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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
"The sea had jeeringly kept his body, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.
Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Live
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Kraabel / Mines / Miller / Grant
Chapel Performance Space, Good
Shepherd Center, Seattle
Caroline Kraabel, Kelsey Mines, Greg Miller,
Anjali Grant
forest floor
enclosures
divisions
generations
cage wheels
waking into frog faces
head on
twitch active
dark erasures
armless figures
the content
of a space's sound
changes
with its
personnel
autonomy
of a mature anarchy
presumed
frog mouth
with ghostly eyes
now gone
hashed ovoid
left behind
encircled
Recorded
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| Banned Rehearsal 146 |
Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles [from The Beatles]
a suite of hooks
with sing-along fade-out
Helpless Dancer - The Who [from Quadrophenia]
more Weill than rock and roll
Prophesy - Sun Ra, Walt Dickerson [from Visions]
to make this happen
with such contraptions
as pianos and
vibraphones
is a kick
O' Sanity - Yoko Ono [from Milk and Honey]
a sing song
that cuts itself short
October 27, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 146 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 22, 1988]
sung my way baby
innocuous problematics
lazy
Mysterium - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]
repository
for what is hidden
a category of hiding
soft mallet on the bass strings
Track 6 - Richard Rorex, Reid Merryman [from Mood for Rochelle]
rhythm scheme
from south of the border
but figured very like a
piano rag
Track 4 - Eckstein Middle School Bands [from Mach 6]
a grand fanfare
a victorious return
a moment to remember
more marching
fanfare to the finish line
Zither Film 22 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 2, 2008]
one could make a file
sequencing the first bits
of each numbered
zither film
say
up to a minute of each
it wouldn't do
what the bits were originally made to do
but so what?
{NB: tried it, but the results were not very interesting}
Tokyo Shock - The Blue Ribbon Boys [from 5 Songs]
late model surf punk
Asian fetish
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
both collections include the fifth B
does one play a rung
or ring
a rung?
erringerung
up the basement stairs
wait out the night
hypnotic
tictoctic
playing piano
so as to be playing this piece
is
composing
the piece
learning to play the piano
thusly
is
learning to compose
the piece one is playing
by composing
it
playing and composing
are two standpoints
from which to regard the
piece
are they different standpoints?
matching standpoints?
motor intent
(a-conscious)
willful intent
(apparent
self-awareness of being one intending something)
No Mind - Steve Layton [from No Mind]
expanse
drummed
unconsciously
by passing events
Madrigals, Book VIII: Non partir ritrosetta - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
quick lines
slow lines
spilling lines
pooling lines
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BuxWV 207 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
narrow corridors
ensconced illumination
heavy drapes
lofty
domes
massive columns
thick frankincense
music prepares space
Was frag ich nach der Welt, BWV 94 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Chorus, Ton Koopman
syllable count
partitions of the text
set within a dance
so
they join in the dance's grace
we'll review the question amply
repeated
to grasp it fully
discussed from many angles
chorale
is our proper response
to edifying instruction
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Sonata in F Major, Kk. 297 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
always the unexpected show
drops threes in threes
Horn Concerto in E-flat Major - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - English Chamber Orchestra, Barry Tuckwell
1
something stirs our domestic tranquility
the horn will set all
to rights
with masculine certitude
and pose striking
2
all is now well
supper is done
serious matters arise
and are dispatched
just like that
3
a morning ride
to annoy the foxes
and replenish vigor
Novelletten: Sehr lebhaft mit vielem Humor, Op. 21 #6 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
a lively cast of characters
on an outing
upon a spontaneously
permutating carousel
Consolations: Allegro, S171/6 - Franz Liszt - Beatrice Berrut
a large helping of sugar coating
but sorrow is deep
Mazurka in F-sharp Major, Op. 40 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
their faces flicker through celluloid soft focus
Blue Harmony - Clifford Hayes' Louisville Stompers [from Really The Blues]
piano chunking away gently in a corner of the room
new instruments appear one by one
like a talent show
or tableaux
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
a sprite
loose among the guests
pulling noses and mustachios
flapper flirt
Alpha - Ornette Coleman [from Something Else!!!]
motorcar speed
business booms
hip urban
Let Me Talk To You - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]
moral lessons
spooned down
with sentiment
(how oppression
works)
Never Let Me Go - Bill Evans [from Alone]
indoors urban music
for drink nursing
and fond reminiscing
I Know (I Know) - John Lennon [from Mind Games]
by way of apology
we offer this accusation
dressed up as an excuse
Come Back, She Cried (a.k.a. I Walk Out) [Demo] - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]
song with two positions in the stanza
or three or four
freak out
Improvisation 7 - Keith Eisenbrey, Anne McLellan [October 2, 1983]
another pack of nobodies
new reading
Up There Down There - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
playing dominatrix
nouveau noir
Black Tie White Noise - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]
embedding a filtered sound
within differently filtered sounds
song
as phantasmagoria
Da Art of Storytellin' Pt. 1 - Outkast [from Aquemini]
songs to better imagine a possibility
screenplay poem song
Assembly Rechoired 47 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy [October 10, 2003]
Steve joins us for the first time
we are quiet
tentative
introductions over
we get down to business
making instruments make
their sound
so many rattles
so little time
To work your dirten bed - Christian Asplund [from Viola]
harsh proximity
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| Maryill Museum of Art |
Gradus 239 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 30, 2013]
from back in the days
of only vowel notes
As and Es
figures give notes character
provide an immediate context group
in
which
they have functions
and places
and
by which
they can be compared
to notes
in other figures
a note's position
within a figure
is
its meaning
as to
that figure
both
abstractly
and
as it goes by
in
the wild
it
is part
of what we mean
by musical meaning
Slapstick - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
this music is a theater
that has watched the Saturday morning cartoons
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
touch any button to begin
find the music within the rung
or
allow our music to discover the rung
pairs of notes
and pairs of pairs
Lady Quit Her Husband... - Tub Jug Washboard Band [from That Devilin' Tune]
...unexpectedly
improv prompt
one wonders if they came across as hokey back then too?
subject matter
entirely lascivious
How Long Has This Been Going On - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan sings George Gershwin]
first taste
instant success
top of Sarah's game
right here
Give Your Heart a Chance - Stevie Wonder [from With a Song in My Heart]
everybody is up to our ears
peak HiFi
better than the real thing
in measurable minds
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
filters for identity
by convincing you
to group yours
and
keep them enclasped
lest
they commit to certainty
Learn How to Fall - Paul Simon [from There Goes Rhymin' Simon]
learn to sin
before you can learn to be loved?
how very humane!
Racing in the Streets - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at the Roxy]
all bar brag
all the time
poet lariat of New Jersey
The Electric Co. - U2 [from Under a Blood Red Sky]
more of a yawp than of a song
Banned Rehearsal 147 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 22, 1988]
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
that is out of the wind
apparently hopeless
back at Snake's edge
not even close to being out of the wind
but rather
the wind's
effect on the microphone's output fidelity
does quite a number
on
the ocarina sounds
gravels 'em up
plunk
kerplunk
and kerplash
to a dulcimer in the wind
the microphone
is more concerned with
the breeze
than we are
should have given it a sweater
now where are we?
in the middle of the Snake?
we
as microphones
are being moved about
through wind and
storm
(we were born to suffer)
did Neal once have a miniature guitar?
seems more likely than a
dulcimer
attempts are made
upon ocarinas
to toot hymns
mixed success
Hook - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]
fantasy demimonde
we be depraved
so
do as in Rome
I Used to Love Him (feat. Mary J. Blige) - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
proceeding through severally viscous ethers
Man in the Moon - Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers]
slow dance
proposition
porch light smooch
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Gradus 147 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 3, 2008]
a baseline
inclusive of
(and in terms of which
they can be
discussed)
all musics
made of the same parts
to the extent
a music
is made of notes
that a pianist plays
that music
can be assigned its rung
based on its raw
inventory
whether that music
is a whole piece
a passage
a figure
or a single note
set inclusion and related logics
do we attend its sensual nature
in order to flee from its nullity
of explicit musical content
all the music we make of it
doesn't
can't
touch it
Americano - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]
a sheen
on a mirrored surface
laboratory music
Seacrest Park - Keith Eisenbrey [July 28, 2018]
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
as it squeaks on its anchor pilings
in the waves of Elliott Bay
Shelter - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]
turn the key
to operate the entry mechanics
once inside
siddown
take a load off
delight together
in hearing
each other's
hearing
In Session at The Tintinabulary
October 26, 2025
Arundel - Keith Eisenbrey
my 121st arrangement of tunes
as I find them
in an 1846 shape note
song book
journal
of my weekly whimsy
written in quick polyphony
October 29 & 30, 2025
Four Little Piano Pieces - Aaron Keyt
the third of these was tricky
every note a new trap
but I finally
got close
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 28: Figure Studies 2011 and 2014
Another bunch of solo piano improvisations for you, from 2011 and 2014.
1.
Figure Study 110110
2. Figure Study 140210
3. Figure Study 140303
4.
Figure Study 141012
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
