"'Mr. Allen,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'what is the matter, sir?'
'Never mind,
sir!' replied Mr. Allen, with haughty defiance.
'What is it?' inquired
Mr. Pickwick, looking at Bob Sawyer. 'Is he unwell?'
Before Bob could
reply, Mr. Ben Allen seized Mr. Pickwick by the hand, and murmured, in
sorrowful accents, 'My sister, my dear sir; my sister.'
'Oh, is that
all!' said Mr. Pickwick. 'We shall easily arrange that matter, I hope. Your
sister is safe and well, and I am here my dear sir, to - '
'Sorry to do
anythin' as may cause an interruption to such wery pleasant proceedin's, as
the king said wen he dissolved the Parliament,' interposed Mr. Weller, who had
been peeping through the glass door; 'but there's another experiment here,
sir. Here's a wenerable old lady a lyin' on the carpet waitin' for dissection,
or galwinism, or some other rewivin' and scientific inwention.'
'I
forgot,' exclaimed Mr. Ben Allen. 'It is my aunt.'
'Dear me,' said Mr.
Pickwick. 'Poor lady! gently, Sam, gently.'
'Strange sitivation for one
o' the family,' observed Sam Weller, hoisting the aunt into a chair. 'Now,
depitty Sawbones, bring out the wollatilly.'"
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
Two Slants: Duty, Vita - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush
stomps the end of Duty
lingers at the end of Vita
Serial Diatonicism - Carson "Carsonics" Farley - Keith Eisenbrey
the thickest of the chords are a challenge to play clearly on clavichord
but
I think I managed pretty well
the tempo shifts work (to my ear)
an interesting
challenge
Her Gown Was of Vermillion Silk - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo
the text is in the past tense
the word painting is in the present tense
Punch Drunk Lovers - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
offset sound plates
edges not trued up nor trimmed
Nature's Way - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush
a comforting sentiment
Grimoire - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
dark foreboding
Fafner proximity warning
it seems he may have smelled the
blood of that Englishman after all
grumpiness level high
From 'The Incantation' - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich
etched filigree presents this text
Two Minds Inside - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
playing an echo game on a schematic board
An Election - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo
comments overheard on the street
Persephone - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
far below the bellows of beasts
a sequestered realm of stillness
and
nanoincremental accretion
hollowing out the chambers above
to clog the
chambers below
At Sea - Charles Ives - William Sharp, Steven Blier
a fragment song or aphoristic
extends beyond its horizon
Go Go Dynamo - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
for dancing
turn the groove this way and that
the hips the feet the shoulders
the hat
reset the rhythm ball
move where the moves now fall
aerobic and fun
you'll grin a ton
Flag Song - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo
Country and God and Manly Determination
square jaws and ready fists
Gold In a Gray Land - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
pebbles in a pool of many dimensions
each with its surface and depths
each
pebble descends true
through its discovered pool
Far From My Heavenly Home - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich
a prayer
First Autumn Day - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
the hemisphere of the biosphere
begins its necessaries to survive the long
dark
winds and current shift
life pulls back into itself
that scarce remembered lay
there's the schoolbook cadence
and there's the oh
so modern waft of scent
Deah - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
shaman
calling a power out
reaching toward it to speak to it
The Greatest Man - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo
cute
Baila - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
I'm being acquired point by point
(oh gee he's up to my knee)
one two three
four
increments of engulfment
The Housatonic at Stockbridge - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich
the use of "at" or "on" in geographic place names or descriptions
an East
coast thing?
I think here we would say "in" or "near" Stockbridge
When I Was a Child I Lived By the River - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
menacing but placatable
if properly feared
Resolution - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush
a quotation pulled from its surrounds
Lucky You - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]
a happy walking hum
with which we say
ta ta to Mr. Layton
'til we pick him up
again in the next cycle
and now lucky me
a marathon of Ives songs
thrice repeated clauses
plangence
plainness
ding dong bell
what are art songs
for?
to give singers a music more suitable to an intimate space than is
allowed in opera
and to sing in different tenses and characters
than would
generally come up on the dramatic stage
interesting
these seem to benefit from
not being isolated from their own kind
several of them together lifts each
individually
they are all and each
not the all and all
but rather
a part
written in stones
ragtime photographs of moments
the music of a time
the color
if its time
point at the map
name the streets
to his credit he doesn't obscure the affectual dissonances of the poem
Ich Grolle Nicht; Widmung; We Melodien; There Is a Lane; Elégie; Evidence; Berceuse; Rough Wind; South Wind; No More; On Judge's Walk; A Night Thought; Song of the Dead; Where the Eagle; Tolerance; The Love Song of Har Dyal; Omens and Oracles; Those Evening Bells; Frühlingslied; ein Ton; Marie; Song; Memories; Waltz; Songs My Mother Taught Me; Son of a Gambolier - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Philip Bush; Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich; Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo; William Sharp, Steven Blier
so
these can function effectively as Preludes do
in sets of the same
they set
each other up and off
or
like variations
the mix of them more alive
than any
one of them as an individual thought
pre-19th Century it is my understanding
that songs were written to be intersticed
as part of a longer musical event
one might be included between movements of a symphony exempli gratia
the
arrival of song cycles
was part of change in the social circumstances
in which
music was shared music
became part of bourgeois home life
these offer a
picture of domestic life 100 years ago
and of what was appropriate within its
confines
texts that could be printed in a respectable periodical
man's
hearthstone
build my own
for all Ives's reputation as a modernist
the vast
majority of these are not so far out as to be modernistic
kazoos
notwithstanding
surely that sort of thing was seen frequently on the
vaudeville stage
the old dance ground
***************
O Quam Mirabilis Est (Antiphona) - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia, Barbara Thornton
voice illuminates space
Baci Soavi E Cari - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini
voice confers with voice
long lined phrases
A Suite of Dances - Anonymous - David di Fiore [from The Grand Organ of the Castle Church of St. Catherine in Kremnica]
David played these for us many times at services over the years
I remember
that his voicing on them evolved over time
experimenting with rhythm and color
Benedictus Deus noster - Peter Phillips - Royal Holloway Choir, Rupert Gough, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
voice populates space
full of glory
February 20, 2024
Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christ, Op. 3 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
ornate reading
even setting the title
do I have the same trouble with
word-painting here?
not so much
it seems to be more in the nature of a
sensitive declamation
than in a clever
look-at-what-I-did there
the music
amplifies
they are gesticulations in the character of the declaimer
part of
their person and demeanor
I think our choir did at least a part of this many
years ago
perhaps even under Chuck Peterson
back when we were ambitious
Schoenberg was not the first to set the voice of divinity in multiple parts
including the voice of Mary
this is a setting of the Johannine resurrection story
Ich habe Lust abzuschieden, BWV 47 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet, Suzie LeBlanc, Dame Emma Kirby, Clare Solomon
bass lines with lives of their own have business below and above
we wanted the stories to be enacted within our behold
it needed to be writ
large
music in the service of making things larger than life
opens with
royalty's conference with sorcery
which has power over the spirit of
Samuel
interesting
sound effects!!
thunder and hooves!
balance between the
phrases of voice and the remarks of the orchestra
pay mind when they join
forces
basso profundo divine authority figure
must be Samuel
this here is
ceremonial and pomply
a chorus is an opportunity to reset
change the mind
scene
metrical accelerants
big screen biblical epic
Liebster Jesu, wir sing hier, BWV 731 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Stanislav Surin
the increment between activation of the key
and the speaking of the pipes
varies with rank and pitch and space
blurring synchrony
Allemande de Laborieuse - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
grace filters down from above
the fount and the echo box
clarification signals
conclusion
Acis and Galatea, Act I - George Frideric Handel - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Kawn Kotoski, David Gordon, Glenn Siebert, Jan Opalach, Seattle Symphony Chorale
this music goes about its business certifying the preparations
dusting the
chandeliers
tableauxers take their places
presented as though on too big a
stage
if it's worth singing
it's worth repeating
the characters are picture
book illustrations
trouble with the sheep
placid and pastoral
enjoy the
picture book
and our conversations too
there're those happy happy happy wes
everybody's happy couple
Hipocondrie a 7 concertanti - Jan Dismas Zelenka - Camerata Bern, Alexander van Wijnkoop
the depictions of worry and miscertainty
following darker paths
an unstable
affect
or
the affect is of an unstable sort
Noel 10 'Grand jeu et duo' - Louis-Claude Daquin - Marie-Claire Alain
celebratory dance with doubles and variations
music for a large space
we sit
back and observe from our seats
Sonata in A Major, Wq. 65.10 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
sets up shop in one's head
a short study in chromatic progressions
Sonata in D Major, Kk.223 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
no mind intrusion here
it intrigues
invites study
La Damanzy - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset
rings on every finger
frills at every seam
Three Scottish Tunes - James Oswald - Nancy Hadden
early folk adaptations
a sprightly Greensleevs
Ah, tu non senti, from Ifigenia in Tauride (Tomasa Traetta) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne, Antal Dorati
a number for another composer's opera
a dramatic recitative
orchestra plays
then the singer
et cetera
until late in the game
rhetorical structure employed for
dramatic impact
1
glittering
bursting with invention and contrast
2
a methodical progression
wanders astray
but sticks to its procedures
3
dancers line up
a dance is a
structured conversation
4
lively dinner conversation
Sonata in G Major - Johann Christian Bach - Bart van Oort
the top line melody is the hero of its own tale
fingery figures shaped for the
hand
Sonata in A Major, Op. 10 #1 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
1
clarity and grace
post repeat
behind the scenes
pump the servants
pull the
strings of society
2
cobbled together
irregular
loves to find the dark corners
of phrase endings
the three meter complicates itself
3
spinning machinery
mechanical toy wonder
the era of the virtuoso has arrived
Sonata pour le Clavecin où le Forte-Piano in G Major, WoO, C.40 - Johann Ladislaus Dussek
1-A
a refined gentleman with genuine passions that erupt in his handsome
breast so noble
1-B
a rough and noisy character with true tenderness in his
broad chest
2
let's see how they do at the dance among their fellows
or amid
the chatter of an evening at dinner and cards
but wanders into dangerous
territory
Concerto in B-flat Major, Op. 19 (#2) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Boston Symphonie Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, Rudolf Serkin
1
use the most unlikely hinge
it will be unmistakable on its return
a fixed
point
from which to survey the dance of motions in concord or in opposition
Ludwig muscles in on the virtuoso scene
is that Beethoven's cadenza?
2
a
phrase is an adventure full of plot points
big R Romantic
back when it was an
intellectual posture
3
rollicking fun at the local Bierhall
switches from
looking back at the music
to simply playing it
ha! fooled ya!
Sonata in C Major - Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Constance Keene
1
the assertion is questioned
discussed in its presence
has a clever
figuration game
irrepressible
hey
do you remember that assertion we were
discussing
2
ok let's take this thing apart shall we
but first we'll breakfast
on the veranda
an important conversation being had
in which the assertion
figures heavily
3
a great twittering is heard in the domestic labyrinth
perhaps the assertion solved itself
its commerce fulfilled
all settled
Sonata in G Minor, Op. 13 - Friederich Kalkbrenner - John Khouri
1
the stormy part of passion
he becomes a bit of a bore about it
2
whew! now
what?
forcing the music to get bigger
a constant pressure of espressivo
utterance
3 4
golly they all sure do start with a loud bang
February 22, 2024
Caprice in E Major, Op. 1 #1 - Niccolò Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
virtuosic flashpoint
next stop Liszt
each page a poem
each poem an illustration
master of the passing shadow
or
change in the weather
music
the stage setting props and drops
no hurry getting
around to what might be a plot
wandering involves many scenes to be believable
wandering
and there she is right on cue
stations of the mill a
sequence of
rhymed soliloquies
piano part moves effortlessly between being a piece in its
own right and clearly playing a supporting role to the voice
two roles
harmonic support and lyric foil
as in blues guitar playing
such as Mr.
Johnson's
the pianist has an excellent touch
microscopic attention to
shades of affect
somebody got his dander up
gets dark indeed
shades of
the Werther of Young Sorrows
Gran Capriccio in C minor - Carl Czerny - Martin Jones
a caprice follows thought
playing registers off each other
the keyboard is a
puppet stage
this one shows melodramas nightly
matinees on weekends
and
a post melodrama fugue for the aficionados
Introduction and Bolero in A minor, Op. 19 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
a tour through the measures
singling out particularly significant pitch places
for northern Europeans
did the Bolero as a dance type
appeal
because of its
sultry
fantasy inciting
Spanish origins?
Les nuits d'ete - Louis-Hector Berlioz - Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim, Kiri Te Kanawa
loves his scenery
lusts after the opera stage
a magician with his orchestra
or
instrument is a sound to be applied where needed
these scenes are not static
things happen in them
O Weh des Scheidens - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
private communication
direct address
mixtape
Ouverture-Manfred - Robert Schumann, Boston Symphony Orchestra - Wilhelm Furwängler
there it is right there
forever slipping from our grasp
and here comes that
astonishing
name that tune
final chord
Variations on a Hungarian Song - Johannes Brahms, Julius Katchen
for piano two-fists
the fists dream of one day becoming real hands
fully
intertwinable
try to force their way in
through fierce counterpoint
Richard III, Op. 11 - Bedřich Smetana - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann
early appearance of tune-bird
cinema spectacular
royal ceremony
pomp and
costumes
horse chases in the dead of night
thrills and chills
all our favorite
bits
complete with kettle drums to make it all kingly
a bit of a trip
laying the whole keyboard wizard thing on pretty thick
now down to business
these puppets are big and scary
but wear rhinestone shoes
and a sparkly jacket
and there are candelabras
modulation by tossing the threads into the air
and finding
where they fall to
Fatum, Op. 77 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., Antal Dorati
a scarlet thread
invisible if not suspected
doing its work
high and low
in
court and field
and town and village
forces are gathering
there's gonna be a
blow-up
he's telegraphing it big-time
pull back
to the furtive opening
find
our happy place
nope sorry
Mr. Stomp is here to stomp
In Session at The Tintinabulary
February 18, 2024
Hingham - Keith Eisenbrey
February 19, 2024
Gradus 392 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
an energized location in space
a grouping thereof
is an attitude of that space
a
fulcrum in the earbrain
between
being a part of a vertical (momentary)
sonority
and being part of an horizontal (sequential) figure
occupy the fulcrum
a preponderance of root position triadic harmonies
skews the balance
toward the momentary (vertical) sonorities
as a primary consideration
more
transparent texture
skews it toward the sequential (horizontal)
separates the
voices
reverberation space and pitch space
reverberation space
is an artifact
of physical objects in physical space
pitch space
is a virtual space arising
out of perception of aspects of a sonic environment
at the fulcrum the dimensions shift easily one to the other
February 23, 2024
Psalm 119 - Aaron Keyt
Ein wahrer Glaube Gotts Zorn stillt - Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 13: Music as Film (part 2) 2008 - 2009
Volume 13 completes my Music as Film project, in which I built up textures from snippets of sound. "Zither Film" is just that process and nothing else. "Improvising a Framework for Composition so as to Compose My Thoughts about Improvisation" uses layers from the earlier "Lids Film" in conjunction with texts both original and found. "Torch Song" is all about its found texts. It may not properly belong in the project's remit but it tagged along anyway. It certainly doesn't belong anywhere else.
Volumes 1 through 12 are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2020
