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| Bickleton, WA |
"Cognitions take the form of assertions.
Assertions assert "what is."
Assertions
assert the being of things that are, "as" they are.
That is: to assert
that X is p, is to assert that X exists and that X exists as p.
But the
assertion that identifies the "substrate" (X) with the predicate (p) is in
every case problematic. If the substrate requires the addition of its
predicate to sustain its identity, the substrate itself is precisely not its
predicate. If the substrate is exhibited in its own being without remainder
through the apparition of its predicate, its existence as substrate is
superfluous. But if there is a remainder, the predicate fails to identify the
substrate and we remain ignorant of what the substrate "is."
The
consequence is that we must either deny Being in general or retain the
possibility of Being but deny its actualization in every concrete case. That
is, we acknowledge Being but deny that Being can ever be truthfully asserted
"as" -- .
X is never p.
The being that X possesses is Unique,
indeterminate, Parmenidean Being and only that. But always that."
Charles Stein, from a Facebook post, May 30, 2025
Texts
Recorded
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| Bickleton, WA |
Sound Check - Red Ribbon [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
all right
a little more
kick
bass
keyboard
Corollaries (Up's Up) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 24, 2018]
tromp tromp
bow
siddown
clear the space
wake the ears
Part 2 - Pete Comley [from Paintronics 4]
scratches a believable itch
Madrigals, Book VIII: Il ballo delle ingrate - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
sinfonia:
the folio's cover
the pages
read to us
in living voices
instrumental
parts
are the pages
and the turnings of pages
can a figure be said to clearly rise in pitch
if that rise is harmonically skewed
by a contrary or
other motion?
Geistliche Chor-Music, SWV 369-397: No. 24, Was mein Gott will, das gescheh allzeit, SWV 392 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
emerging from truth itself
imposing its solid mass
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| Bickleton, WA |
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünden, BuxWV 178 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
an aural icon
not for display
Premier Ordre (sol) - Les Plaisirs de Saint Germain en Laye - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
elegant above
elegant below
Ärgre dich, O Seele, nicht, BWV 186 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
spans measured out
by figural repetition
the joints
are crafted
to flex
with
the breath of the chorus
Baroque affect
as sub-media
multi-sub-media bible
lesson
the chorale lines
are almost hidden inside
the music
in front
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| Bickleton, WA |
Sonata in F Major, Kk. 276 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
token sets
of dimensions
immediately graspable
Sonata in C Major, K. 545 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Lili Kraus
learning to play
surreptitiously imparts ideas
about how music goes
all its parts laid bare
Die Schöpfung, Der Erste Tag - Franz Joseph Haydn - Berliner Philharmoniker, Herber von Karajan, Gundula Janowitzs, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, Werner Krenn, Walter Berry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Singverein
everybody plays a transitional role in history
since
there are no stable times
the recording sounds really good
an ideal seat
in an ideal acoustic space
dramaturgical problem
with the story of creation:
it's impossible
to beat the
drama
of that first day
it's all down hill from there
Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 28 #12 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
shaking in its boots
Das Paradies und die Peri, Part 2, Op. 50 - Robert Schumann - Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Armin Jordan, Edith Weins, Sylvia Herman, Ann Gjevang, Robert Gambill, Christophe Pregardien, Hans-Peter Scheidegger, Choeur De Chambre Romand, Choeur Pro Arte De Lausanne, André Charlet
nonstandard attitude
toward the establishment of the key
older practice
was
all about transparency
about
what they were about
keys
were established
by the
book
IV V I
in plain sight
for Schumann
the merest hint of a key
is all that is required
no reason to feed it to us with a spoon
in this music
the
tonalities are dimly lit
as though by lamplight
the 19th Century
must have
been a strange world
to have been in
firm cadence:
a hero figure
signifies
strength and resolve
Prelude in C Major, Op. 31 #4 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
some of its parts are sagging
but on the inside it's still C Major
Wolverine Blues - Jimmie's Joys [from That Devilin' Tune]
Shem! I'd hardly a'know'dye!
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 7 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, July 15, 2023]
O Fortuna!
I did not plan that
all the games of youth
collapsed carefully
how
is that for low
wine woman and waterclocks
an irregular revolver
calamitous
column
it can't be repeated
turns over three sheets in the wind
joost like a
boyd
the fog of his mind bag
I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Adelaide Hall, Fats Waller [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
digging that swell pedal
it's swell
its swell
is swell
I dig it
this is wild
You're Too Lovely To Last (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
her voice
is a body complete
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| Bickleton, WA |
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata XIII - John Cage - Adam Tendler
the pretty one
Maybe Baby - Buddy Holly and The Crickets [from The Chirping Crickets]
instruments kept under control
Buddy stands way up front
Smile - Stevie Wonder [from With a Song In My Heart]
gotta admit
the kid nails it
the spoken lines are unfortunate
but there are
only two of them
Very Early - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time/The Lost Session from The Black Forest]
slipping out back
into the sunny day
loose in its hemiolas
Sea of Sounds - Sun Ra [from Space Is The Place]
a crowded sea
for certain
Morse signals
honk
to get through traffic
the geese
continue to complain
drum and goose cabal
and now
the transcription
fast
forward
everybody piles on
for the next breaking wave
Ghost Dance - Patti Smith Group [from Easter]
Native American stylings
without discernable disrespect
Can't Explain - The PKs [from Live in The Living Room]
neither can I
Stani Mi, Maytcho - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]
quite the sound
wide open vowels
mostly sung full out
Branle Double - Baltimore Consort [from La Roque'n'Roll - Popular Music of the Renaissance]
I think they want me to listen to the whole thing at once
or use it for
atmosphere
Superstar - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
circling back
to the point of it
Psalm 133 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church]
just like that!
says what it says exactly
Meistersinger Overture - Richard Wagner - Skagit Symphony [recorded live, May 17, 2008]
complete with digital artifacts
an amateur community orchestra
they do a
creditable job
get some of that Bierhall attitude
I think my Mom was in this orchestra
spectacle fox
(sceptical){sic}
fox: cat in dogsuit
ox
high tones
can activate
a resonance
not available
to lower tones
what's the cutoff?
where the decay
of
the principal harmonics
subside
more quickly
than the general resonance does
one
can trace the passage
of a partial
as it joins
with the background
resonance
of the box
making music
of the passages
of partials
takes nothing
more
than listening to them
we
will place
this tone
here
alone
Axe For The Frozen Sea Within - Tim Root - Troot [from Constance and The Waiting]
scribble tech
a list of stable states
pacing in a cage
Sinfonia 1 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded April 28, 2023]
tries on hats for amusement
Lady Luck Blues - Mamie Smith [from That Devilin' Tune]
at a reluctant drag
I Used To Be Your Sweet Mama - Bessie Smith
spoken lines for most of one verse
goes way back I guess
Your Soul Never Dies - Smith's Carolina Crackerjacks [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
the pattern of the lifted voice
is less crucial than the lifting itself
the
tune just needs to be of sufficient robustness
to support the lifted voice
Evidence - Thelonious Monk [from Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
figures have ambitus
and centers of mass
these
swing around each other
on long
clacker lines
{journal entry of February 24, 2006:
comes on like some counterpoint exercise
- poly-species/poly-temporal}
Send Me Some Lovin' - Little Richard [from Little Richard]
sax parts
bracket an interval
between
each
alternating
duplet
figure
To Thee We Sing - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [April 16, 1963]
triumphal submissiveness
with tenor soloist surprise
we are duly chastened
Yes Or No - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
saxophone sound
has a lively front facing presence
in recorded imagery
new
slant on an old question
how does this music project its tonal feel?
the named keys
are like zodiac signs
not real
in any other sense
other than
how any one of us
puts it together
in our personal constellariums
All The Things You Are - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
it must be an interesting experience
to have ones voice change
while one is
selling millions of hit recordings
of that voice
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| Bickleton, WA |
its image as music
leans
on its clearly manufactured feel
Let's Dance - David Bowie [from Let's Dance]
each line of the verse
seems to be offset
from its normative metrical position
by nearly a whole measure
the text
is not
what this music
is about
Banned Telepath 17 Bickleton - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Marilyn Meyer [April 2, 1988]
fish whistles
finger wiggly pitch games
an odd behavior
for grownup folks
a
rudimentary reed instrument
but not a particularly loud one
and a guiro
and
suddenty
we are an entirely different ensemble
our instruments
have been
transfigured
but we
remain us
throughout
aside:
drone and tune
and generated
cycles of the pair
like an exquisite corpse
make a drone
then make a tune for
that drone
then make a drone for that tune
etc.
that's an harmonica
playing a
hymn tune
radios
in different rooms
doors all open
to the commons
there's that
chiming clock
the obsessive spirit
will want to practice till it's right
even
if not necessarily appropriate
to the occasion
a porch toetapping tempo
perhaps
one of our toy accordions
I wonder
what took us to Bickleton
that early in the
year
Easter weekend?
{NB yes}
Concerto for Violin, Strings and Continuio in C minor - Antonio Vivaldi - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
exhibitions of techniques
in balanced phrases
hung
upon a framework of
sequences
Glory to God (050517C) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, May 17, 2005]
if you play with layered bricks
they're stronger
if the layers are offset
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| Bickleton, WA |
listen to the beat
with your feet
listen to the words
with your vocal chamber
has trouble deciding
what to do
about being done
a common problem
Zither Film 14 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 10, 2008]
noting exact coordinates
of each shrapnel bit
archeologically retrievable
information
each fragment
expresses
its tonalities
as a sensual quality
we
could
in some instances
say
it's a pitch
but
the index
of that pitch
in cyclic
relation
to the others
is not crucial
to how I put this together
what
for
instance
is it
about the fragments
that makes it easy to imagine them
as
pulled
from the same source
if
they so seem?
common flavors of timbres
and of
box resonances
id est
sets
of similar-enough-sounding sounds
no sudden air
horns
Sound Check - Dead Bars [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
just the last bit
and fine tuning
shout check
Études d'exécution imminent: Preface - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 24, 2018]
composing paths through tangles
we'll start with paths poetic
nothing fancy
nothing free
drifting through the illusion
of tonal stability
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| Bickleton, WA |
The Universe - Tom Varner, Neil Welch [from Out of the Mud]
such a peaceful place
Scouting Around - James P. Johnson [from That Devilin' Tune]
descends in each phrase
to where
the party is
snaking
through a crowd
at the
entrance
Indian War Whoop - Hoyt "Floyd" Ming and his Pep-Steppers [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
time to stomp to a fiddle
She's Selling What She Used to Give Away - Buddy Jones [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
warnings about city life
Our Delight - [Todd Dameron [from That Devilin' Tune]
play to rhyme with the changes
post-war exuberance
Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Blossom Dearie [from Give Him The Ooh-La-La]
a situation repeated in stasis
For All We Know - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]
slow and close
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| Bickleton, WA |
keeps finding places
to sneak back
to the beginnings
again
Only a Fool - Etta James [from Etta James]
talk around a situation
for party dancing
Venusian Diamond - Carole King [from Welcome Home]
life with energy crystals and psychedelics
this production
is more
orchestrated than manufactured
could almost be a Syd Barrett sound
for the
verses
with Beatles on the tongue
and Queen in the ear of the chorus
Gloria - The PKs [from Live in The Living Room]
bare bones arrangement
dance length
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Bruce Springsteen [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's A Springsteen Miscellany]
sings
better watch out
not
better not shout
What Wonderous Love Is This - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]
I've sung this arrangement
I know it from inside its tenor's voice
a
calligraphic statement
a fine print
The Sky Lit Up - PJ Harvey [from Is This Desire?]
file shared
not presented
here
I made this
what is it?
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| Bickleton, WA |
with ample muted
(but undeleted)
time counterpoint
composed
so as
to
complicate the relation
of the sung line
to the line
as pianistically
presented
nice song past me
Soup Strainer - Antique Scream [from Antique Scream]
fantasy life
tightly clenched
say whiskey
to sell whiskey
Gradus 231 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 12, 2013]
many and one
mighty and few
flour and yeast
the one
is an index among the many
the few
a slant among the mighty
the yeast
the transformer among the flour
identifying its
instances or gleaning its interval
upon the whole
its delta
what it was
with
minus
what it would have been
without
equals
it
or
does it?
has
what it was
with
left a trace
immovable
by mere subtraction?
the past
uncorrectable
the dead bury the dead
the pitchness
of a piano's highest notes
is less pushy
than it is below the uppermost octave
their function
is more
clear
if supported
from below
a pause:
I could
if I were to so choose
divide
each of the sessions
into their constituent rungs
I'm not going to go back and
do it though
could do A and B files
but that
would interrupt the record
of an
actually transpired time
to create
a manufactured
(post-production)
distinction
upon the time
time
is completely happy
being time
no matter what
music
we mold it to
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| Bickleton, WA |
drone:
a below which
we cannot descend
messages only may be passed
an enclosed
source
deliberations
beyond the threshold
we must wait for the word
||:Ursatz<3 2 1>:||
Banned Rehearsal 1075 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [April 24, 2023]
these sprites
are involved with their own affairs
whether we
as listeners
can
con some construction out of it
is an alien quandary
to these sprites
(they're
fully involved)
(we
can't experience
an other's itch)
(only
empathize)
a trio
of itches
the bells bells bells bells bells bells bells
In Session at The Tintinabulary
May 25, 2025
Marlow - Keith Eisenbrey
May 26, 2025
Gradus 414 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
after first exposure
a pause
to collect
the page
is turned
accreted potentials
left behind
to go further
stripping it all away
try as one might
one can't
hear the effect
of one
upon an other
without
also
hearing
the effect
of
the
other
upon the one
the fizz
of a low Fis
in fissure
of Fisness
fisticuffs
and
fistulas
(by Phiz)
plates
for prints
from many
to few
widening singleness
to
fill the field
Postscripts
Drops
Nocturnes or Discourses
A 1993 improvisatory project and a 2007 revisit
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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