Saturday, June 28, 2025

Playlist

Bickleton, WA
Preface

"It must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale's prodigious head hanging to the Pequod's side. But we must let it continue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to attend to it. For the present other matters press, and the best we can do now for the head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold."

Herman Melville - from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale.

Texts

Recorded

June 21, 2025

Madrigals, Book VIII: Vago augelletto, che cantando vai - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

the first three groups are easily grasped as similar
then a sequence of disparate groups
then what seems very like the first three groups
then another sequence of disparate groups 

tempo
weight
relations among their parts 

if there are similarities
among the disparate group sequences?
possible
but not confirmed 

cap it off
with the music
like
unto
the opening
rounded off
in a slower time
to end

Auf dem Gebirge, SWV 396 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

horns signify mountains
expansive prospects
firmly founded

Bickleton, WA
Canzona in G minor, BuxWV 173 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

the subject figure
has an announcing note
and a fiddly bit

Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Florentine. D'une legerete tendre - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

households among royalties
hired musicians
for their own amusement
and
to display their wealth and power (prestige)

Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman

activated syncopation
persists to the edge of the darkness 

varied modes of relations among the parts

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 280 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

the matter
consists
of multiply voiced sets
of figure sequences

Adagio in B minor, K. 540 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida

the expanse
of an expressive utterance
commensurate
to its internal potential
for clarifying ramifications 

how many angles
to view from
that provide increased insight

Die Schöpfung, Der Fünfte Tag - Franz Joseph Haydn - Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan, Gundula Janowitzs, Christa Ludwig, Fritz Wunderlich, Werner Krenn, Walter Berry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Singverein

picture book
page turns
take in
each scene
then
turn the page 

the homogeneity of Haydn's tonal practice
serves a well ordered cosmos

Bickleton, WA
June 22, 2025

Prelude in B-flat minor, Op. 28 #16 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

terror riding
with reckless swallows

Album für die Jugend, Armes Waisenkind, Op. 68 #6 - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage

what is it about Schumann's repetitions
that twists
the notion
of repetition
out of countenance

Prelude in F-sharp Major, Op. 33 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

his figures
twirl their skirts

London Café Blues - King Oliver [from Really The Blues]

leers with a strut

In The Mornin' - Johnson, Nelson, Porkchop [from Really The Blues]

testimony of a life as lived hard

Hawaiian War Chant - Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra [from On The Sunny Side Of The Street]

big band display
to cheer the troops overseas

Night and Day - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a melodicist
melodist?
melodyist?

Sonatas and Interludes, Sonata IV - John Cage - Boris Berman

a conversation
between tone puppets

He Needs Me - Nina Simone [from Little Boy Blue]

dynamite single chord
long held
introduction 

hangs time

Bickleton, WA
Embraceable You - The Art Farmer Quartet, with Jim Hall [from Interaction]

smooth ensemble
an afternoon
spent
relaxing
in a song

Disguises - The Who [from Magic Bus]

strange percussion
box of bolts? 

noise psychedelia

See Emily Play - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]

the tribute-imitation of Syd
is uncanny

Babelogue - The Patti Smith Group [from Easter]

slam sacrifice

No Art In The West - The PKs [from Live in the Living Room]

my favorite PKs number

Bickleton, WA
June 23, 2025

Eye No - Prince [from LoveSexy]

a song object
included within
an artificial song object world 

a dance object
within
an artificial dance object world 

to make a body move
independently of melodic forces

Gone To The Moon - Fastbacks [from Zucker]

tightly cycled change durations
catchy in a wormy way

Nineteen in Naples - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]

delineating ones past self
for entertainment

("...what I could hear, trying to crawl out from between the lines of your last ferocious Sonata...") - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, June 21, 2003]

tempo spilling forward
or
held in check
potential energy
increase
and valved release

Sonarchy December 8, 2008 (A) - Pete Comley

sawtooth vowels
voices
through various settings of signal loss
a veritable cornucopia
of signal loss settings 

Beaver Trilogy 

his challenge in the crisp fall air 

converse associations
among sets
equivalent
but not equal
different
but of the same value 

feel that intensity
let the scent go inside of you 

the assessment of musics
as signals
rather than utterances
or
prior (?)
to their utterancehood 

the parts
of one signal
do not operate
with any clear intent
upon the parts of other signals
as parts
only
as signal
with signal (waveform) logic 

logics of signal objects 

some signal objects are verbal communications
some are other modes
beeps
roars
crackles
tones
musics 

positive direction
of your subconscious mind
vitally alive
prevent frowning
now
open your eyes
and turn the record over

Bickleton, WA
June 24, 2025

Gradus 233 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 9, 2013]

we compare each pitch that comes along
to
our memory
of those
that came along
before
we determine
that
they all match each other
as to pitch
they do not match
however
as to weight/dynamic
and
though we could compare the weights
as they come along
I
for one
would not be confident
in my matching
though more so
as to relative value
across shortish time adjacency spans 

greater than
or less than
or similar 

consequently
I am not convinced
that structures
that rely
on such matching
of weight/dynamic values
across large spans
are discernable
by me
without assistance
or clear articulation
by means of
some other aspect
such as pitch
or rhythmic/metrical patterning 

|-| 

no pause
new rung
two pitches now
can the weight of pitch A
be compared to the weight of pitch B?
yes
of course
but the more dissimilar
the pitches themselves
the trickier it would be
to match weights between them (?) 

so
is it useful to me
to match and compare weights
organizing them into sets
as we do pitch?
rungs of weights?
why would we think so?

Shit Luck - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

lame loser chic

Banned Rehearsal 1076 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [May 22, 2023]

Bickleton, WA
patio peace
airplanes roar the sky drum
we tickle their bellies
with quiet sounds
flute
free reed
thumpdrum
rattles
they never know 

sociable
without verbal language
talk
is silent
inaudible
to any tongue 

a jet scrapes by

Lots O' Mama - Midway Dance Orchestra [from That Devilin' Tune]

lively spirits
keepin' 'em so

Away Down in the Alley Blues - Lonnie Johnson [from Really The Blues]

clearly a blues conversation
among singer and guitar
for solo guitar 

stunning playing
Bellini-esque

Pussy Pussy Pussy - Light Crust Dough Boys [from That Devilin' Tune]

off-color novelty song

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (1943): No. 1 (abandoned) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]

quite pretty for a while
but keeps losing focus

Lady Bird - Todd Dameron [from Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]

soundtrack for the party scene
that spawned the boomers

{journal entry of March 7, 2006:

incipient cool
sneaking in
underneath the hot}

In A Little Spanish Town - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles at Newport (Live)]

a bit icky
in an exoticismoid way
but stupendously exact
at each moment

The Last Letter - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]

performative sentimentalist
a clown type

Heigh-Ho - Louis Armstrong [from Disney Songs The Satchmo Way]

each heigh-ho
is a specific statement
there are no duplicates among them

Bickleton, WA
Something So Right - Paul Simon [from There Goes Rhymin' Simon]

line lengths are only
ever
abstractly equivalent 

the stanzas
are spacious enough
to spread out in

Twin Stars of Thence - Sun Ra [from Languidity]

a dance floor
that dances back
foot music
articulate
feet
tap back

I Don't Wanna Face It - John Lennon [from Milk and Honey]

a complaint
and a call
in conflict

Banned Telepath 18 Bickleton - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [April 3, 1988]

a gloriously maltuned spinet
and an electric organ
converse
like honest folks 

me on the organ
and Karen on the spinet
I imagine
then a guitar 

settling into just being in the room together

Pianosphere - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]

pianosphere nothing
bravo piano 

harp
roar
undersea
what floated
has descended

Bickleton, WA
June 25, 2025

Glory To God (050510A) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 2005]

first session
first take
nice lilt
not sure why I felt we needed another

The Only Thing Missin' - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

blues and gospel share answer-back conversation among the parts

Gradus 140 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 2, 2008]

if silence is the point
why mar it with notes at all? 

but
the muse
bids us
not
hold our tongues 

little kissy on the buzzy strings 

the urge
to create content
the presumption
to reform creation
to make
a home environment
within the large subculture nation
creating emptiness
as ones home environment
within
is
a meta content
a cutting through
to clear the air 

Gordian Knot
be naught! 

life in the delta
between content and emptiness
adrift
by the wind and flow

{journal entry of June 2, 2008:

methodical rote learning
may not be a good way
to learn a versatile skill set
but
it may be an excellent way
to learn something else
simply because it allows
ample time
to ponder}

Bickleton, WA
And Then It Rained - Steve Layton [from The Composer Plays Revisited]

motet for pianoforte
lovely

Corollaries (Down's Up) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 24, 2018]

climbing route
stretch by stretch

Scatter - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]

lickety split

Any Woman's Blues - Bessie Smith [from Really The Blues]

anyone's moan
allowance
to voice troubles

Nobody Loves Me - Herschel Brown & His Washboard Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

washboard
hip hop
scratch
single mic recording
of a pre-amplification ensemble
must
give a skewed idea
of the balance
the group had
live
more mics
doesn't solve the problem

Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby - Roy Newman [from That Devilin' Tune]

a strut dance
clown type

Half Nelson - Miles Davis [from That Devilin' Tune]

what happens
can be followed
at several removes
with ease
the ones that require effort
are his problem
not mine
delight
in moment
momentum
movement

I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Judy Garland [from Judy In Love]

there's a come-on for you
(as a torch song)
I'd like to see you lookin' swell
baby 

sentimentalizing the tawdry
the American way

Smile - Stevie Wonder [from With a Song In My Heart]

is this actually good advice?
give up
and take it
with a goofy grin?

Voices of Old People - Simon & Garfunkel [from Bookends]

whispers of the ancestors

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]

obsessed
with the fantasy
of stardom
and striving
and debasement

Changes - Carole King [from Welcome Home]

childlikeness
melodic note-iness

The Kids Are Alright - The PKs [from Live In The Living Room]

the toms
make the compressor
hide the rest of the band
sax too
when its turn comes

Countdown to Armageddon - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

posturing heroic

Bickleton, WA
Missed - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]

music
upon which
to inscribe
their articulation
of the poem 

its paper
pen
and ink
and hand

Swim - Madonna [from Ray of Light]

and the world swims with you
sin
and the world sins with you

5 Duets - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, June 21, 2003]

regular music
in a slant syntax 

rhetorically regular
goes like music goes
in strict polyphony 

Abyss music
hardened to a glow

Blistered - Vince Mira [from The Cash Cabin Sessions]

celebrating the male gaze

Banned Rehearsal 844 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 16, 2013]

anniversary tattoos
sounds crop up
like weeds in Spring
a man sang
as he passed me
somebody pushed the prank queen button 

words
that can't but be overheard 

a tale
told among sounds
and effects
preoccupied
plucked tones
single moments of interaction
left
to bloom
and fade
scrape
or a blow
or a bow
or a shake 

extended moments of interaction
a list of words
and objects
and syllables 

Tristan is old 

counting up to the end 

free space for causeless bliss

I Smoke Air - Amy Denio [from Lost in Space, Live at The Players Lounge]

firm support and tight
a secure grip
relaxes
as we become more comfortable in this company 

ride the flow

Bickleton, WA
June 26, 2025

Gradus 382 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 29, 2023]

as I am listening to this now
between 8 and 9
the evening
of June 26
cloud-filtered sunlight
reaches my face
from the windows
in front
and to the forward left
of
my seated bod
in addition
a shaded lamp light
reaches my face
from the forward left
my face's color
is reflecting
what it sees
we perceive
the light
reflected by an object
as
the color
of that object
but
all the other colors
were absorbed by
(became a part of)
the object
so
when we speak
of the color
of an object
we speak
of the color
it is not
or
at least
isn't now
anymore 

great sounds on the lower strings 

within any rung
are the possible rungs
among its constituent combinations 

the path
through the past
is improvisatory 

||

a city's waterfront skyline
is a group portrait
of that city's money

In Session at The Tintinabulary

June 22, 2025

Rindge - Keith Eisenbrey

June 23, 2025

Gradus 416 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

when is a note a syllable
(ding ding, silly bell) 

it is not unlawful
to be in mind of number
when engaged musically 

the factions
within this rung
keep a lengthy duration
between them 

faction free zone
frolic
faction free
factions
among a crowd of one

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 25: Figure Studies 2009-2010

These begin a series of solo piano improvisations I indulged in for several years. The first was made on December 7, 2009, and the second on January 11, 2010.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

No comments:

Post a Comment