"What would happen to the institutions of music under the application of my thinking along these lines is - well, really - not my problem. What is my problem is the invention and propagation of the widest and most engaging variety of experiential adventures; in particular, the work of self development focuses me on that issue of making distinctions rather than judgments - especially in finding my own self-interest in expanding my experiential range into new (or even old) music which resists intuitivity. And as always, discovering modes of listening which transform - neoontologize, to put it colloquially - the identity of the music as it enters my consciousness. But more of that later."
- Benjamin Boretz - "The Universe of One, And the Music of the Other"
from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
December 17, 2021
Frankie and Johnnie - Morgana King [from Sings The Blues]
AND he done her wrong!
right through a hardwood swingin' door
this story
teller is loving every salacious minute of it
only at the very end
is it
BUT
he done her wrong
quoting Frankie
I never thought of this as a torch song but
I'll take it
describes
doesn't tell us what to think
shows us what there is to
think about
it's all there
just listen
Jayne - Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Walter Norris, Don Payne, Billy Higgins [from Something Else!!!!]
end the phrase down
end the phrase up
end the phrase up to down
purpose
for
the musicians to talk in their musician tongue
within a shared culture
of how
music is
under negotiation
Recorded
Alman, Fvb. 63 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
decoratively artful
the free voices are for delight
but they don't push or
pull the skeletal ground
they grace it
beautify it
sometimes distract from it
like the fancy curlicues of calligraphy
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band I, Prelude and Fugue in G Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
an integrated fully embodied system
the skeleton proceeds at a deeper level
nearly unvoiced as such
it emerges by implication
Sonata in F Major, Kk. 150 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
sometimes direct small-frame repetition
dislocates us
if our prior location
was a trajectory
such a repetition can change the initial coordinates
renew
them
start fresh
turn
repeat
Kurze und Leichte Klavierstücke, "Poco Allegretto in E minor", Wq. 114/11 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
there is more music in there than could possibly fit
a heavy duty minute
thirty-six
Mass in C Major, Op. 86 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling, Katherine van Kampen, Ingeborg Danz, Keith Lewis, Michel Brodard, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
I sang tenor in a performance of this at the University of Washington in about
1980.
It's amazing how much of it is still familiar
he crams the words in
how
ever they need to go
to fit where he wants them
he isn't mickey mousing the
sense of words
he's expressing the gist
by means of a series of disjunctions
and figuration cross-references
it isn't always obvious
but it is solid by gum!
the solo quartet on "passus":
such intricate play among the voices
to create a
4-headed singer beast
what is it like
to be one of those singers
as a social
experience?
was this
at its time
ever performed as the ordinaries of an actual
service?
or always as a concert mass
[NB cursory research says "no"]
this is in no sunny C Major full of happy
it is a C Major world of fervent voices
an expression of the mass from
the point of view of the congregants
not from that of the celebrant
a sullen echo of the Hammerklavier to open
followed by episodes in
other castles
or successively enclosed walls
past which
this pleasant
impassioned garden
here in the night
we might speak freely
within these walls
I am stalwart
a hero
I will forth to battle!!
within the heart of a patriot
moods change
a portrait in many moods
Concerto in G minor, Op. 40 - Sergei Rachmaninoff - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, Sergei Rachmaninoff
borne on waves of feeling
our hero is troubled
this first movement is composed
so that the soloist can bathe in their own light
it really is all about them
subtitle possibility: The Self-Mythologizing
how much of the literature is
composed
with the intent that the performer becomes a character in its own
theater
fond memories of Czarist sugarplums
they allow us
as the audience
to
vicariously experience the experience of the soloist
soloist: celebrant (see
above?)
It is a film of a piano concerto
Terraplane Blues - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
making a poetic statement within a blues idiom
without needing to demonstrate
that blues is an idiom
outside the instant poetic statement
Buster's Last Stand - Claude Thornhill, Gil Evans [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
goes hot
In The Pines - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Lead Belly Legacy Volume 1]
where the sun never shines
killed a mile and a half from here
a world of hurt
and cold
where it blows
The Bird - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Verve Master Takes]
keeping up with it
is a whole person endeavor
Coal Creek March - Pete Steele [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
banjo picking
and kora or kalimba picking
the basic ideas of them are similar
as a
finger activity
Omie Wise - Albert Hash [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
fiddle music
not shy about the open strings
When Something Is Wrong With My Baby - Sam and Dave [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
testimony and lesson
not far from the church door
Tumbling Dice - The Rolling Stones [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the ostensible lead vocal is buried within the back-ups and the guitar choir
I'm So Bored With The U.S.A. - The Clash [from The Clash]
graffiti song
I Put a Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]
jealous threat song
cabaret theater
focus on the character
charisma
of the
singer
Gradus 10 (San Diego Series) - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 20, 1987]
a stereo image heard in a room through loudspeakers
is still
clearly
an image
of a sound
perhaps of a whole rounded sound
but even that whole rounded sound
is heard in the room
as arising from a particular area in the room
the room's
acoustics modify that whole round sound
but they don't disappear into an
immersive virtual reality of the whole round sound
one is never so deluded
as
to imagine one could walk around it
as though one were within it
a fact but
not a problem as such
confession
I am occasionally uncertain
especially in
cases where the recording was made in the room in which I am listening
as to
whether traffic noise is live or memorex
as the saying goes
[NB of course you
can't tell with studio quality tape stock!
you're listening to a signal through
head phones in both cases]
but usually there is no difficulty in
distinguishing
between the image of the whole round sound
as loudspeakered
and
the roundness the acoustics of the listening room
applies
that is
the effect
the acoustics of the room have upon the loudspeakered stereo image
this is the
last of the San Diego Series of Gradus
He picked the project back up in
January of 2002
15 years plus one day later
Gesungene Zeit - Wolfgang Rihm - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Levine, Anne-Sophie Mutter
a sphere is rotating slowly
our camera view shifts
also slowly
if a narrative
emerges
it does so piecemeal
flashes and fragments
the sphere continues
to rotate
we are closer in now
we are an audience of mimes
reacting to an
unfolding rotation
Two Pomes Play (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
the original conscious impetus for my interest in 17-tone (mod 17) music
was
curiosity
as to what music would be like
if the ground of its syntax were "other".
I spent much of the 90s working on a cantata based on stanzas from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage all in a loose 17-tone syntax
what I got
out of it:
a certain comfort with the math involved
and some tunes
this
clarinet bassoon duet
borrows one of my favorites (tunes that is)
and plays with it
far more successful than the cantata
Lonesome Day - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]
too much band
if there's a song in there
you'd never know it
a delicate thread
destined for future tapestration
Why Baby - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]
another jealous man anthem
but spirited
the back and forth between the vocal
and the lead guitar
makes it
old-fashioned honky tonk headbanger
for grownups
acting like teens
Real Sick Maniac - Your Mother Should Know [demos of February 23, 2017]
the chord changes are for marking time only
one of Neal's stronger songs
is
what it is
little fuss
Sellinger's Round, Fvb 64 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
where are the genteel dances of yesteryear?
the workmanship shows
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band I, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
the long thoughts of an architectural mind
was that a bird in the studio?
somebody's squeaky shoes?
some of these galleries go on far past seeing
Sonata in F Major, Kk. 151 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
we maintain
we descend
we continue
we finish
we find a strange place
we repeat
a real honey of a piece!
Concerto in C minor, Wq. 43/4 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Melante Amsterdam, Bob van Asperen
1
solo and orchestra rarely play together
and when they do
the solo is clearly
in charge
ends as though a cadenza would ensue
but no:
2
time for some magic
a concerto is an exchange between equals
3
oops
the next movement came in all of a sudden
a movement need not be a
complete thingy
there's the cadenza
brief
4
back to 1?
reprisals are had
Fantasia in C minor, Op. 80 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur, Menahem Pressler, Chor des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks, Susanne Scheinpflug, Kerstin Klein, Andrea Pitt, Albrecht Sac, Ekkehard Wagner, Reinhard Decker, Ger Frishmuth
by the time we're in the middle
nothing has been established
and we give up on
it
ever being
his manner of keyboard writing is heavy handed and clumsy
in
comparison to any of the solo works
for display only
not be be taken musically
Nocturne in B Major, Op. 32 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau
tries mightily to hold to the key
but passion and fancy rebel
the human spirit
can't abide in such a place
but must
I'm Comin' Virginia - Bix Biederbecke [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
got some slink going on in the bass progression
chord changes circle in place
they don't define a place from which to move or within which to shift
Frog Legs - a foxtrot - Columbia Saxophone Sextet [from Evans 78s]
these changes do cadence
but schematically
according to the dance steps
Sweet Lorraine - Frank Froeba [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
a steady bass allows gentle tickles
Too Many Blues - Bill Nettles [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
too many sweethearts and none of them mine
chromatic riff in the fiddle
echoed
in the guitar
standing in for a kind of vocal portamento
(weepy per Allen)
intro instrumental hangs on the underside of a note
it's a thing
a note is how
it finds itself
Alexander's Ragtime Band - Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan [from The Irving Berlin Song Book]
moderned up nostalgic razzmatazz
of an advertisement for itself
precursor of
Sgt. Pepper's
but without the archness
Sarah and Billy go all out
Ride The Chariot - The Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon [April 10, 1962]
white folks sure do love these old spirituals
though I think the latest term I
heard was
Sacred Slave Song
I mistrust the predilection
nice soprano though!
Ups and Down - Paul Revere & The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
sounds like the stones of that year
they had a knack
this best-of album works
as a revue of the sounds of the times
the quick 4/4 beat aims at the last beat
all for the dance
shivery
Missa Hilarious - P.D.Q. Bach [from Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach]
railroaded by his own act
silly instruments and malaprops
Return before leaving - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from A Cassette Player December 1982]
eleven seconds of people saying "I hope Keith has"
I'm A Boinger - Billy and The Boingers [from Bootleg]
yes there was a single
probably on flexdisc with the cartoon book
Banned Rehearsal 302 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 23, 1992]
recorded sound played through loudspeakers
presupposes the relationship of
provider and consumer
our past selves provided this sound
and I am consuming
it now
nothing quite like magnetic tape distortion
it vibrates
small frame
drum
bug guitar
small fipple flute
some rooting around sounds
radio static
and
the joys of analog radio tuners
dour
grim
austere
stringent
sullen
Aaron lists
words thesaurusifically
din
clangor
hurly burly
we found a pulsar
brainpan
forbidden run-through ambition megacosmos loo domiciliate
translated: Banned Rehearsal [inset] World Headquarters
 |
| my journal entry of March 13, 1995 |
December 16, 2021
crossing on the salmon - Mary Lee Roberts - University of California Santa Barbara Prisms New Music Ensemble, Grace Mannion-Jacobson [from Open Space 9]
events are reduced in the wide open
we sing to hold ours
 |
| my journal entry was this doodle |
Lessonpony - The Tripwires [from Makes You Look Around]
celebration of a small work horse
commiseration song
ends with an
off-the-shelf rhythmic sign-off
Rocks and Glass - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, on April 6, 2012]
|| Verse Verse Chorus Verse Verse-for-guitar Chorus Verse ||
bridgeless
heavy
on the blame
verses end with the same line each time
yeehaw!
Gradient - Nat Evans [from Coyoteways]
there is no event under this sky
except the day
as it passes over the night
the rock beneath flexes with a slower flow
at first the figurations keep time and sustain the sonority of a plain statement
then they engage in side quests
all the while amending time and subverting
sonority
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band I, Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
the prelude simply crowds all the other keys out
the fugue subject has long
notes in it
giving space to the countersubjects' various motions
Sonata in G Major, Kk. 152 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
the thing about repeating
and he repeats many things
is that the repeating
carries us forward
and clings to immediate memory
it prolongs now
backwards
Concerto in G Major, Wq. 43/5 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Melante Amsterdam, Bob van Asperen
orchestral tutti
clavecin solo
accompanied solo
(rare, sparely used)
I am not
aware of any other body of keyboard concertos
that balance thusly
a deviously
schematic mind
Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur, Beaux Arts Trio
the orchestra mutters then emerges resplendent
tells us all about it
all that
it can do
the trio takes a solo with solos
a concerto within a concerto
the
solo trio has issues to work out amongst themselves
and each solo instrument
also
with the orchestra
the orchestra comes across as monolithic in
response
first movement close begs for applause
in 2 the violin says I can do
just fine all by myself
the piano preens
they do a pas de tre
if there is such
a pas
they seem to have wandered into another movement
however
it is a
mistake to think of distinct movements
as being the old-fashioned norm
old-fashioned then
was CPE Bach and his dad
and they were inventors both
this is a romp
really wants that
big applause at the end
stand up folks!
Sonata in A Major, Op. 35 - Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner - John Khouri
on a Broadwood fortepiano from 1813
not a lot of sustain which could explain
much of the blizzards-of-notes figuration
also the notion that the keyboard
was a new orchestra
he moves from splash to splash
without making waves of any
appreciable size
not a profound thinker I'm thinking
I just finished reading through this Sonata this morning!
heavy use of the damper pedal as marked:
not
the same effect as on a modern instrument at all
Nocturne in A-flat Major, Op. 32 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau
there is an interesting discussion being had
between the bass line and the
middle voices
the figures intermediate
the cover is closed
In Session at the Tintinabulary
December 17, 2021
Two-Part Invention in E minor - Gavin Borchert [from 19 Two-Part Inventions]
I haven't edited this down yet. Once I have recordings of all 19 I'm happy with I'll try
to balance them properly - I thought I was being consistent, but apparently I
was mistaken
sigh
Anybody's Fingerbook, 2x2 (transpositional) (A) B - Keith Eisenbrey
My 2020 composition, second of many in the set
(8 2x2; 10 each of 3x3,
5x5, and 7x7)
conceived as a set of perverse finger exercises
Special Mention
Much of my musical energy during the first year of the Pandemic went into producing this virtual recital of recent solo piano music by my long-time collaborator, Aaron Keyt, and by me. There are 9 reels total in the playlist, ranging from 10 to 20 minutes or so each, the whole stretching for just under 2 hours. I am quite pleased with the results, especially with how well I manage to illuminate the extraordinary "in-your-presence-alone" intimacy of Aaron's compositional voice.
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
industry whose involuntary promoter
is against her knobby 24 made
think Steinbeck hand scrawled turning up taped cash
Reality Check::
hung there from another mind
dyes gray violet
blows on the bass drum
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