Saturday, August 27, 2022

Playlist

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Preface

"Turnus armed himself impatiently, raging
to fight. He put the bright breastplate on,
bristling with bronze mail. His calves were cased in gold,
his sword strapped to his side, his head still bare.
He gleamed with metal as he swept down from the
heights, exultant. In his mind, he'd already won"

Vergil - "The Aeneid" (translated by Shadi Bartsch)

Texts

Recorded

August 20, 2022

Praeludium, Fvb 151 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

even the utilitarian is ornate

the ornateness of this music
the industrial regularity of our music
hm

musics and the cultures of their manufacture

Sonata in F Major, Kk. 195 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

a figure fountain for cooling minds

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Sonata in B Major, D. 575 - Franz Schubert - Paul Badura-Skoda

1
the opening is a conversation that dives deep quickly
then a song
then a dance and social chat
repeat
the materials form an environment to inhabit
sequence specious
not to be used for plot purposes
but this conversation needs following up on
which alters our perspective
on song dance and chatter 

2
the answering phrases answer in several different directions
the moving figures he adds the next time around
are similar in kind to the filigree that the Fitzwilliam folks composed with
but different in effect
on both the whole
and on the underlying foundation 

3
the little comment voices have their own story to tell
a carnival ride
we are on it
as long as the ride goes
but we lose track
of how many times around we go 

4
being a social music
it paints a picture of social interactions
and we track it as we might on a stage

Caprice in C major, Op. 9 - Ludwig Schuncke - Tatiana Larianova

shadows deep in the minor modes
but if I wave my magic wand
all is happy and gay
just don't dance too close to the edge
now in the dark
but still gay and lively

[NB - many thanks to Peter Nelson-King for advising me of Schuncke]

Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Steppin' On the Gas - Sam Morgan [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

and rocketing down the road
at 8 miles per hour
whee
wind in our hair
bugs in our teeth
wave to everybody
cruisin' low and slow

Turkey in the Straw - Hobbs Brothers [from Evans 78s]

capturing a manner of speaking within a music
like amber with bugs in it
like rap

When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, the Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

muted trombone
sweet
a song becomes a society of verses
everybody has their own room

Bongo Bop - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]

as though a dancer had learned to do their stuff
on a surface of melody
so that
the melody and the dancer
dance each other

Comment Allez Vous - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]

the backup singers sound like they are singing with pasted on smiles
ala Lawrence Welk

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
August 21, 2022

Hallelujah I Love Her So - Stevie Wonder [from Tribute to Ray]

boy wonder
paving the way for Michael Jackson 

A Time for Love - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

the moments at the ends of her lines
the last sung tone before inhaling
has it's own particular ping 

that is the strangest vowel on her last sung "love"
irreproducible

Wings of My Love - Michael Jackson [from Got To Be There]

and there he is
right on cue
he must have heard me writing about him

Lust for Life - Iggy Pop [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and the Beat]

guitar string solo
the way the recording picks up the amps
each guitar chord comes from a different stereo spot

I Love Paris - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]

this backup choir is charming
more of that
must be grinning insipidly at every moment
to get that sound
that smiling sound

Assembly Rechoired 24 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Antonia W [May 9, 1987]

plucked string
probably on a ukulele
and small percussions
boxes cans and pots and potlids
a didgeridoo and a system hum
and an ocarina and another pipe
all the bells and whistles 

we have wandered among the rattles and the jangles
these are the knights who knock sticks
trying out vowels in a can
bone on rock
we are certainly touring a bunch of sounds here
quite the bag of tricks
can't leave out the funmaker
nor the Aaronsbundler
we join its beat
in a rather haphazard way
it means well
once again
the application of rosin is heard on tape
wind up toys
cymbal bear
up close music box
real slow
broadcast land got in through a hole in the wall 
have you anything to say to me
excellent question
Antonia plays with understanding right away
plugged the leak for now
didgeridoo cleans up the mess
funmaker gently leads us out
playing harmonica

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
August 22, 2022

Primitives - T Bone Burnett [from The Criminal Under My Own Hat]

relies on textual repetition
on top of the chord change cyclicity

Go Deep - Janet Jackson [from The Velvet Rope]

how much of the point of the song
is the display of the money spent to produce it
pop becomes an inexpensive luxury item
and to improve the décor of any club or party
in which it might be spun for dancing

Canoe Arrival Song - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]

frame drum slow pulse
and pentatonicish sung melody
composed from the inside of the singer's breaths

Sputnik Love 05 Mixdown 01 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 20, 2007]

rushing through a densely folded source
skidding on its surface
a nervous steady state
rolling barrel internal experience

Sound Check - Red Ribbon [recorded live at the Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

this was
as best I know
their first show

Rocks and Glass - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

what one pictures oneself as being
is a barrier
a dangerous fiction
or a strong current into perilous seas
beware the mermaids

Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Beckoning - Amy Denio [from Chapel Sessions]

mouth percussion
climbing a ladder on loop rungs
to where the birds fly
start again
and we find strange critters
start again
lift off
aloft

Alman, Fvb. 152 - Thomas Morley - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

gambits
compose out from a given line
compose a line within a frame
mix to taste

Down Home Special - Henry Johnson and His Boys [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

viscous
molassical
heavy humidity
day move slidily
as able

Love in Vain Blues (DAL 402-1) - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]

his tessitura and the sound of his voice both seem a little lower in this one
and his voice sounds more like a natural voice
than in some of his recordings
evidence of RPM adjustments on other recordings?
in G I think

L'Ana - Chubby Jackson [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

conversational scat

Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Bye Bye Blackbird - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

a tune and its chord changes
the ghost of the tune remains
within the experience of the chord changes
as they continue
whether the tune
or any part of it
is explicitly present

Pretty Peggy-O - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]

seems like a put on accent
too good to be true

The Great Learning Paragraph 1 - Cornelius Cardew - The Montréal Scratch Orchestra, Dean Rosenthal

the tone is impervious to fire
stops are added
and pitches
intonation robust
and specific
considerations
of how sustained tones hang in space
a rhetoric
of tones hanging in space
grates upon
the received notions
of musicality
sans passing glances
a corporate announcement is made
and humans make whistle stops
for the tones to hang in space with
those tones have formed a matrix
wherewithin
the slide whistles and fipple flutes
flit and glide
the remnants
float to ground

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
August 23, 2022

She Shook Me Cold - David Bowie [from The Man Who Sold The World]

the story of a personally legendary encounter music is jammed with sound leaving little air among the shredding

I'm So Glad - The Rumour [from Max]

anthemic but insipid generic arrangement

Way of the World - Flipper [from Generic]

filling a noisy establishment with sound
so that it must be heard
whether listened to or not
providing an experience for the bar dwellers
so that
one will remember having been there
attitude signaling

Silver Bells - London Symphony Orchestra [from Songs for the Holidays]

arranged and recorded
with the presumed presumption
that nobody will ever really listen to it
put it on the stereo and turn it down low
to complete one's decorating

Cross-Eyed Gopher - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

vocal part of the song is a single line finger picked banjo part is much fancier

Keep on Rockin' - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]

this song has an unfanciness to it that endears like an eternally friendly Ramones

Gradus 14 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 13, 2002]

in what sense might it be reasonable to assert
that
two tones are listening to each other?
a tone made by someone listening
is heard by that someone
another tone made by someone listening
is heard by that someone
the tones are heard
by listening someones
or by a listening someone
and they are listening to each other
 by means of
those someones
if those someones are one someone
then the means is possible
simpler
or at least contained
within some one someone

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
August 24, 2022

Through a Glass Abstractly - Tom Baker Quarter [from Look What I Found]

behaves like a self correcting system fluctuating within limits centered

Sound Check - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Comet Tavern, Seattle, July 29, 2012]

recorded with a digital video recorder so the sound is pretty horrid

James - Shelby Earl [from The Man Who Made Himself A Name]

the poetic address is to us mostly
but also to be overheard by the eponym
and ultimately
by the singer
adventure pop sound

Banned Telepath 87 Breakfast with Chickens - Jennifer Chung, Aaron Keyt [June 5, 2022]

an avian soundscape
mostly twitters
but there may be a creek also
and some incidental percussion
but the chickens are more quiet than those to which I am accustomed
unless they are the percussion 

honk honk

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Pavana and Galiarda, Fvb. 153 and 154 - Thomas Morley - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

the matter:
graceful motion from place to place
the grace imparts itself to each place concretely
a study in
here
and
between here and here
how here
is between
and between
is here in transit
or
emptiness of moment between
as a mode of grace
betweens that mark
betweens that move
some betweens simply stop still

East Virginia - Buell Kazee [from Anthology of American Folk Music]

journey in constant motions
mythic stasis

Uncle Josh and the Honey Bees - Cal Stewart [from Evans 78s]

unmistakable rhythm of telling a joke
without discernable lexical content
 beyond an occasional word or two
early comedy record
punctuated by the teller's laughing at his own telling

Just One of Those Things - Django Rheinhardt [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

songs so familiar one does not need words
light on his fingers' feet 
the clarinetist is no slouch either

Sinner's Prayer - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]

the piano figure that opens
establishes an accent
on the front of the second beat
that skews any ordinary sense
of how time proceeds
or could

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
August 25, 2022

Roll Over Beethoven - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings Volume 2]

faster than the original
hard to tell from the recording
but the words are slurred too
energetic but sloppy
the lead guitar is all over it though definitely worth the price of admission
George?
whomever, nice job

Quintet 3 - George Perle - Dorian Wind Quintet

wants to be understood as music is proposed to be understood
in terms of its rhetoric of pitch and sequence
|| chicken pecks and donkey brays
farm chatter |
| nocturnal tour
still camera shots
not without worrying suspense
|| getting the morning moving along
for another weary day of doing

John Sinclair - John Lennon and Yoko Ono [from Some Time in New York City]

this one at least has an interesting sound
and an unusual little repetition bit on "got to got to . . ."
15 times each time around

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
God Save the Queen - The Sex Pistols [from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols]

the personal political
has more bite
than the topical political

Deep River - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]

certainly played with respect and sympathy
and skill
too pretty?
possibly.

Sonatina - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at the Tintinabulary, Seattle, May 15, 1987]

on clavichord
the original intent
to take advantage of the intimacy and the precision of its notes
the out of tune high notes don't bother me much
and the sound of the recording is pretty good
considering what I was working with
for me
this piece keeps me on the edge of my seat
though I remember it pretty well
 I don't remember every detail
and even when I do anticipate
I still follow eagerly
also
includes one of the few times I used an extended technique
on a  low D
hold the key down with one finger
and then strike it firmly and sharply with another
a satisfying pitched thump

Capriol Suite (Piens-en-l'air) - Peter Warlock - English String Orchestra, William Boughton [from Meditations for a Quiet Night]

English counterpart of the American Romantic West:
the peaceful country life at the center of a brutal empire
our just reward for stewarding the colonies

at Box Canyon, Mt. Rainier National Park
Sky's The Limit - The Notorious B.I.G. [from Life After Death]

vital rhythm of competitive talk
edge of song
the rhyme is only the half of it

Flick Fleck - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]

tribute to Thelonious Monk
clear in the head
now there are two of each of them
 this is much smarter than it sounds
hiding its brilliance behind DIY cheap tricks
if it is clear what you are playing
not all of it need be played
quite

Sputnik Love 03 Mixdown 01 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 20, 2007]

for this instance of the project (Music as a Film)
I didn't keep each strand
 but left cryptic notes for myself
the meaning of which is long forgotten and obscure
even to me
"also part of Folds 1-4, as Sputnik Love is created out of Banned Rehearsal 714"
the original sound was a portion of Banned Rehearsal 714
 that much is clear

the name of this segment of the project
came at the end
 textures like a rolling barrel
brute force granular synthesis 

film and the persistence of vision
creating the illusion of motion
music as film
the complexity
or better
the density of impulses
overwhelming the illusion of orderly sequence
sphering time
and then some

Journey in Satchidananda - Ask The Ages [from Ask The Ages]

this is a place
we have landed
it has a flavor
the place is dense with itself
 the fruits are strange
their textures unexpected
it can't be brought back
on one's feet all day is tiring
but we'll only be here the once

Focus - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

a St. Rage song
the fictional band we love to cover
this one actually has an oddly Nicoish vibe to it

Untitled - Daniel Husser [from 1 Month Challenge]

a sequence of four repeated several times
then a variation on a sequence of four repeated several times
an articulation segment
and back to the original sequence of four repeated several times
stop

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 23, 2022

Prelude in F minor - Keith Eisenbrey

August 26, 2022

Prelude in F Major - Lockrem Johnson

I finally got this one at a likely tempo and weight so that it dances along

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1990






No comments:

Post a Comment