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| Bickleton, WA |
"Cheap Bathing
I scorn the rules of Fashion's fools, their scoffings and their sneers,
To
the ocean spray I haste away from people and from piers.
I love to ride
in the flowing tide 'mid the summer's gentle gales,
And to seem the
monarch of the sea, or at least the Prince of Whales.
Like porpoise
brave, in the briny wave, I flounder and I flirt,
And now I stand upon
the land - Oh, murder! where's my shirt?
Yes, there it goes, and all my
clothes - stay, sacrilegious wretches!
Take coat and hat and black
cravat, but give me back my breeches!
This is the spite of Mistress White
- the foulest in the Nation -
Because I scouted her machine; it is her
machination.
But, hark! I hear, there's some one near - in vain I hope to
hide;
They'll say I'm not a tidy man, for going in the tide.
Oh!
dire disgrace! I'll screen my face behind this fisher's basket,
And those
who do not know my name, I hope won't stop to ask it."
from "The Comic Almanack. 1st Series, 1835-1843"
Texts
Recorded
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| Bickleton, WA |
Madrigals Book VIII: Sinfonia a doi violini e una viola di brazzo - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
excellently brief
introductory sighs
Ich weiss, dass mein Erlöser lebt, SWV 393 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
a dialog of times
Praeludium in E Major, BuxWV 141 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
the grand entrance
to the hall of the grand fugue
vast cadential
pillars
note
that even the tiles
of the flooring
are a
fugue
clever eh?
Deuxieme Ordre (re) - La Charoloise - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
phraselets one and two
present an interval
phraselets three and
four
solve it
Lobe den Herrn, meine Selle, BWV 69a - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
voices imitating instrumental figurations
in long melismas
the chorus
acts
as an instrumental
part of the sinfonia
for added colors
each part of the text
is presented
within its own music room
like food and wine pairings
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 277 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
phraselet sets
present problems
only phraselet sets
can
solve
anxiety in minor key feels
as we ascend
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| Bickleton, WA |
Concerto in D Major, K. 537 "Coronation" - English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, Malcolm Bilson
celebratory pomp approaches in procession
blessings and benefits
bestowed
the plainer the pattern
the more elaborate its prolongations appear upon
it
writing proportional poetry
upon the time
Die Schöpfung, Der Zweite Tag - Franz Joseph Haydn - Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan, Gundula Janowitzs, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, Werner Krenn, Walter Berry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Singverein
and now for the weather report
Prelude in F-sharp Major, Op. 28 #13 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
this tonality floats like a vision
and sinks in deep
Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50, Part 3 - Robert Schumann - Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Armin Jordan, Edith Wiens, Sylvia Herman, Ann Gjevang, Robert Gambill, Christophe Pregardien, Hans-Peter Scheidegger, Choeur De Chambre Romand, Choeur Pro Arte De Lausanne, André Charlet
opens in Mozart faery mode
the queen and her court
the whole
forest sings
ah! a tenor!
(must be Helden)
the Peri
has a melodic figure
that works somewhat like a leitmotif
follows them around
a tonality of their own
their
familiar
into the minorverse
change of scene
new character
in the
middle strings of the cello
as intimate as it is
the shape
of a voice's sounding chamber
eludes our intuition
we can't imagine it
as an object
because
it
is a part
of us
and we
are
indivisible
music
that believes in its own magic
from the standpoint of the characters
in the individual dramas
that the Peri encounters
the Peri
is no more than
a
literary device
to misdirect sympathy
from real plights
to
an idealized image of them
but
the Peri theirself
may
be being played
by the higher beings
what's in it for them?
this music resists resolution
however near it gets
an initiation ritual
a hazing
a happy ending
have we
been played?
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| Bickleton, WA |
the parts of the passing harmonies
drift away
like mist in dreamy
reveries
The Gospel Train Am Comin' - Homer Rodheaver and the Wiseman Quartet [from Really The Blues]
we hear the past
in the tones
of the media
by which
they came
to us
audio sepia
piano coda (soft)
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 7 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 15, 2023]
heave a pin
Asia in Ireland
in which the sole contracted son
false hair shirts
once current puns
seedy ejaculations
worlds of snot
presents from pickpockets
globules of mercury
the more melodious jigsmith
across the cathartic ocean
you
ask in Sam Hill how?
the use of language
as a means of power display
gift of the gab
gallopin
his bigmost astonishment
whose porter which pear
give you your
talking to
The Very Thought of You - Billie Holiday [from That Devilin' Tune]
her melody is composed by voice
elaborated returns
Sonata No. 2 for Piano, Concord, Mass. (1943): Emerson (partial) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
really shoves those fists around
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonatas XIV and XV - John Cage - Adam Tendler
pitch/tone sets
spaced along a pulse
to mark its articulation
into spans
Lucky To Be Me - Bill Evans [from Everybody Digs Bill Evans]
lyrical in each register
Chains - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]
transistor sound
45 spinners
loves
a particular timbre of
harmony singing
You're Gonna Be Sorry - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm A Woman]
jilter to jiltee
details at eleven
pulses from diverse sources
can be made
to seem
together
by being
more or less
together
close enough
is
just right
That's How I Feel - Sun Ra & His Orchestra [from Languidity]
a dance
expressing a determinate groove feel
Corpse of a Nation - The Trolls
provocation
aimed at the adult world
to keep it at bay
a
defense
or novelty
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| Bickleton, WA |
Banned Telepath 18 San Diego - Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 2, 1988]
the famous
converse-in-song
(like they do in the opera)
session
this grapefruit
cut the other way
than normal
is a sight to
behold
O Grapefruit
I see thee anew!
I can never keep track of things
a grapefruit riddle
a complete baseball team
of hard boiled
eggs
let's put this on the window
what may I expect from this
oh! the blood!
Maundy Thursday lesson
there is a poem
in the Atlantic Monthly
apropos
Gethsemane
a fool must I be
I recommend this book
except
it is in Hungarian
why should we read Dr. Freud
when we can read Dr. Seuss?
the water's boiling very hard now
who is he talking to?
a distant half
of a conversation
moves
over the face
of the sound
of boiling waters
that wasn't Bobby Watson
in the pages
of a play
by Ionesco
I imagine
stickers only
not what was expected
with Muppets' pictures
to appear magical
you know
what we can do
with crayons
candle wax
and
grapefruit juice
dip the eggs
in the broccoli
crucified
from here to Rome
a baseball team
of cups
my measurement
will now
be more on the nose
this evening
we should tell very old jokes
your dotted rhythms
are persistent
the nature of nature
is fanciful
If I Should Lose You - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]
tuning an orchestration
to a distinctive voice
what a producer/arranger does
Glory To God - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 17, 2005]
bending the simple meter of the verse
with polyphony alone
We Love Fish Heads - Blind Youth Audio Project 2003 [from Jack Straw Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
they make me glow in the shine
we all love fish heads
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| Bickleton, WA |
for ear shot
orthography
is the inscription of words
not of sounds
words
being not entirely
just sounds
sounds
with
attachments
to histories
and worse
neume
is an articulated breath gesture
inscribed
the sounds left us
without a word
returned
without ceremony
or preparation
Sound Check - Canals of Venice [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 24, 2018]
dive bar shouts
sound guy requests
Ghosting Doubles (first sighting) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, Mary 24, 2018]
operations within operations
upon a common ground
Loops from the Crypts of Chaos, Track 2 - Pete Comley [from Paintronics Volume 3 Loops from the Crypts of Chaos]
swooping flags of sounds
loops of waveforms
abrupt null
signal
now though
new exploits
maximalism
get as much as you can
out of as little as you
can
minimalism
get as little as you can
out of as much as you
can
achieves a carnival
with bird song
a train travels by
(railly)
we personify
the bands of sounds
heads out the shrill end
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| Bickleton, WA |
Play That Thing - Ollie Powers [from That Devilin Tune]
pulling a sultry tempo out of a hat
Frankie - Mississippi John Hurt [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
moves along on steady rails
Fiddle and Guitar Running Wild - Wild Walter Hurdt [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
let's have a racesetGO!
the railroads
have had an influence
upon the industrialization of
American Music
popularizing
the machined pulse
Misterioso - Thelonious Monk [from Smithosonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
comes in wearing the main theme jacket
removes it
to poke at
its features
back on
to exit
wishing
longing
craving
praying
kiss
bliss
harmony singing and crinkly vinyl
Angels We Have Heard on High [from The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]
for the tasteful suburban home
during the holidays
to be played
on one of those 60s style cabinet stereos
Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]
clap
on the and
of the and
of one
Being At War With Each Other - Carole King [from Fantasy]
children
of the must-have-message generation
Badlands - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy, July 7, 1978]
these tracks are not labelled
so
I play a game
of trying to
make out a few words
that might be the title
earnestness
performed as loudly as possible
Summertime Blues - The PKs [from Live in The Living Room {August 1, 1983}]
engineered the old fashioned way
(proximately)
Top Billin - Audio Two [from What More Can I Say]
brag taunt track
to a drum track
beat
Just Prez - Lennie Tristano [from Note To Note]
tempo
has a low slung dragginess
on the edge
of disinclined
to keep going
Ozone - minus (minus) [from minus (minus)]
fusion I guess
complete with synthesizer for campy sci fi
Banned Rehearsal 651 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 16, 2003]
effects dissociate from causes
(individuation)
how sounds persist
within our imaginative realms
enamored of a system
that might hold it all together
or us
together
for our span
the music
we make
in this room
sounds
like this room
looks
(over time)
it takes time
to adequately explore
how a room sounds
a dynamic system
rattle your chimney
for its rumbly grumble
a room's sounding
shaped by the inhabitants
our needling aggression
to chaotic voidity
pitch
is not for keeping in time with
nor time
for keeping
in pitch
time and pitch
dance with each the other
throb guitar and small percussions
Just Dance - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]
the confusion of mind at overload
clarity in movement
Banned Rehearsal 842 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 19, 2013]
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| Bickleton, WA |
ten years later
same room
fresh hearing point
interesting little spider on the carpet just now
narrow black body
moves fast on the floor
testing the limits
of the room's subtlety
a shade
of a tinge
of an inflection
of sound
segmentation of activity
is A.O.K.
creative listening
for dulcimer and quiet gong
wood drum
and
zither
Exhaling The Past - Bret Hart [from Dubble Thud]
these sounds came to us
from other spaces
teeters
on the
edges
of deep grooves
taming
a mustang
partially
indifferently
Gradus 380 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 1, 2023]
on the deep rolling Bea
billowing out the box
the effect
of striking an open string
depends
on
when
in its cycle
it is struck
this
can only be played
by
ear
it gets softer
so
the notes
can hear
the
space
without
themselves
in it
we have sunk
into our navels
tones
so registrally distant
as to nearly confound synthesis
extreme measures may be required
their reverberations fill distinct
spaces
sound
with congruent instantiations
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 1, 2025
Bedford - Keith Eisenbrey
To celebrate this, my 100th such arrangement of tunes as found in an 1846 shape note song book, I took care to have it consist of exactly 100 notes.
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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