Preface
"Julia Margaret Cameron, the third daughter of Janies Pattle of the Bengal Civil Service, was born on June 11, 1815. Her father was a gentleman of marked, but doubtful, reputation, who after living a riotous life and earning the title of 'the biggest liar in India', finally drank himself to death and was consigned to a cask of rum to awaiting shipment to England. The cask was stood outside the widow's bedroom door. In the middle of the night she heard a violent explosion, rushed out, and found her husband, having burst the lid off the coffin, bolt upright menacing her in death as he had menaced her in life. 'The shock sent her off her head then and there, poor thing, and she died raving.' It is the father of Miss Ethel Smyth who tells the story (Impressions that Remained), and he goes on to say that, after 'Jim Blazes' had been nailed down again and shipped off, the sailors drank the liquor in which the body was preserved, 'and, by Jove, the rum ran out and got alight and set the ship on fire! and while they were trying to extinguish the flames she ran on a rock, blew up, and drifted ashore just below Hooghly. And what do you think the sailors said? "That Pattle had been such a scamp that the devil wouldn't let him go out of India!"'"
Virginia Woolf, from Introduction to Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women by Julia Margaret Cameron, Hogarth Press, Nov 1926
Texts
Recorded
 |
| Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Madrigals, Book IX: Quando dentro al tuo seno - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
in rhythmic unison mostly
Praeludium in D minor, BuxWV 140 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
shoving around big blocks of notes
stage set for the fugue
interlude reconfigures in bits and pieces
new fugue
we
struggle to the triumphal end
December 21, 2025
Partita in D Major, BWV 828 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gunther Hasselman
each line is its own music
always at least two things going on
and
a new thing seems to begin
every few moments
the lines are listening
to what each other is saying
polyphony
as multiple lines
in conversation
December 22, 2025
Sonata in G Major, Kk. 305 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
in the 18th Century
composers were intent
on intricate
constructions
as discovered
to be possible
within
the
common tonal understandings
what was allowable
what was redeemable
what was deferable
what was clever
what was astonishing
Kinderszenen: Bittendes Kind, Op. 15 #4 - Robert Schumann, Florian Uhlig
the holy purity of children
a Romantic image
Hexameron - Grandes Variations de bravoure sur le marche des Puritains, S. 392 - Franz Liszt - William Wolfram
monumentality requires grandiloquence
important books require impressive bindings
nothing worth doing
that isn't worth overdoing
Elaine makes a connection to Liberace
the glee of making music sparkle
showman without peer
the melodic
within
the figurational drama all around it
overdone thrice over and more
Etude in F minor, Op. 42 #7 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
restlessly quiet
Faust et Hèléne - Lili Boulanger - BBC Philharmonic, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Lynne Dawson, Ann Murray, Bonaventura Bottone, Jason Howard
as the 20th Century began
music became obsessed with its legacy
and the weight of history on its shoulders
revisiting here
an obsession
of the previous century
a single-scene opera?
pretty wild
no need for stage machines
it's all there in the music
West End Blues - Louis Armstrong [from That Devilin' Tune]
see Liszt above
for extravagant introduction passages
blues lines are articulated
across their middles
Epilogue - Bill Evans [from Everybody Digs Bill Evans]
we say goodnight and close our eyes
Devil In Her Heart - The Beatles [from With The Beatles]
lots of maraca
Money (That's What I Want) - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]
early stereo studio sound
hard channels
All In Love Is Fair - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]
showing off his vowels and articulated diphthongs
half the song by the
clock is hyperextended vowels
Shake It - David Bowie [from Let's Dance]
woke up with a good and hopeful attitude
Mystery Pain - U-Men
the full paragraph celebration
of flat sameness
in a sinister
light
 |
| Karen, Sourdough Ridge Trail |
Banned Playalong Playedalong 3 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 13, 1988]
we have imported a hum
a profound hum
inhabiting the entire
architectural chamber
the negative space
upon which the sounds
of the playalong's piano
are pressed
re-ripening in their decay
we set up a counteracting machine
out of a Funmaker rhythm
and
honk
and declaim
and shake small items
||:||:today:||is two days:||
[(Thursday)]
after that day
when
today
today is two years
we have awakened the Aaronsbundler
cheers!
we toss sounds into the hum pool
rattle our fists
none vanquish
all are swallowed
we sing it our hymns
and click sticks over
it
Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 - Empire Brass [from Class Brass on the Edge]
harmless
Mamacita - Outkast [from Aquemini]
working with the rhythms
of a mode of street speech
Dinner in Pleasantville - Jack Straw Cultural Center Blind Youth Audio Project [from Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
broccoli mommy
Zither Film Mix 00 Backwards - Keith Eisenbrey
now the impact zone sneaks up
one must be patient
sounds look
different from behind
the individuals have not become a crowd
though they can be seen to clump
now and then
approaching a metropolis
it will only get worse
what if
an expanse of time
were not a social space?
what if
it were?
EWR to LHR - Jaguar Shark
an attempt to fit all one is
into a single sound
Banned Rehearsal 967 - Pete Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 24, 2018]
we gather ourselves together
with our various intents
if sounds have focus
how many are there?
we intone
for the benefit of the hour
that this
our hour
might be a better space
bridging gaps
with memorable elements
conflating times
into
a greater moment
now for serious matters
and industry
honing the edges
speaking from the bellows
Chamber Music IV: Filtered Light - Steve Peters [from Chamber Music]
a music that is a space
I've always Been a Rambler - Grayson & Whittier [from
Turn Me Loose White Man]
Gradus 425
autobiographical stanzas
as a moral warning
Lorelei - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
a most immoral eye
they called her Lorelei
Where Are You - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]
recorded all at once
in the same space
at the same time?
I
would not be surprised
everybody's actually together
I Heard Her Call My Name - Velvet Underground [from White Light/White Heat]
an urban hero man
is something to be
A Song For You - Morgana King [from New Beginnings]
declaration of state of mind
addressed to a specific person within the
poem
fragranced with harp
In Session at The Tintinabulary
December 21, 2025
Naomi - Keith Eisenbrey
December 22, 2025
Gradus 425 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
tossing coins for notes
to proscribe design
to enforce discovery
December 24, 2025
Detritus 12 - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 29:
Figure Studies 2015-2018
Autoheterophony
2016
In this volume is collected the latest in a series of solo piano improvisations made between 2015 and 2018, as well as a 2016 hymnody project in which I engaged with four hymns that have been familiar to my ear before I knew what music was.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
No comments:
Post a Comment