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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
"'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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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)
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
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
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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]
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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 teenybopperisch 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"
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| Jasper Mountain Reserve |
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
