Playlist

 Preface

"An impression of this order, vanishing in an instant, is, so to speak, sine materia."

- J. K. Randall "What Is It about About?"  from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"

Texts

Streaming

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/.

March 20, 2021

Kenny Mandell

for Edgard Varèse (flute)

revisiting clarity
or
a familiar but challenging climbing wall
for contemplating alternative routes

for Eric Dolphy and Anthony Braxton (alto sax)

careful progression
keep the immediate memory
in full view

for Sam Rivers (tenor sax)

melodic interval sets
and species
of alternation rhythms

for Steve Lacey and Thelonius Monk (soprano sax)

weight
and mouth molding

March 21, 2021

Jarrad Powell

Land (2020)

critter calls
synthesized or derived
or straight
the distinction is entirely in the processing
in which
it is all a digital signal
so why do we distinguish sounds that way?

the transparency of any medium
is an illusion
:: ::
these
are sounds that make a place
sounds are
but don't happen
they reference
or seem to
the object
or environment
that produced them
they are present
or they are not
they appear
and fade
but being an object
or an environment
they don't happen
they
make a scene
conjure it

Recorded

March 20, 2021

Hypnotize (Amended) - The Notorious B.I.G. [from Life After Death]

so
it's personal power appropriation
and rhyme-marish riffs
for dancing at
is it

Track 4 - ?? [from a compilation]

(from my mom's collection. I presume this was from a local chamber music camp she attended in 2002)

2 violins and cello
late 18th Century rondo
if it is Haydn
it would not surprise me
if it is Mozart
it would

Bab-O for csound - J.K. Randall [from OpenSpace 33]

reflection in a glass lightly

Rocks and Glass (single) - Your Mother Should Know [January 2012]

with acoustic guitar,
Neal & Karen
duet vocal a la demo
(my recording & production)

Mr. Winter's Fall - Merchant Mariner [from Merchant Mariner]

progeny of REM
a band
is a bunch of gigs
and a collection of recorded songs 

if a band is what happened
and what remained

March 21, 2021

Almande, Fvb 14 - "Traditional" - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzgerald Virginal Book]

the narrow binds of early keyboards
are a means of holding attention

Symphoniae sacrae II, Singet dem Herren ein neues Lied, Op. 10 #2 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

voice is in charge
but it does whatever the instruments might do
hyper aware of meter
freely mixed 

short piece with stunningly varied affects

Suite in C Major, BWV 226 - Dietrich Buxtehude, Simone Stella

solid landings are reserved for period finals
elsetimes
we study leaning off the rails
landing in a spring
to launch
multivoiced polyphony
as lever
with which
to shift weight
inside phrases

15 Chorale für die Weihnachtszeit, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, BWV 738 - J. S. Bach - Michael Chapuis

applying plain words
in segregated affect
trajectorifications
varying the accompaniment in each verse
but too fancy
for singing to
or along with

Lamentationes pro die Mercurii Sancto, Lamentatio I in C minor - Jan Dismas Zelenka

sets the announcement
here begin the lamentations of the prophet
slipping into a new key
at the last moments
of anything
sudden turn
as articulation point

Movements in G Major - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi

snotty teen pieces
throwing little chromatic scale passages around like money
how so very proper the nose be thumbed

number is an analysis
quantity is an image
but of what 

math and poetry
have the same object
but neither knows
what that object might be

when that
where that
who that
what that
object might be 

our maths and poems
clothe the muses 

who yearn for nakedness

Sonata in C minor, Kk 115 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

progress by diversion
great trill stuff
stops

starts in an other piece entirely
there he did it again
fooled me twice

Apollo et Hyacinthe, Act II - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg, Leopold Hager, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Arleen Auger, Edith Mathis, Cornelia Wulkopf, Hanna Schwarz, Salzburger Kammerchor, Rupert Huber

this conversation goes on a long time before the orchestra sneaks in to party 

fancy singing coloratura show piece
another conversation
among tunes
recitative
and sung lyric  

:: 

a segregation too far
a ballet
the alto struts
another conversation
more orchestra party
then they sing at each other 

just begging to be overacted

March 23, 2021

Sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI:20 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim

as many disparities as can be got into the package
sort it out later
but first a reminder
a key with a thousand faces
each period includes a myriad of affects
in tracery paths
before the cadence articulates the limit
among the movements
of congruity
in range
of disparities jampacked

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36 #3 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley

teaching pieces
corruption of the young 

like those multi-transparency layers of plastic tissue pages
in the World Book Encyclopedia 

teach a piece
that is
just the necessary proper parts
you are surreptitiously teaching
what is proper
and necessary

March 24, 2021

Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 #2 (the Tempest) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Artur Schnabel

my first Beethoven Sonata
in High School
and my first Beethoven Sonata recording 

he does not soft touch the contrasts
the quiet arpeggiation
and recitatives
their number and spacing
their inter-contrastings
so subtle
echoed in 2's opening
such discontinuities
reckless

Sonatina in C Major, Op. 88 #1 - Friedrich Kuhlau - Loredana Brigandi

let's play some fun scales
balance and lyricism in everything 

we are civilized after all

Etude in A minor, Op. 10 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Cecile Licad

each note counts
played a bit slower than Cortot does
for clarity

Boris Godunov, Act IV, Scene I (1872 version) - Modest Mussorgsky - Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Semkow, Martti Talvela, Leonard Mroz, Nicolai Gedda, Bozena Kinasz, Andrzej Hiolski, Aage Haugland, Halina Lukomska, Polish Radio Chorus of Krakow, Boys Chorus from the Krakow Philharmonic Chorus

groups are arguing
choral dialog

the outside has ceased
for the Czar
all moves sink deeper
unable to escape
the pull of this
inexorable mode
whose center is emptiness

March 25, 2021

Parsifal, Prelude to Act III - Richard Wagner - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

not proceeding
always misbegetting
a false memory
of a nongoal 

all stones dissolve

bringing a spear
to a Gordian knot fight

Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103 - Johannes Brahms - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling, Martin Galling

proportion of phrases
that start big and get small
as to those
that start small and get big
and their ordering 

occasionally a polite phrase
that stays put
and its proportions
and ordering 

harmless ethnic fun
for proto Nazis
Romaface 

heavy feet trochee
durationally amplified
falling apart

Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 #2 - Serge Rachmaninov - John Ogdon, Brenda Lucas

4 fists are better than 2 but not much

4 Preludes, Op. 22 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

intent on saying it
it slides descendingly
no pretense beyond its saying
transformative momentary figures

In Session at the Tintinabulary

March 21, 2021

Banned Telepath 73 South - Steve Kennedy

Steve tuned in to disasters in progress

March 22, 2021

Banned Telepath 73 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer

and we gathered in the studio, calling Anna & Neal 

Banned Rehearsal 1022 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1022 210321-22

then I piled them up
disasters and all

Postscripts

::Consult the Oracle

not only them pasturing the patriarch

jacob altar the gods to purify

themselves and to change their tasks first they must

Reality Check::

two scrambled and an english, tea

no view now

elf ore

Playlist

 Preface

"{Continuity, consecution, in this precis, is, of

course, surreal.*}

{*as music is.*}"

- J. K. Randall "Program note for shouldn't we talk ?:"  from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"

Texts

Streaming

March 13, 2021

Choral Tapas - Seattle Pro Musica, Karen P. Thomas, director

Joseph Rheinberger, Melissa Dumphy, Gabriel Fauré

flocking pages

a fancy margarita
smoky triple 

with lots of fun sounds 

woke with production value 

"career"
(MD's amazing accent)
Brisbane being infiltrated by Philly

March 14, 2021

Concert IV: Ha-Yang Kim - the day is burnt, the night is calm - Seattle Modern Orchestra, Tiffany Lin, director

we are dark
we are blue 

dragon snore 

black light
music lifting up
dragon dream 

curiculums vitae
are not so much irrelevant
here
as they are
incongruous 

a rumbling in the presence
sleeps with Patience 

seeping force
into repressively permeable time

were
we gray
or blue

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/.

March 13, 2021

Garrett Fisher & GraceAnn Cummings

Raga Études for Piano - Book I: Winter

sweeps and washes
gnaws relentless 

who speaks
and from where
who speaks
speaks 

from behind the canvas
as one might imagine Debussy
behind an orchestral sound 

cyclic pieces named for time of day and of season
solar calendar 

taken as pieces they emerge complete from the start
at the end
intent on static projection
of something inside
as a light might glow 

a time is not a story but a moment protracted
a tight squeeze
should you seek to enter
the sonorous surface 

but these
are different pools
they move en masse
stick together

March 14, 2021

Paurl Walsh

tonality per 18th Century practice
involves the establishment of a reference set
the tonic triad
and a set of triads
relating to that reference set
which  (I V IV) together are the key or tonality of the work
which work
would typically explore that key
in terms of that key's relationships
to analogously structured keys
related to the reference key
by relative maximal common tone relationships 

this music
if considered as a structure of triads and keys at all
departs from that practice
or at least doesn't appropriate the sense of a single reference set
a home
rather
a slow oscillation of triadish simultaneities
provides a wash or backdrop
against which other sounds are presented
without phrases
cadence
or need to explicitly compose all the sounds
so that they are tightly bound
structurally or tonally
to the oscillatory atmosphere
nor to its particulars
the pitches of which it is made
are immaterialized

a chamber
slowly fills

Recorded

March 14, 2021

Music for Piano - John Cage - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Lise Mann, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 1985, Meany Studio Theater, Seattle]

a lot of white noise in it
and dancers in the attic 

musicians who have learned to listen to each other
will compose with the sounds they make
cooperatively
as in conversation
without regard to what the notes are
nor how derived 

we aggressively
express
we communicate with each other
amongst ourselves
without regard to the relative opacity
of our communication outside our group 

this performance 23 years after the score's propagation
is now 36 years past 

like hell I was going to learn all those notes to play them right
instead I considered the score to be a score of gestures
more than of notes
gestures notated
as one would notate notes 

I will let the night sky
or the paper maker
imagine my music for me 

do we have personalities
clearly 

do those personalities mold these tones
unavoidably 

I am antagonistically related
to John Cage (as a body of music)
why 

he fills me with things to think
couched in terms of antagonism
habit of thought
if you don't take him too seriously
he's just fine
or rather
if you take yourself more seriously

antagonistic but not dismissive

subject matter
a critique of
or critical analysis
of arranging how things are
so as
to out the face of culture
he's talking about our doing 

co-optivator of experience
not liberating 

the original audience
to this presentation
allowed themselves
to wander around
I will also 

a chance based system that I can explain to you in a minute
or a deeply derived system that defies our explanations
essentially 

Horrorland
or or and
HorRorLand
hORrORlAND

hrl
HRL

His Royal License 

critiques of masterwork culture
the loudspeaker effected a more profound change
in our listening psyches
than Cage ever could

March 15, 2021

I Can See for Miles - The Who - [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

yet another stalker anthem 

translation
my suspicion is boundless and incontrovertible

Adoramus Te - [?] - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director

pretty high-toned for the LWS
mom tried

Anais - Diane Thome - Michael Finckel, Diane Thome

acoustic and electronic talking
early days
electronic sounds starting where they split from the acoustic
like sparks 

at the time
no way existed
I think
to make the digital electronic part
real-time realizable
it had to be pre-synthesized
composed ahead

Pastorale: "The Color of Water" (texts) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 2010]

Neal talks
quoting his program notes
and epigram
and a poem
the color of eyes' intersection

the first pass through
isn't really playing it
sure it is 

the tempo at the Cause Célèbre

March 16, 2021

Cassini Tests - Scott Worthington - Scott Worthington

A.
synth and bass
bowed
acoustic upright 

discussing matters across languages
that share of themselves
but whose times operate
at different lags
or that share time
but not space

B.
believably lyrical
human sized expression
pose-less
gentle
thoughtful
playful
generous 

or like a body language
translated across a gap
or around a bend

March 17, 2021

A___'s First Sermon - A___ B___ [1987]

a documenting artifact
recorded from the standpoint of a concentrated listener
a perfectly still listener
wavering in focus never
notes
but doesn't attend
its fellow listeners

March 18, 2021

Banned Rehearsal 287 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [February 1992]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 287 920228

foghorn sax
at the tintinabulary
our drums
P's tenor sax
since passed along to Doug P. 

quantum flip
the standing wave

sax style

neck strap
for nursing tad
not sure what it would hitch to 

drums puttering
making one with general puttering
and moving into
and cohabiting
with just so and whatever 

you are a fuss
music for nursing by
stones
rocks
tones
rock
spears
football 

little lists
big game
that's a bone
a critter bone
hedgehog 

words related or not
these are a few of my favorite things 

disemboweled otters
disillusioned electorate 

a list of plural noun phrases
typesetters
transcendentalists
direct to cassette mastering
masterless mastering

you can't leave until
you open the door
open lee
a door 

odor

Postscripts

::Consult the Oracle

first stanza concerning this dark night and its

now to discuss the about which love's urgent

longings 1 of dark night and its traits it

Reality Check::

don't count

roll a clam shell down a level plane

redwing blackbird on a bare tree top

Playlist

 Preface

"Another way of saying this - from the perspective of a reader or listener - is that everything you read about or hear in music is an output of a particular life history at a particular moment, and its truth or expressivity is the truth and true expressivity of that, and, really, only that, moment - as is this. What you get, if you care to, is access to that moment, as you compose it for yourself, out of your own moment."

- Benjamin Boretz "Prologue to 'Little Reviews' (Life in the Slow Lane)" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"

Texts

Streaming

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/.

March 6, 2021

Dennis Rae, Wally Shoup, John Seman, Mark Ostrowski 
(recorded in 2017)

share the groove
share the spotlight
share internal collective
moving ears to the collective moving
making aware
being
and the image
of aware
being
a sense of ensemble playing
texture forming
momentum spinning
at first
in a familiar family of groove
pushing out further
continually
honing
pushing
to new groove 

a long modulation from one to another

Recorded

March 6, 2021

Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 10 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [1942]

fleet and faery light

Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 63 - Robert Schumann - Quatuor Via Nova, Jean Hubeau

1
modes of making a whole
everybody plays the whole
each plays a part of the whole
partitioning it among themselves
each plays parts of several wholes
which together
conjure another a whole
each a mode of rhetoric
a rhetoric of wholeness construction 

2
starts the same way
several times
finds routes back
to start there
again
we could do this all day
trio
the middle part of this formal type
oops back to the top again 

3
long melody in search of cadence
unwilling to commit to it
to not be searching 

4
our phrases balance
then they don't at all
but always answering each other
through the offset phrases
stacked atop
each
other

[from my journal entry of April 4, 2004: full rich sound throughout - the concept of chamber music at work here is maximal: as much sound and thought as can be inserted at all times counterpoint almost too full, too packed, to be made clear. truly remarkable.]

Boris Godunov, Act IV Scene II (1872) - Modest Mussorgsky - Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Semkow, Martti Talvela, Leonard Mroz, Nicolai Gedda, Bozena Kinasz, Andrzej Hiolski, Aage Haugland, Halina Lukomska, Polish Radio Chorus of Krakow, Boys Chorus from the Krakow Philharmonic Chorus

severely plain to see
as though nothing could be happening inside
such open books
miming each statement from the characters' points of view
the mimes
the inner thoughts
all hope degenerates
as it descends the modes
the orchestra forms heavy walls
around the voices

Les Jeux d'eau a la villa d'Este - Franz Liszt - Mikhal Rudy

proto impressionist
nor is it a distant leap to Scriabin

March 7, 2021

Migration Dances - Jessi Harvey - Onomatopoeia Trio (Cassie Lear, flutes; Soren Hamm saxophones; and Rebecca Olason, French horn) onamatopoeiatrio.com

Jessi Harvey · migration dances

moving
in bursts and blats and warbles
being a burst or blat or warble
as a state of being
burst being
blat being
warble being 

saxophone horn clarinet? flute (I think)
a nicely unpretentious ad hoc ness to the mix

Parsifal, Prelude to Act I - Richard Wagner - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz

a common 18th Century opening gambit
was to outline the tonic triad
or do a quick I V I check in
or present a portion of the home key's scale
this is similar
but the root of music is also a duration
and a sense of lingering
the prelude establishes
what stands for the key
the reference tonality

Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra, in A minor, Op. 102 - Johannes Brahms - Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink, Henryk Szeryng, Janos Starker

1
cello introduced
violin introduced
their conjointure introduced
rarely completes a phrase in the same hat
rarely is an answer not coopted
figurational non- or half-sequiturs
(also an 18th Century practice (see Scarlatti and CPEB))
parts of these items will be completed later 

2
the instant transformation of the horn calls
to violin/cello tune
is breathtaking 

3
goes into country ethnic dance mode
passages of plain as rocks figuration
perhaps the key to what's ticking down in there

Othello - Antonín Dvořák - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Neumann

sacred homophony
profane declamation
martial fierceness
with a gentle side
a character portrait in multiple modes

[from my journal entry of June 8, 1995: insistently 'small'-motivic - repetitive. exceedingly clearly drawn textures.]

L'Apprenti Sorcer - Paul Dukas - New York Philharmonic, Guido Cantelli

recorded live with vinyl artifacts and hum
lost somewhere is the fact that
if the sorcerer could mop the floor with magic
why did he force a drudge to do it
the hard way

On Emancipation Day - Len Spencer [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

carnival
crossing caste boundaries
transgression as emancipation
but also
viewing that other caste's culture
as a spectacle 

Sonata, Op. 1 - Alban Berg - Alfred Brendel

the contrapuntalist club drinking song
had he heard Scriabin?

the tonalities in the early part of the 20th Century
began to float around in a half world

Sonata in G, Op. 62 (#6) - Alexander Scriabin - John Ogdon

the key is an emptiness at the center
a related structural idea
melody is a charisma at the center

Some Jazz Blues - Memphis ** Band [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

played fast
to sound like a windup machine
keeps at it for awhile too
[NB: oops! listening to the wrong track]

clown act for  Max Fleischer treatment

March 9, 2021

Variations and Fugue on Chopin's Prelude in C minor - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

start by pressing it into a new clay
what playful sprites emerge
press them in
also
get vigorous
get lovely
into the clay
quaff it
smoke it
wallow in it
into the clay
heroify it
romance it
spin it
into the clay
prank it
toss it
bat it
diaphanize it
into the clay
prowl it
confuse it
pound it
into the clay
dream it
remember it
hide it among its fellows
in the clay
bury it in counterpoints

Let's Misbehave (take 1)- Cole Porter - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [October 1998]

we're not above birds

The Laffing Rag - Ben Curry [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

lizzy dizzy
running through a continuum of vowels
in the ha ha ho ho department
a series of incomprehensible one-liners

March 10, 2021

Romeo and Juliet, Suite 2 - Serge Prokofiev - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz

traces connections
top to bottom of register
weighted to fall
large interval leaps
an image in much of the material
effort of distance
or distance measured by effort 

so what is left of Shakespeare in this endeavor
the dance kept the names of the characters in the program
the plot's outline
the ballet music as a whole did what it could
to evoke the spirit of the characters
as an adjunct to the dancers' movements and acting
within that outline

bereft of the stage dance
and the plot
all we have is an evocation
far removed from the language
an advertisement 

the tunes all sport apparent metrical elisions
as a proper part
the parts jumbled on the floor

March 11, 2021

Fanfare for the Common Man - Aaron Copland - London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland

LSO plays it mostly un-tongued, legato, really whangs on those drums

Slow Drivin' (Parts 1 and 2) - Mutt Carey [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

I think I've just been sassed
inventing a wavelength to all be on
agreement as to factors
pulse
chord changes
swing
sass
poly-uni-voiced

Suite for Wind Quintet - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Ensemble Aventure

1
bassoon bit lights fires all over
oboe tries it
we drop from end of 1 into 

2
1 in later life 

3
starts at the end of 1's beginning
multiple ways
for multiple times
to transpire
within each other

Little Darlin' - The Diamonds [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

fun with sliders in the mixing booth
and with cowbell

In Session at the Tintinabulary

March 7, 2021

Banned Telepath 72 South Seattle - Steve Kennedy

March 8, 2021

Banned Telepath 72 Ducks - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Banned Telepath 72 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer

March 10, 2021

Banned Telepath 72 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt

Banned Rehearsal 1021 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1021 210307 - 10

Steve sent sounds from Outpost South Seattle, Anna and Neal took a walk and found some ducks, Karen and Keith improvised at the Tintinabulary while pulling in Anna and Neal by telephone from Outpost Lake City, and Aaron sent sounds from Outpost Toad Hall. It is magnificent.

Postscripts

::Consult the Oracle

es die hat's feld untergeht sucht lieb ihr

lieb lay zu bach am rheine wohnt' eine

zauberin o brechet mir den stab ich

Reality Check::

hung there from another mind

dyes gray violet

blows on the bass drum

Playlist

Preface

"Experiencing music is bringing into being a singular time-space identity, received from a singular perspective of location.

A peculiarity of any music experiencing is that no physical time-space-location-occasion (observable and quantifiable in referential, intersubjective terms) can be designated as being the time or space or occasion identity of a music experiencing.

The real time and space and occasion of music experiencing are psychic time and space and occasion."

- Benjamin Boretz "Prologue to ("Whose Time, What Space"): [A Seminar Talk at Eastman]" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"

Texts

Streaming

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/.

February 27, 2021

Amelia Coulter

tough hard
molecular bonds
heavy industry

cut
weld
grind

resist  wear
tear not
((tool's business) end)

do not visit this dentist 

the machine is speaking

ram
drill
ream
mill

February 28, 2021

Alex Guy

proceeding as thinking
moves by observing one's thinking
while moving thinking 
thinking moving
proceeding observing
observing proceeding

what might be possible
in terms of relating
the notions of single vis a vis multiple thoughts
and of single vis a vis multiple pieces
does being a single piece
strongly imply
that a single thought
is co-terminate with it
or might it be
more like a collection
in a box or boxes
all metaphors of course
boxes, collections, thoughts, and pieces
so the question arises
whether the structure
of the metaphoric relation
answers to anything
in the realm of music experience

Recorded

February 27, 2021

Lose Yourself - Eminem [from 8 Mile (Music from and inspired by the Motion Picture)]

lines have a groove
to guide the flow of syllable 

parts of speech

February 28, 2021

Gradus 112 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 2007]

notes are played
sounds start and stop
each persists past their hard limits
the limits are markers
to organize our memory

we can experience duration
from within the framework of meter and pulse
(metrically tamed duration) 
rationalizing impulse 

or a social cohesive

Equally Choked - Broken By Clouds

blues of the keeping it together 

song fragment

Ella's Song - Bernice Johnson Reagan - University Temple Chancel Choir, Chris Vincent, director, Karen Eisenbrey, soprano

well sung, Karen!

Pavana, FWVB 13 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

all the betweens of anythings are decorated, mediated,
composed with Randallian care

Voltes 2 - Michael Praetorius - New London Consort, Philip Pickett [from Dances from Terpsichore]

all the tribes of choirs
interchangeable at command
music for undefined orchestra
who showed up that evening
how many are you willing to pay
a signal of wealth and stature

Mein Herz ist bereit, Gott - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

voice and instrument : a machine a made thing
both
I am the equal of a violin
and (humility)
I am not better than a violin

Canzone in D minor, BWV 168 - Dietrich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

each voice entrance sets up a new phraseological continuity

Von Himmel hoch, da komm Ich her, BWV 738 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Michael Chapuis

as in the Buxtehude the single chorale or canzone comes with variations

Lamentationes pro die Jovis Santo 1 - Jan Dismas Zelenka - Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Rene Jacobs, Guy De Mey, Kurt Widmer

the betweens are overlain, interleaved, cabinetworked

Sonata in G Major - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi

there is a place within each paragraph where the ground shifts 

CPEB
all the letters rhyme 

made the phrase-metrical position structural

the bass bit at the start of III is the clown role in this show

Sonata in A Major, K. 114 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

he turns such corners
I get lost
not sorry 

the sheer count of directly repetitive bits at play
mitigates the heavy handedness of larger scale repetitions 

lost

but never sorry 

repeats that skew the linear sequence

March 1, 2021

Sonata in G minor, Hob. XVI:44 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim

catches a glimpse of itself in a mirror
is my hair really that gray
tied in its own knot

Symphony in E-flat Major, K. 132 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood

my understanding
is that the events for which such things as symphonies were composed
included other musical numbers
interspaced among the movements
or perhaps the symphony was regarded
as just the set of pieces
for the orchestra to play
when they played their bit 

so: were some 18th Century symphonies composed knowing what other pieces might be performed between their movements?
a set of orchestral interludes?
how and when did it shift to become the main show 

measured regular time spans

Sonata in D Major, Op. 9 #3 - Jan Ladislav Dussek - Viviana Sofronitsky

all the newest figurational gadgetry
see what I can do 

truth be told
it is fun to play
but doesn't really get much of anywhere
outside of the flash pan

March 2, 2021

Sonata in G Major, Op. 36 #2 - Muzio Celementi - Howard Shelley

a teaching piece
but not just how to play
also to teach what good taste is

Symphony in D major, Op. 36 (#2) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Vienna Philharmonic- Wilhelm Furtwängler

accent syncopation for sure
but also the odd places within the meter
where twists are found

the minor modulations are syncopated also 

this recording
presumably lifted from 78s
has a fascinating surface noise
full of restless spirits
as though
at times
it had been recorded on a used tape
imperfectly erased
the remnants grow back

March 4, 2021

Sonata in F minor, Op. 20 - Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Constance Keene

ornamental melodic
spare melodies

fancy figuration
spare figuration 

caught up in its own performance
this piece is about playing this piece

wears fancy duds 

the materials don't interrupt
the fancy frills have their place
and don't presume structural importance
that is
no thought is paid
to modulations among its frills

Introduction et polonaise brillante - Friedrich Kalkbrenner - Francesca Carola

likes quickly repeated notes
gassed by the escapement action
more a routine than a piece

Postscripts

::Consult the Oracle

slow my breathing waiting to see if some-

thing is going to happen it is dark my

lord and I hear in rubber shoes twice

Reality Check::

is colder

the blankness of my walls

the honey jar