"'I'll tell you what I shall do, to get up my shooting again,' said Mr.
Winkle, who was eating bread and ham with a pocket-knife. 'I'll put a stuffed
partridge on the top of a post and practise at it, beginning at a short
distance, and lengthening it by degrees. I understand it's capital
practice.'
'I know a gen'l'man, sir,' said Mr. Weller, 'as did that, and
begun at two yards; but he never tried it on agin; for he blowed the bird
right clean away at the first fire, and nobody ever seed a feather on him
arterwards.'
'Sam,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Sir,' replied Mr. Weller.
'Have
the goodness to reserve your anecdotes till they are called for.'
'Cert'nly,
sir.'
Here Mr. Weller winked the eye which was not concealed by the
beer-can he was raising to his lips, with such exquisiteness that the two boys
went into spontaneous convulsions and even the long man condescended to
smile."
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"
Texts
Live
March 7, 2023
UW Modern Music Ensemble, Cristina L. Valdés, Director
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater, Meany Hall, Seattle
Black is the Colour...(omaggio à Berio) - Patricia Alessandrini - Cassandra Lear, Brian Schappals, Randy Zhang, Ryan Farris, Melissa Wang, Alex Fang
brush wind blow
soft bell
four to operate upon the piano
the percussionist has nearly crawled
inside
Cendres - Kaija Saariaho - Cassandra Lear, Ryan Farris, Alex Fang
precarious piles
stacks of odd sized volumes
segments fulcrumed
upon a pitch
delineated segments of activity
Selections from Microexercises - Christian Wolff - Cassandra Lear, Nicholas Hidy, Mackenzie Snow, Beau Wood, Melissa Wang, Alex Fang
sinewed with pitch work
unison at any level
of any aspect
skews identity
lab work
As soft, fast, long as possible - Huck Hodge - Cassandra Lear, Rachel Reyes, Brian Schappals, Nicholas Hidy, Mackenzie Snow, Jai Lasker, Beau Wood, Alex Fan, Melissa Wang
the opening gesture had not read the title
a sound that morphs
Growing Block - Sarah Hennies - Cassandra Lear, Rachel Ryes, Brian Schappals, Nicholas Hidy, Mackenzie Snow, Jai Lasker, Beau Wood, Alex Fang, Melissa Wang
if music is a social act
what is the meaning of it
for the
performers of that act
in the absence of the author of their actions?
Chamber Concerto No. 3: Divergence - Huang Ruo - Cassandra Lear, Brian Schappals, Mikhail Schmidt, Christine Lee, Cristina L. Valdés
winds enter from the sides
after the start
piano drumming
vigorous gestural
general obsession
with the how
of how instruments are played
composition
as an exercise
in inventing
or exploiting
techniques?
Recorded
Fantasia, Fvb. 237 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the opening figure
the basis for everything
need not be
entertaining
just clear and structurally functional
the musical
accumulates around it
is guided by it
its tempo
is
dependent
on keeping the quickest
later subdivision
clear
Grand Duo in E Major on themes from Meyerbeer’s Robert Le Diable, KKII6/1 - Frédéric Chopin - Carter Grey, Garrick Ohlsson
playing in one of Liszt's favorite haunts
opera highlights and their
transformation
for the first two minutes in
the cello plays only
four notes
then
takes the microphone and the spotlight
I don't know Robert the Devil well enough
to know what kind of number
Chopin plays on his plot
Traveling C--- - Luke Jordan [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
trickster and escape artist
'til the police shot him down
a bit of
Renard to him
Golden Gate Gospel Train - Golden Gate Quartet [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
same train
same song
different collection
came round again
bell goes tangg tangg tangg
more train than gospel to it
Bird's Nest - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
there was a way of bringing something to a close
that developed in jazz
of the early decades of recording
tutti return to the head
after
solos were done
control kept on the duration
so they wouldn't
spill over the end of a track
that would fit on 78s or 45s
even when she's singing the song as written
it isn't
Hard Times - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]
quite the piano player in that
The Gnome - Pink Floyd [from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]
starts in a similar novelty song place
as David Bowie's gnome song
but settles into a corner more odd
For The Roses -Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
uses her vocal registers
with poetically detailed precision
Beat on the Brat - Ramones [from Leave Home]
urban toughs
transgressionary black humor
novelty song
Big Science 2 - Laurie Anderson [from Big Science]
stray thoughts passing through a daydreamer's brain parts
the guitar
playing is more than passable
Time Will Crawl - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]
a survivor's tale and prophecy
so party goers can dance
with
suitably jaded attitudes
Short Side of Nothing - Los Lobos [from Kiko]
open with chord-change rhyme-scheme
to which
the sung melody
applies itself
with intent
to illuminate
finish with
condensed rethought
of that opening chord-rhyme change-scheme
March 5, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 644 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 13, 2002]
an instrument
that is played by pressing keys
will generate
a music
expressive of keypressing propensity
likewise
plucking strings
or twiddling dials
will generate music
expressive
of string plucking
and dial twiddling
propensities
unless
one is very careful
can be broadly determinate of musical forms
Neal is playing plucked strings
plucked strings through a synthesizer
with sliders and settings
I am playing plucked strings
through an amplifier
with dials
manner of an instrument's production of sound
to speak in the native
music of that instrument
striking with sticks
drums
have heads
and drumsticks
have heads
a drum
is played
by striking the drumstick
head
upon the head of the drum
headbanging
guitars and drums
strums and strikes
there is a strong need felt
to keep things lively
by changing
notes a lot
a nervous form of inertness
slow down you move too
fast
last morning the make to got you've
Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]
Bruce decides to be The Beach Boys
What's Wanting For - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Sound Effects Coffee Shop, Seattle, October 16, 2012]
three more
than
wanting one
those twinkling lights
are forming constellations that talk amongst
themselves
any space
has an inherent filter
upon any sound
its particular acoustics
a filter
can be amplified
by
means of feedback
and made audible
as a sound
filters of
sounds
are sounds
sounds
are filters
this music
is made of audible filters
their constellations have tongues
signing off now
off we are gone
Rungs for Neal - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, November 17, 2022]
combinations have regions of varied climes
one can see music from here
and so I compose
Fantasia, Fvb. 238 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
built of proportional durations
within a malleable metrical frame
the proportions were more crucial
than the keeping the meter
stable is
internal transgression smiled upon
so long as it at all
comes together at the end
Beyond The River - Carolina Gospel Singers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
ultra-consonant block harmonies
almost like Sam Wesley
at his most
stringent
straight-laced
correct
impersonal ferocious repression
Tea For Two - Charlie Christian [from That Devilin' Tune]
early electric guitar
or amplified somehow
lively
Merry-Go-Round - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
new times in the old times
drum solo seems to break us free
but
lands us square
Mess Around - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]
another dance craze song
with
I say go shake a leg in it
rhythm
piano from ecstatic gospel and hot club
nicely constructed melody
with harmonica comment
and quick
modulation
up a step to finish
nicely constructed
in the
sense
that
as it goes along
it seems to be a continuous
development
of how it has gone along 'ereto.
There She Goes Again - Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground and Nico]
the engineering
puts a distance between us and the sound
as though
we were hearing it on a screen
the song veers off into
ba th' ba
ba
Love Has No Pride - Bonnie Raitt [from Give It Up]
if chord changes are a rhyme scheme
and if rhyme schemes are rhyme
schemes
then
this works itself out on several planes
a rhyme can be transformed
by the instrumental's marginal notes
A Man Is A Man- The Who [from It's Hard]
the songwriter persona
is sure full of himself
putting someone
else down
good enough composition
really has no clue
this
song is a whole story
about which I don't care
I had completely forgotten this session existed
until Ben forwarded it
to me this morning
our first duet session
just a week after I had
arrived
at muggy Annandale-on-Hudson
the opening stretch is quite
lovely past me!
my piano playing then
already had a certain amount
of dynamic and tone subtlety
and of compositional thinking
not
necessarily at the same time
Ben's commentary on Crumar opens it up
I get into a pentatonic tune rut
have to compose my way out
or
lose face
hey I was young
improvising a composed-out fade
with feints and fakes
Ben plays a
hymn with an Amen in it
that suddenly turned itself around
to look
back
how many non endings can there be
to finish this up
a rather
packed 30 minutes
there's me being ferocious again
holding a misguided sense
of
compositional integrity
tightly in my fist
Banned Sectional 8 - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 25, 1987]
harpsichord and piano
I like the sound quality of the recording
defiantly DIW
and of the instruments
each distinct but well
balanced
even the left ear right ear miking scheme
works for me
the two instruments
are in separate chairs
talking to each other
they share this room
but not the stage
sometimes they turn
around
and talk to their people
in the wings
off
camera
Neal makes the piano squeal
unless it's Neal on harpsichord
but I
don't think so
wandered into their own corners
but are facing off once again
circling warily
upper mid register of piano
prepared in the Cagean sense
so that
the piano is two instruments
playing a duet
with another
instrument
we have a sudden quiet moment to re-set
the harpsichord went to get his
newer brother
the other piano
the first piano
shakes their keys at us
the first piano
could be the near piano
and the other piano
the far piano
atmospheric with distant bee swarm
key rattles to show us out the door
on another station
transmissions pulled in
as single signal
Fighter - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
her spoken vocal introduction
is much closer to our ear
than
anything else in the mix
life in the trenches
of the compression wars
Lids Film Layer A - Keith Eisenbrey [June 24, 2007]
a bell
then nothing
toujours
I am fairly certain
there is more sound eventually
but
I
don't remember the process I was using
collect
isolate
chop ever more finely
fold back in
yes
but
there was math involved
I'm sure of it
I wonder if what it was
was that
the layers of A B et cetera
were kinds of sounds
bells on
one room noise on another
each spread out over about 30 minutes
centrifugal separation for
re-ordering
and new mixing
episodes of signal
placed among episodes of flat line zero signal
if the episode of flat line persists too long
the amplifier will
shut itself down
Drifting Off On the Metro - Steve Layton & Improv Fridays [from ppp]
staring out the window
as the frames flip past
Rebecca Marina - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, July 15, 2017]
to some extent
bar band rock and roll
is an effective tool
for rendering any sung text
unintelligible and inaudible
Herbstlaubtrittvergnügnen - Eric Nathan [from Missing Words]
strong gestures
short
The L. Zouches Maske, Fvb. 239 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
if a voice can find a consonant place to fit itself in
it will
pauses to regroup are fair game
for little twirls
just
because
its being done
doesn't mean it's through
Black Hearse Blues - Sarah Martin [from Really The Blues]
emphatically clear guitar playing
Nice Work If You Can Get It - Maxine Sullivan [from That Devilin' Tune]
lovely clear voice
without any vocal show-off maneuvers to speak of
I Love You Because - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare & Rockin']
a great country crooning
with a piano slide safety valve
T&T - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette!]
after some scribbling in the horns
the drummer takes control
the
horns return to finish
Buck - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]
harmonica entrance point
against vocal entrance point
sets up
dialog
Different To Me - Wire [from Pink Flag]
in the middle
the lines
fill the bars up
characterized
by the final 'syllable'
"you"
pronounced so that it is two
you-WAH
ultimate line
hard cutoff
Rock Island Line - The Knitters [from Poor Little Critter on the Road]
complete with Brontosauruses and Rhythm Pigs
Moonlight Sonata (first movement) - Ludwig van Beethoven [from 100 Greatest Classics]
a study in pitch transformation
how the harmonic and melodic context
can turn a pitch
from one clear function meaning
to another
clear function meaning
and yet another
and on and on
so that
the piece
as such
is in the melody
of function
meanings
as they inhabit their pitches
All Work Together - Seeger Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]
extended family chores
Gradus 34 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 17, 2002]
there is a mode of musical thinking
that relishes extravagant resource
exploitation
treating instruments as objects
to be maximally
exploited
for all possible sounds
that might be made upon them
or derived from them
filling the space of experience
with
non-stop
this and that
the more techniques used
the better
the more sounds
that can be crammed into one's ear
the more
worthy the endeavor was
(transparence forbidden
onslaught without respite)
this music is in a different mode
it also is a kind of ordeal
but
an ordeal of thought and focus
rather than being massaged by a fire hose
one is provided with a span
in which to think
and an immediately comprehensible set of objects
to study
the sounds themselves are of the plainest fabric
no
effort made to tart them up
or to demonstrate how cleverly one can
elicit from them
anything beyond
what anyone might expect
it
thinks
with the instrument
not about it
March 9, 2023
Sink The Sun - Antique Scream [from Sink The Sun]
technical supersizing
this guy is closer to my
ear than I would
like that sort of guy to be
I Just Cried - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Sound Effects Coffee Shop, Seattle, October 26, 2012]
Burn - Star Anna [from Soundtrack]
song of having been left
Entr'acte - Keith Eisenbrey - Jennifer Chung, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, November 17, 2022]
slouchy clowns
take their places
from the wings
and here we
are
a long sequence of mordants
each questioning why they're in this list
they disappear upon reappearance
Giles stretches his ample wings
holding steady
in their sequential vanishing act
behind stuttered
sequences
and finger fiddles
W.C. Fields would be proud
It All Belongs To Me - Ruth Etting [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
female voice
I think
singing a song
from a male
I
think
point of view
is this now illegal in Tennessee?
a million dollars worth of flying hips
she kissed a tree last summer
and ooh she started a forest fire
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans - Lester Young [from That Devilin' Tune]
opening rhythm salvo
is a type story
for making something of
a familiar room
for another fine meal
guitar says
am I
welcome
I'll just slide in here
and help myself
dig in!
Pick A Little Talk A Little / Goodnight Irene - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]
brazen overtures
and quod libets
Welcome Home Baby - The Shirelles [from Shirelles Anthology]
what is it about that little stain on his lips?
where honey drips?
The Shirelles are awesome
What's Wrong With Me - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
long descent after dramatic leap
over all the tops
in all the best
possible ways
like Bowie at his most archly tasteless
Down The Road - Vaughn Eller [from The Art of Field Recording]
ever' day an' Sunday too
she could put a saddle
on a humpback mule
Free - Prince [from 1999]
marching feet
bald relation
to a delicate sound
imagining
one's voice
as a conglomerate
of one's voice
a studio
is an enclosed space
is it salutary
to aim aside
from mega-hit?
Banned Telepath 14 San Diego - Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 26, 1987]
Aaron was the free radical
who visited both ends of the coast
mutterings amongst
and go ahead granted
amid the intoning
and gonging
a key
is a sense of pitch
in a space
singing in
where there is no technique
can anything be
extended?
guitar's to-dos
cardboard drumming
a song is what anyone is singing
peaceful
domestic
this is the call from Bickleton
I guess
this is a Banned Rehearsal then
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1993
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