"Accept endlessly, scrutinize ceaselessly, and see what will happen."
Virginia Woolf, from "Tchehov's Questions"
Texts
Live
March 29, 2025
These Days - Tom Baker
The Royal Room, Seattle
Tom celebrated his 60th birthday in songs and stories. An evening length poem, remembering family and friends. And he can sing pretty creditably too! We had a wonderful time.
Recorded
March 30, 2025
Track 1 - Spring Piano Recital 980609
unamplified announcements
in a largely empty sanctuary
Gradus 34 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 12, 2003]
the pitches
are given identifying variables
on a grid
'fifth' 'A' 'up':
'ordinal'
'cyclic'
'directional'
fifth up A
or
A, fifth up
would also work
it exists
as a location
on a grid
prior to its
instantiation as a sound
we accept the name
as true
even
though we made it up
((because?)
we made it up?)
notes
need not
accept
their nominations
without a
struggle
names of notes
as a means
of organizing a chaos of identities
for sanity's sake
our ear does it
without asking
Stir The Cup - Tea Cozies [from Tea Cozies]
here's to Seattle pop punk's nod
to the 80s
through 90s colored
glasses
full length
set length song
Gradus 227 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 3, 2013]
taking pains to identify and possess
in experience
each
complexity differential
mapping cognitive thresholds
to acquire a sense of a rung
one must sit with it
an interrogation
debriefing
step back from it
and be silent with it
(that's
where all
the notes he's not playing
would go)
Fish Distributor (partial) - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Skylark, Seattle, March 1, 2018]
artifact recording
the microphone is only partially paying attention
Gradus 379 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 3, 2023]
as aforesaid
differentiation of pitch sets
by touch and figuration
and the arcana of melodic binding
thought
and bodily action
to effect that thought
occur
quasi-reflexively
as
does
our tracking of it
to the extent
that
an ability is innate
then
that
ability
grew into us
with us
durational variation
on half the figure
Madrigals, Book IV: Quel augellin, che canta - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
all his cards face up
dealt thick and fast
Concerto V: Hodie complete sunt - Samuel Scheidt - Capella Fidicinia Leipzig, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Martin Flämig
turning Alleluia
into a rhythmic tongue twister
solid blockish figures
square shoulders
square heads
melismas
are held in suspicion
Ein Kind is uns geboren - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
pulses with beauteous essence
Wär Gott nicht mir uns diese Zeit, BuxWV 222 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
an interval
is the adjustment
two pitches make
with each
other
Premier Ordre (sol) - La Nanete - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
doubled sweep
to the upper register
doubled
sidestepwise
return
Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, BWV 24 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling
a most particular understanding of the Gospel
as it persisted
at
that time in that place:
the polyphony
that is
is
that most particular understanding
as are
the architectures
tonal and spatial
formulaic in the strictest sense
that it is made of formula-following
parts
several interwoven layers of them
at different time-grouping
scales
Les Boréades, Act III - Jean-Phillip Rameau - Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi, Purcell Choir, Sabine Devieilhe, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Bendikt Kristjánsson, Philippe Estèphe, Thomas Dolié, Tassis Christoyannis, Gwendoline Blondeel
two musics:
the song and its support
you can't sing like that
verisimilitudinously
may as well be in a shower
revels in its artifice
18th Century bassoons
Sonata in G Major, Wq. 65.48 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
on fortepiano
as opposed to clavichord
a personhood
amplifier
lays out the evidence
like Perry Mason
examines it closely
weaves a tale
of plausible inference
then
down a
darker path
whew
back in the stern day
it is to be inferred
from the rhetoric of this blog
that
each blurb
is about
the music
listed immediately above
it
but
actually
it's about
only
my
experience
of listening to that music
which is
actually
what that music
is
in any sane sense
so
in fact
these blurbs
are
what they are so
inferred to be
performed
as an early Romantic symphony
as though
it were
post-Beethoven
does make a rather strong case for it
the ingenue tongues her pious prayers
a stern and manly menuet
with a waxed mustachio
and of course
there's Mr. Boring Old
Predictable
puffing his stogie
we have come to a fork
in the repetition cycle
fugatos and canons
bombard the battlements
meanwhile
the lonely sentry
so handsome!
dreams of his girl
back home
String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74 #3 - Franz Joseph Haydn - The London Haydn Quartet
particulars of ornamental elaboration
become the stuff of its face
it matters
which figure
a note is part of
and how
this menuet
scratches
the back of its head
in
embarrassed puzzlement
G minor
the key
of stormy nights
and desperate horseback
rides
Phantasie in C Major, Op. 17 - Robert Schuman - Arthur Rubinstein
how
two
fit
in one
and
an angled slice
of
overabundance
articulates
images of times
floating off from
each other
figuration play and
polyphony play
or
polyphony
crammed
into unlikely figurations
two musics
of the same notes
or
proceeding
on
differing paths
in alternating times
Impromptu in G-flat Major, Op. 51 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
attention arrested
in mid reverie
transfixed in dreaminess
Slavonic Dance in C Major, Op. 46 #7 - Antonín Dvořák - The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - John Farrer
spectacular choreography
technicolor costumes
fingers aflame
Preludes Book II: No.12, Feux d'artifice - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking
touch control phenomenon
Guitar Blues - Sylvester Weaver [from Really The Blues]
guitar
has a talk with itself
in both chairs
The Preacher Got Drunk and Lay His Bible Down - Tennessee Ramblers [from Really The Blues]
train chugalong tempo
on a text
with a train in it
and a
mule
that says
haw hee haw
when its name is mentioned
Says My Heart (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
wise to the scheme
of that gleam in your eye
wise scheme
gleam eyes
I E
E I
Four Transcriptions from Emerson (1938): No. 1 (middle) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
where will it fit
if I squeeze it in tight?
the problem with prepared piano
is that
the preparations can't be
switched
among the notes
on the fly
any note
any preparation
any moment
(noisy audience)
(or was there a dancer?)
Prelude To a Kiss - Duke Ellington [from Piano Reflections]
the melody dances across the registers
afloat
Trinkle, Tinkle - Thelonious Monk [from Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane]
mirror gag
uncanny duets
Since My Canary Died - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross Country Concert]
for the variety show circuit
light comic fare
Side 1 - John Lennon, Yoko Ono [from Two Virgins]
playing with the equipment after hours
off-handedly recorded for
posterity
(that's us)
Discipline - Sun Ra [from Space Is The Place]
notating swing
is like trying to pinpoint all the wrong moments
that were right
Needles and Pins - Ramones [from Road To Ruin]
a tightly constructed song
Gloria - U2 [from Under a Blood Red Sky]
The Edge sounds good
organ and guitar take a road trip
apologetic composition valve
composing ones way out of a problem
doesn't solve the problem
the balance is strange
but quite effective
there is no hint
that instruments are in separate channels
they are together in a
common space
Lightpoints Emerge - Helena Alexander [from The City Sketches]
awash in the frisson of its surface
April 3, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 483 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from Teach Yourself To Drive]
make all the splashes up front
sort it out at leisure
a goose with a grievance
makers of sounds
presenters of music
making/performing
role:
maker of sound*
reified agent
with a music being
performed
*among makers of sound
making sounds:
the distinction
is in
the respective social standpoints
of the persons in question
within the pertinent social group
and their related moral and
ethical obligations
a fellow among fellows
a role on a stage
negotiation inevitable
groove free
more or less
since 1984
Track 2 - Eckstein Middle School Bands [from Mach 6]
big band blues
Zither Film 12 - Keith Eisenbrey [March 30, 2008]
this one
was more of a "tsth"
Times In Between - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]
kitchen table blues
Corollaries: Up's Down - Keith Eisenbrey [March 9, 2018]
fleshing out a new thought
304 Merlino Way - The No Ones [from My Best Evil Friend]
California dreaming
Big Fat Ham - Jelly Roll Morton [from That Devilin' Tune]
tap dance drumming
Dry Bones - Bascom Lamar Lunsford [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
americana ecstatic vision
conviction and witness
Pray For The Lights To Go Out - Bob Willis [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
a cartoon of life
vaudeville variety show
light comic
Them There Eyes - Peggy Lee [from Rendezvous with Peggy Lee]
they sparkle and bubble
get you in a whole lotta trouble
Feelin' Bad - Junior Parker [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
train song
anything can be recorded and sold
even songs from the funny papers
How Far - Chris Kenner [from Land of 1000 Dances]
radio fueled dance craze
from the Hop to the transistor radio
Glass Onion - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]
a message direct
from the mouth
of the mouth
to you
the listener
was he conned by his own conceit?
Walkin' Up In The Road - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
strutting with brass
power march
On The Sunny Side of the Street - Willie Nelson [from Stardust]
nothing unlovable about it
we've been at sea now
for weeks and weeks
rolling sickly
in
the cold ocean swells
the watch
slumbers
flappy cartoon snore lips
bowed string
dream wand
all the rapid eye movements
behind closed lids
sleeper to sleeper
toes twitch
early risers stir
putter toward coffee
table conversations
delicate maneuvers
treacherous shoals
reports
barked
from all points
empty sky
empty horizons
April 4, 2025
Set It Off - Big Daddy Kane [from Long Live The Kane]
leggierissimo
(tres vif)
April 6, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 345 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [November 19, 1993]
light saber duel
plastic replica version
synth v synth
excited cowbells
and the running game
calisthenics
clock-time steadiness
is an ersatz steadiness
steadiness
not
measured
against
the feel
of steadiness
extended drum roll
expectation
distracts itself
the running game continues
until
up please
I ate Aaron
yum yum
in the tum tum
back to the whangbanging
debacle lips
cut to measure
off the rack
blink blink
mum tum drum
more fun with drums and space aliens
we have been not about
(for
long stretches)
the production
of releasables
or
even
of avoiding
the avoidables
here
we talk and are silly
but
at least it's just regular talk and silly
with John and
Aaron
yum yum
I ate you}
April 7, 2025
Angelene - PJ Harvey [from Is This Desire?]
wholly invested vocal presence
band supports
but hangs back
a room
invested
Banned Rehearsal 650 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 24, 2003]
pulse-patterns/figures
generate
immediately transparent moments
grooves
presents
as a phenomenon
generated
by an
otherwise
inaudible source
domineering
pulse is rain
groove is a river
martialed gesture
compulsion to repeat
to continue
music
properly heard
might be
more a mirror
to oneself
than an activity
one can talk about
objectively
a strangely populated kitchen
Air-Sean - Sacajawea Students [from Digital Dreams]
music is what is exactly in line
Banned Rehearsal 838 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 10, 2013]
we putter through the scraps of sounds lying about
stirring the tea
leaves
Neal rungs (all A-naturals)
hiding within Banned Rehearsal
our rattles
and cans
and sticks
and bells
and
shakers
an insistence
a rut
we all hang around nearby
Trap House Xmas - Pity Party [from Are You Happy Yet?}
voice acting for cartoon media
Banned Telepath 100 Magnuson Parking Lot Killdeer - Jennifer Chung [April 7, 2023]
we can say
bird sound
is musical
without
necessarily
claiming
it is music
we might only mean
it has pitch
like music does
or
perhaps
that
in imitating it
we use our vocal apparatus
in a similar fashion
to how we
use it
when we are singing
Madrigals, Book IV: Non piú guerra, pietate - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
the voice field
is a stage of a chorus of individuals
stunning dissonance
for the briefest moment
the thorn in its side
Das Wort ward Fleisch - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
music as a fitting state of mind
for contemplation and edification
Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BuxWV 222 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
depicting an image
of an imagined state of mind
(of the Emmaus
Travelers I presume)
empathic
(oops! listened to it twice!)
Premier Ordre (sol) - Les Sentimens, Sarabande - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
a stately dance
for opulence display
performative wealth
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, BWV 147 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Jacques Orchestra, Reginald Jacques, Kathleen Ferrier, William Herbert, William Parsons, Ena Mitchell, The Cantata Singers
a state of mind
within a state of mind
no dramatic preliminaries
the first item
is in the thick of
it
this music
is in you
without
so much
as
a by
your leave
Les Boréades, Act IV - Jean-Phillip Rameau - Orfeo Orchestra, György Vashegyi, Purcell Choir, Sabine Devieilhe, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Bendikt Kristjánsson, Philippe Estèphe, Thomas Dolié, Tassis Christoyannis, Gwendoline Blondeel
Rameau:
supervisor of special effects
musical use of noise
predating Varése
vis a vis
serious opera
and musicals
opera
is a body of musics
musicals
are a body of
theaters
Wagner:
I'll write my own damn book!
build my own damn
theater!
who cooked up the idea of a secondary dominant?
voice
adored
by its string accompaniment
1
bright and cheery fellow
endlessly useful
crisply
efficient
but
in his sentimental lonesome
he spills his
tender heart to the flies
an adjunct Figaro
or proto
2
at her mending
and other evening proper maiden pursuits
torn though
by worry
and cares
in prayer
back to mending
and quiet thoughts
3
a good brisk ride
will do a world of good
to ones
outlook
all these things can be worked out
we'll get the notary
to draw up
the contracts
Die Schöpfung: Der Zweite Tag - Franz Joseph Haydn - English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir, Sylvia McNair, Donna Brown, Michael Schade, Gerald Finley, Rodney Gilfry
edifying theater
or
theater with an edifying excuse
Arabesque, Op. 18 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
music of sudden visions
and quick forgetting
this must be the mustache
and this the stalwart hero
Moderato in E Major, KKIVb/12 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
just a quickly jotten note
in subtly rhyming couplets
Slavonic Dance in G minor, Op. 46a #8 - Antonín Dvořák - The Royal Philharmonic - John Farrer
big noise
small noise
Etude in D-flat Major, Op. 42 #6 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
trying out a pianistical pose
for the pianistical photogravure
nibbling internal figures
Waitin' For The Evening Mail - Billy Baskette [from Really The Blues]
mail jail bail fail
broad rhymes for the general public
Alabama Jubilee - Bill Helms and His Upson County Band [from Really The Blues]
something lively to keep 'em dancing
I Wish I Had You (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
the band supports from behind
without loss of their own autonomy and
character
not afraid
to let the side men shine
Study No. 23 (partial) (1938) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
blatant dissonance
signified
forward thinking modernity
Sonatas and Interludes: Second Interlude - John Cage - Adam Tendler
remoteness
from vocal-music-derived forms and figurations and rhetoric
(hard to sing it)
another signifier
of same
the signification
as such
was an important
if not essential
portion
of the meaning
of the piece
of its reason for being
tune bits
picked up
in all the registers
as needed
That's My Boy - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
spoof theater
occupying
as its space
both the recording
studio
and the home record-changer
post-war suburban culture
Soul Bongo - Stevie Wonder [from Recorded Live - The 12-year old Genius]
solo with band backing
the format
has a struggle
to make
this work
as anything beyond
sheer skill display
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - The Beatles [from The Beatles [White Album)]
every scrap of sound
that remains
was scrubbed clean
of
anything
outside the confines
of the recorded song
Up Again - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
as a cultural property
Michael mirrored some aspect of us
did we look?
Streets of Fire - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]
overacts
for theater-in-the-too-large
Quicksand - T Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]
oblique messaging
Improvisation for Guitar and Organ, Part 1 - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from Wake - Yu Feng - Improvisation]
lazy day
waking lazy
stretching lazy
The Eternal Tomorrow - Sun Ra [from Monorails & Satellites]
lots of dampers-lifted sonorities
recorded close
Banned Rehearsal 486 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from Teach Yourself To Drive]
the rarely heard flip side
opens in a dim forest
introspecting
sound can be generous
in its dynamic/timbral depth of field
if
giving breathing room
hushed down
to a few hoots
movements among the drums
like mice around the set
cymbals toms snare kick
song along the wall in the back
ceremonial clash boom boom boom
ritual actions generate ritual residue
ritual evidence
intentionality
as an experience
(of having an intention)
but
how was it acquired?
what is an intention anyway?
a provisional hypothesis?
with buy-in?
a wager?
it is
what one
has accepted
that one
will attempt
rhythmically acute
round and round
in the dance forever
Wake - Aaron Keyt [from Wake - Yu Feng - Improvisation]
release from hypnoisis
into alertness
musique surrealesque
stages of cleansing and isolation
music
as a film
as a music
soundtrack without image
or
soundtrack
that contains its
visuals
within its sounds
raining outside
use your umbrella
Away - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]
an apparent instability in our intonation sense
Maple Leaf 180311 - Keith Eisenbrey
monologues
among kinds of bird calls
travel in waves
the cause of crows
causes the caws of crows
the caws of crows
echoes
in caws of crows
the regularity
of frogs
betrays them
deflation chirp
often
it is a gull
that is the cause
of crow caws
rarely
I presume
would a frog
be
the crows caws' cause
Sand - Anna La Berge and Tom Baker [from Sand]
passage inexorable
deep bore mine
gnawn clean
Fünf Kurze Stücke zur Pflege des Polyphonen Spiels - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
passing through the figurations
like waves in a shaken sheet
bonds of pianism
Groundhog - Jack Reedy and His Walker Mountain String Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
make up a new verse game
Maple Leaf Rag - Jelly Roll Morton [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
the score is a starting point for individuation
Stormy Weather - Peggy Lee [from Rendezvous with Peggy Lee]
finessed modulation of heavy weariness time
I'm Crying Holy Unto The Lord - Brother Claude Ely [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
preach it to feel it
You've Got Love - Buddy Holly and The Crickets [from 'Chirping' Crickets]
a fresh-faced rawness to his ping
By Myself - The Art Farmer Quartet with Jim Hall [from Interaction]
launch into the float free drift
transcription of rhythm
is always
inexact
even when accurate
Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) - The Jimi Hendrix Experience [from Electric Ladyland]
a segment of experience
God's Love (That's Why I Love Mankind) - Etta James [from Etta James]
less than the lowest cactus flower
a twisted midrash
or
a
parable
worldcosmos blues
how blind you must be?
13 Emily Dickinson Poems: If I'm Lost - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee - Morey Ritt
pitch particularity
to particularize the sung vowels
vowel
particularity
to particularize the pitch points
BB JB KE SJ DS 062483 - Benjamin Boretz, Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Sarah Johnson, Dan Sedia [recorded at Bard College, June 24, 1983]
it isn't really
that no one wants to start
since we already
have
doing nothing
is a kind of doing
theater of the eyebrow twitch
micro-adjustments
in constant
attendance
of our holding still
breathing Ommm
monasterial practice
spiritual practice
a willed humbling
(tricky
whenever the will is involved)
simultaneous moments
have flavors of simultaneity
as does
every touch
have a flavor
an articulatorious pause
we blink
over the brink
equip an observation post
In Session at The Tintinabulary
March 30, 2025
Henry - Keith Eisenbrey
March 31, 2025
we traverse its breadth
crisscrossing the field
search
pattern
places to stand
places to squeeze into
wandering is a system
April 1, 2025
Prelude in F minor - Lockrem Johnson
Prelude in E-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson
April 3, 2025
Prelude in F Major - Lockrem Johnson
Prelude in D minor - Lockrem Johnson
April 4, 2025
Prelude in C minor - Lockrem Johnson
April 7, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1123 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
April 8, 2025
Bellarma - Keith Eisenbrey
Prelude in E-flat minor - Lockrem Johnson
Prelude in B-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson
Prelude in G minor - Lockrem Johnson
April 11, 2025
Prelude in E Major - Lockrem Johnson
Postscripts
Drops
One of the shining lights of the local music scene during the pandemic lockdown was Nonsequitur's Wayward in Limbo series: 134 commissioned recordings of new work by local musicians. I was honored to be asked for a contribution. The essential intimacy of the clavichord seemed fitting for the occasion, and I offer this series of short improvisations for your enjoyment.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
