositional keyboard figuration
instead of this you could do that or this other or or or
or how to transfer plain into fancy

tricks of the trade

rather slight though, for CPEB

I Met Him On A Sunday - The Shirelles [from Shirelles Anthology]

each of them magnificent all on their own. Babado!

Vomit Express - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]

doin' his Dylan
which shows just how similar they are
and precisely how they differ
crazy tin whistle back there

In This House That I Call Home - X [from Wild Gift]

tombstone shoes
attractive rhythm section

You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon [from Graceland]

To what extent is any signed-up-with-a-label recording artist anything but a brand?

Feels Blind - Bikini Kill [from Kill Rock Stars]

sung loud no matter what is being said in order to be heard over the kind of band that sings loud no matter what is being said in order to be heard

Track 1 - Bob Dylan [from Key Arena October 13, 2006]

BD: I'm playing with a blues band as a poet, sensitive to the rhythm of each line

where it accents
where it moves along
where it sticks
and where within the blues of it

it touches down

Time Stratifications II Song From The Deep Silence - S. Eric Scribner  [from Storm Sound Cycle, May 2011]

past settles deep into ocean floor

almost lively compared to some of the storm sound cycle pieces
poco poco poco piu poco vivace
a lively moil

a roomsized tam tam wham

Terrible Touch - Ancient Warlocks [from Ancient Warlocks II]

Aaron Kraus at the top of his game slow surfing on gooey wall magma

indulgent?
for sure, but just letting it shine

March 5, 2019
Paduana XVIII - William Brade - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

drapery

the body from which it hangs
its own weight
and how it moves freely to the floor

Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology Volume 2]

processed wisdom
audio processing obscures the song's weakness as both music and poem

Animal Cycle - The Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [December 1971]

cute humorous poems with illustrations
just good enough

be kind and tender to the frog

Girls on Film - Duran Duran [from Duran Duran]

fancy funk rhythm
recorded with money

Banned Rehearsal 94 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

one room
for singing long tones
another
for chatting (which stops)
leaving long sung tones and breaks

tones zeroing in on particular resonances within the mouth's shape

we join forces with slow deliberation
and stick clacks
and a recurring avalanche of distorted bells

holler tones
and tambourine signal scour

we stuck with it

This was the seventh and last of the tapes we made on June 7, 1986, pressing forward to get to 100 before Neal up and left for San Diego for several years.

Girl Germs - Bratmobile [from Kill Rock Stars]

nyah nyah nyah DIY
singularly lacking in professional pretension
my people

Gradus 100 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 2006]

experiments in pedaling
dampers and their careful application

an aside: odd how when the dampers are ON the string, damping it, we call it "dry," but when they are out of play, OFF the string, we call it "wet." the more damper the drier, the less damper the wetter.

back in 06, when the kettle still whistled

for Milton - John Melby - Patricia Sonega, soprano [from Milton Babbitt: a composers' memorial]

a nagging puzzle
how to or why to join a virtual, i.e. mathematically manufactured, resonance with a biological resonance. A matter of skulls and algorithms underlining each other's limits.

March 7, 2019
Gradus 292 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 2016]

one note then two notes

What might writing be like if our alphabet had multiple octaves?
Lexical counterpoint

hold a single pitch in mind
there are no others

tonality, as a conception, involves various highly specific relations among approximated acoustical relations - not all of them the closest.
or
from an ad hoc selection of close acoustical relations a spherical surface of relations is formed, the heirarchicality of which depends on its moment to moment attitude toward us, as projected by the pitches presented

replace the constants:
what gives?

Satyr's Dance - Thomas Simpson - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

melodic treatment of tempo changes (oh give me some of that old ritornello show!)
i.e. the notes these melodies are made of are tempos

Sonata in A Op. 1 No. 3 - G. F. Handel (arr. Milstein) - Nathan Milstein, Georges Plademacher [from Nathan Milstein The Last Recital]

the fewer the forces at hand, for Handel, the more I find I like it. Why? because the wee-est of inflections tell big.

Laudate Dominum - W.A. Mozart - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [April 1966]

Ferocious precision:
Nice work Mom! You made it sound like something I wish I might have written.

"Why yes, actually. This is my mother's Mozart."

Dave - Cheech & Chong [a Rescued Record]

predecessor to Monty' Python's Holy Grail guards routine
or postdecessor to Who's on First?

using a conceit of misunderstanding as a study in timing

Bella Donna (Remastered) - Stevie Nicks [from Bella Donna Deluxe Edition]

each backing bit is calibrated to her ping

she is lit just so

Stand On It - Bruce Springsteen [from Six B Sides (private tape)]

fills the space your brain be in
(encouragement)

March 8, 2019
I.O.U. - Kreviss [from Kill Rock Stars]

blundering into Ritornello!
modes on a dial

Marriage of Figaro Overture - W.A. Mozart - Philharmonia Northwest, Roupen Shakarian

from my Mom's collection, Mom playing second fiddle, as it were, in this near professional community orchestra in the 90's. Perfectly enjoyable.

Oklahoma Cry Song - Dean Evenson [from Native Healing]

too-o-o- m-o-uchm-muchr-er-ev-er-b.b.b.b

I would prefer to hear a recording of these instruments in their accustomed architecture, but I suppose they are just trying to put forth a sound. Not for me. Remember.

Revolution #1 - Thee Emergency [from Can You Dig It]

action film
hot rod racering
for the thrill of it

battle comin' in fast
get pumped

Hoary Marmot, Sourdough Ridge, Mount Rainier National Park ca. 1994

Time Stratifcations III Frogscape - S. Eric Scribner  [from Storm Sound Cycle, May 2011]

that frog there has a fine career waiting as a master guiroist

one could do this with a live frog chorus
if it weren't for the fact that we really creep them out when we try
(and so enters David Dunn . . .)

piano player playing piano using a technique with no name

Rock Bottom Rag - Mark Pascen and Robber's Roost [from Cuatro]

That guitar playing: no slouch Mark!! such a deft touch! A strong cut from this young man that Karen and I happened upon busking on a still night in Ellensburg many years ago.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

March 4, 2019
Oak Harbor Marina - Keith Eisenbrey

My brother had an errand at the marina so we walked the finger piers. On the way back I recorded our 30 second traversal of the gangway.

Playlist

Preface

So creativity isn't a compliment, a valorization, it's an analysis of the state of things; and the realization that music creates its object on that ontological level liberates composition and redefines analysis as creative rather than exegetic, and certainly as not authoritative ("persuasive") or coercive. 

- Benjamin Boretz "Unconnecting the Dots" Open Space Magazine issue 19/20 fall 2015/spring 2016

Texts

Live

March 1, 2019
Seattle Composers' Salon
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Poem in Praise of Menstruation - Kaley Lane Eaton - Kaley Lane Eaton, voice; Ha-Yang Kim, cello

orbital cello intones ellipticals 'round its open strings
naiad voice sings its river

Is It Pretty Enough? - Lily Shabbabi

for electric bass, played by a young gentleman whose name I didn't catch but who bore an uncanny resemblance to a young Marlon Brando - the bass's sound fed through a software gizmo that made me lust after a more intricately contrapted sostenuto pedal on grand pianos, lifting individual resonances at will (if only there was no need to filter it through loudspeakers).

This Is The Understanding That The Self Is Time - Liam Harbison - Liam Harbison and Matt Walker, electric guitars

granular intonation oh so exquisitely just off - I want it
fragile acoustic prefigurements

Carolina - Ha-Yang Kim - Ha-Yang Kim, piano

joined at wrist and ankle
in difficult cooperation

[NB - I didn't catch the title, if there was one] - Blake Degraw

I didn't catch the names of the performers either, but I think there were two Jeffs and a Noel, who played a viola with 7 league boots (impersonated by 16 loopers on a synthesizer)

Tracks - Neil Welch - Neil Welch, tenor saxophone

high speed reedless hypertravel
oncoming outgoing sidewhipping flutterweight
rip your face off if you're not careful

Recorded

February 24, 2019

Swiftly But Gently - The Young Fresh Fellows [from Electric Bird Digest]

the title is one third of the poem
reluctant to fade out
but it must

O - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [from Preludes in Seattle, June 2006]

dyads together mark
or can mark
group units
parentheses made of notes
as punctuation made of words stop
raptured in the middle of its making

a thought about scores and intention and liberty to transgress:

Who is a score for?

hint: us

If I intend to take a score as seriously as the score takes me

as a heartfelt, fully considered utterance

in the form of an invitation to engage

and I do so take it

then it behooves me to engage it likewise heartfelt 

and likewise fully considered

and

with equal freedom to create as had the composer

and so

it is not morally possible to perform any score as the composer intended.

*see below*

fingertips - Paul Lansky - Mihae Lee, piano [from Milton Babbit: A Composers' Memorial]

many masks
many thoughts
about many masks

Banned Rehearsal 911 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [assembled from Telepaths 49, June 2016]

one of us - Steve, I think - finds toontown sounds and brings them into our world

faustforest bansheewhale
a bar walks into a banned rehearsal

*composer has a thought of how the score goes

but has no certainty that that thought

is the score's clear intention

anymore than we the performer can

in intention's reverse*

and here it is
delicious placements with recorded space

on banjo - me, I think - I never tire of playing with number
tambourine playing
fully part of the melodic and liquid planes in tonal games

a giant in the grass

Paduana IX and Galliard IX - William Brade - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

instruments arose as intermediaries between song and dance
between sung and danced
singing and dancing
the voice to dance and the feet to sing
body to singing dance and dancing sing
or so the story has been told

Minuet in C Major Wq. 116/5 - C.P.E. Bach - Miklos Spanyi

rhythms cross so awkwardly
I surmise that forte piano is using a literal "una corda" effect
old man B was an architect and craftsman nonpareil
young dude B was a molecular physicist and
a prodderpoker into dark corners

Shot Down - The Sonics [from Boom]

ringy snare
the quintessential punk drum solo

Loverman - Thelonius Monk [from The London Sessions]

hang on, I'll catch up
not to worry

left-hand voicings to die for

BuzzBomb - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters / In God We Trust]

BB, flight of the

Underneath The Bunker - REM [from Life's Rich Pageant]

tango time
waddayknow! he's sayin' words back under there

Ever Since My Accident - Melvins [from Kill Rock Stars]

ratio: crazy drum / sticky tongue vocals

Sugar - Thee Emergency [from Can You Dig It]

precise vocal pitch
gospel joy of pain

February 26, 2019
Spherics - S. Eric Scribner [from Storm Sound Cycle, May 2011]

amplified sounds of sounds of a distance

in elsewhere's elsewhere
the near presence of distance accumulates

February 28, 2019
Home - Bicycle Face [from The Wonders of Female Strength]

---- is where . . .

cat does something on your zafu (turn it over)

---- is how
----'s a place

around you 

inside

with ukulele

Paduana XI and Galliard XI - William Brade - The King's Noyse, David Douglass [from Mascharada - Music at the Bückeburg Court of Ernst III]

fanfares and responses lyric and profligate
rhythm fixe and the rhyme of its reception laid bare
an event mis-heard corporately

Minuet in F Major Wq. 116/7 - C.P.E. Bach - Miklos Spanyi

the small rooms
the rooms with queer corners

In Session at the Tintinabulary

February 25, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 976 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt