Preface
Texts
Recorded
August 29, 2026
Nocturne in A Major, (#8) - John Field - Benjamin Frith
melodic head rhymes
intervallic rhyme chains
6 Etudes D'execution Transcendante D'apres Paganini, S140/R3a: No. 4 In E Major - Franz Liszt - Gianluca Luisi
effervescence
3 Clavier-Sonaten für due Jugend, Op. 118, #1 in G Major - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
active interval
between two halves of a phrase
chains of
references
across sequences of phrases
6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: VI. Méditation - Cécile Chaminade - Mark Viner
swelling hearts
behind shyly averted eyes
Sea Pieces, Op. 55, #1: To The Sea - Edward MacDowell - James Barbagallo
just the swelling hearts
Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 7, Røtnamsknut. Halling - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø
multiple episodes
circling back
My One and Only (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
she wasn't on board to do this
was tired
but still inhabits every
note
tune is built around the sense of the words
in their orderings
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]
sharing enthusiasms
hyperdriven
going nowhere
There She Goes Again (Live in Toronto) - REM [from Murmur]
tight ensemble
2X4 - U-Men
for banging heads with
Mood Indigo - Scott Robinson [from Thinking Big]
smoothly sliding
low sweet whispers
bass theremin?
Catching Fireflies - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
for bathing in charisma glow
dancing in amplified guitar bath
Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye) - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
so
we'll linger long enough
to upkey a step
I Like It Rough - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]
dancing to sex negotiation
so we can be hip and with it
AinN Chime Slap - S. Eric Scribner [from Odds and Ends]
a quiet bo diddley clapping game
to dissolve into social glue-all
Années Transcended - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]
Petrushka in perplexity
Interlude - Unattributed [from Dirt Cult Records, You Don't Have To Be Cool]
incomprehensible announcement
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| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
It Ain't Necessarily So - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong [from Porgy & Bess]
bringing the old bump&grind to the opera stage
washed down with
bible stories and scattledazzle
take that gospel
whenever it's poss'ble
Waiting at the End of the Road - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All by Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
ever hopeful
Janey Don't You Lose Heart - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
a nice song
overproduced
The Bee (Bridge) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]
light verse
sung lightly
Londonderry Air - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
diasporic sentimental
Irish edition
Cello Set 5 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]
at door
scratching for entry
Where I Live - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
instructing oneself
to have learned
from experience
Everything You Know - Star Anna [from Go To Hell]
three stage descent
echoed into next register down
word-line
accents on second and third
first stage
a descent
reserved
for the most part
for instrumental accents
Air on Open G - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
exploring the possibilities of a narrow crevice
Get Up About Yourself - Homer Banks [from Written in the Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]
life advice
a trope specific to Stax
or general to soul?
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Darn That Dream (Take 1) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]
not
performed
but rather
instructed
Art is Either a Complaint or Do Something Else, Cage describes the Mesostic - John Cage [from The Text Pieces]
wing words
Jim Robinson Blues [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]
they hid the piano
well in the back
but at least it doesn't sound
amplified
Just Jeb (and Dad) - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]
a quick talk with the crickets
Going, Gone; It Goes On-Michael - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
using a tool
designed
for ease of making sounds
like music
makes
in arrangements
such as music
is commonly made in
a tool
like a rigid mold for music
Superjones - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]
kisses
on other girls' lipses
putting on a confidence suit
A Question, A Rose - Benjamin Boretz - Scot Moore [from Open Space 43]
music
in a universe of you and it alone
its purpose
is to be itself
it is
itself
its purpose
Hate the Police - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
anger mismanagement
Amisaada Ramdane-Algeria [from The World Sings Goodnight]
solo voice
intricately and lightly decorated
Man of the Hour - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]
quiet tribute
departed hero
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| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Spanish Lesson - Madonna [from Hard Candy]
start with some ethnic signifiers
to open the door to the exotic erotic
Tudo Errado - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]
tones have size
obvious
when they occult each other
Fish Distributor - Your Mother Should Know [recorded at The Tintinabulary, April 15, 2018]
secret architect
Rebonds A - Iannis Xenakis - Steven Schick
if tones have shape
and locations of specification
then
as
attention follows a sequence of tones
it travels
in a path
through space
from specifying location
to specifying
location
all paths being through the greater shape
of any tone
not yet displaced
attention draws a shape in space
dot to dot
sometimes multiple
shapes in space
sometimes sharing dots
Gap 1st Batch 6 - J. K. Randall - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Augst 25, 2026]
in which
up and down
is refuted
permanently
Tug of War - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]
post space age
sci fi
beyond scrubbed
cleaner than utterly
Yesterday's Love - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]
interesting accent
peculiarly placed Rs
and a schwa that has a
lift in it
Beaten Paths - Milton Babbitt [from Erik Carlson's Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]
maximally pleached paths of attention sets
Amarilli, mia bella (Amaryllis, My Lovely One) - Hope Wechkin [from Leaning Toward The Fiddler]
sung within a framework of interval sets
elaborated horizontally
vertical structures are derived
from horizontal elaborations
spun simultaneously
Light Up The Sky - Christina Aguilar [from Lotus]
words of encouragement
and being swept up in ones glory
ego
inflation power
Adagio - Bruce Huber
bass and reed samples
but perhaps actually performed?
no -
something about the noteyness of the performance
makes me suspect midi
all togetherness too precise to believe
oooo! pitch bend!
the piece
as a path to follow
holds attention firmly
Richest Hill on Earth - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]
a blues
extensive but honest
 |
| Moses Coulee, WA |
tones out of doors
have no containers
their shape
is the
shape of the whole
their shape
is contained within their
respective specifying locations
our journey pauses
we wait
frogs on their lily pads
the
forest score
hear the lively sound
of the gentle crick
Beauty - Bad Cop/Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]
a little drama for the fashion runway
these tones share few points in
common
across strands
in search of our inner Eno
Track 13 [from Unknown Christmas Album]
and now we'll turn the stomach
Track 3 - Neil Welch [from A Response to the Wednesday Morning Shooting at Café Racer]
a mnemonic of specific shape
Celebrating the Life of Carl Richard Eisenbrey (continued) [Langley United Methodist Church, Langley, August 26, 2018]
Glen starts with memories
well spoken
Waiting - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]
charisma amplification industry
Travel Bug - Slothrust [from The Pact]
confessions of a snobbish society
power figure
Boss of Me - David Bowie [from The Next Day]
tapping the inner swagger
a little fiction
sound launched
into the cavern of ears
Rhapsody on a Windy Night - Participants [from Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions 2018]
its own text
a little puppet opera
in pulp mag direct
prose
dream logic
I think there's a knife involved
Tower of Song - Mikey & Matty [from Harbor Island]
easing up into success
and self discovery
Rainmaker - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]
escape
of the shamed and angry
and somewhat jaded poetic soul
with heart of gold
prayer dance
Mighty Tacoma - Lori Goldston [from Film Scores]
City of Destiny
or Mighty Big Mountain?
perhaps both
perhaps
neither
the prior Tacoma
this sound
is shaped like a pipe
this sound
is a pipe
is it not?
Stay Long Love You (feat. Gunna) - Mariah Carey [from Caution]
courtship ritual
song and dance
complete with lesson review
so take notes
Hell or High Water - No Man's String Band [from Let the Truth Be Told]
decision and determination
coming to their point
in several
cycling stanzas
Papa Francesco - Denise Glover [from Gaps in The Stories]
an open letter to the new pope in town
however
is Christian faith
a set of position papers?
We Will Die - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]
life cheer
motivation slogan
Swift Creek - Blazzed [from Blazzed]
the sound of this
has a focused occulting shape
in a mutual jam
verbal instruction
up one
Evil - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]
cosplaying demons
Go - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star, I'm a Sinking Ship, Pre-Order]
rehearsing a painful moment
Chronicles of Dirty Dick - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]
this music
is your basic studded leather codpiece
Space Goggles - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]
incantation ritual
git up and dance on coals
initiate hazing
Fiction - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]
approaching through the door
into a tone room
weary
abject
revolt
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Unwanted Place - Swearin' [from Surfing Strange]
stanzas begin
with similarly rhythmed lines
later on
protrusions appear
Killer's Moon - Ancient Warlocks [from Ancient Warlocks]
sets of short bursts of syllables
in a raging flood
Not Forever Just for Now - Greg Sinibaldi, Jesse Canterbury [from Ascendant]
tones in an electric cathedral
Two Montana Songs - Kam Morrill [recorded live at Seattle Composers' Salon, July 5, 2013]
The Moose
in dignified pace
Magpie Days
corvid: an-ethical
purely self-serving
Do I Fit The Profile of a Criminal? (for Trayvon Martin) - Chris DeLaurenti
outrage outlet
Silt - Beth Fleenor - Beth Fleenor Workshop Ensemble
build from the bottom
draw billows out
acoustic center
stands for tonal center
coalesce into a drumming
with no clear exit strategy
beyond
exhaustion and subsidence
Algorhythmic Improvisation #11 - Pedro Rivadeneira
these tones search out paths
whether we attend or not
 |
| Moses Coulee, WA |
moments follow moments
event after event
chains of plausible links
identity of person speaking
asserts coherence by charisma
theater of the absurd
moments of activities
Nocturne in A (#8) - John Field - Benjamin Frith
{oops!
duplicate hearing!}
plain but charming
then very fancy indeed
6 Etudes D'execution Transcendante D'apres Paganini, S140/R3a: No. 6 In a Minor - Franz Liszt - Gianluca Luisi
from the famous A minor Capriccio
that I am working with even now
and have been for some months
he could do this all day
3 Clavier-Sonaten für due Jugend, Op. 118, #2 in D Major - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
1
chasing butterflies in the sun
2
fireflies flit and flicker in the dusk
3
a quiet moment by the happy hearth
4
chase each other
(must be bed time)
Thème varié in A Major, Op. 89 - Cécile Chaminade - Mark Viner
exquisitely dressed
elegant bearing
lively wit
a theme
floats through the table banter
and dancing
Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 8, Myllarguten's Wedding March - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø
shakes little bells to soften the beat
a gentle motion
What You Want Wid Bess - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong [from Porgy & Bess]
not the strongest song in the show
Sexy Sadie - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]
blatant keyboard sound
as though shrunk into a tiny box
Roulette - Bruce Springsteen [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's A Springsteen Miscellany]
get the heart pumping
hold the feeling
pull back only to pick up
energy again
Mandy, Make Up Your Mind - Scott Robinson [from Thinking Big]
kicking down sunny street
feelin' groovy
not a trouble in sight or
mind
Mr. Grumble grumbles a cheery hum
Bury The Dead - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
yet another
among the 50 famous ways
break up talk trope
Yesterday - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
enfolded in warm sweaters
{see doodle}
Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]
announce a triumph
then build a dance
for driving fast
hip
motion
Ruined It - Your Mother Should Know [recorded at The Tintinabulary, April 15, 2018]
lots of harmony parts
among my last multitrack productions
before
I lost patience with the process
Styx - Steve Layton [from Red Sky]
the dragon breathes within
bound by vaults of enchantment
and
endless cavern mazes
September 3, 2026
The Little Things In Life - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All by Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
if there were words
they were left off
the song as such
ends up in Nowheresville
Chinese Bros. (Live in Toronto) - REM [from Murmur]
message embedded in a narrow band of dense sonority
O Weary Hearts! (Bridge) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]
lowest voice
||:restore:||
pedal tone
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
in younger days I felt
that if a new Carmen Suite should be promulgated
one of the old ones
ought to be offed
surely there is no
shortage
Cello Set 6 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]
a string of tones
fragment
like a bit of DNA
You Are Where You Were - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
putting life together
Louis Louis - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet Tavern, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
spirited
much of any sense of tune or chords
lost in a wash of
amplifier fuzz
Kissing You - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]
an odd conceit
singer can kiss kissee
but only
if kissee
can't kiss kisser
et cetera
Gruesome Pursuit - Unattributed [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have to be Cool]
punk is
I suppose
an open door
but entering by the door
doesn't automatically
provide arrival
anywhere
Body and Soul (Remake Take 3) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Sessions]
cutting through the static
lost focus
so began to practice
Art is Either a Complaint or Do Something Else, Mesostic 1 - John Cage [from The Text Pieces]
spoken in tones of poetry reading
Greg Fischer-Unknown [from The World Sings Goodnight]
three syllables
on a tune of few tones
Pertaining to Terror - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]
behind the crackle of our media
Frenetic Interlude #3-Various - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
palate cleanser
Jumping Jack - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]
living
the confusion
of infatuation
Empty Words - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]
probably not a John Cage reference
All Day Preachin' - Bettye Crutcher [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriters Demos]
how doing was done
in the old days
12 Days - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [December 1968]
my Mom was famous among family
for hand motions
for this
everybody gets together on the five golden rings
clever arrangement
If I Think - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
sounds more like a Nirvana song
is it a cover or a tip of the hat?
permission to shred
Gap 1st Batch, 1, 4, 5 - J. K. Randall - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, August 26, 2026]
the trick on these
is to play them
as if they weren't expressive
Voices - Madonna [from Hard Candy]
kink chic
Nice To See All The Colors Now - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Lone Buffalo]
chug chug trains
move
in the tempo of the West
this guitar
strums
in the tempo of trains
Forest Show (continued) - John Teske, Neil Welch, Greg Campbell] [recorded live in Ravenna Park, Seattle, August 4, 2018
Neil becomes a garrulous bird
becomes the still air
rests upon the
quiet runlet burble
we are the twitch of tiny critters
high in the
canopy
developing the bray of a donkey
from first principles
The Crowded Air - Milton Babbit [from Erik Carlson's Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]
it pushes through thicket and thinet
with utter equanimity of purpose
never veering
never abating
Cabron (Rocksteady Version) - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]
of course
steadiness is less problematic
on a dedicated rail
system
Track 14 - [from Unknown Christmas Album]
shrinkwrapped theology
excessively white bread
dreary signifies
holy
{see doodle}
Ode to You - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]
no matter what production decides to do with a track to fancy it up
it
never ceases to function as a track
September 4, 2026
Celebrating the Life of Carl Richard Eisenbrey (continued) [Langley United Methodist Church, Langley, August 26, 2018]
my talk
I almost managed to hold myself together
Rumana Si - Hope Wechkin [from Leaning Toward the Fiddler]
bound to open intervals
Rhizome - participants [from Waterloo Regional Contemporary Music Sessions 2018]
population accumulation
crisis
rest
behavior depiction
microscopicmickeymousing
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 30, 2026
Olney - Keith Eisenbrey
August 31, 2026
Gradus 436 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
if a tone exists in space
what shape is it?
the shape of its container
but not in the manner a liquid is
it
both fills that space
and
has a center of tone
within that
space
a location
does its location have shape?
if we hear a tone
then we are part of its container
as a tone hangs in its space
its location despecifies
tones can persist
in despecifying locations
locations of tones
are variously shaped by their generating impulses
as are the shapes
of the despecifying decays
and
by
wherewithin a previous despecificating decay
their particular impulse
arises
being within a tone's container
we ourselves
can move within the
greater shape of that tone
but
we can only move around
outside the shape of its location
a different tone
is different as to location
but not as to
container
if
it is impulsed in the same space
each such tone
being
also
within the container
of the
other
without sharing a specifying location
two tones of differing locations
imply a distance
and direction
between their respective specifying locations
hence
the
high/low metaphor
in common Western use
but
experientially
the directionality
is not obviously a vertical one
especially on piano
where a horizontal axis seems more
plausible
turning my head to the side
one ear up
the other down
however
doesn't change the axis of the directionality between
tones
might
if I made myself dizzy
but I won't try that
as I might fall over and hurt myself
and it would likely distract
Neal
under normative listening practice
the directionality axes of tones are
persistently constant
September 2, 2026
Gap 1st Batch 8 - J. K. Randall
September 3, 2026
Gap 1st Batch 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 - J. K. Randall
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Lockrem Johnson, Jim Knodle, Aaron Keyt, and Peter
Nelson-King
Keith Eisenbrey: piano, clavichord
This album brings together various pieces that have found my fingers recently, including some of the late Lockrem Johnson's last compositions.
1-7 - Lockrem Johson: Seven Preludes for Guitar, Op. 51 (performed on
clavichord)
8 - Jim Knodle - In The Unknown Tongue
9 - Aaron Keyt -
Anvik
10-15 - Peter Nelson-King - Seedlings
16-19 - Aaron Keyt -
Four Little Piano Pieces
20-25 - Aaron Keyt - Variations
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream.
