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| Washington Arboretum |
"I don't mean to say that I have killed lions, or seen the wonders of travel in the deserts of Arabia or Prussia: or that I have been a very fashionable character, living with dukes and peeresses, and writing my recollections of them as the way now is. I never left this my native isle, nor spoke to a lord, (except an Irish one, who had rooms in our house, and forgot to pay three week's lodging and extras); but, as our immortal bard observes, I have in the course of my existence been so eaten up by the slugs and harrows of outrageous fortune, and have been the object of such continual and extraordinary ill-luck, that I believe it would melt the heart of a mile-stone to read of it - that is, if a mile-stone had a heart of anything but stone."
from The Comic Almanack, an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Live
Gradus ad Ignotum
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center,
Seattle
Matt Benham, Hanna Broback, Aaron Michael Butler, Haley
Freedlund, Noel Kennon, Dave Knott, Neal Kosály-Meyer, Christian Pincock,
Greg Sinibaldi, Dave Stanford, John Teske, Evan Woodle
Gradus for Fux, Tesla, and Milo The Wrestler - Neal Kosály-Meyer
Novelty Generator
- John Teske
(performed simultaneously)
pay no mind
to the chair
behind the back end
of the
piano
some of this audience
have functions
that fold into the event's
intentional ritual
we'll start
be explaining ourselves
the ring of musicians
in the round
not be an ordeal?
possible?
it is a discipline
and
if
a discipline
doesn't involve
the difficulty of ordeal
what
is it?
one response might be
to find
a point of focus
an immoving standpoint
a seed
immoving
but transmuting
microelaborations
upon immobility
to proceed stepwise
up the partials
is to reach
to where
you
already
have been
to reach
into
an adjoining set of partials
adjoining
being defined
as the delta
between
where we were
and where we now are
any pitch set
implies
a structured set of partials
a motion
between pitch sets
implies
a motion
between
sets of partials
a shift
in our perception
of the space we inhabit
a music
of what accumulates in tonal space
if
it holds still
for a moment
that boat
is moored
in a still dawn vibe
at what point
might a line be crossed
into Pythagorean sound porn?
what are we now over indulging in?
the League of Extraordinary Partials
a Neo-Hellenist adventure
in
empirical mathematics
sound
in a womb of its own making
celebration and amplification
of any sacred sound that haps along
a tone
as its status
within a set of partials
what it is
and
what
what it is
does
to what is done
an effective synthesis
is immediately effective
effect is
immediate
until translated into language
imitatio air traffic
mediating immediacy
to be told
it is two hours
is
to
presume
it will never end
sensibility of the whole
the darkening has ensued
impatience
moves to the side
to extend an improvisation
to engage in a chosen focus
for a
chosen duration
a discipline
its nature
as an ordeal
is not mitigated
by its inherent pleasures
Sisyphustian note rolling
night falls
in the realm
of the giant octopi
at some point
the extent of it
becomes
the point of it
this piano concerto
is utterly unlike a piano concerto
melody
arising
from any fibrillation
between partial sets of
partials
when we hear each other
assertions are born
to be interrogated
the recording device
glows within its fuzzy wig
wallow
in the hollow of partials
and tone
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| Washington Arboretum |
fades into night
a priest circles the space
to sign the time
we understand
a complexity
by focusing within it
and
a
simplicity
by focusing about it
cruciform
waiting out
that
last
metronome
Recorded
July 19, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 502 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 1, 1998]
we clap to turn the session on
we take a listen around
we blast
and boom
expressive freedom
doesn't mean
immunity from scrutiny
or
consequence
or judgment
it demands them
in a stressed time
we work hard
to make a thing happen
perhaps too hard
but no work is wasted
and even flailing
about
has a usefulness
Track 2 [from Eisenbrey 2003] {NB: an indifferently labeled CD from my mom's collection, probably the souvenir from a music camp she attended in 2003}
Chopin?
melody and sweeping passion
Liszt?
familiar
but not by name
if Chopin
a Lisztian Chopin
Banned Rehearsal 741 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 30, 2008]
on the porch
we are quiet
because
the neighborhood evening
is quiet
and that
is the space we are in
in modular arithmetic
M0 of any S
is equivalent
to M0
of any other S
and
could function
as a path between
them
or
a symptom
of their abstract natures
we provide this small portion of evening
with an imprint of sounds
creating an intentional uniqueness
a filled time
recording an event of sounds
making an artifact
that mimics an
event of sounds
this space
in this time
invites
wandering
about it
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Auction Caller - No Man's String Band [from Let the Truth Be Told]
relatively limited lexicon of chords
allows for simpler sharing
ease of social entry
August Amble, Alaska State Fair - Aaron Keyt - Sounds of Late [recorded live at Gallery 1412, April 16, 2018]
would you look at that!
imagine!
check out all the booths
inspect specimens
Soundscroll V part 1: Violent Landscape - S. Eric Scribner - The Hexaphonic 3 [from Soundscrolls V-IX Live)
named in parts
its project name
and number
and its object of
imputed depiction
or resemblance
Madrigals, Book VIII: Ogni amante è guerrier: No. 1, Ogni amante è guerrier; nel suo gran regno - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
individuation
maximized
by stanza
line
syllable
levels
a culture of exquisiteness
Praeludium in G minor, BuxwV 150 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
figurations in metrical congruence
hung
upon discongruent pedal
tones
musics
set above a music of platforms
or
elaborately carved pedestals
pull back
to reveal
a
spacious hall
full of such treasures
Premier livre de clavecin: Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Mimi. Affecteusement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
our sense
of where this sits
within its metrical phraseological
framework
develops
over a goodly portion
of its opening
gambit
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
the mechanism of its fitting together
is intended to impress
with
its subtlety and sophistication
the work of the Master Clockmaker
accompanying tones
of a slower recitative
a place
for the voice to stand
its body language
miming
the sense of the words
as that sense develops
over the
course
of its constituent statements
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 284 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
it is always clear
we're not at the home key
since
it
only exists
when figured
so
Adagio in B minor, K. 540 - Wolfgang Amades Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout
we empathize with these puppets
didn't we see these guys before
in
other keys?
adventures
struggling through the spheroid maze
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Quartet in D minor, Op. 103 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
1
a quiet soul
exploring their thoughts
2
a vigorous soul
troubled in spirit
taking comfort
in
a calming voice
Prelude in C minor, Op. 28 #20 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
finality
(in triplicate)
Album für die Jugend, "Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend", Op. 68 #10 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
a snapshot
Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 35 #1 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
a spinning disk
a delicate pottery
Mississippi Jailhouse Groan - Rube Lacy [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
guitar to voice
chair to person
the posture
of their
combination
I Hear Music - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
within the conceit of the lyrics
a Cagean Position Paper
right
down to the sunny disposition
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata VII - John Cage - Boris Berman
you called?
literalizing
the registral orchestration potential
of keyboard
writing
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
When Your Love Has Gone - Morgana King [from Sings The Blues]
when the singer is kissing the microphone
the effect
is as though
it
were intimately direct to ear
the band plays behind the arras
Marshmallow World - Darlene Love [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]
the wall of sound
is opaque
but there's nothing behind it
(Darlene is faultless here)
What King of Fool Am I? - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]
solos
do the tune
behind its back
(demonstrating
exactly
what kind of fool
they think it is)
Raw Power - The Stooges [from Raw Power]
brought to you
by your friendly electric utility provider
corrupts rawly
Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy July 7, 1978]
well he tried hard
Born With a Plastic Spoon in My Mouth (Substitute) - The PKs [from Live in The Living Room]
I may need to ask Karen
what song this is
but finally caught the
chorus
(might not be the name though)
Flower - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]
the drummer's role
within the industry
is to enforce regularity
in the guise of rhythm
the bass's fist
Love's Been Good to Me - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]
the science of the dramatically lit entrance
more harp!
For Lover's Sake - Goodness [from 1995-1998]
illicitly fantasizing
with vintage upspeak
Banned Rehearsal 653 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 21, 2003]
in which
we introduce the xylophone
on the arms of some
bells
chatter by guitar
muscle memory
by rote
performing the actions of
useful
at the level
of tool use
but not for magic
for that
we'll all get down on the floor
and pluck things
and shake
others
groove on out
Intermezzo in midi #5: Remembrance of Things Past - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]
let's think this through carefully shall we?
in each position
from all sides
a puzzle indeed
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
listening on headphones
is like listening to music
in a sound
bubble
(contained)
a rung
is to learn
a combination of notes
as contained
within the figures
constructed of them
(that manifest them)
cross-indexed
subboxes
of rungs
within the rung
a note
in a figure
becomes
that note
in that figure
but
that's backwards?
the figure
manifests the notes
that make it?
Double Down - Slothrust [from The Pact]
power pose
dance of disdain
Banned Rehearsal 1077 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 5, 2023]
we sneer at the underbellies
of passing beasts
squeaky hinges
and duck calls
a tube that moans and chortles
a wooden frog ribbit
otamatone speaks its mind
crows concur
we sing the earthworms
to cozy slumber
we rattle out
a protective spell
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Ham Beats All Meat - Dr. Humphrey Bates and his Possum Hunters [from Really The Blues]
explicitly
about different dietery usages
across a socioracial
distinction
They Are There!, second take (1943) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
concerns itself with the noise of its making
Greensleeves - Peggy Lee [from Sea Shells]
arranged for zither(?) and harp
no obvious Peggy can be discerned
Hallelujah (I Love Her So) - Stevie Wonder [from Recorded Live: The 12-Year Old Genius]
should a 12 year old
have
a favorite coffee cup
brought to
them?
Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
structured jazz improvisation practice
generally
structured means
a series of stanza-like spans
with internally cycling chord changes
and
their various
relationships
the room they are in
is a given
the utility of such structures
is their sharability
relative ease
of comprehension
and
its acceptance
of whatever the players
feel like throwing into it
Everything's All Right - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]
enjoying being his own back up singers
Visions - Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson [from Visions]
Walt sure can skitter quickly on the vibraphone
Side 2 - Pink Floyd [from The Final Cut]
tyrants and kings
playing with death
a book of dark doggerel
isolation of the pawns
as sides of records go
this one is a bit of a mess
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
OK
polyphony fodder
but
effectively expressive
and
quite well sung
prickly choral writing
ostentatiously old
fashioned
somebody even got those lowest bass notes
hoorah!
Palo Alto Scene - Lennie Tristano [from Note to Note]
the truly cool
say it with chords
voiced just so
lost in a
song
Banned Rehearsal 503 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 8, 1998]
after the conversation dies down
the session
has found a thing to
stand upon
to dramatize with
we enter
so symphonically
as though anyone were out there
to observe
what a fine
composer Banned Rehearsal has gotten to be
(and it had)
Karen on the Mighty W
me on pianer
and Neal on tenor
we howl
and ring our little bells
miniaturized holograms of sound bursts
some of us have abandoned keyboards
for percussions
a gargle throated pirate
growls into his corner stout
radio waves
provide for us
our past
we fight back
stand our ground
take it to their own turf
listen in
upon their cicadal chatter
we layer our layers
in layers of
layers
how did three accomplish such chronal confusion?
lovely soft sough
of sound upon sound
time upon time
we are alone
with the bright little feedback sprite
or
is that the Mighty W
(it may be)
(or not)
distant radio beacons
we bang upon our chimney at them
and shake
our angklung
the Graal!
best get serious
about this ritual business
how exactly did we get here again?
the cicadas are all asnore
where do they come from?
how are they here?
what infernal powers
brought them upon us?
a security blanket
the engines of this marine vessel
venturing out
and in
and beyond
and elsewhere
we have long since
given showy compositional chops
the heave
ho
fish swim treatment
this knot of finger wriggles
once our attention has been shifted
where will it land?
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
in Slow Blue Three configuration
a gradual composed build
holding a constant pressure
the parts
to each other
bangclank equipment
rich in sonorous diversity
pitch
weight
surface
big frogs
Mighty Wurlitzer
cornet o'er top
the big shout
jack it again
we have built it to bigness
and now
we
dissipate
last 5 minutes
the opening of the session
fed back in
through tiny tins}
Fangle - Christian Asplund [from Brainstun]
a texture of rhythm
press upon it
what it becomes
as
different pressures
are applied
attitudes of squozedness
transformed anew
for the coda
Gradus 142 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 14, 2008]
when the notes aren't being played
are they thinking of each
other?
voicing their names
into the rung span
attempting to play
an
evenly sustained tone
as though it weren't being nudged regularly
they have returned from their journey
and are quietly with us again
with leave
to rumble mightily
to shake the cobwebs
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
Rapture in Ruins - The Botherations [from The Botherations S-T]
he's shouting at us
but I can't make out a word
so
it's a
shanty rhymed
vocal sound
doing
a melodic
(it's made
of notes)
thingy
over
the banging
and scrubbing
Banned Rehearsal 956 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [April 9, 2018]
20 years after 503
there are more of us in the room
but the sounds
are fewer
and smaller
more precise
more
transparent
an intent
to make a sound
implies purpose?
an end result?
to make
that sound
but why
that sound?
or
might it be
that the intent
wanted to hear
the sound
of an intended sound
so that
it could be shaped?
ideas
come
in the form
of a thing
received
from
outside
allowing
our projection
of the giver
of that
thing
into a figure
outside us
a confusion
of in
and out of us
is a confusion
of reflection
we
are not a singularity
our minds
are designed
around
social interactions
hypothetically meandering:
if ideas arise within organs in the brain
different organs
different kinds of ideas
one could
conceivably
seek to recognize
within ones inner thought
chatter
which brain organ
was providing the idea in question
recognize their accents and word usages
set them to arguing with
each other
(excuse me
my brain
is having an internal
discussion)
or
on another level
arising within organs of the
mind
would we seek
to recognize them
by the form of their
expression?
such as language
music
dance
etc.
?
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
from an album
with some of my rocks
pictured on the cover
memory port
the alarm continued
if you could float me a ride
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate - Boyd Senter and his Sentipedes [from Really the Blues]
imitating bawdy singers instrumentally
a stage review
Charlesville - Milt Jackson [from Soul Brothers]
lickety split
together
through devious metrical games
Lands of Love - The Art Farmer Quartet with Jim Hall [from Interaction]
the drummer's drumming
breathes
fitting marginal comments in
where no one will notice
check in
to see
where the tune
has got to
Body and Soul - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]
plays
so that
the piano
feels
those chords
in
its bowels
The Punk Meets the Godfather - The Who [from Quadrophenia]
all the problems of narrative in music
made real loud
the author's voice
is opaquely attitudinal
How Much Can I Do? - Los Lobos [from ...And A Time To Dance]
a list of:
to show you
I do Xs
Questioningly - Ramones [from Road To Ruin]
a day
in the drama
of a wreck headed relationship
Something Wordy - the PKs [from Live in The Living Room]
ends lines
with rhymes
on high
Van Diemen's Land - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]
a hymn
an inscription in stone
set in a pillar
fade?
really??!!
and interview??
ugh
Glass Windcubes - Helena Alexander [from The City Sketches]
a sketch artist
freehand composing
The Searcher - The Kent 3 [from Blood on the Flat Track Soundtrack]
we no longer have Zusammenkunstwerken
we have package deals
Old Ladies - The Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]
caricaturization
a form of impersonification
Gradus 235 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 21, 2013]
repetition
suspicions
a mind
behind
petitions and repetitions
instance insistence
if instances of matching pitches
were a solid object
then
any other instance
would affect
all instances
of such
matching pitches
equally
it
would react
as a
singularity
consciousness
the surf of mind upon the shores of hypostasis
September - Nat Evans [from Flyover Country]
an harmonic presence appears
then appears moving
appearing moving
moves appearing
joined by another sound world
the system
breathes
steady and slow
free space
for the gentle
souled
In Session at The Tintinabulary
July 20, 2025
Milburn - Keith Eisenbrey
July 21, 2025
Gradus 417 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
a new pitch class
do you know
where the pitch class
is being held?
the new pitch class
is high class
can a system
based on classifications and categories
be used
to discover
concepts
outside of classifications and categories?:
music in terms of notes
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 26: Figure Studies 201 (part 1)
Two more solo piano improvisations. These are both from early in 2010.
1. Figure Study 100315
2. Figure Study 100405
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
