Preface
Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
March 10, 2024
Symphony in D Major, K48(48) (#8) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood
cadence is a tonal structure event
within an episode of figurations
an articulation
that often doesn't stop for itself
except at
major divisions
or
it might stop at points
if it can clarify
the length of spans of figurations in play
so that
those
spans of figurations
can play games
second and third movements
each begin with phrases
marked by
stopped cadences
fourth too
his rhetorical tool chest
becomes loaded
with phrase length options
as well as
cadential options
lively at every moment
Sonata in C minor, Op. 17 #2 - Johann Christian Bach - Bart van Oort
I'm working on this piece
(on clavichord)
Bart plays a fortepiano
accomplishes some of the ornaments with nicely done tempo fluctuations
sensitive dynamics within phrases
not static
the point of
the recapitulation
is to play the former material
with new details
and in different key relationships
not
to be the same
but
to be the same
differently
figures are puppets
and interact as puppets in a stage
the plot
need not concern us
if they are intent on their interactions
tempting to attempt to listen to this
with the rapt attention of a young
child
at puppetry
can we listen with such wide-eyed innocence?
or has that ability been
lost to us ?
Clementi seems to not be capable
of causing alarm
in such an
innocent
Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 24 - Johann Ladislaus Dussek - Taija Hakkila
Dussek's show
might delight such a one
less
leans heavily on
innuendos
and flirty games
to enter this post-repeat portion
is to enter a different world
winding halls and sudden encounters
perhaps in dreamland
one needs a fondness for witty repartee
a sequence of modulations in quick succession
is a journey through new
spaces
we identify with the figures traveling through these spaces
not with the spaces
Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Stephen Kovacevich
a personal favorite of mine
he plays the first movement gently
do I identify with the figures here?
less so:
these figures are
their tonality
they don't pass through it
if we do
say
in the post-repeat world
it's more like
we are worrying over
things
in our minds
not passing through them
a key is an aspect of a problem
the problem clarifies itself
with
a cheerful stroll
on a nice day
ends with a remarkable dissociation
of the parts of beats
those beats
are each
in two places
at once
the goal is to use the most non-descript theme possible
in order to
display
imagination
and skill
and cleverness
each
variation is a different character
Sonata in F minor D625 505 (#11) - Franz Schubert - Paul Badura Skoda
back to figures as characters
but also
as the sung expressions of
those characters
Schubert is what he sings
a land of fancy
and of mysteries
and sorrows
Semiramide Overture - Gioachino Rossini - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Jascha Horenstein
an overture can introduce us
to the concept of character
that will
be in play
within the opera proper
singable
memorable
melodies
establish
that melody
is where it's at
sudden bursts
promise us exciting drama
and dire
pronouncements
the music is part of the stagecraft
all sorts of characters
just
imagine the craziness they are about to be in
pies will fly!
an extensive overture
we are well into his world
by the time the
curtains open
Polonaise in F minor, Op. 71 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin
we are now in a more expansive world
(because) we are on a smaller stage
Impromptus on a Theme by Clara Wieck, Op. 5 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
the theme is a thought
about its opening school-book figure
the
impromptus
are thoughts about a thought
an impromptu
is a thought
from a hypothetical
or fanciful
character
the characters that speak those thoughts
are lots of fun
somebody
down there is shaking the ladder
but thoughts of another
give
peaceful reverie
whistley hopes
this impromptu is impersonating a fugue
Scherzo in D minor, Op. 10 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann
tripping over themselves
to stay in the same plot line
Incidental Music to A Midsummer Nights Dream, Op. 21/61 - Felix Mendelssohn - Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen, Rafael Kubelik, Edith Mathis, Ursula Boese, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Wolfgang Schubert
all is balance and lightness
even among the hee haw crowd
when I was living in Red Hook
my walking would often pass a farm
at which a donkey resided
I was interested to note
that the
sound it made
was more
haw hee
than is popularly
promulgated
overtures written
not for any specific production
but for some
idealized version
in cultural consciousness
direct repetition
is an easy balance enforcement
but always entertaining
and marvelously orchestrated
doesn't get
as bogged down
by Masterpiece Piety
as does Elijah
the movement that rehashes
the hee haw material
from the overture
is not nearly as much fun as it was
the first time
we are taken to the theater
upon whose stage
a lament is presented
we identify
with the character
who sings the lament
on
the stage
created by the music
as the stage
so made
vanishes behind the fervor
Allegro from the F.A.E. Sonata - Johannes Brahms - Yehudi Menuhin, Hephzibah Menuhin
composed like someone writing a solo with accompaniment
rather than
as a chamber piece for violin and piano
5 Gedichte für ein Frauenstimme (Wesendonck Lieder) - Richard Wagner - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, Christa Ludwig
aching long lines
long aching lines
long lines aching
arching long lines
lines arching long
lines long arching
forestalling cadence
no holding still ever
striving further
the world looks different
from each further step
gazing
hopelessly
out the dark window
poems
set in lines
in a
drama
for Wagner
there was no him
without a stage
and a big one at
that
veer off on four
that keeps it both still
and moving
for as
long as feasible
Willie Has Gone to the War - Stephen Foster - Gregg Smith Singers
gentle parlor music
while the armies slaughter each other
Concerto in A minor - Edvard Grieg - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Bella Davidovich
this has some lovely tunes in it
and proceeds with clarity
the
keyboard writing
is perhaps a bit florid
modeled on Schumann's
Concerto I suppose
but without the contrapuntal workings beneath it
the melodies sure do sing though
each step in his modulations
are presented in full
it is
demonstrated
that no corners were cut
no untoward leaps were
made
music composed
as a sequence of themes
to hum on your way
out
the accompanimental figures
know their lots in life
and keep to
them
the flautist played their third movement solo beautifully
a little trumpet fanfare
announces the big tune show-stopper
this opens so many times
I don't know where I am anymore
every few bars
the subject changes
a movement
of strange
on-goings
the curtain opens
a village scene
morning
our hero desponds
the path to hope
lies through the darker tonalities
less concerned with taking all the steps to get places
than Grieg
points to
and is
then
at
here comes our hero
in shiny white armor
possessor of a quiet
family farm
in Idylicville
imagine if he had ever found a librettist
with as crazy an imagination
and an audience that could keep up
E-flat
of course
we get a hint of Das Rheingold
later at the ball
candelabras and intrigue and drama
unwinds onto
the dance floor
words are exchanged
and glances
and
cuts
adventure and troubles
oh the suitors!
worthy and un-
Symphony in F minor, Op. 36 (#4) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz [from a broadcast of May 8, 1992]
I bothered to tape this off the radio
because I thought the live
performance was pretty fine
the radio-compression weakens it near
fatally
its size is diminished
no room to be big
no room to
be small
it all fits snugly
into the confines
of the FM
signal
no situation
is safe from exposure
the audience is allowed their cough
before all the pizzicattos let
loose
and the sudden FF
of the fourth movement
is reduced down to the
size of a closet
a pity
because the conversational fortissimo
is half the fun
Nocturne (from 2 Canons) - Ethel Smyth - Liana Serbescu
a canon is a tactic
to connect moments
between voices
as
they go by
and continue
to be going by
it bumps us out of
time
Russian Easter Festival Overture - Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
the subject remains intact
and in view
even out in the
street
a folio of illustrations
ends with a full-page spread
Vexations - Eric Satie - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 16, 2010]
My half-hour
of what may be the Seattle premiere
I was on early on
a Sunday morning
I haven't thought about it much since then
and I don't speak French
but my recollection is
that the indication to play it 840 times
was not a clear cut instruction
but an ambiguously suggestive
possibility
"Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses."
true or not
I like the idea of couching performance
instructions
as open-ended possibilities
or subjunctives
the piece itself asks questions of itself
from every angle you care to
observe from
an unaskable question
after which
we went out for breakfast
I
enjoyed the project
more than I feared I would
song cycle
embedded in a symphony
or in an oratorio
or all
three
at once
the song has little purchase
on the other parts of this music
in
danger
of slipping off
into who knows what strange realm
we
are trapped in this music
as are those
who must be the
characters
in the unfolding tale
companion piece to Gurrelieder
another monstrosity
the difficulty lies
in the fact
that
I have no plausibly
appropriate category
for what this is
or might have been meant to
be
and keep trying to make one thing
or another
out of it
but
it doesn't go like any of those things
really
it's
a wholly unique mess
I am forced to hope
that was the intent
Poeme tragique, Op. 34 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
a moment of turning
a flash scene
a glance
Passacaglia, Op. 1 - Anton Webern - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Hans Swarowsky
Webern
as the ecstatic voluptuarian
digging into the heart of
chromatic polyphony
wielding a scourge
Brouillards - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs
what might have been a melody
enters
atop the burbling
but
only a few notes
outline
where it would have been
Poem for Flute and Orchestra - Charles Griffes - Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson
what is poem about it?
high-toned literate voice
speaking in
formal measures
who knows
perhaps there is a particular poem as its model
to transport us
to a mind
like that of poetry's
Farewell Blues - Isham Jones [from That Devilin' Tune]
staggering home
arms across shoulder
keeping everybody
in a
loose jointed
vertical position
we all sing
everybody's songs at once
Every Day of the Week Blues - Pink Anderson, Simmie Dooley [from Really The Blues]
rather than have the guitar
provide the other
of the dialog
there is
another singer
in that function
simultaneous lectures
come together at the hinges
or chokepoints
squeezing through the same moment
to continue on their independent
journeys
Jim Jam Stomp - Joe Marsala [from That Devilin Tune]
almost
if not a quite
be-bop up-tempo and attitude
hot jazz
not the other kind
Divertimento for Small Orchestra (after Couperin) - Richard Strauss - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
there was an urge
to enlarge
and re-color
the intimate
musics
of earlier centuries
is it just a desire
to share this music
with a larger audience
(amplification)?
or was there a discomfort
with its intimacy?
or
simply
a performance
on the instrument of Strauss's
personal virtuosity
with extemporaneities unfolding
an old man's diversion
while waiting out the war
the last surviving denizen
of turn-of-the-century
German music
culture
playing
with old French court music culture
Milk'em in the Morning Blues - Tennessee Ernie Ford [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
topical social music
for rural America
but
it probably isn't
actually about dairy life
as such
I suspect innuendo
wink
wink
calling on the rhetoric of a culture
can call unexpected accoutrements
here
calling on the Satie-esque
brings Satie's crowd with
him
and his scent
neo-classicism
begins to feed on itself
music as a place to be
a company to keep
rather than
a drama
to undergo
or an ordeal to endure
genteel social
effervescent
movement two bubblies
and if neo-classical
is a music
in consideration of another music
then
what happens
when the music doing the considering
is the music under consideration?
surely strange toadstools
will appear
another life form
gets in on the action
of
rot
and decay
then back to chipper chipper
back to life in
business
rebuilding itself
four movements
four seasons
a time for each
no histrionics here
we are French
we'll tie it into a decorative knot
and we're done
Run Rudolph, Run - Chuck Berry [from The Best of Chuck Berry]
a careful poet
who restricted his forms
to a tight circle of
rhythms
cry sleep drink and wet
whizzin' like a saber jet
That's The Way Love Is - Bobby Bland [a Rescued Record]
with vintage surface noise
back when things were recorded all at once
everybody in the same room
where folks could hear each other
dipthwhip
Lingua II: Maledetto - Kenneth Gaburo - Alan Johnson, Elinor Barron, Bruce Leibig, Sherry Dorn, Bonnie Mara Barnett, Robert MacDougall, Bruce Rittenbach
a new thought is heard from
out of left coast
the turning of the screw
everlasting wriggler
the Nile Delta
was irrigated by an
endless
what
||: meaning what? to what end? :||
acting on the short end of a lever
arousing my scent pouch to a fury
in canon
the paleotecnical phase
horse-driven
Archimedean muggymuddled
the unified thread standard
breathe-in
ex-spire
a new screw is announced
obsolete screw warehouses
a dedicated man
not just the facts
but the sludge around them
all memorable
In Session at The Tintinabulary
March 10, 2024
Madrid - Keith Eisenbrey
March 11, 2024
Banned Rehearsal 1096 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
March 12, 2024
Was mein Gott will, das gscheh allzeit - Aaron Keyt
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen - Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 15: 2014
Early 2014 found me completing the first part of Études d'exécution imminent - the project that would keep me busy into 2021. Another was written for Ben Boretz, in celebration of his 80th. J was composed while thinking about the late J. K. Randall. The six movements of Another are Sphinxes, Scarabs, Pools, Potions (first batch), Potions (second batch), and Smoke, which movements can intermingle in performance and sometimes do, and so I include here three quite different versions for your enjoyment - two on clavichord and one live version on piano.
J and the second version of Another were recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, The Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, in 2016; the other tracks were recorded at my home in 2015.
Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2021
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