Preface
Texts
Live
January 23, 2026
James Falzone: Mystery of Winter Skies
Chapel Performance Space,
Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
James Falzone: composer and penny
whistles, Luke Fitzpatrick and Alex Guy: violin, Erin Wight: viola, Rose
Bellini: cello
we wait
some chat
some poke their phones
we hear the sound
of bowed strings from the green room
an invocation on penny whistle
seeps into the soil of the string quartet
a soundboard
a resonator
a song is sung among them
a ritual enactment
this is not a story
this is not a hero nor a quest
incense of shruti box
tunes
solemn processional
(seated)
stations
of the gently sung
the constellations turn aside
a hymn is hymned
ends
as the
sky ends
Recorded
 |
| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Hey Love - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]
young humans negotiating the world
into which they find themselves
born
city lights eat you up inside
Maple Leaf 181017 B - Keith Eisenbrey
back outside
for more rain
I may have been on the porch for this
one
Ussers of Sleep Part 3 - S. Eric Scribner - Patrick Cunningham, S. Eric Scribner [from Ussers of Sleep]
a story with an orange cat
another with a wiener dog
another with
a coughing usser
Madrigals, Book IX: Perché se m'odiavi - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
when we speak
we inflect the thrust of our speech
by varying the
pitch
so
any mode of speaking
that determines the pitch of
that inflection
is a mode of rhetorical thrust
Gott der Vater wohnt uns bei, BuxWV 190 - Deiterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
the German church
building its ceremonial music
from the austere
hymn tunes
of its communal music
Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen, BWV 213 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Berliner Solisten, Kammerorchester Berlin, Peter Schreier, Edith Mathis, Carolyn Watkinson, Siegfried Lorenz
performer's personal stamp upon the performance
marking territory
if it calls attention to itself
especially if it's the same stamp upon
everything
defacement by star power
(not egregious here)
the staggered entrance
of polyphonic voices
is the essence of
fugue
the rest is mere fussiness
as far as being a fugue is
concerned
 |
| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 309 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
the art
of finding ways
not
just yet
to cadence
Kinderszene: Am Kamin, Op. 15 #8 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
a melody tossed between voices
Buch der Lieder I: Der du von dem Himmel bist, S531/5 - Franz Liszt - Alexandre Dossin
release yourself
into the magic reverie
clouds of singing
be
swept aloft
4 Pieces: Etude, Op. 56 #4 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
the melody stutters in the finger work
Squeeze Me - Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
the music slides easily among the musicians
I've Got a Crush On You - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
Broadway song
had a tell
the situation portion
to segue from
the action
and point toward
the confession portion
with the
memorable tune
Twist and Shout - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]
call and translation to text
See Saw - Pink Floyd [from A Saucerful of Secrets]
this music is its light show
maximum trippy
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]
macho independence dance
Growin' Up - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
in search of ferocious glory feeling
a song bloated by the story he rambles through
but perhaps the song was
shapeless to begin with
difficult to tell through all the jabber
Joanna - Kool & The Gang [a Rescued Record]
nothing to startle amaze or offend
this song starts by having gone on too long
Paths That Cross - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
anthem space
is an intimacy of yearning
O Rovas - Black Cat Orchestra [from Dante's Inferno Live Score]
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
since
one needs imagine a dance
the dance one imagines
is up
to you
costumes too
January 19, 2026
Nothing Even Matters (feat. D'Angelo) - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
favors measured vocal ornaments
neighbor note flips and turns
lightly touched
Oh Ben - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix]
this music has been squashed into a wad
from which little can be
discerned
Old Time Religion/Working on a Building - Rachel Harrington [from City of Refuge]
for singing on porches
On Tape (Alternate Version) - Lures [from Vacant]
the introductory guitar strums
instruct the band
as to tempo and
key
also
provides a midstream articulation
Lu La Lay [from an otherwise unlabeled Christmas Album]
comfort voice
fuzzy blanket
I am more frustrated than offended
more flabbergasted than frustrated
that
this should pass as sacred music
Intermezzo 5 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #3: 1982-1983]
there seems to be a bit
of some other sound low in the mix
I
wonder where that came from?
as though a Banned Rehearsal snuck in all
quiet
how strange
I can't think what I would have been thinking
the sound doesn't stop on the cue
You Ought To be Ashamed - Bessie Smith [from Empty Bed Blues]
the air has leaked out of this tempo
it lies limp and heavy on the floor
Bill - Morgana King [from Morgana King Sings The Blues]
slow dance groove
Six Days on the Road - Dave Dudley [collected from Dave Marsh's
The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
trucker tempo
back to the barn
Lady of the Evening - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irvin Berlin - All By Myself]
Broadway review two-parter
dancers on risers
fashionable costumery
Sea and Sand - The Who [from Quadrophenia]
this is sung successively
on either side of an affectual divide
Wasted - Black Flag [from The First Four Years]
scribbling hard
all the things he was
NY NY - Billygoats [from Bard Sampler 1982-1983]
overdoing the reverb
Banned Rehearsal 161 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 17, 1988]
music attendant upon the serving of coffee
an upshot of English
orthography's
preservationist attitude anent phonetics
is that
words
are differentially removed
from their sound
orthography
complicates context
invent your own ukulele chords
this music is an applied pressure
upon the space it projects into
the peculiar space
that recorded sound inhabits
and incorporates
in real space
is worth distinguishing
the sound
becomes an object of an occurrence
rather than
a
pre-objectivized occurrence
Christmas wishes
from Funmaker to you!
love the balance
between upfront toy piano
and soft backhush low
tones
on the not a toy piano
soft brass
in-your-ear toots
 |
| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Go On Miss Janet/Throb - Janet Jackson [from Janet]
a music can be a dance
and a music can be for a dance
and a music
can be for dancing to
and a music can shape itself
by and to
a social situation
that encourages dance
including the
negotiations preceding
this dance moves in short straight lines
left right
fro and back
no diagonals in this grid
The Garden - PJ Harvey [from Is This Desire?]
story begins in the middle
at point of decision
slips to the side
all between the same bindings
Track 5 [from Eisenbrey 2003 {from my mom's collection}]
this sounds Russian?
string ensemble
familiarish
but I can'
t place it
Tchaikovsky or Borodin
or one of that crew
Gradus 149 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 8, 2008]
some notes are solid objects
some are bubbles in a stream
where an event sits
within our experience of events
is not
strictly analogous
to its position on a time line
two events
can be
a here
and a there
to each other
interchangeably
irrespective
of time point comparison
a music
open
to outside of music
not quite self-contained
but determinate
I Don't Know - Cornelius Dufallo, Patrick Derivaz [from
Bass Violin]
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
lava lamp liquidity lumps
looping lazily
dazzlingly
electric
spirit blossoms
so pretty
so
what's so terrible
about simply making music
puppet of the culture
stare at it back
culture
is authority
and must be questioned
Gradus 341 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 29, 2018]
he reads out his bingo cards of notes
and the tumbler is rolled
and out the note balls bounce upon the floor
Bdldldldl Bdldldldl
into the dark cellars we tumble
into puddles on the concrete slab
lit by a feeble flame
but lit all the same
registral seriality
Meta-Variations declines to define pitch
preferring it to be primitive
or
if we start at pitch
what can we build
and how might it compare
with starting
with something else
as undefined primitive?
would the structure of
the models
be similar in interesting ways?
When I Closed My Eyes - Steve Layton [from No Mind]
objects in space
float past the viewing screen
signals in time
drift
across the listening screen
When I Woke Up This Morning - Jim Jackson [from That Devilin' Tune]
that's why I'm going to send you this song
she's gone gone gone
I Don't Want to Play In Your Yard - Peggy Lee [from Sea Shells]
dreamy childhood kink
but she sells it
we'll flirt
with
phrases from a children's book
of comportment and politesse
Night Train - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
keep it simple stupid
it sells
Ball and Chain - Big Brother and the Holding Company [from Cheap Thrills]
low in the throat
curled around the energy of the emerging blues
Dirty Little Girl - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]
misogyny pop
let's talk nasty boy
to bond
with the nasty
boys guild
My Town - The Michael Stanley Band [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
over-extended guitar strum introduction
muscular projection
Gangsta Gangsta - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]
filling shoes of a legend hero
Never Forget You - Mariah Carey [from Music Box]
end of phrase ornament
a quick 3-step descent
I Guess I Planted - Billy Bragg & Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]
this sound
overwhelms its song
with shrill guitars and plodding
drums
Oh Lady - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix]
writhing in sensual tension
 |
| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Roadmap to Nippletown - Antique Scream [from Antique Scream]
this song must be approached warily
'cause we're gonna talk dirty
and we revel in the shame of it
Watered Down - Swearin' [from Surfing Strange]
changes
in the shape of the stanza
differently shaped stanza
differently shaped changes
Wants to Get Out - Amy Denio [from Lost in Space, Live at The Player's Lounge]
changes
in the form
of an unspooling scroll
Intermezzo 6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #3: 1982-1983]
if a second bunch of notes
seems to reference a first bunch of notes
we will seek
to continue a chain of reference
same with
bunches of bunches
seeming to reference
is all that matters
I'm Wild About My Lovin' - Jim Jackson [from Really The Blues]
an advertisement brag
mule cart tempo
Blue Genius - Ray Charles, Milt Jackson [from Soul Brothers/Soul Meeting]
they speak as three ears in one
somehow
the bass and the drums
are one ear
The Bird's The Word - The Rivingtons [collected from Dave Marsh's
The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
dance craze for teen mouseketeers
I'm So Tired - The Beatles [from The Beatles (The White Album)]
using his words
but letting it all hang out in the chorus
I Will Take That Ride - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
fantasizing
being the kind of guy
that the kind of girl
who
would say
that sort of thing
to that kind of guy
would say
that kind of thing to
were you
that sort of guy
you
fantasize being
Think Too Much (a) - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]
the groove
moves
like a beautiful machine
mid rhymes
experienced
a period
of grace
Banned Rehearsal 162 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 22, 1988]
we seem to be waiting
only occasionally bumping a note
bumps are
invitations
I wonder if this might be something Neal was doing for us
we seem so politely quiet
to be listening
thinking with pitches played
along with pitches sung
feeling a way lower
search out footing
anything to do
must take up
a whole alottment of time
 |
| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
must have been a written out thing
I insist on verbalization
must have been a birthday piece for Aaron
but avoid it when possible
perhaps the second Pastoral?
music composed in the past tense
always describing something
before
that had happened
a Perdulaise?
the retraction
of Euchababilla?
here for all time
the secret is out
I say
I am careful
to observe
that
I am under no obligation
to say
perhaps Neal had not seen my journal in a while
smoking a saxophone
Da Mystery of Chessboxin' - Wu-Tang Clan [from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)]
an outfit
with a mode of acting
a stage show
The Lonely Little Thrift Store - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]
avocado green appliances
scent of domestic violence
detritus of
divorce
Banned Rehearsal 749 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 15, 2008]
guitar and trumpet
in a chilly studio
light percussion
articulation
the microphones are pointed out audibly
one over here
and one over there
Venus - Lady Gaga [from Artpop]
dance club
immediacy of pounding
cram the moving bodies together
January 22, 2026
Banned Rehearsal 969 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 5, 2018]
we begin immediately
because the listening
was already present
we bounce our sounds around
across mechanisms
we drum and
bong some bells
negotiations between motor brain
and saying brain
hands
are a tool
for grappling with space
triadic harmony
is difficult to transgress
unnoticed
the image of stability sustained
can only be continued or broken
warm viola tones
let's sing a little song
Let's Not Kid Ourselves - Star Anna [from Love Shades {streamed
February 14, 2018}]
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
a song about breaking up
but first we tune
Kassey Jones Parts 1 and 2 - Furry Lewis [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
working man legend song
water was low
watch was slow
You'll Never Walk Alone - Nina Simone [from Little Girl Blue]
the tearjerker anthem's
tearjerker anthem
What'll I Do - The Fleetwoods [from Come Softly To Me]
soft porn vocal harmonies
in threesome parts
Here's That Rainy Day (alternate) - Bill Evans [from Alone]
the song flows
but we are present
at each of its moments
Peacherine Rag - Scott Joplin - E. Power Biggs
might a rag
be a way
for phrases to behave
in twos and
fours
organized
by a cyclic chord change pattern
Forgive Me (My Little Flower Princess) - John Lennon [from Milk and Honey]
this sounds to me unfinished
not all the words are filled in yet
665 - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]
somebody was left alone with the equipment on
Pennyroyal Tea - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]
long eee vowel
on the same high pitch
at the end of successive
lines
In Session at The Tintinabulary
January 18, 2026
Hartford - Keith Eisenbrey
January 19, 2026
Gradus 426 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
a phantasm of pitch emerges
as a dynamic terrain
descends lightly
to bless gently
familiar faces
from new surrounds
composing
so as
to maximize the distinctions
between events
by maximizing
the intricacy
of their internal
articulations
a compositional object
is so
by virtue
of its internal
articulations
parklands
among the steppes
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Kosály-Meyer, Verrall, Palmer, Baker, Oldham, Osborn, and Cobb
This album is a selection of music by various Seattle-area composers, composed between the 1940s and 2010 or so.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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