"The freedom of choice for the users of web map applications, devices, and tracking tools, is only a cosmetic polish of an ingrained system of technological surveillance, to the profit and with the connivance of a prevailing consumerism; a system of exploitation which feeds on the passivity of consumers, and the commoditization of everyday life. Maps that are themselves, in this regard, a system of consumerism, behind a mask of convenience and functional productivity. The supervision, control, and discipline of the body in space is a necessity for such a system to be effective, and photographic cartography is part of the actual modus operandi of social control and surveillance."
Sascia Pelligrini, from "At The Margins" Open Space Magazine Fall | Winter 2024
Texts
Recorded
February 1, 2025
The Bible's Right - Sister O. M. Terrell [from Goodbye, Babylon]
jangly blues guitar
prefigures prepared piano
I've Got You Under My Skin - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
slapstick spoof
Octet - Salvatore Martirano - Ronald Dewar, Thomas Howell, Howard Smith, Arthur Maddox, Dorothy Martirano, Lee Duckles, Thomas Fredrickson, Rick Kvistad, Salvatore Martirano
cautious progress
stalking
bunched felinely
move quick when back is turned
freeze solid when faced
forcing a path
roots in rocky dirt
A Dream (Wm. Blake) - Allen Ginbsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]
vowels that are high in the middle of the mouth
drop along the diphthong
path
American Tune - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]
a little too timely alas
Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea
Music for Lovers - Nina Simone [from Baltimore]
stage lighting changes grandly
vocal spotlight heroic
not one of my better moments
I try to play piano pop-pianistically
can't pull it off
because I can't believe in it
there is a lot of wobble in the sound
my companions did their best
to help me along
I can't escape the
chunk chunk chunk chunk right hand figure
nor the tempo
nevertheless
this was possibly the most extensive single attempt
I ever made
at finding a pianistic voice
in that lingo
a failure
but failures are instructive
home base clutched
I become a piano player
I imitate a piano
player
playing piano
rather than
just play the piano
straight
insecurity
won't let me just shut up and listen
:compositional hangup:
one must proceed logically
without skipping
steps
halfway in I calm down
and it gets pretty nice
pianissimo magic
for a few minutes
February 2, 2025
Touch Me I'm Sick - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
going for the bad boy prize
Banned Rehearsal 337 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [August 13, 1993]
during our decade with small children
Banned Rehearsal became a
regularly scheduled episode
of noise making
intermingled with
family life in progress
adult play
broad stroke strumming
{journal entry of September 15, 1998:
in fits and starts}
Alligator Alley - Tingstad & Rubel [from American Acoustic]
an expert illustration
of a demotic music
traditional features
each indexed
(see key on wall below)
Work / Architecture / Unity / And / The - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Productions, April 19, 2003]
the idea I had
was
of coming upon rocky crags
in a thick fog
using silence
as a fog
but not silence
so much
as a time of uncertainty
an articulation
that binds objects
in its amber
each clearly visible
always
but
only one at a time
some projects are undertaken
to find something out
rather than to
accomplish a task
how are parts distinguished?
Raisa - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]
sounds like the vibe
of a social dive
dim lights
complex air
sinuous motions
Assembly Rechoired 55 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy [April 15, 2013]
light percussion
and somewhat cheesy midi synth
light percussion
to specifically include string instruments
quite a lovely session
all through
drums and bells
The Grey Funnel Line - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]
setting to verse and song
accomplishes a mythological transformation
person becomes literature
Banned Telepath 99 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [March 27, 2023]
rattle or bang
to wake the muse
the jangles of a tambourine
tour a narrow pitch ambitus
some sounds
are trajectories
through pitchspace
we determine
that
any moment
can
establish an harmony
it is no neighbor note
unless it returns
pitch is full with potential function
pitchspace
as experienced
is not a two-dimensional geometry
there are paths
to new
understandings
of pitchspace
but you have to want to go there
click three times
there's no place like music
one:
the alternate ungendered pronoun
one
did it
emphasis matters
one did it
it did one
they share an extension
one did them
they did one
one did them oneself
they did one themself
one
is the possibility
of a subject
of reference
they
is a certainty
of one
one
is a pointerless pronoun
it was
what one did
one can be plural
every
and any
one
and someone
Madrigals, Book IV: No. 1, Anima mia, perdona - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rossana Bertini, Claudio Cavina, Giuseppe Maletto, Marcello Vargetto, Cristina Miatello
the consonant/dissonant distinction
is a mere mechanical tactic
toward the establishment of scale degree functionality
Sammlet zuvor des Unkraut, SWV 376 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
choral announcement
mic check
Fuga in G Major, BuxWV 175 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
in clearly articulated sections
each with its fugal exposition
Premier Ordre (sol) Menuet, Double du Menuet precedent - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
same story
told in different voices
Christen, Atzen Diesen Tag (appendix), BWV 63 - Johann Sebastian Bach -The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Ton Koopman
soprano bass duet
voices speak to each other
and out to us
we are included in their ear-space
Keyboard Sonata in G Major, Kk. 260 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
figures commit to their bit
knows more corners than you
modulations struggle
in a headwind
shoulders hunched
face
down
Symphony in G Major, K425a/AA53/444 "Michael Haydn" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood
no slouch of an 18th Century Symphony
whoever wrote it
I could
believe that Mozart didn't though
it lacks his usual dramatic flash and
glitter
a fine music for a formal dance
great bassoon concerto in
the second movement
the dance's politesse
is wearing elegant but
weighty fabrics
Quartet in A minor, Wq. 93 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Nicholas McGegan, Catherine Mackinstosh, Anthony Pleeth, Christopher Hogwood
clever orchestration
seems to add instruments
as needed
out
of parts
of the ones
at ones disposal
register color variability
employed maximally
Symphony in E-flat Major, Hob. I:99 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Austro Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Ádám Fischer
on the far side of the first repeat
a new prospect discovered
all confessions
are most proper
and modest
as befits
a
maiden
soon to be sacrificed
to the propagation
of the race
holy blessings descend upon them
fear and trembling
a pep
talk from big sis
big day
all the house astir
all will be splendid
Der Fischermädchen, D. 957 #10 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
some of that palaver
for what can be got out of them
Etudes de concert d'après les Caprices de Paganini pour le pianoforte, Op. 10: IV. Etude in C Minor, maestoso - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage
the piano is a large room
full of high and mighty decisions
crazy
action in the back passageways
the young clerk
is in luv
despairing luv
the storm in his heart
battles
with the storm
of high and
mighty decisions
in large rooms
homeward he rushes
heart ablaze
arachnid magic
Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 23 (#3) - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
opens in manly posture
on the good side
light just so
impelled by passion
held back with resolve
and fear
the song
of the dramatic pose
afloat
on the
measureless aether
manly posture
to conquer all
Preludes Book 2: #10, Canope - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs
playful gossamer fronds
Cubanos - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke
the song that trips the tongue along
San Tub Jub - Washboard Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
found object social music
its minimal and homely means
are part of
its essential theater
Go 'Long Mule - Louisiana Lou [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
comic song
you can change a fool
but a doggone mule
is a
mule until he dies
throw any old verse in there
just so it's clever
On The Sentimental Side (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
she doesn't put the song across
she enters into the song
and sits
down
to us
within it
Four Transcriptions from Emerson (1938): No. 3 (end) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
a disjointed collection
of attic inventory
Sonatas and Interludes: First Interlude - John Cage - Adam Tendler
bloop bloop machinery
as in The Man in the White Suit
a continuity
of bloops
Satin Doll - Duke Ellington [from Ken Burns Jazz]
classy in all things
Two Movements for String Quartet - Benjamin Boretz - Composers Quartet
1
pulling apart from inside
2
awkward occupation
Heat Wave - Martha and The Vendellas [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
among other things
the metronomic drum enforced beat
is an enabler
of industrial production
Black Velvet Band - The Irish Rovers [a Rescued Record]
beware the sirens
of Van Diemen's Land
All The Way Down - Etta James [from Etta James]
arranged from discrete parts
in a secure facility
The Promised Land - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]
frustrations
and a series of instrumental solos
engineered
to make each soloist
sound just alike
I Love A Man In Uniform - Gang of Four [collected from Nancy's Mix]
more frustrations
self reported
or revealed
Sonata in 2 Movements - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 1995]
orchestrated for solo piano
an outward facing presentation
of self
examination
and elaboration
tonalities of figures
passing between them
dramatizing
the movements of tonalities
Improvisation 1 - Elizabeth Panzer [from Talking Harp]
resolving
to a music
of distinct figure paths
guided
by an accompanying figure
mellow vibes
mellows itself into
slumber
Banned Rehearsal 498 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 13, 1998]
we aren't certain
we know
who all
might be present
hear what the room hears
piano monster
commanding presence
an assumed charisma
a cloak
of charisma
report back
on what you heard
the room hear
yoiks!
I just quoted my Sonata in 2 Movements there
how oddly out
of time
collaboration
turns expression aside
the room shaking purr
of the elephant guiro
a room of possibility
obo roi
in a fine appearance
we have a feederback OM
and a bladder quacker
pretending to be playing the piano
there I go
quoting myself again
tsk tsk
that sounds like the big red bag of fun's contents
or
perhaps
the can depository
the composing ear
is insatiable
agendas can drift independently
and still occupy the same room
does this sound like the sort of music
that could be produced from a
notation?
no
not notation
notions
from notions
oceans of notions
time is tolled
at the tone
scratch the radio waves
strum the zither
activate the feederback
an accumulating opening
of entrances and activities
flute and
radio/noise
engaging in conversation
and drum and piano
a careful concertante
derailed from ongoing
every few minutes
a surprise declaration
from a different music/piano concerto
nearly tangled skeins
of twists of sound
piano plays music
in an environment
of differentially shifting
alliances
even the relatively familiar figurations
in this lovely chamber
exhibit new wonders
newly fresh
as though reborn
adding up
to something
is not the goal
moving along
like something
might be self correcting
like
something
might be foraging
trying out
working a material
allowing for resistance
enjoying the particulars
drifting
floating
encountering}
The Forecast - Betty LaVette [from A Woman Like Me]
a sick feeling
in the pit
going in
let us now wallow in it
blues ecstatic
Banned Rehearsal 734 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 3, 2008]
life with noisemakers
stethoscope up
to the Mighty Uncle Wurlitzer
on its later legs I'm afraid
something mechanical
had failed
in its rumbliness
bad case
of tick ticks
we sputter into our beards
what I hear
as a singular experience
is not
the whole of
experience
which
includes
as first person pronouns
I
we
one
you
and
they
at least
Aaronsbundler stops by
for the low down
on what's up
drum roll please
xylophone brings up a new point
so pay mind
Underneath - Dawn Clement [from Tempest/Cobalt]
avante jazzpop?
meta?
shaped like a pop song
but with an
unlike attitude
more esoterical??
Banned Telepath 60 St. Paul Island - Aaron Keyt [February 25, 2018]
outside
a constant wind
inside
we shiver and rattle
quietly
we are a drumhead
in the Bering Sea
Calm Down - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]
contrasting states
of being doing
Benvenuto Cellini, Appendix - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet
the parts
that wouldn't go back in the box
bereft of their dramatic function
some fancy coloratura in that one
a tenor pours out their heart in this
one
Down Home Rag - James Reese Europe [from That Devilin' Tune]
same track
that was called Down Home Blues in
Really The Blues?
same accelerated frame-rate feel
same
minstrel show hollers
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 2 - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, December 12, 2015]
as we wait for Neal to enter
a branch outside my window
a half
block away
is dangling
loose
from its tree
swinging
gently
mesmeral
branch squiggles
in an accidental
but determinate relation
to my observance of them
Neal
has doffed hat
and donned vestment
begins to
recite
jingling his forgotten word keys
running strong since creation
the rhythms of reading
and its pauses
between paragraphs
hoc hoc hoc
as to such
as was soon unstated
consumed their soul of the corn
words < phrases
< sentences
< paragraphs
<
stations of reading
< chapters
< book(s)
the saying
attributive
sibilance becomes a rattle
in the echo land
sniffed the corpse
with a quick ear
for spittoons
a near stout figure
a good night's rave and rumble
single minded
super crowd
and oh! Atkinson! 0
a deuce of Dianas
{after pizza and salad
on headphones
punctuated by
the
J&I Roomcast
concerning
game lore
aesthetical and
technical}
what is it we do
when we translate Joyce
into our own lingo?
the Loudfellow boys
and our maypole once more
versified and
earsified and eirsified
warts by
music cue
immaculate contraceptives
and religious reform
the two goats
Paradise
when the Space Needle
had a double
his rent in his rears
a'plause
chatter
preludial invocation
call to the muse
can one hear an experience
from the outside
from
an other's
perspective
muse possession
from outside possession
I've Got the Big River Blues - Delmore Brothers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
the blues are
among other things
always a duet
even when
a duet of duets
interdivisibility
of the nonprimes
Katie Dear - The Blue Sky Boys [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
a proposal of marriage
delivered by simultaneous suitors
a song
from a former time
sung in a former time
The Man I Love - Coleman Hawkins [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
a portrait pianistically penned
the bass can be heard
breathing
quick inhale
suddenly the sax
language arises
when we suddenly understand
what we are saying
Wanderers Gemustruhe - Lukas Foss - Cornell Contemporary Singers, Judith Kellock, Lukas Foss
a study in accompanistic sins
duettists at odds
Vacation Waltzes, Op. 41 - Lockrem Johnson - Lockrem Johnson
https://www.lockremjohnsonestate.com/op-30-46/op-41-vacation-waltzes
a study in tempo and meter
the notes
are beside all the points
until they're so not
these are completely tremendous
as pieces
and performance
bravo!
Just One Of Those Things - Blossom Dearie [from Give Him The Ooh-La-La]
enter
otherwise unclothed
but
by the running bass spotlight
as the band comes in
as her gown is lit
flash pan
I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying - The Miracles [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
coping mechanism
for the sorrows of living
Don't Take It So Hard - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
Ken Doll cultural avatar
new outfit
new time
new song
goes all hippie
right there in the bridge
Tight A$ - John Lennon [from Mind Games]
late in the set
talk dirty slot
let the guitars
have their
struts
Till Victory - The Patti Smith Group [from Easter]
the affect change
jarred me back
to Paul Revere's hippie bridge
In Session at The Tintinabulary
February 2, 2025
Woodstock - Keith Eisenbrey
Gradus 308 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
more notes
than sticks to shake
notes, anyone?
(a
ny
on
e)
ay none
to the future and beyond
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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