Playlist

Preface

detail of an image by Anne Gorrick

"Part of them approved
With words and added fuel to his anger,
And part approved with silence, and yet all
Were grieving at the loss of humankind,
Were asking what the world would be, bereft
Of mortals: who would bring their altars incense?
Would earth be given the beasts, to spoil and ravage?"
- Ovid "Metamorphoses" (translated by Rolfe Humphries)

Texts

Recorded

January 11, 2020
Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 68 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

Sequences of figures alternate between moving and holding still. Then the sequences all move. Then only a part inside moves in modal shift. And now back to when we started, but with a flourish.

Ceremony of Carols - Benjamin Britten - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey (director), JoAnne Deacon (piano)

A procession clomping clump clomp up to the risers.
Each verse is set.
Static. Flat.
Picture Book. Block Print.
(Relies on wide open grin charm.)
Front cover. Back cover.
Clump clomp clump clomp.

One; Another - Jo Anna Allen, Benjamin Boretz (Inter/Play)

Ben's mbira moment
shimmer bells shimmer

sea bird keen
keen sea bird keen

This is an unstable
→tenuous←
pitch space
we inhabit here

Noh punctuation

crumarmbira
such lovely melody

tres belles
bell trees

Superman - REM [from Life's Rich Pageant]

such a 60s sound
psychedelic Beatles
song structure: strongly developed, complete, composed.
Well done fellas!

Untitled (Slow Waltz) 6th version - Gavin Borchert - Keith Eisenbrey

reverb: grandly huge
(rolls around in it)

title of a work: an inseparable part
Is the untitling a decision to not title or rather to title it untitled?

reverberation: the space sings back

Teenage Daughter - Whiting Tennis [from Three Leaf Clover]



a considered arrangement
(We heard Whiting Tennis several years ago at a nearby dive.)

January 12, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 801 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 2011]



an arcade of curiosities

detail of an image by Anne Gorrick

Simultaneity of attack is not a thing that can happen among these sounds. Even were it to be demonstrated to have happened as an acoustic event-fact, recourse made to a study of the wave form, it wouldn't sound like it, because the parts themselves are in such granularly conceived individually specific time worlds as to be un-comparable at any such bludgeonly level as simultaneity could exist in. If simultaneity of attack is impossible (and sequence at least partly undeterminable) can there be a meter? a tempo? syncopation?

Rattle: a contained chaotic system, like humans.

We have transgressed to the rear corridors of the arcade, its backrooms and utility closets.

Rearview - Three Fingers [from Go Deep]



Vocal syllables are not just on notes, but each note has a vector-complex of diphthong to keep it lively.

Sonata in F minor, K. 69 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

a repeating
or a seeming to be a repeating
figure made of pitch contours
with familial resemblances

Christmas Oratorio - Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns - Bellevue First Methodist Church Chancel Choir, Betty Eisenbrey (director)

detail of an image by Anne Gorrick

Overture: hanging out in the lobby of the piece proper.
We can consider replacing the specific composed accompanimental sound with a stand-in - such as piano or organ for orchestra - but not so much of replacing the choir and leaving the orchestration otherwise unmolested. Changeling accompaniments.

In order to be a Masterpiece (tm) of this type it must be doable by amateurs or it won't sell.

Helluva soprano there!

He gave the Magnificat to a mixed ensemble of solo singers - heavy on the male end.

A rather dreary business in the end.

Respectable Street - XTC - [from Fossil Fuel]

The drum sound has an interesting isolation.
The art of stage dance has morphed into the art of music video

January 14, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 108 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 1986]



Utterance is experimental at root. We don't know what we think until we do, can't know the effect of our thought, ever. Hot tea helps on a chilly evening. It is a comfort to know there are some live ones left in these melancholy days. Also sprach Mehitabel. And sometimes we mark time only.

January 16, 2020
Untitled (Slow Waltz) 7th version - Gavin Borchert - Keith Eisenbrey

Each of these Versions 2 through 7 was made using the "Acoustic Mirror" effect in Sound Forge. At the time I made them I was concerned that the result was too obviously fake. But after all these years I understand this is largely because of the close proximity I had to hearing the raw take. All recorded acoustic images are exactly as fake as all the others.

As a composition, the central or key image is the just-too-long collapsing modulation sequence that occurs just before the first long pause: after which the image of that sequence is heard to have been permeating, and to continue so to permeate, every motion. It is and was the moment it hears itself.

Gradus 110 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 2006]

modified detail of an image by Anne Gorrick

the second A
but first let us pause
before we break our silence

let us not linger
except over the pause after

Minimalism: the art of decoupling specificity from iteration.
side thought: music engravure as a form of critique or analysis.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

January 13, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 997 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt



It was a cold dark snowy night. Aaron braved a brief break in the precipitation to join us here at the Tintinabulary, keeping us on track to get to number 1000 in time for our show at Gallery 1412 on Groundhog's Eve.

Postscripts

ward purgation terrible frightful

sensory night length the spiritual

rare since this base manner lead lowly ex-

to little dots that flash
the bridge

densely mirrored

Playlist

Live

June 20, 2019
Music & Dance, curated by Stephanie Skura
Seattle Improvised Music Festival
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Dancers: Linda Austin (PDX), Paige Barnes, Vanessa DeWolf, Nate Dryden (SLC), Jordan MacIntosh-Hougham, Stephanie Skura;

Musicians: Dave Knott, homemades; Steve Peters, field recordings, found things; Jenny Ziefel, clarinets

Highlights of the instruments: Steve's activated branch; Dave's bow; Jenny and her clarinets becoming a single other among the dancers.

dancers (here) are a huggy bunch

enclosed and dis-enclosed

groups or and dis-bands

signals and or dis-signs

tuned to out or tuned and in to dis-signiation

innerloper innervited

parrot dis-parate

a parent dis-apparent

posture im-post

shadowed is shaded shadow shades

rattle bow bone stick

imp-dis-posturating

Recorded

June 16, 2019
Sonata in E Major, K. 20 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

as one enters the task is clear and bright
no problems everything is taken care of
all of it
and even hearing all of it twice

wait, what?

My Cup Runneth Over - Harvey Schmidt - Mary Martin, Robert Preston [from I Do! I Do!]

two well matched singers, singing it straight, getting it right

Riot - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters / In God We Trust]

outing the pleasure of it

to really consider it (riot) as a social activity the thrill of it must be acknowledged

its purpose is to force a response
to bring the war home to see

a high and a crash

It's Hard to be a Saint in the City - Bruce Springsteen [from Live 1975-1985]

Metamorphic - AMM [from The Nameless Uncarved Block]

after preliminary display, gets down to its shadow quiet business in earnest

She's Got Everything She Needs [?] - Bob Dylan [from Key Arena October 13, 2006]

BD is ill served, musically, by his fame. It closes to him the more appropriate venues for what he does. Consider the multitude in attendance here, of which I was one, applauding for all he has been, not (necessarily) for what he just done. We, in short, are no longer capable of hearing what he is doing, having been deafened by his past, smothered in the overlarge room.

Whiskey In The Jar (Neal's vocal) - Train Case [July 2011]

He even gets the 'd' in awakened. In the last verse, where he sings the counter part, we hear the subtle intonational inflection required for blood harmony.

No Tattoos - Dead Bars [from Split w/ The Tim Version]



and I wann-ta forget everything

tá toos
TAT ous

lives for the woa oa oa oa oas in the middle

Sonata in D Major, K. 21 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

If the piano is the master of the just-so chord voicing, the harpsichord wins on glittering figuration.

Whiskey Man - The Who [from A Quick One]

double (literary sense): the shadow image of intimacy
or the desire for same

United - Throbbing Gristle [from Greatest Hits]

robot dance Totentanz Heine-isch
faithfully together for ever and ever

June 18, 2019
Kosály-Meyers 2 - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 1986]

mostly rubbing
hard on hard
but also tapping
barking seal
cookware bells and guitar

The bridge of any stringed instrument is generally optimized in its location upon the sound board. What if it were, instead, liberated, freed to explore? Imagine an instrument designed not from the sound up, as in traditional computer musics, but rather from the structural and acoustic properties of an object up? A complex of materials that could be struck or incited anywhere by any thing any which way at will and with abandon? Behold: Forming.

This tape is getting rather fun. Lovely! It does not aim. It does. Neal speaks from Romans, an Epistle to. See Psalm 8:2 the fineness of one's focus determines one's self at each moment.

The typewriter fires off a writing. Perhaps a poem Measured by the firing of its keys.

whapk wapk whakp

sudden song: Mail That Letter (N K-M)

I ate a plum. A lesson to end.

June 19, 2019

Four for composers' ensemble - Bard College Composers' Ensemble [from Open Space 6]

problem: if a music, not necessarily this music, is intended to not intend, that is, is not intended to produce a desired result, but is, rather, intended to allow some result of a set of results, to be discovered later, is that still too much weight, to much expectation, too much burden? Does, or might, for instance the mere nearness of academic imprimatur infect with anxiety even the expressly eschewed, vehemently sequestered, activity therein engaged? I.e., can we escape, anywhere, how we got to here and the socio-economic power structures permeating our environment? Even when all those are absolutely abjured?

(It helps to have outsiders.)

Too much, that is, for an experience to arise untainted by intention?

**

However, "composers' ensemble" hits the right note. Like a string quartet: I play violin in a string quartet

thus

I play composer in a composers' ensemble
composing amongst them a composition of composition

some piercing shrieking has arisen
unpretty
wild with power

nonbinding but persuasive agreement to make something specifically not described, but cooperatively arranged as in a service of worship

In Session at the Tintinabulary

June 16, 2019
Ginkgo in Turquoise Ink 190616 - Anne Gorrick - Keith Eisenbrey

I gave Anne Gorrick's encaustic monotype another run, this time on the steel-string guitar my brother Paul made (his first) and gave to me after (he says) he got better at making them.












June 17, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 983 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt


Neal was in or on his way home from Mexico City, where he was participating in a James Joyce conference. Next week: The 35th Bannediversary.

Postscripts

uniroyal-soled sandal in the minor

league stacks along with all the bigs he was

probably offed he wasn't rubbed right likes

sand paper
stones
time

Playlist

Recorded

June 9, 2019

Introduction - Bob Dylan [from Key Arena October 13, 2006]

that's it, just the introduction folks.
also, the last entry in this volume of my listening journal

onward!

Whiskey in the Jar (Karen's Vocal) - Train Case [July 2011]

the verse climbs to hang high
chorus climbs to descend again into the jar

Ghost Town - Three Fingers [from Three Songs]

drive the beat for full accusatory impact

Sonata in F Major K. 17 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

material is introduced shortly before its attributes begin to converse
possible directions are hinted at
remaining as potentials even after box is all tied up

I Need You - The Who [from A Quick One]

somebody felt a need to boost Moon's bit
tag end harpsichord

White Knuckles - Elvis Costello [from Trust]

many words are spoken
scenes from in their heads

Banned Telepath 6 San Diego - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 1986]

didj and bells
The earbrain distinguishes objects from within the raw signal.
It objectivizes or organizes the signal :- that sound -: :- that other sound -:
that note, that other note
that process (that other process)
that wood drum with those sticks that reverb
Extremely fine distinguishing power, but it can be fooled compositionally by designing higher level patterns in form and figuration that bend our hearing toward their own objects.
Thus melody is a kind of aural illusion, a trick upon the mind, sleight of hand.
Keep your ear on the signal folks.

discussion of phone numbers
guitar strumburrs

Perception is a useful abstraction of the universe outside of perception, by which we make that universe conscious, by becoming conscious, aware of being conscious. Our bodies are organs of our own abstraction.

Well *how are* you? Is your mother home?

Bickleton Burger with extreme stereo separation (Seattle to San Diego)
Summoning the phone to ring. Its bell. contact has been made around the horn.

Well *how nice to talk to* you! Is your mother home?

Loose Change - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

a song in a story and variations

Gradus 102 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 2006]

to distinguish
to identify
to abstract

composition interferes with our hearing brain

teawhistle of a bygone age

form is a resonator, an effect, a function, a pattern or a procedure,

(procedurisprudence)

Postlude  - Bob Priest - Marzena Music Ensemble [from Hendrix Uncovered]

a thank you as taped from another source onto cheap cardboard stock
a very subtle form of art

Banned Rehearsal 915 - Jenny Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 2016]


bunch of folks chatting on the porch ease slowly into the going of it
stepping into the literal intrusion of sound of the outside armed with just a few makers of noise
and our wits
a passable fade pulled off gratis
3rd start's a charm vroom vroom rev it up
we converse with the revver
there goes another
diesler dieseler
that time smear effect of the mixers or seminars with just a few noisemakers and the general monotonous soughing din of civilization

rev it up
again
trouble with that engine

(duet for treble trombone and revving engine)

Sonata in D minor K. 18 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

Sturm und Drang in the hot seething oils of a sardine tin
you must pay the rent I can not pay the rent

Something Has Happened - Harvey Schmidt - Mary Martin [from I Do! I Do!]

paid the rent. this shit just got real
historical note: automatically a boy is assumed

Track 11 - Empire Brass Quintet [from American Brass Band Journal Revisited]

a sprightly concert march

Homeless - Paul Simon [from Graceland]

they are all showing off
all of them

I Cried All Night Long - Harvie Sims [from Art of Field Recording Volume 1]

sweet blues from Harvie
how the pitch set rounds the corner one verse to the next

I Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More - Bob Dylan [from Key Arena October 13, 2006]

We've been here before
he needs more words to similar result to HS above
or gets less result per word

Whiskey In The Jar (Neal's Vocal) - Train Case (July 2011]

pre-strum banter removed

All Alone - Robber's Roost [from Swallow Your Fears]


That's getting pretty tight there Mark!

June 11, 2019
Sonata in D minor K. 19 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

sudden 1 2 3 4 punk compromised arrival points whew!

O Soul - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [April 1966, from a private tape]

with violins
the build to ecstaticity
Frau Blücher?
then the pious moral of the story fit for youths and maidens

Back 2 The Base - X [from Wild Gift]

rhythm of speaking
words only matter in so far as they are required to articulate the accentuation of syllables

June 12, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 101 - Karen (Meyer) Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [collected from Telepaths 6, June 1986]


we talk to Aaron before he calls us
a muddled din

the Seattle contingent must have started the tape last, in each case

Q: what is the more noisy meal?

A: dinner.

what counts for suspense:
how we line up

it was Anna & Neal's tape that started first

productivity of the 2nd year is up

June 13, 2019

We Can't Be Stopped - Geto Boys [from We Can't Be Stopped]

spelling of hip hop names
Websterish simplification, american as it gets

whistling in the dark
old game

Wicked World - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 2006]

preachin'

Why is it, wicked that is
not how
but why
does it come from outside us or what

letting go of it is a problem

Pouch-A-Holics Anonymous - Pouch

sung (pitched) vocal projection is a tight wad of pitch verticalized in the other (shredded) vocal projection
shredscream scredshream
all the pitches chosen
at once

Blood and Fire, Hallelujah (with Second Thoughts Omnibus) - Keith Eisenbrey [August 2016]

one of my more perversely wonderful mashups
spine straight and unblinking

It's just the way it worked out, but it sounds like gunfire at the end of things
or syllabic talking rhythm

BaF,H (2010) as it was finally conceived is a concerto for piano and canned sound
STO is the 9th of my Études d'exécution imminent of 2016, in this midi version each bit is played as a canon and all the bits are interlocked end to end

In Session at the Tintinabulary

June 10, 2019
Ginkgo in Turquoise Ink 190610 - Anne Gorrick - Keith Eisenbrey



I became acquainted with Anne through an Open Space connection. My first thought on seeing this

Anne Gorrick, encaustic monotype 2019

particular encaustic monotype was "that would make a lovely score!"

So I played it as such, the image displayed on a device propped on the left end, the clavichord played with fingers on the keys or strumming the wires, or brushing and whumping the harp of it with an old felt cat toy. I'll probably do a few more sessions, or rework this somehow, or both. Not sure yet because I haven't done it. It is a lovely score, thank you Anne!

Postscripts

involves impurity think the in
devotion delight prayer in all as they
looking books and one minute and the next

by the motions of the whole distance between

the oak leaf jumps from road to puddle

the stone track sits on a wool blanket