"Discovery of Jingle in the Fleet"
Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Live
December 16, 2023
Finnegans Wake, Part II, Chapter 2 - James Joyce
Neal
Kosály-Meyer
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
more mud
than man
feeds on scholarship
king's house
of stone
buffalo times
bison days
the wanders
off
the game
goes on
rock a bye
Babel
flat
on the wall
naughty times
infinity
pose
the pen
Recorded
 |
| Finnegans Wake's wake |
Étude pour le pianoforte d'apres les caprices de Paganini in A minor, Op. 3 #1 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
yes it's just scales
starting at different spots
but
the
hook catches
easily
the fish
fights
but
is
brought aboard
Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
a perfectly fine dramatic opening
repeated
at the end of each
iteration
bass plunks
octaves
from somewhere
other
the key
or a McGuffin
social fantasy advert
for the high-class-living life
masculine muscular adventure
feminine dreamy
meet in passion
19th Century gender dualism paradigm
clinging to the last shreds
of stability
is he intentionally crowding the lines into his tune
it becomes a
caricature of clumsy sincerity
April in Paris (alternate take) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
how many directions is he taking this
at once
eight or nine at
least
Rip It Up (take 4) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
in his 88?
he drives a piano?
Making Believe - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]
the classy orchestra
is like fancy duds
or a hat
modern sounds
modern materials
modern living
coppertone
and avocado
are not far off from here
Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]
trying a guitar
Rainy Days and Mondays - Sarah Vaughan [from Feelin' Good]
if anything
it's in even worse taste
than the original Carpenters
hit
but
it shines
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter - Joni Mitchell [from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter]
word driven
like hip hop
complete with collaged tracks
Sometimes I'm Happy - Sun Ra [from Celestial Love]
quiet
thoughtful
One Step Up - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]
undertow
of our economy disaster
Riding Round The Cattle - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
tales around the cowboy campfire
Born in Puerto Rico (demo) - Paul Simon [from Songs from The Capeman]
original destiny
introducing the crew
resolving
into
ensemble crowd song
A Better Future (Remix by Air) - David Bowie [from Heathen]
life in the cogs
electromagnetic fields
statements held in
solitary
Beauty and The Beast - Steve Layton & Improv Fridays [from PPP]
without mood violation
expansion allowed
happens
regardless
of allowance
BP - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Feeexta]
bang bang bang bang
joining body and axe
and power grid
and
industry
run it into the rust
Totem 52 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem V]
below the traffic
above the traffic
within the traffic
without the traffic
enclosure
objectification
set
discourse
on off
in out
choices made
before
becoming conscious
there
they are
voila!
waddaya know!
motet:
a song
for the participants
or
in which
the experience
from inside
is of a particular remove of
flavor
from
the experience
from outside
Shizsaad - Greg Sinibaldi [from Frieze of Life]
a packed 43 seconds
jam packed jam
Let There Be Love - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]
lots of high-end Hertz sound in this
bright lights
mirrors
strobes
the whole shebang
to overwhelm
November Rain - Prom Queen [from Doom Wop]
a more personal approach
I wrote a letter
in verse
to you
subdued lighting
Vigilante Shit - Taylor Swift [from Midnights]
a clear threat
in a slinky outfit
The P is Free (12" version) - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]
what is told
to one's pals
Just - Swearin' [from Swearin']
from a narrow slice
of common generational experiences
No Question - Waxahatchee [from Out In The Storm]
going for direct confrontation
some shoving
every traceable line
is a melody
and
can be understood
as melodies are
understood
Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddlers Inn, Seattle, March 7, 2022]
some tuning
then a version
that drips with weariness
Femme Fatal - REM [from Dead Letter Office]
the song that Nico sang
sung in her key
in her octave
This Time - Robin Jackson and The Caravan [from Dust Diaries]
it's that patented
sincere
piano chord
whacking
a
Vegas act
been in jail
about a thousand times
Heated - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]
turning a song
into a euphemism
or vice versa
It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]
a live track
join the fun
becoming the costume
you are
on the inside
word dump
message broadcast
dance as you
leave
Bonfire Machines - Bruce Hamilton & Friends [from Mash Hits Volume 1]
start with kindling
manufactured echo
of a composed echo
two
sounds
face off
across
a fast receding
former present
it's coming back
Hasta La Vista (Baby) - Lures [from There's No Pressure]
slow burn introduction
if
that is we are waiting for
a song
we were
and we get it
in full psychedelic sprawl
Missing Words V: II. Kissenkühlelabsal (Pillow-Chill-Refreshment) - Eric Nathan [from Missing Words]
keeps quite still
in the dark
careful probes are launched
to
assay
slips easily into arrival
Thursdays Tape (Part 2) - Barrytown Orchestra (Tildy Bayar, Wayne Berman, Benjamin Boretz, Markus Olin-Fahle, Marco Ramirez)
side two
we can be playful
nobody's listening
except Keith
nearly 40 years
from then's now
sleepy heart beat
but
how do I know
I know
because I think I do
but
how do I think
fluent tabula rasa
authority
is a corruption
of I think this is correct
one cannot know
unless one thinks one knows
but
how does one
think?
if one does not know
how one thinks
one cannot
with all
honesty
rely
on what one thinks
one knows
capeesh?
this session
gets into the crannies
tuneful
Family Tradition - Tyrannosaurus Grace [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
comic honkytonk country song
a bit
and then all of it again
but all punked up
Boat People - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]
survivors under attack
Interweaving - Benton Roark - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]
picturesque
like our image of southern Europe
in the 19th Century
Track 8 - Peterman [recorded live at The Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]
vigorous scrubbing
as a gesture
easy to accomplish on stage
not too complex to remember
effective for their purposes
Bender - Chastity Belt [from I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone]
confessionary epistle
Vancouver (duet) - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
gamba?
(nope viola)
nice sound
lovely piece
Track 8 - Black Plastic Clouds [recorded live at The Sound Effects, Seattle, October 26, 2012]
we are a marching band
swaggering down the street
parade
style
he just don't give a damn
says it so many times
it must be
true
frankly militaristic
showy guitar playing
In the Bottomless Hollow of the Winter Sky - Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir - Mirjam Tally [from Strengur]
light toed scamperers
cluttering about
sharpening
honing
polishing
bonding
with the tools
of death and cookery
playful re-appearances
scattered iterations
sur-impressional
Instant Love - Freddie and The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]
commodity woman
guy brag talk
Singalong - CEP [from Drawing the Target Around the Arrow]
follow the bouncing ball
the response on this keyboard
sounds
sluggish
or
it sounds like the player
is working with a
sluggishly responding keyboard
repetitions
as a practice
machine adaptation
Absence - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]
from since
the left hand
fingers the four
the right hand
grasps the one
the hands
join
in cooperation
arm and hand
Track 9 - The Tailenders [recorded live at High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
this one's for Trixie
mumble through the words
it's cool
singing into chin
Ballad of Bluebell - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
accented syllables
I THINK
that I
shall NEV
er SEE
a POEM
as LOVE
ly AS
a TREE
The Point of It All - Robin Holcomb [from One Way Or Another]
classy-song writing
When Our Boys Have Been Buried - St. Paul de Vence [from St. Paul de Vence]
an old plaint
Jeremiah Lawson at Seattle Composers Salon - Jeremiah Lawson [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 7, 2017]
lives in the intricacy of its figuration
its finger play
right and
left
arm and hand
questions for Jeremiah
the rest of it is pretty theoretical
whatever chords you can get
with the slide
is what you have
to work with
The Devil in Me - Emily Stranger
bad girl power trip
plate beasts
prowling the planes
slipping subdimensionally
Sie fressen
growlily
Jessi Harvey at Seattle Composers Salon - Jessi Harvey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 7, 2017]
trying it out on all possible walls
take it to its end
stubborn
determined
with mighty fists
upon the board
Tuesday Nite - Carson Farley
a distant stadium
that sings in guitar
Vampire Energy Drink - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]
for coffee achievers
Snowflake - Choke The Pope
telling someone off
in our own special way
Down The Deep River - Low Hums [from Low Hums]
back in the swamps
Lifetime - Ease
lost in near space
montage time
I'll Still Be There - Brandi Carlile [from Bear Creek]
loves the yodel register
quasi falsetto
then the same
in
full voice
ding!
Rebirth/In Your Bones - Aaron Crows
prog narrative
psychedelic symbolist fantasy
close person
double horror
Mad Cow or Dark Onside - Cowgirls, The [from Compilation]
must have been pretty darn loud in there
Shrill - Crystal Beth
sound poetry
as glossolalic lyric
for drumming
Track 9 - Curtains for You [recorded live at High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
deeply reliant
on the bounce
in the rhythm section
the song wanders off
when it loses interest
Fall On November - Canals of Venice
Rob really does have a remarkable voice
has a stage ping
to meet
after years
have passed
Escape - Klondike Kate
cross-instrumental flam
tell 'em off song
Uz kolku noc wav - Stanislav Surin [from 10 Songs]
piano figures
point back
at the words
they reference
the structure
of the stanzas
This I Promise - Specyphi [from 9 Songs]
being one's own hero
manly type
he's on a loop
Down the Drain and It's Gone - Shannon Stephens [from Pull It Together]
settle down
it's a long ballad
sung slow
keep your eyes
on the sky shine
I'm A Sinner - Madonna [from MDNA]
in the most banal notion of sin
Moonshine Boy - Rachel Harrington [from Makin' Our House a Honkytonk]
an invitation
to dance
the life
sweetly hokey
Moto USA - Yuni in Taxco [from Prizes]
tempo/meter tracks
that slide against each other
in kickback space
an art project
using voices and guitars
what mystifies me
is how a music
such as this
arises
out there
in the greater world
we share
what sort of
life
does this come from?
Tie Me Up Tie Me Down - The Ancients [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
into Cindy Lauper
before it was cool
have some stickers
going for the Bolero vibe
but only time for a quickie
Track 10 - Nancy Cole Silverman - Adam Verner [from A Much Married Woman]
when Billy walked in
nothing
nothing
melting resistance
nothing's like this
come with me to Europe!
we can have a
life
whisked away
reflecting
upon the success
of the
evening
There's a Train That's Rollin' Through Town - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
name on the chalkboard
trying to say goodbye
Phase Cannon - Violin - S. Eric Scribner
tuning up
tuning down
at once
then
ever so further
further apart
music
for rubbing one's beard at
is there
a threshold
beyond which
clear thinking eludes
itself?
predisposition to foreseeable consequences = interest = prejudice
on the spectral plane
we imagine no sudden shifts
all is cushioned
not cathedralic
more chapelic
emergence
not appearance
what we hold tight
sense of self
production design
in durations
measured by beats
and beats
of beats
The Point Of A Picture - Ambulance [from Live from Sound Off 2012]
is the guitar solo
and the attitude
with which singing is
accomplished
Goldenbats II - Geoff Duncanson, Dennis Meade
more long spacy waves
brush the shore
from right to left
from out to in
down our skin
pillow tones
are you
still with us
or
are you
where we are?
storm sounds
and everything
new scene
in the dark
rainforest
and science narration
is this Steve Scribner and Pete Comley
jamming under assumed
names?
we end
so in tune
with each other
With Respect to George (midi) - Benjamin Boretz
inspecting carefully
testing all the pitch contours
of this
music's surface
In Session at The Tintinabulary
December 17, 2023
Rothwell - Keith Eisenbrey
If all goes well I'll have completed 26 of these by the end of the year, and another 52 by the end of next year. I might have exhausted the Long Meter tunes by then. Unsure.
December 18, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1090 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
December 19, 2023
Sinfonia 7 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey
December 20, 2023
Sinfonia 8 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey
Sinfonia 9 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey
I now have versions of all nine completed Sinfonias on midi, clavichord, and piano. Number 10 is drafted and ready for clavichord workshop. I expect some changes before it's done.
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 8: 2001-2002
A serendipitous mash-up and more mod-17 shenanigans.
Keith Eisenbrey 7: 1995-2001
During our years of chaos (parenting), keeping my hand in the game writing short pieces - and one big break-through.
Keith Eisenbrey 6: 1988-1994
Working with narrative forms, both explicit and implicit, playing games with memory, and finding ways to set texts.
Keith Eisenbrey 5: 1984-1988
My first years back in the Puget Sound area, working with the experience of repetition and with relationships between the vertical and horizontal pitch realms.
Keith Eisenbrey 4: 1983-1984
Finishes up the music I wrote while I was in New York (state) under the ostensible supervision of the academic world.
Keith Eisenbrey 3: 1982-1983
Written in Red Hook, NY, and Malabar, FL, as I was beginning to think about thinking about music.
Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982
What occupied my time toward at the end of my undergrad days and in the year before I went east for a while.
Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981
Keyboard works I composed while an undergrad at the UW.
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2015
