Preface
"We cannot afford to deprive ourselves of our own expression by conventionalizing or institutionalizing our talk, or our thought, or our music; not because that is wicked, but because it deprives us of what we most need from those outlets, what we lusted after in the first place so as to find ourselves energetically engaged, for life, with them."
- Benjamin Boretz "Talk: If I am a musical thinker. . . " from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
Streamed
Free - Kaley Lane Eaton, Jesse Myers
lesson plan
shaped like a wave in a mirror
with commentary
in both vid & aud
language and shadow
Wayward in Limbo
"With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series now moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is curating and commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of exclusive material. Many of these will be essentially 'live' performances recorded at home for this occasion. Others may create a mix of pre-recorded material that has not been previously released elsewhere."
- from the Wayward Music Series website at https://www.waywardmusic.org/.
June 27, 2020
Young Scientist - James Husted, Marc Barreca
dawn on the sea of electric doohickies
weather mild
breezes wafty
gentle bells clang the hull
solar cells upcharging
we start to move
we may be further out there
than we had imagined
in no hurry
escape assured
contact intermittent
inconsequential
the ministrations of the maintenance mechanisms cleanses our solitude
June 28, 2020
Rae - Abbey Blackwell, Ronan Delisle, Evan Woodle
moods with rooms to wander into
or that wander through
solos supported with care
(early Renaissance Fancies with Points go similarly)
(see Fitzwilliam or My Ladye Nevell)
compositional idea:a strand that stays throughout, though decorated and melodically and rhythmically following a set of stylistic/structural guidelines. The delight is in just how subtle one can manage to be.
July 3, 2020
Haley Freedlund (w/ Kyle Bruckmann, Evelyn Davis, and Phillip Greenlief)
chattery introductions to start
get an ear for the room
now we are all looking in the same direction, at the same body, on the same slab
our activities congrue
we are shown elicitations of phenomena
arcane potions aerify
in the billows of which refractions of light configurate
the results are discussed
see here
one says
some issues are well known
so we can scroll quickly through them
to show the larger shape of the argument
this one has a squeaky wheel
what can we do about it?
it is counterexemplified
episodes are punctuated from each other with episodes of silence and relaxation of attention
(the social cues for one piece then the next piece)
pre-planning is allowed, score-like
another social cue for this is a piece:
a piece: the set of all physical objects, inscriptions, episodes of sound, episodes of production activity, and episodes of experiential activity, which congeal into a mental image of itness or thatness
{stray spontaneous spoonerism: Teeming Power of Leeza}
we've played this game before
and play it again
because it is a fun game to pleasure our time with
a performance practice is a shared concept or set of concepts
game-based, as in play a game of piece making
(blessed are the)
this one may as well have written down notes
probably does, without problems, they are perfectly fine notes for this game
when musicians gather to listen to each other wonderful things happen often
Recorded
Sonata Fantaisie in G-sharp minor - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
The fantasial introduction finds an uncertain path to a key region with restless portions, not just working out how Chopin's fingers felt, but also how meta his use of tonality was.
Symphony #2 - Charles Ives - New Philharmonia Orchestra, Harold Farberman
The National Composer of Cranky New England
(counterpoint was not his forte)
with an overlay of americana scrapbook and library paste
inert
Try as he might, and try he does, there is no way he is capable of constructing a tonal process that doesn't strangle itself immediately. His mind wanders in dreary slogs. Music is above him, hence his cantankerous defensiveness.
modulations in gray
prose and dull prose at that
the plod thickens
patriotic sentimental quod libet
try some fire works to finish it off
Symphony in C Major (#3) - Jean Sibelius - Grand Orchestra Symphonique Radio Television USSR, Guennadi Rojdestvenski
Now there's an ear for vital tonality, we're with him all the way. So sly! The ground here is alive with urgency, vistas open and come alive. Virtual head rush.
Those folk-like tunes: (he owns these, knows where their weaknesses lie). Duration games to distract us as the eruption prepares, strung out along the motor chain. Triumph so proud!
June 28, 2020
A Winter Landscape - Charles Tomlinson Griffes - Michael Lewin
some particular painting?
or a music as a painting?
4 Canciones Campesinas - Igor Stravinsky - members of the Orquesta del Teatro Nacional de la Opera de Paris and Coros del Teatro Nacional de la Opera de Paris, Pierre Boulez
bespoke ensemble
two brass instruments and women's voices
sharply drawn
a set of matching greeting cards
the balance or ratio between what matches between the cards and what kinds of details count as identity
Finnegans Wake Chapter 1 - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer (December 2014)
spacious opening
long spaces between word groups
word groups of numerous lengths and complexities.
It's a while to go so it's a while in getting going. I think he'd rehearsed himself hoarse.
grace before glutton
echo heh.
active audience noise is never in the way, but sudden, repeatedly
thing mud
A story is a kind of thing that might show up in this string of text. Was I holding it? Chapel ghost in fine form
||:||: thing :||: mud :||:||
the hub bub caused in Edinburough
June 29, 2020
Háry János Suite - Zoltán Kodály - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
amplified mandolin or dulcimer?
cimbalom
I looked it up
the amplification of it is a problem
there is an issue with non-standard-issue-orchestra instruments, having to do with cultural supremacy. noted. but also they need to be hired special under the current regime. which is more a reason to avoid orchestras than to not use the instrument.
Bugle Call Rag - Elmer Snowden [from That Devilin' Tune]
hop the beat
keep it tight
keep it hot
21 Years - Carson Robison Trio [from Evans 78s]
relic of a slice
of america outside of blues & broadway
small theater variety show early radio
non-threatening folksy
My local colleague Nat Evans recently shared a collection of 78 RPM records that his grandfather had collected.
June 30, 2020
Symphony #1 - Bohuslav Martinů - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Neumann
maximum lush
everything is choral
a joint effort
no sound is made alone
there are not trees
only forest
ritmato tunes bounce off the geologic shelves of other tunes
bouncing
everybody is dressed alike
sinking back behind the curtain soon
The Minotaur - Elliott Carter - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
a shift in point of view
this is witness music, not hero music
newsreel post cinema music
a new mimesis of time
not opera scenes, ballet works better
bodies without words
July 1, 2020
Castor & Polux - Harry Partch - Gate 5 Ensemble
These are people making these sounds for those gathered in a real room.
full frontal
Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I think the drummer left their snare on.
or an echo that responds differentially to each tom tom tom
the guitar solo comes on a bit strong, over done
Reap What You Sow - Billy Stewart [from The Best of Billy Stewart]
"a what a"
echoed by sax
Eye Myth - Stan Brakhage
caught in ecstatic webs
the device is deactivated
nine seconds goes by fast
watched it 5 or 6 times
When Children Pray - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon [from LWS Betty's Picks]
low hum constant relic, artifact
God Save The Queen - The Sex Pistols [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
carefully arranged and recorded with nothing left in that doesn't sneer
July 3, 2020
Hi Ho - Aaron Keyt - Jill Stroming, harp; Monique Buzzarté (members of the UW Contemporary Group (ca 1982))
 |
| Aaron Keyt, seated, with guitar and case |
rubs chin (avuncular)
starts to really look
at the question
what else is it asking?
that spaced out harp rhythm is making it for me tonight
could it be arranged for piano solo, or clavichord? I'd like to play it.
Totus Tuus - Henryk Górecki - Robert Shaw Festival Singers, Robert Shaw [from Evocation of the Spirit]
wallows in it
a souped up anthem with pretensions of big A Art
for cathedral, but honestly, kind of tacky in comparison
the ending keeps on ending without end
this could go on all night
and he signals the actual end
at far too long last at last
with yet another
presumably written out
in rhythms
ri-
tar-
dan-
do
In Session at the Tintinabulary
June 29, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 1004 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
eighty-seven slim nil and none
incredible that she should perform her
work of love in god effects how comes it
remove quantification
focus on reality
for a change
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