Saturday, August 16, 2025

Playlist

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Preface

"I found Magdalen in the garden. 'Heavens, Mr. Stubbs!' said she, as in my new uniform I appeared before her, 'I really did never--such a handsome officer--expect to see you;' and she made as if she would blush, and began to tremble violently. I led her to a garden seat. I seized her hand--it was not withdrawn. I pressed it;--I thought the pressure was returned. I flung myself on my knees, and then I poured into her ear a little speech which I had made on the top of the coach. 'Divine Miss Crutty,' said I; idol of my soul! It was but to catch one glimpse of you that I passed through this garden. I never intended to breathe the secret passion (oh no! of course not!) which was wearing my life away. You know my unfortunate pre-engagement,--it is broken, and for ever! I am free!--free, but to be your slave,--your humblest, fondest, truest slave:' and so on."

from The Comic Almanack an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 9, 2025

Solo at Solo - Peterman [from Red Vinyl, split with Jaguar Shark]

intersecting social and economic desires
seeking their optimal tuning

Gradus 332 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 30, 2018]

a note
a motion of the body
a gesture
a recorded note
is also a recording
of the motion of the body
of a physical gesture
embodied
in the sound of the note
or
heard as such 

archipelagos of notes
scattered across a surface 

the cloud of lingering resonance
propagates outwards
from each island
in each archipelago
across
that same surface 

notes' gestures
notes' ripples

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 10, 2025

1997 - Pete Comley [from Paintronics Volume 6: Guitar with Digital Looping]

throbbing cycles
something heedless this way spins
followed by gulls
and their chatter 

all
are absorbed
in the cycling throb
buffed
to a solid shine

Madrigals, Book VIII: Ogni amante è guerrier - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

this music
sings
with its hands and face
in active participation 

enunciation theater
reveling
in the language
discovered to literature
by Dante

Es spricht der unweisen Mund wohl, BuxWV 187 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

he spreads this music out
as on a worktable
a puttering thinker

Premier livre de clavecin: Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Volupteuse. Rondeau. Tendrement, &c. - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

all the finest silks and weaves

Was soll Ich aus dir machen, Ephraim, BWV 89 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman

long held melismas
on ü
long strings
of music talking at us
this one's right jolly
there's the chorale
we must be at the end

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 11, 2025

Sonata in D (for organ), Kk. 187 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

what follows a figure
is put together
in terms of a mapping
of the figure
that is
we line them up
a remembered sequence
upon a new presented sequence

Prelude in F Major, Op. 28 #23 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

pleasant magic in every direction

Album für die Jugend "Mai, lieber Mai, bald bist du wieder da!" Op. 68 #13 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage

lost in reverie

Poème Satanique, Op 36 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

introduces themself so charmingly
theosophical exoticism
revels in projection of power

Empty Bed Blues - Bessie Smith [from That Devilin' Tune]

the trombone commentary
occupies the end of each line

Practice Makes Perfect (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

the title
omits
the crucial
if
that precedes it
and
the then
of the conditional clause

Sonatas and Interludes: Third Interlude - John Cage - Boris Berman

I wonder
whether
there is a differentiation
in the use of the prepared notes
between the Sonatas
and the Interludes
or
does the distinction flow
from some other aspect of these?

Twirl, Twirl - Norman Monath [from Songs of the Pogo]

alliteration waltz

Ask Me Why - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]

you
woo woo woo
I
yai yai yai

Let There Be More Light - Pink Floyd [from A Saucerful of Secrets]

microphone on the move
psychedelic scifi connection

Ooh Yea - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]

stylized speech rhythm
over stylized pulse structure
breakouts from the cycle
help to articulate the cycle
proto hip hop
language activated dance music

Candy's Room - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at the Roxy, July 7, 1978]

giving the drummer a workout

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 12, 2025

Improvisation - Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [August 7, 1983]

both of us on piano(s)
duet for two personalities
conversing in piano

judging by the extraneous sounds
this may have been made in a public space
(I don't recall) 

a thoughtful and considerate session
wherever it was made 

we are distracted
by the lovely acoustic diffusion
occasioned
by their independent intonational philosophies 

this session
sticks with it
hangs right in there 

the piano on the right
I think it is me
is not willing to emerge far
from its mindset
Fafner at slumber
after circling warily
statements are firmly made
and seconded

we seek paths through the instreaming data
in order for it
to be parseable
as experience
the paths
are
our experience
of experiencing it

The Day You're Mine - Big Daddy Kane [from Long Live The Kane]

my manufactured sound
is more manufactured
than yours 

two musics
over a common beat
each of which
translates the other
through textual affinity of subject 

presenting his suit

Irish Debussy - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]

piano and a free reed instrument of some ilk
upon which an old tune is writ

Slump - Outkast [from Aquemini]

structured dialog
syllable spew
choral chorus
gives 'm a breather

Song of Solomon 3:1-3 050510C - Keith Eisenbrey Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 2005]

the rhythms in the midbits
the 5/8 bars
are intended to confound each other 

we made some additional takes
but I don't know what I thought had gone wrong in that one

3 Translation of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti: No. 3, Rebounds - Alvin Lucier - Alter Ego

pebble put plain
one word each 

home ground of the muse

Banned Rehearsal 847 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [November 11, 2013]

Jasper Mountain Reserve
play upon play
we all do

on the midi-sampler
all the control buttons
could be (have been)
designed
as an additional keyboard
with which to compose
with machine instructions
by direct manipulation 

elbows in 

the charming articulations
of clumsiness 

wooden dancers
observe the bells rung above 

there's that
unwilling to emerge
piano growler
grumping away 

ocean drum
rinse cycle
the waves
of the tides
the ringing drum
and now
a word from the haunted castle 

ding dong

sudden inset locations of sound

the muse wanders the room 

not on the tape
so
assigned to a committee
persistence of activity

Banned if I can find it - Steve Kennedy, Lisa Puteska [from Untitled Album]

now that's what I call a ring tone!
what fun!

Banned Rehearsal 1079 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [July 3, 2023]

invocate the arena
listen back at its response 

frame drum articulates the ceremony 

we slide our wedge of sounds
between the ambiance and the silence 

our modest music tent bubble
of here now 

July 3rd fireworks
go bang
urban sirens 

sounds keeping to themselves
in company
with the yard's critters

Take It Easy - Duke Ellington [from That Devilin' Tune]

an inexhaustible back stage of talent
to trot out before the lights

March No. 6 for Piano, with Here's to Good Old Yale (1943) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]

needs the flicker of a projector
and bumbling cops
in tall black helmets

St. George and the Dragonet - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]

narrates like a hardboiled police report
its monotone is its color scheme

Joy To The World [from The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]

every syllable
to be pounded out
with mighty hammers 

this arrangement
has been over-Handeled

Jasper Mountain Reserve
I'd Rather Go Blind - Etta James [from Tell Mama]

the private epistle genre
of lyric voice

Happy (Love Song from Lady Sings The Blues) - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]

full employment for spotlights

Constructive Neutrons - Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson  [from Visions]

running crab spider mallet-work
backwards in heels
sonorities
that accept all within their embrace

When Numbers Get Serious - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]

using arithmetical equations
as neutral statements
for payoff rhymes

August 13, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 140 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Sharon Watson [June 14, 1988]

in Bickleton
walk with small instruments
play fishwhistle
for the horses
multiple layers of doing
the deep background
the stepping in gravel road
the wind in the microphone
the fishwhistles and harmonica
the conversation
each
clearly distinguishable
as a distinct doing 

strolling minstrels
cowboy dance 

the long straight road
that leads to a gully
stops being straight 

don't know where they live blues 

walking in gravel
sounds like chewing crunchies

using a law degree
as an excuse
to write variations
on Scott Joplin tunes 

we crunch along the road
chewing it thoroughly 

burying a musical insight
where it will never be found
inside
an obscure bit
of Joycean prose 

meanwhile
the fishwhistlers whistle
on the road to perdition
and declension
cute as a cufflink 

oops there's a fence
frogs in their pond

You've Been Around - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]

blank face dancing

Banned Rehearsal 505 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 29, 1998]

Jasper Mountain Reserve
jump right in
make a glorious splash
into a tense balance
the mature stress
of the decade of chaos
still
almost
holding it together
the chamber symphony
is wandering into dissipation 

overtly music-making 

a bit techy on the drums there
duly noted 

we'll hang out in the mellow room

sensitivity
is not synonymous
with expertise
expertise
being a mode
of sensitivity
in the service
of melody processes
and
involved
in making a melody
out of an incoming sound
(mental processes)
or
of making "sense" of it at all 

quite a fine strong session
of making music overtly
from a multitude of voices 

the fictional audience
hypothecated for mere form's sake 

a split of persons
an editor

a magnificent sneeze ah<CHOO!
to match
the glorious splash
from above 

now we're getting all harmonic and learned 

sitting upon an electric guitar
pianissimo blissout
articulating an endless chorale
late stage Pastorale (C.O.W., the)
thousands and thousands of chords along 

disruptor in the back row
scherzic time
bang and clank and clangor and woe 

banging with cans
at close range
chimney can 

wind up for the finish

{journal entry of September 24, 2006:

mostly an admirably transparent mix - punctuated}

Jasper Mountain Reserve
shouldn't we talk: IV - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 19]

a music from given sounds
{midi samples?}
their music
is not
from
where
they were given 

no fancy sheen 

where we may be
within this
is unanswerable

Gradus 144 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 19, 2008]

causeways
along a perilous rim
a yelp 

play with dynamics
and characterization
extremes of contrast
jump scare
the village bell tolls gently in the night 

propensity to dreamstate

I Don't Know - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]

post Pouch set 

in the costume of dive-bar music

Lamb Day 180505 A - Keith Eisenbrey [May 5, 2018]

if it sounds like a sheep
it might be a sheep
if it sounds like somebody
imitating a sheep
then
it is a sheep 

dogs birds
even a rooster
among the lambs and folks
of several ages

Sedna - Steve Layton [from Bedtime Stories]

in the wastes of existential dread 

fear factory transit hub

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 14, 2025

Blues in the Bottle - Prince Albert Hunt [from Really The Blues]

one could transcribe this note for note
into written form 

in such written form
it could be analyzed
as a sung sequence of notes
a fiddled sequence of notes
and a strummed sequence of notes
and surmised relations among them
but
if we are confident
there is such an analysis possible
then is it worth doing?
seeking insight
by means of abstraction

Tell Me How - Buddy Holly [from The 'Chirping' Crickets]

as one could do with this
mutatis mutandis
could be used
as a basis of comparison
but
we must keep in mind
that we would be comparing abstractions
subject to the spin
that abstraction inflicts
back into its object
and
our prejudice
about what to abstract

Jasper Mountain Reserve
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause - The Ronettes [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]

interesting that the entirety of this album
is of the secular side of Christmas
save for the Silent Night sop
at the end
is that the one Mr. Ick talks over?

Run Run Run - The Who [from Magic Bus]

rough sound
not engineered for immaculate hygiene
likely in the same room at the same time

That's How Things Go Down - Carole King [from Fantasy]

and could one be confident
one had transcribed/abstracted the samples
to equivalent degrees of abstraction 

I'm guessing this album tells a story
the songs cut off/into each other

She's The One - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]

for instance
it might not catch
the sense
of presented abstraction in play
the interval
between an experience
and the abstraction/transcription thereof

Improvisation - Benjamin Boretz, Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [August 9, 1983]

{NB somewhere I had marked this session
as though Sarah Johnson were playing
rather than Dan,
but see below} 

for me
at the time
this session
represented a breakthrough
in how I was listening
to my own playing 

during the discussion
that followed our listening back
I was made aware
that I had dominated the session
(a danger to be aware of)
mea culpa
but
that piano was talking to me
as was
the color depth
of the sounds my comrades were making 

this session ended up
in one of the InterPlay tapes
{"Grunt"} 

I think that's Sarah on the flutes
Jill on the violin
and Ben playing the little drum 

music
like language
is a communal medium
we can share it effectively 

I think it is Dan
not Sarah on the flutes
now
not so sure
whoever it is
is doing some interesting things
finding ways
to make sounds 

chords ought not to sound the same
it is a waste

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Dirty World - Traveling Wilburys [from Traveling Wilburys]

rude come-ons
service charge
parts and service

Legs - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]

the image of the room changes
jump cut instant
I think they were all in the same room together
at the same time
it has that feel

Final Hour - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]

twisting rhyme
echo chorus
talk-back-along
eyes on a prize

Song of Solomon 3:1-4 050510B - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 10, 2005]

I felt messed up
so we started over
I
was an idiot
about the 5/8 bits
it's so about not lining things up

LUV - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

aimed at the teen mind
shiny mall
fashion glitz

Silvertone 131112 - Keith Eisenbrey

so I had this device
that could record 8 tracks on it
so I did
these are them 

another great ring tone 

amoeboid
is the
amoewoid

Changes - Red Car Burns [from split with Dead Bars]

specificity of attitude
is the message
is the media
being
a how to be

Old Hundred - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [July 11, 2023]

squared skewed 

cubed skewed

Voice of the Southland - Thelma Terry [from That Devilin' Tune]

the engineering of this recording
is flawless
of its time {1928}
state of the art

Heeby-Jeebies - Little Richard [from Little Richard]

more going on
than can quite be articulated

Brady, Brady, Brady - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross Country Concert]

murder
as a comic western hokum tale

Beside You - Van Morrison [from Astral Weeks]

lines are extruded under pressure
like pasta
extrusion expression
begging empathy
as a performance
emotional identification
projection screen

Golden Lady - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]

selling the well-dressed pipedream

Under the Light, Yet Under - George Perle - Bethanee Beardslee, Morey Ritt

the limits
of our sphere's
under
and over
-spheres

I Will Folow - U2 [from Under a Blood Red Sky]

the urge to pound ones words
upon a multitude
at high volume
with drums and guitars
to drive home
the message
of the urge
self-indulgency porn

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 10, 2025

Azmon - Keith Eisenbrey

August 11, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 1131 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Benjamin Boretz
Keith Eisenbrey, piano

The music of Benjamin Boretz, which I first encountered as an undergraduate, has played a central role in my own sense of musical possibility and depth ever since. I was deeply fortunate to study with him for a few years in the early 80s, and have been blessed with his ongoing friendship and conversation since that time. It is my distinct pleasure to share these recordings with you now. Partita was recorded in 2018, the others in 2024/2025.

1-4. Partita (1955)
Prelude
Gavotte
Allemande
Capriccio
5. ("...what I could hear, trying to crawl out from between the lines of your last ferocious Sonata...") (1979)
6. O (2000)
7. Liebeslied - for a pianist alone (1974)
8. Lament for Sarah (1990)
9. Invention (1988)
10. ("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") (1976/1977)

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

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Playlist

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Preface

"'Don't be afraid, my butter-boxes,' cried Stubb, casting a passing glance upon them as he shot by; 'ye'll be picked up presently - all right - I saw some sharks astern - St. Bernard's dogs, you know - relieve distressed travellers. Hurrah! this is the way to sail now. Every keel a sun-beam! Hurrah! - Here we go like three tin kettles at the tail of a mad cougar! This puts me in mind of fastening to an elephant in a tilbury on a plain - makes the wheel-spokes fly boys, when you fasten to him that way; and there's danger   of being pitched out too, when you strike a hill. Hurrah! this is the way a fellow feels when he's going to Davy Jones - all a rush down an endless inclined plane! Hurrah! this whale carries the everlasting mail!'"

Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or The Whale

Texts

Recorded

August 3, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 139 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [June 1, 1988]

we settle into session space
we occupy the low ground
reluctant to rise
growl
at the idea of it 

instruments put aside
all at once
new ones
taken up 

now we're quiet
higher up 

it seems
we may be sitting upright
peering about 

an unambitious fog
inhibits ignition or spark
a difficult time all 

understanding the space
or the space not working with us 

sometimes the music doesn't work
oh well
at cross-purposes
or
just non-aligning purposes 

muggy
clogged 

toward the end progress is made
the sounds being made
are curious about themselves

Pat Buchanan- U.S.A. (Southern Gospel) [from The World Sings Goodnight]

nice hollow guitar sound
(not that Pat Buchanan)

Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer - Keith Eisenbrey - David Di Fiore

David found some perfect stops
gave it room to breathe
also discovered some interesting rhythmic relations 

intro-extro chords
book covers
front and back 

really nicely done!
I like this more every time I come back to it

Right Next Door - Bettye LaVette [from A Woman Like Me]

a song
a narration of scenes
and their anguish

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 4, 2025

Gradus 143 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 28, 2008]

what is the purpose of engaging this piece
as a discipline
across many iterations? 

to make a music for general audiences?
yes
knowing however
that it will have an impact
upon a limited set among them 

to learn how to play piano
one combination of notes at a time
(stepwise)?
yes
and discovering
that any such knowledge event
is part of the activity
and lives and dies with it 

each combination
and each key press
made to embody that combination
in real time
is its own knowledge event 

is there a residue of knowledge
(of how to play piano)
unique
to having engaged Gradus? 

Fux:
steps to a skill 

Tesla:
iterative destruction 

Milo the Wrestler:
an exercise upon the body
of the celebrant 

so
vis a vis Tesla
what here
is destined to destruction 

regarding Milo:
what here
to be impressed upon the body? 

as for Fux:
what
is the acquired skill here for? 

the purpose
of engaging
the residue of knowledge 

Gradus
is
skill power and destruction 

so
what might be worth all that trouble
to destroy? 

habits of musical perception
{oh those dastardly habits!}
habits of musical thinking
habits of musical construction?
(composition,
as such)
is there a skill I might gain?
a power that might accrue?
a destruction to ensue? 

aesthetic asceticism 

at this point
the question devolves
to why one would bother
to do such a thing? 

it seemed
at that time
it might be interesting
to see what would happen 

so
what has happened?

4202 - Jaguar Shark [from Red Vinyl (split with Dead Bars)]

subgenres are generationally relevant 

that is
they exist across history

Banned Rehearsal 957 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [April 23, 2018]

some zithers practice gastromancy
the space itself
gastromances 

characters of instruments
we follow the statements
of an instrument
as if they were statements
by a fellow human
which
we presume
they are 

location
is music quantified
grids may be too bludgeonly a tool
to imitate an actual space with 

its social vibe 

pitched resonances
have a nasty habit
of enclosing their fellows 

a clarinet
on its last legs
giving its last blues 

pulses clot together
the room changed around us
to be new discovered from scratch 

is cyclicity amplified in the earmind? 

why pulse
is so powerful a bait to attention

we
are a polyphonic praxis
we
wait out the clock

Phonography 1 - S. Eric Scribner [from Sketches: Electronic Music]

a staged phonograph
a sound box
a tiny theater
a clockwork Dada box of a poem 

train track
runs through the middle of the work 

foreboding hovers in the tambourine

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 5, 2025

Madrigals, Book VIII: Ogni amante è guerrier: No. 3, Ma per quell ampio egeo spieghi le vele - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

as my knowledge
of the Italian
of Monteverdi's era
is nil
one can only make of the words
what the music does
which would presumably include some hint
as to how poetry in general
was considered
in that culture 

emphasis is placed
on the initial
prolonged
"ah ! . . ."

Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein, BuxWV 210 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

here the unvoiced text
is wrapped in massy robes
and learned commentary 

no punc
left
un-tilio-ed 

the pericope
lifted high
and pinned firmly in place 

Buxtehude has a marvelously open conception
of how a big organ piece might go 

this one
proceeds much like a theme and variations 

like sized musics
of a common figuration
in a series
pictures
in a row

Premier livre de clavecin: Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Flateuse. Affectueusement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

portrait in jeweled frame

Warum trübst du dich, Mein Herz, BWV 138 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman

the text and its contemplation
are made into a theater
enacted by means of music
woven
into an architecturally complete experience

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 286 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

he does love his balance games

Sonata in C Major, K. 545 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida

played as an idea of childlikeness
idealized
charming
innocence 

simplicity
of a lisped prayer
at bedtime 

pat a cake

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Prelude in G minor, Op. 28 #22 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

as a thing to do
with fists
it's satisfactorily frustrating

Album für die Jugend: Knecht Ruprecht, Op. 68 #12 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage

spooky stories to tell our tots

Prelude in C Major, Op. 35 #3 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

I'm so muscular
feel that bicep eh? 

portions of tonality

Goin' Up Town - Dr. Humphrey Bates & His Possum Hunters [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

fiddle on a lubricated beat
keeps the called dance lively
hurry people hurry

The Same Old Story (take 3) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a movie review
an old hat story
just once more
so the pianist can tickle their ivories

Sonatas and Interludes: Second Interlude - John Cage - Boris Berman

it speaks Petrushkan! 

a music
thinking over
what it has just heard 

the determinate feel
of control
and self-control

I Want To Know - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]

1999 take 13
talk back back up singers 

soundboard
a posse
of yes folks

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

each moment overdone in turn 

overdone qualities of overdoneness

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Michael from Mountains - Joni Mitchell [from Song To a Seagull]

writerly
present tense passive

Time - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]

faux old timey sound
on the piano
band pass filter 

compositional production

cabaret hosiery tempo 

the better glitterator 

song title
one last time

Languidity (alternate mix) - Sun Ra [from Languidity]

liberated intonation
does not imply lazy intonation 

this
if languid
is specifically so
no mistaking it
for another languid 

that reedist
is out there 

steady state
hiding in the background
so that time
does not rush forward

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 6, 2025

Dominoes - The PKs [from Live in the Living Room]

college life
drug of choice

I'm Housin' - EPMD [from Strictly Business]

a dance beat spills out onto the floor 

text packed
from page edge to page edge

Improvisation 4 - Elizabeth Panzer [from Talking Harp]

careful of its thought-thread
cyanotype dream 

when I first got this music
back in the early 90s
I
was disapproving
of its ordinariness 

from this end of time
I agree
that 
as music
it doesn't engage with me
in ways
that I find exciting
but
then
what's wrong
with telling pretty stories
with ones harp?

Misty - Richard Rorex and Reid Merryman [from Mood for Richelle]

or
of playing nicely arranged standards
on pretty guitars? 

a low key social pleasure

Song of Solomon 3:1-4 (050517D) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, May 17, 2005]

I messed up the first go at the midbit 

after restart
quite a nice performance 

Love Story - Taylor Swift [from Fearless]

interesting that the basic conceit of this song
is the same
as Song of Solomon above 

Taylor's version is louder

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Gradus 236 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 4, 2013]

flat upon the working plain
rectangular
hue coded 

no overtly erotic subtext in this one 

modes of insistence
each key a voice
so
Gradus
is made of combinations of voices
each key
a voice 

another take on Cage
and the idea of environmental sounds
being
"part of"
the music:
a backdoor way
of saying
that music is
properly
in the real world
(the one we sense with our ears)
and not
in some
abstract pristinity 

fair enough
but
what if
it were experienced
as being
in both
simultaneously?
inevitably? 

so
a long silence
as a part of music
is
an unveiling
of the environment
in which music transpires
and
which forms
a part of it
(the environmental part)
by removing the "music"
(music's negative space?)
leaving the environment
without an object
to form the environmental part of
except
itself
a reflective moment
(an aesthetic moment) 

so
music
is an object
upon which
to project
a need
to reflect beauty
(to stick to aesthetics
for the nonce)

Jasper Mountain Reserve
how the epistemological was precipice - Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions [from WRCMS 2018 Presentations]

we are on a convex surface
orbit defines space
the music of the spheres
is orbital mechanics 

the music of the ping pong spheres
is just fun 

pitched sound
is called forth
in feedback form 

improvisation in groups
is a rite
a rite of mankind
the kinder man 

these sounds are all wonderful
but they all peer outward
toward their peers
for approval
of their appearance
(given freely) 

but
why would anyone care
what I thought about it?
God knows,
not I 

it is possible
I would believe
that some pre-compositional prescriptions
are in force
but
it doesn't distract
too over much 

flute says
wheeuëue 

rolling spheres return

mind your boots goin' out

Gradus 384 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 26, 2023]

lots of steps this weke
I will drawer a picture 

zap!

gradus ad gradus 

this site under construction 

an infant cries

so sad 

completion
is not in the picture
that I have drawered

what can not be approached stepwise?
self and divinity 

the rhetorical riddle
relies
on the conceit
of a single correct solution

Empty Bed Blues Part 1 - Bessie Smith [from Empty Bed Blues]

what happened
and what she did about it
and how fine it is
or was 

uh oh
they told Lou

Epistrophy - Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane [from Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane]

head sectioned
into part
with a downbeat
and part
without a downbeat 

hold tempo steady
the difference
between one
and three
is
whether the chord changes there

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Make Someone Happy - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing on the Outside]

giving Stevie Wonder a run for his money 

with deep respect
a bit of a technical show-off number

I Wish I Felt This Way At Home - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]

invents for itself
a sentimental morality play

Taurian Matador - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]

funkybebop guitar battle 

turn-based

Disco Tech - Carole King [from Welcome Home]

that's what it sounds like alrighty 

cleanly manufactured
polished and smooth
all clothes fit perfectly 

disco
like punk
hovers
on the edge of self-parody 

the 70s
rendered
the 70s
unnecessary
(and deeply unfortunate)

Don't Be Scared - Yoko Ono [from Milk and Honey]

a self-script for comfort
on repeat

August 7, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 118 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 8, 1988]

Jasper Mountain Reserve
assembled from Telepaths 12 

our reports
from our various afars 

presented together
as a picture
of our separation 

they find strange games to play together
in odd corners of the acoustic space 

a mixed crowd of sounds
from different rooms

Hung on a Bad Peg - Fastbacks [from Zucker]

this teenypobberisch poem
is held right up to your face
gloms like a starfish

Banned Rehearsal 504 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 15, 1998]

same folks
but
in the same room 

finding an intonation
the true tonality
moves slowly here
a robustly tuned tonality

a room
is its current vibe 

now that we've been de-pested
we can allow our donkey haw hees
to bray
protesting pump handle
singing escalators (prefigured!) 

Banned Rehearsal
is well acquainted with music
but rarely lets it interfere 

tonality
is modulation
it
is the delta
the difference
the change
the transformation
of A by B
and of B by A
a relation
a synthesis 

events and activities
all their compositional interactions

polytextured steady states
many strange forms of wonderful in play
proceed cautiously
but do not stop
nor veer
nor left
nor right
neither over
nor around
the mountain
(this bear
is beating feet
wants
no part
in the bear hunt)
boring through
straight 
and Bertha true 

time for recess
a new game 

historical note
we called this
the "timer tape" session
my recollection
is that we had acquired a bunch of cassette "singles"
and would put them in the tape machine
and push play
(no sound)
when the machine encountered
the end of the tape
we would all change musics
and put in another 

Fantasy
on Somewhere Over the Rainbow 

was that in G?
(is now)

Track 3 - Eckstein Students [from Mach 6]

nothing quite like a middle school piano
(not the player
the instrument) 

they've seen a lot
(the player is doing quite well thank you)

Banned Rehearsal 743 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 11, 2008]

out on the porch
private porches
and patios
are underused musical venues 

sounds one must seek out
and live with
to understand
at ground level
someone
must have stepped inside
to play the piano
left the door open 

a yellow moon
rises in the Southeast
quite round 

the dis-coordinate strummers of Maple Leaf

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 3, 2025

Coda - Keith Eisenbrey

in the shape note song book
in which I found this tune
it is marked
"to be played or omitted at pleasure"

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 4, 2025

Gradus 418 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

the instructions themselves
are an ordeal 

pitched sounds
group themselves
into registers
(sets of like-resonating sounds) 

figuration
and acoustic cyclicity
can work
with the sense of register
to expand
or contract
the inclusivity
of any particular register 

notes
as queries
provisional token 

||new rung|| 

mixed pitch class simultaneities
settle back in their seats
make hay
out of fragments
of polyphonic motions

August 5, 2025

Detritus 6 - Keith Eisenbrey

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 26: Figure Studies 2010 (part 1)

Two more solo piano improvisations. These are both from early in 2010.

1. Figure Study 100315

2. Figure Study 100405


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

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Playlist

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Preface

"Physiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature. He has no proper nose. And since the nose is the central and most conspicuous of the features; and since it perhaps most modifies and finally controls their combined expression; hence it would seem that its entire absence, as an external appendage, must very largely affect the countenance of the whale. For as in landscape gardening, a spire, cupola, monument, or tower of some sort, is deemed almost indispensable to the completion of the scene; so no face can be physiognomically in keeping without the elevated openwork belfry of the nose. Dash the nose from Phidias's marble Jove, and what a sorry remainder! Nevertheless, Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his proportions are so stately, that the same deficiency which in the sculptured Jove were hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is an added grandeur. A nose to the whale would have been impertinent. As on your physiognomical voyage you sail round his vast head in your jolly-boat, your noble conceptions of him are never insulted by the reflection that he has a nose to be pulled. A pestilent conceit, which so often will insist upon obtruding even when beholding the mightiest royal beadle on his throne."

Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or The Whale

Texts

Recorded

Jasper Mountain Reserve
July 28, 2025

Gradus 383 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 12, 2023]

figures amplify former figures
include within themselves
an image
of their former appearances 

tracking the motions of a body
through pitch space
or
is it
that
we track an active agent
through a pitch-enabled thought space 

peaceful repetition of figures
they sit and breathe 

the notes themselves
and also
a shimmer
of their collective lingerings

Madrigals, Book VIII: Ogni amante è guerrier: No. 2, Io che nell’otio nacqui e d’otio vissi - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

the singers explain the situation
resorting to the occasional canonic phrase or two

Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BuxWV 224 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

the clauses of the chorale
are held within a container
made of their elaborations

Premier livre de clavecin: Deuxieme Ordre (fin) : La Diligente. Legerement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

a moral lesson made pretty

Jasper Mountain Reserve
July 29, 2025

Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman

music appears on the move
a cadence
approached from different directions
in succession
joins
the directions
into
a temporally complex synthesis

oh
now there's a well-known chorale
(not the more famous words
{Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring})
so this may be a re-use of the music
{maybe not}
well worth the redux if so 

the tenor aria that follows
has a playful organ part 

ah
back to the famous
(is that an accurate translation?)
{NB Wikipedia says "inexact"}

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 285 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

coy phrase ends
lower neighbor
resolving up a step
like asking a question of itself 

Mr. Max Headrhyme

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Sonata in C Major, K. 545 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout

bravo articulations!
at ends of phrases
the string sound stops
then the box resonance fades
the box
hangs beyond the music    
as such 

a marvel of compositional economy 

the tempo bends to the song
ornamented repeated segment in the middle movement
very tasteful

Prelude in B-flat Major, Op. 28 #21 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

heroic at their tender heart

Album für die Jugend, Op. 68 #11 "Sicilianisch" - Robert Schumann, Éric Le Sage

where did the notion of dance
with a national character
come from?
the Grand Tour? 

this is the place
where the album
takes a curious turn

Prelude in B-flat Major, Op. 35 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

at the keyboard
with some Wagnerian motions
must have heard Tristan
(who hadn't?)
even
of somewhat Wagnerian proportions
(for a Scriabin Prelude)

Ham Beats All Meat - Dr. Humphrey Bates & His Possum Hunters [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

dances on light feet
a weightless wonder 

ne'er touches the ground
but
the ground touches wonder
to air again

The Same Old Story (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

the tones fall from above
projected starlight
I like that piano player
clear without being fancy
song
as a cinema scene

Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata VIII - John Cage - Boris Berman

one could consider
the effect
of preparation
upon the sounds a piano makes
as
a specified marking
of certain notes
as
belonging
to one sound
and others
to others 

but
why make that distinction
specific? 

an enforcement action
a barrier
armor

Little Girl Blue - Nina Simone [from Little Girl Blue]

piano begins
in perfect imitation
of a childlike innocence
as more commonly understood
that is
in Hallmarkland
now she's just showing off
complete with Amen

Second Fiddle - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]

poor guy
boo hoo
Joe or Jim
(Jim is a them) 

country music clown contest

You're Gonna Hear From Me - Bill Evans [from Another Time: The Hilverson Concert]

my obsession with Bill Evans
is of long standing
my piano teacher
while I was in grade and high schools
was
(among other things)
a fabulous jazz pianist
and his temptation for me
toward jazz
was Bill Evans
but
for me
it wasn't the jazzness of it
that fascinated
so much as
the sensitivity to touch and chord voicing

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Intuition - John Lennon [from Mind Games]

confession of self-delusion
(as a brag) 

actually a pretty catchy little pop tune

Thirteen Dickinson Songs: The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt

in shapes
such as music might make
in its darker dreams
with consciousness
suspended

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Suite: Allegro - The Canadian Brass [from High, Bright, Light and Clear]

busy elves
happy at their tasks
unless
dentistry
is your thing

Banned Rehearsal 138 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [May 27, 1988]

the space of the sound's room
is immediately apparent 

do we perceive environment
before we perceive objects in it
(within earmind)? 

a sound
includes the space
in which
its fellow sounds
interpermeate it
(or else it gets lonely) 

is this from a telepath?
so welcoming
are those disparate sources
do not
presume
do
enjoy 

free space for causeless bliss 

causeless thought
mind outside causation
an absurdity? 

what might a caused thought look to be?
or appear to be? 

what motive cause
causes thought? 

the caws of crows
cause crows to caw
(strictly upon direct observation
or
the lack of the possibility of it)
we have no way
to confirm
how far back in our evolutionary lineage
language goes
(nor music)
(nor mathematics) 

Jasper Mountain Reserve
might not be telepathic
we would have had the Yamaha in the big house
and those mics might have been a mite close
oh
now we're all getting silly
that confirms it:
all in the same space
at the same time 

the rock and bone
are right there
in front of the squeaked balloon 

trianguclanglicar 

over-indulged proximity
overflows the signal pipeline 

that balloon
has been truly
and duly
squeaked 

flatulently eloquent
what's sharpulence? 

we are casting spells

World Island Festival - Sun Ra [from Monorails and Satellites]

no reason to let go just yet
time
to become more truly acquainted
closely held 

restless chipmunks
drift unevenly to sleep

Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded June 26, 2014]

the old chromatic descent of arpeggios trick 

fake to Ebenezoid quod libet 

perhaps
a tad clever for its size
but wothehell archy wotthehell

Doo Ba Ba Ray - Karin Blaine [from Dirty Money]

hid behind the doo ba ba ray 

even an ironic euphemism
is a euphemism
not
a speaking plainly 

(a flirtation)

July 30, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 742 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 21, 2008]

piano plays a soft chord on repeat
flutes hoot
a bell
a peaceful scene
bass rumble
guitar keen
a quiet energy
content
to sit and observe 

a pulse
does not impose
nor presume

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Track 1 - Pouch [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]

a languid yell
shout out
over a brooding

Gradus 331 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 16, 2018]

note bunches
poked sharply
pinned firmly
pressed evenly
and smooth
a conversation
of touch types
and gaps
of many angles 

we lust after regular cycles
a knowable known
old faithful 

we revel
in elaborations thereof 

what
is the there doing
in thereof?
whence comes it? 

I know nothing of there
::
I know nothing thereof

I know nothing of it
::
I know nothing itof
?

therefor?
where is there for?
where is for there? 

some other where
not there
not that there
some other there
that's where 

points to a location
in the structure of the statement 

it there
object location

there it
::
it there
a Romantic comedy
among the small words 

meanwhile
the pitch bunches play their touch game
touch
(the game thereof) 

new rung
watcha playing?
touch
my favorite
may I join?
(yes,
it would seem) 

the old within the new
by means of continuity of gambit 

fountain of open arms
revisiting Intermezzo I

sonority
articulation
touch
polyphony
motion

concrete to conceptual 

musical motion
is entirely conceptual
sonority
entirely sensual

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Guns and Money - Steve Layton [from No Mind]

reality loop
power pressure
ambient dystopia 

(dystopia,
the ambiance thereof) 

this music
is a box
with sounds in it

Travelin' Man - Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

made his livin'
stealin' chickens
police shot him
down
wouldn't give up
till then 

trickster legend
Renard and Co.

They Are There!, third take (1943) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Ives Plays Ives]

unsatisfied with the macho robustness of culture in general

Jasper Mountain Reserve
July 31, 2025

I've Got a Woman - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles at Newport (live)]

heart to heart
fake to the blues
handoff to the celebration

Make Someone Happy - Stevie Wonder [from With a Song In My Heart]

money to be made
from the happy biz 

song writing with spotlights and glitter

Money Won't Change You - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]

community advice
being passed
in the guise
of theatricalized sermonizing

One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor - Paul Simon [from There Goes Rhymin' Simon]

opens in the elevator
piano figure
ticking off the floors 
in passing 

our common packaging
architecture

Privilege (Set Me Free) - Patti Smith Group [from Easter]

the words of the Psalm
set off
in their own typeface

Rockaway Beach - the PKs [from Live in the Living Room]

neon sign
after
neon sign 

vacancy

eats

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Image - T Bone Burnett [from The Talking Animals]

Moulin Rouge
liberally applied
lurid stage lighting
same old story
in any lingo

Con amores, la mia madre - King's Singers [from Chanson d'amour]

respectful arrangement
of a pleasant song

Shadow Dance - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]

an album of songs
played together
to celebrate
the good time
of playing together 

greeting card smarmy 

no questions no conflict

Song of Solomon 3:1-3 (051705 E) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, May 17, 2005]

I'm pleased with the piano part
how
it is clearly a piano
but also
clearly
imitating other instruments
id est
two smaller instruments
within the piano as a whole
(no preparations necessary)

Symphony #1, fourth movement - Chuck Graef

a scene at the beach
Summer Holidays
cameraman people watching
haggle in the market
a booth
with an enchantress
another
with kites

Banned Rehearsal 846 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 28, 2013]

rattle jumps right in
on the resonance
of the announcement 

an art music
made from scratches
upon the surface of space 

let's make sci fi woo woo sounds 

subtle the scratch
subtle the art
subtle the music 

accepted
a conceptual geometry of space
within time
and time within space 

neo-non-Euclidean
cyclically warped 

the strangest sounds
hint
at chambers
of occulted geometries 

what does a triangle sound like here? 

soft spoken egalitarian noise culture 

polyloquy

Different Rules - Red Car Burns [from Red Car Burns split with Dead Bars]

making sense of contradictory instructions 

pig pile arrangement

Banned Rehearsal 1078 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 19, 2023]

it must have been chilly
as we are indoors in June 

we discover the session
by tapping on things
or plucking 

as the object requests 

we dive
into banjotwang
in a niche sort of way 

can a solid have eight equal faces?
(yes!!)
would the construction of a solid
of eight equal faces
require
that space bend
to accommodate the math
(not necessarily)

Jasper Mountain Reserve
Spider Man Blues - Bessie Smith [from Empty Bed Blues]

the room this music happened in
as a microphone hears it 

instrumental response
neither affirmation nor denial
nor neutral
nor uninvolved

This Is It - Judy Garland [from Judy In Love]

the tell-tale signifiers of cinematic happily ever afters

To Thee We Sing - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [recorded April 16, 1963]

mid century troubled triumphalism
with imported tenor 

moodword painting

The Gift - The Velvet Underground [from White Light/White Heat]

a story indifferently told
(with an accent)
sophomoric shock ending
monotonal narrative prosody
marking time
ha ha

Jasper Mountain Reserve
August 1, 2025

This Song Has No Title - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]

and its purpose
is to fill a crack in the album

Baby - Prince [from For You]

production value clogging every pore

October Love Song, dance mix - Chris & Cosey [from October (Love Song)]

the vocal track
dripped in
bits by bits
to drip
out of sight
below the machine dance 

separating each part
for ease of re-use

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 27, 2025

Ashley - Keith Eisenbrey

July 28, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 1130 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 26: Figure Studies 201 (part 1)

Two more solo piano improvisations. These are both from early in 2010.

1. Figure Study 100315
2. Figure Study 100405

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