"There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. However, nothing dispirits, and nothing seems worth while disputing. He bolts down all events, all creeds, and beliefs, and persuasions, all hard things visible and invisible, never mind how knobby; as an ostrich of potent digestion gobbles down bullets and gun flints. And as for small difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden disaster, peril of life and limb; all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable old joker. That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before might have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the general joke."
Herman Melville, from "Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale."
Texts
Recorded
JB KE SJ DS (side 1) - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Sarah Johnson, Dan Sedia [recorded at Bard College, June 1, 1983]
a proposal of a subject for discussion
take time
to fully
formulate response
lightly brush across its possible body
to
understand its shape
before we look at it
centimeter by centimeter
groove by groove
scar by scar
the too obvious pretense
of clever minimalism
easy pentanoodlings
an attractive nuisance
I can listen to this
through my memory
of how it feels
for
me
to be playing piano
in sessions such as this
how
that particular concentration
of attention
feels
but
not
from any post-consciousnesses
of any
of my
companions'
except
by hearing
what they do
move the
furniture around
float zennily about
reflexively pulling
vast spans of time in its wake
eerie harmony chamber
relapse
into music box
music takes over
February 9, 2025
Three Chinese Love Songs - Bright Sheng - Lisa Saffer, Paul Neubauer, Bright Sheng
architectural in the small
of established points
in
pitchspace
such figures as are used
pose
at angles among them
Banned Rehearsal 338 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [August 20, 1993]
a lass
toddler wants
brook
no nuance
I'm a doggy
I crunch the bone
I want to go for a walk
internal combustion engine
we all ping
{journal entry of September 17, 1998:
the ownership of internal combustion engines}
Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
rope twisting
textile object
Work/Architecture/Unity/And/The (take 2) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Productions April 29, 2003]
what continuity is required
among events
for us to identify
a musically coherent episode?
is adjacency sufficient?
or
do we distinguish musical utterance
from the sounds of things
happening in general
based on
an apprehension
of an
utterer?
continuity
of temporal spacing texture
is heavy-handed
a troublesome score
thought disparities
between
the modes of thought
of the piano
vis à vis the percussion
Intermezzo in midi 4 - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]
pointedly repeated pitch bunches
we'll take our time to hear these fully
Love Blackmail - Your Mother Should Know [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, March 21, 2013]
back when I was playing
at recording them
in multiple takes
A Good Impresario - Wally Shoup, Bill Horist, Dennis Rea, Greg Campbell [from Wally Shoup 2X4tet]
a monster emerges in mid outrage
Sinfonia 1 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey [March 29, 2023]
recklessly spewing figurations right and left
Madrigals, Book IV: Anima mia, perdona: No. 2, Che se tu se ’l cor mio - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rossana Bertini, Claudio Cavina, Giuseppe Maletto, Marcello Vargetto, Cristina Miatello
music shaped like reading a beautifully printed poem
Herr, auf dich traue ich, SWV 377 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
music shaped like meditating upon a sacred text
In dulci Jubilo, BuxWV 197 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
vernacularly popular texts
became associated with particular melodies
which took on
the odor of the sacred
by association
Premier Ordre (sol), Les Silvains, Rondeau - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
well ordered living
each course
follows upon its fellows
Du Wahrer Gott Und Davids Sohn, BWV 23 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Pieter-Jan Belder
this music is a humble frame of mind
a right and humble spirit
its
supporting social structures
and architectures
Keyboard Sonata in B Major, Kk. 261 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
delighted in new duds
can't get enough of the mirror
let's try an action pose
or three
to impress the damosels
Sonata in A Major, K. 331 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout
a cooking lesson
variations upon a dish
and seasonings proper to
them
after the extensive set of variations
that are the first movement
the ensuing two movements
form themselves
into further
variations
that have left home
one is never entirely certain |
of where one sits
in relation to
this music
this music bewilders us
we
are disregarded
better things to do
than explain its actions
String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 71 #1 - Franz Joseph Haydn - London Haydn Quartet
this music clarifies
where we stand
with it
it instructs
the full stop cadence
is under-rated
but then
were there any articulatory shenanigans
that Haydn
didn't use?
voices passing through each other
tenderly and lovingly
the old fellow is wheeled out
to impart gray wisdom
that's right
that's where we were
before the tale took us
elsewhere
Die Stadt, D. 957 #11 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
fully forboded
fearful bodings
music gets personal
6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10: No. 4 in C Minor, Maestoso - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
ruminations dark and dire
the pulse wanders
into Schumann's
metrical figurations
and is caught
fatally
heroic efforts not to modulate
or did we?
Prelude in E minor, Op. 24 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
this music is alone with us
Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 22 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
a fleeting glimpse of loveliness
Preludes Book 2 #5 "Bruyeres" - Claud Debussy - Walter Gieseking
a pleasant napping spot
Crê a Espera - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke
representing a refined version
of national identity
Lonely Melody - Paul Whiteman [from That Devilin' Tune]
sounds expensive
and well attired
celesta? or vibraphone?
Yellow Fire - Reuben Reeves [from That Devilin' Tune]
hands and feet in fluid animation
Olive Oyl's shoes and Popeye's pipe
Back In Your Own Backyard (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
being a social animal
family and tribe
are not discardable
growling away in his office
Sonatas and Interludes, Sonata II - John Cage - Boris Berman
placing doohickeys
in a device's works
Who Knows - Duke Ellington [from Piano Reflections]
high energy sparking punches
What Am I Living For? - Chuck Willis [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
unmistakable togetherness of a band
all playing together
a
different flavor of togetherness
than dubbed in later
Little Latin Lupe Lu - The Righteous Brothers [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
music to be seen with
Tell Me The Truth - Billy Stewart [from The Best of Billy Stewart]
sings in drumbreak bursts
I Can't Stand The Rain - Ann Peebles [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the word rain
leans
against the percussion line
unstably
like the window
you got nothin' to say
I Don't Want You - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]
music from the gritty urban streets
Mouret-Randeau - The Canadian Brass [from High, Bright, Light and Clear]
hit them over the head with a tune they know
that is associated
for no particular reason
with the notion of masterpiece
Sonata in 2 Movements - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, March 17, 2011]
five
is a means
for breaking
foursquare habits
while
still relying
on those habits
for its impact
high-contrast dynamics
push a listener back into their seat
on the defensive
All About Soul - Billy Joel [from The Essential Billy Joel]
generic piano pounding song
over-produced at the service of a message
anthemized diction
pound pound pound
Stuart Dempster Retirement Jam (Beginning) - University of Washington Contemporary Group Improvisation Ensemble Alumni [recorded at The University of Washington, June 19, 1998]
revisiting the scene at Meany
in an upstairs rehearsal space
Back Up - Christian Asplund [from Brainstun]
bus travel
stop to stop
rondo
city
through the viewing window
uninhabited space
infrequent travelers
meet no one
not
trackless
endless
The Dirty Angels - The Blue Ribbon Boys
desperate pretense
avant garde:
and the fashion of the cutting
whim
Banned Rehearsal 953 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [February 26, 2018]
all the bells aboardship
rattling in the Bering Sea swells
a shivery feel around the edges
crabboat cold
the sound of the space one is in
swallows
the sound of the space
we are in
after a while
the peril can seem almost friendly
the wind is endless
it rattles
over chimney
and clangs
in the iron pans
moans
across the wide North
as a boat
we are all one
together
cozy in the galley
it will end
when we get there
no sooner
we shiver ritualistically
with tambourines and bells
capture the
ice
in aesthetic bands
Northwest Passage
*denied*
menace
we can hear them
scraping shovels
Finnegans Wake Chapter 2 - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at Gallery 1412, November 19, 2016]
a loud crash reverberates
to clear the stage
Neal
in the
rear garden
of hog house
our sailor king
words that spin
about themselves
in speech
heave we aside
the fallacy
an imposing everybody
the summit of its climax
conspicuously
emergent
we can't do without them
mirthday suit
purest of
fabrications
the long awaited
Messiah of Roaratorios
all
sections
and cross sections
the whole populace
passes by
the tonsure question
the ballad
is on the mantelpiece
and must be sung
his majesty
the flute
companions
of the chalice
Messrs. Billing and Coo
Jubilee - Bix Biedeerbecke, Frankie Trombauer [from That Devilin' Tune]
the art of orchestration
with the instrunents available
Mollie Married a Travelin' Man - J. H. Howell [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
mule wagon tempo
There Is Another Mule in Your Stall - Nellie Latcher [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
and . . .
you've been replaced
Lonesome Old Jail - D. H. Hurt [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
text proceeds
on two presentational levels
sung and muttered
There Is Someone in This World for Me - Little Willie John [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
slow shuffle dance
Days of Wine and Roses - Art Farmer Quartet [from Interaction]
guitar gradually reenters
touching on the sly
To Kingdom Come - The Band [from Music From Big Pink]
not just for dancing anymore
sanctification has been unremoved
Group Variations II for computer - Benjamin Boretz [realized at Princeton University Computer Center]
populations of figurations
self-generate through time
flocks of birds
passing through the yard
juncos
bush tits
chickadees
sparrows
robins
crows
the occasional
flicker
or finch
or wren
the neighborhood gull
and our
resident hummingbird
at night
the prowlers
coyote
possum
raccoon
I'm loving the delicacy of the keyboard writing (and playing!)
it takes its text seriously
JB KE DS 830524 - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [recorded at Bard College, May 24, 1983]
what is it
exactly
that we make of each other
when we really
care to find out?
what is it
completely?
let's take a walk
down to the river
we'll watch the water go
by
why must musical conversation
be livelier
than it needs to
be?
who
are we trying to entertain?
connect with?
language and music
each say precise things
but they are different
kinds of things
they say
sonically amplified
hand talk
do deceptive cadences
truly deceive
(an oxymoron?)
or do
they surprise?
delight?
why not call them
delightful
cadences?
the way this finds tonalities to be in
it is a strange thought
that my fellows
in this activity
were not
absolutely privileged
with
being able to tune
in
to my
every thought
yet
they were not
any
more
than I was so
to them
the conscious format
of a thought
may not be
the whole
nor even the principals
of the thought
nearly inaudible whistling
as we play awfully pretty chords
that music box
now fall'n asunder
back in its heyday
pre-banned
Jill says
down way down
so down we go
alarmed
we shout
collapse in a heap
out
Raw - Big Daddy Kane [from Long Live The Kane]
from a subgenre
the content of which's lyrics
are brags
toward its fellows
a trash talk contest
Banned Rehearsal 339 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [August 27, 1993]
back to family life in progress
the tuning peg
says a
as in
as
or
e as in peg
bay-éd
a warm day
names and nouns
fun words
to say into an
amplifier
in the dawn of consciousness
when words were new
elephant wants the elephant guiro
wheels on the bus
make the trees fall
make the trees happy
language learning
within a ritual noise making session
ice cream truck
combines two toddler favorites
ice cream and
trucks
a plastic
stick
the bass drum
is nearly filled up with old socks
{journal entry of September 18, 1998:
that's the two nig pag}
In Session at The Tintinabulary
February 9, 2025
Mear - Keith Eisenbrey
February 10, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1119 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
Drops
My 16 Sinfonias were composed, in part, in order to discover ways in which they might sing themselves differently on different keyboard instruments. I offer them here as performed on piano. The recordings were made at my home in 2023 and 2024.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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