Preface
Texts
Live
March 5, 2026
Ritual Vibrations
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center,
Seattle
Rivka Clifton; Heather Bentley, Giordana Falzone, Marissa
Niederhauser; Lady Zade and Coven
Rivka Clifton
speakers to left and right of the stage
sheet screen front center
vibraphone and accessories behind us center
{for Lady Zade's
ceremony}
there may be an electric guitar behind the screen
also a
player
on screen
muscle-bound men
and butterflies
live from behind the screen
language under pressure
centapedalismus
a roar and a poem
the roar remains to fade
Heather Bentley, Giordana Falzone, Marissa Niederhauser
the stage is cleared
scraped string sound
seems from nowhere
actually
from hidden behind an audient
on stage to my
right
moving limbs
from behind
and from the left
take stage
fore and aft
twirls
take the floor
gone slow
nose to pillar
pose as pillar
leaning back
against a
pressing mass
spinning air threads
Lady Zade and Coven
chairs
mirror
matching loose dresses
a bench
long
candles
trayed items
theater set
this cello
is on the left
also audient-obscured
enacts a prelude
an invocation
unison with voice
(gamba?)
{yes!}
a scar is made
upon the sternum
with processed reverberance
substance
carefully moved
from vessel to vessel
enactment
without gloss
potion
act
and prayer
six stringed gamba
a hymn
is sung
to a gamba drone
Recorded
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Sonata in G minor, Kk. 315 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
a figure propagates
through and into
adjacent tonalities
Albumblätter: Fantasietanz, Op. 124 #5 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
overruns itself
Zwölf Lieder von Robert Franz, S489 - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard
undulating within its tonality
sung to itself
we hear the rhythm
of a rhyming text
regularity
and the pressures
of singing it
so that
the
words mean what they mean
even when
absent residue of textual
referentiality
imprinted on the music
4 Piéces: Ironies, Op. 56 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
wiggles like kittens
when they squirm away
snuggles languidly
March 2, 2026
They All Laughed - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
opening serves the function
of a recitative
versus that of an aria
Look She Said - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon [April 16, 1963]
unaccompanied {NB first part}
and it doesn't sound easy
the track includes several other songs
perhaps a set?
they are in
believably similar tonalities
except this last one
which is much
peppier
and plain-spoken
All Alone (What'll I Do?) - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin - All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
waiting for a ring
a ting-a-ling
long opening sequence
before we get
to the humming in the
lobby tune
duet song
sung on a divided stage
Love, Reign O'er Me - The Who [from Quadrophenia]
with thunder and rain
for the pun
piano opens
in the place of the Broadway opening rhyme-sequence
shred to finish
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
occupying a role
breakaway rebel
working class escapee
Hippopotamoppoison - Future Forefathers [from Bard Sampler '82-'83]
orchestrationally distinguished bits
that end together
I'll Get You - The Beatles [from Past Masters]
sounds somewhat threatening
Russian Sailor's Dance - Empire Brass Quintet [from Class Brass On The Edge]
show arrangement
for show song
for show dance
The River - PJ Harvey [from Is This Desire?]
song
is a poetry of elongated vowels
an explorable groove
Halloween Town - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]
spooky scary groove
for party night
The High Priestess - Goat [from Special Agent]
a solemn rite
a solo taken
might explore
a change's odd
corners
or pry open its fractures
the groove
functions
horizontally
measuring its iteration pattern
out ahead of itself
articulates a segment of experience
regiments it
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Ivesian
without being crammed
in the sense
of musics
interleaving through each other
March 3, 2026
Dreadful Love Affair - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]
it was interesting to hear
as this album and band collected itself
through several live iterations
prior to this finished album
Sonatina - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #5: 1984-1988]
pairs of notes
in constrained intervals
lines of like-constrained
intervals
paired in notes
sudden verticality
three notes
generated
of chains
of two notes
joined
at the
middle
Poor Man's Blues - Bessie Smith [from Empty Bed Blues]
rich man open up your heart and mind
straight out of St. Luke
Chaconde - Peggy Lee [from Sea Shells]
harp solo
You've Got Her (mono version) - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]
cutting through the jive
Roadblock - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Cheap Thrills]
short block cycled
chug chug dance
could be done in a line
like a conga
Social Disease - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]
turns itself up
engineer demonstrating a slider technique
Driving Wheel - T Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]
another chugga chugga groove
passing countryside right and left
Broken Face - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]
starts interesting
if sophomoric
then punks it up
tutti fortissimo
Gaillarde d'escosse (1571) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]
a tune for dancing with
Eisler On The Go - Billy Bragg & Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]
left behind blues
at a loss
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
river
nosebleed
flying cow
Allpin-Various - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
one pin to rule them all
this ain't ten pin no more
Tonight, You'll Be Breaking - The Swearengens [from Waiting On The Sunrise]
...my heart
oh dear
another pour
(walk out)
that door
heart disaster prep
Mary The Forgotten One - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]
extrabiblical folk gospel
Initiation - Steve Layton [from No Mind]
neo Tibetan temple thing
the low drone
the rattles
shakers
clatters
and bells
Goose Creek - Mart Britt [from That Devilin' Tune]
purpose of introductory measures
to establish time and key
in
short
a prelude
attached
a place
to enter
the
circling
stanzaic
wheel
getting off
is another problem
shave and a haircut solution works
Talkin' About You - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]
they tell us
they do so
in harmony
while Ray
does so
Out Of This World - Ella Fitzgerald [from Love Songs: The Best of the Verve Songbook]
vowel control
more enchanted
by a Lorelei
than I
A Time For Love (alternate take) - Bill Evans [from Alone]
the time is ever changing
Art Tatum eat your heart out
Pine Apple Rag - Scott Joplin - E. Power Biggs]
there is a frail connection
between the music of an era
in its
era's specific popularity
and the popularity of that music
as it
might accidentally erupt
into public consciousness
through the
backdoor
of a popular film
such as
Joplin and
The Sting
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
lean in
to the machine
stainless steel sex drive
on a loop
neon flash
Anna Stasia - Prince [from Love Sexy]
fragmented text aroma
on a loop with subloops
Marry Me - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]
the song presumes a backstory
as well as a stage dance number
I Can Hear Her Fighting With Herself - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]
his stanzas circle back
to repeat the title line
Three (for solo clarinet): Breathe - Jesse Canterbury, Bradley Hawkins [from Bradley Hawkins Jesse Canterbury]
good advice
especially
when it's difficult
we are eloquent exhalers
eloquent inhalation
is rare
pushes through
to release
nice piece guys!
I Stay In Love - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]
a polyvalent mind state
made explicit
for maximum production value
Still Sorta New - The Hunting Club [from Holiday Beach]
harmonic meaning
becomes a servant of line position degree
gotta love a song
that starts with daddy long legs
Batch #710 - Blazzed [from Blazzed]
factory rhythm
Serenade - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #5: 1984-1988]
behaving as though it were secure in its key
till uncertainty
leaks
the wand
is waved
the object remains
scene two
the lonely lament
the wand is waved
once more
the lid
still shut tight
time for a scherzo
object appears
where did the wand go?
contemplation
of the canon
closer and closer
to the pinpoint
pitch
of singular focus
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Stealin' Stealin' - Memphis Jug Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
open interval harmony singing back there
featuring a chromatic
tetrachordal descent
Day In-Day Out - Judy Garland [from Judy In Love]
the cliché half of the lines
is to play with the rhythm
a Hollywood number
always has a verse
for the dancers to strut
their stuff
Foolish Little Girl - Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology]
playground taunt
Monorails & Satellites - Sun Ra [from Monorails & Satellites]
sounds like space age Seattle to me
did Sun Ra visit the fair?
Monday Morning Secretary - The Statler Brothers [a Rescued Record]
working class heroes
and their woes
The Late Great Johnny Ace - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]
a personal history
of loss
and lost times
of loss
acoustic guitar prelude
prelude
O O
bridge
return
exit gambit
My Romance - King's Singers [from Chansons d'Amour]
this poem relies on its calligraphy
intonation porn
I Need Love - Bonnie Raitt [from Fundamental]
enjoying the instrumentals back there
quite the band
Never Get Old - David Bowie [from Reality]
cycles found at every tangent
exit gambit
prep
with word
inclusion game
in rhythm
followed by
a flourish
and
falling sparks
Make My Pay - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from A Live Wire]
any segment of experience
any moment
any music
is a
one-trick pony
it does what it does
but any trick
can hide
or carry
or remember
or elucidate
or generate
further tricks
not all
but any
Wolf, Obscured by Snow - Lori Goldston [from Film Scores]
out music
meets
nature cinematography
a moving picture still picture
music
coinvolving
its image
Narcissusish
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
trade-class Shirelles song
of the folklegend past
Blue Cage (Soundscroll X) - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundscrolls: Lost Landshapes]
a thread like language
vowels and consonants
through a pipe
well below human throat capability
with light percussion
a woody sound (plunk)
and a metallic tongue sound (plink)
tuba tube sounds
softly blatting
steel drum metal blossom sound
tuba tube
but with alternate mouth type
or
muted at t'other
end
Sweet Sue - Paul Whiteman [from That Devilin' Tune]
fanfare
prelude
curtain rises
such a scene
of floral
bliss
ravishes our eyes
such sighs
she swoons
a bit of
Vaseline on the lens
and the image glows
band
has that professional tightness of ensemble
of the sound
stage
Looney Tunes ready
Pot Lucky - Norman Monath [from Songs of The Pogo]
might be some of the same players
or their kids
Track 1 - Neal Meyer, William Meyer, Yvonne Meyer [from The Karen Tape]
and it is thus
that Karen's arrival
is announced
and
memorialed
on tape
into musical history
tidings
to her
sister
taking the plastic bag
off the proxy baby
just being
born
and already has a manufactured namesake
parceling out the necessary information
in small bites
is that it?
asks Neal
concerning the doll baby
but
the crank
helicopter
deflects attention
there is great excitement
concerning the crank helicopter
now we'll have a baby named Karen
called people very far away
that was the bread man
home life in Moline, IL 1963
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
strategies for entering upon a circular structure
here
the
rhythmic structure is assembled
as an orchestrated accumulation
as
the cycle repeats
the heat is amended upwards
at each articulation
how then
to get off the train?
open up the persistent
heating
with a thinner texture
(sax lets keys take a turn)
the tempo hushes
into a back booth
and we fade
alas
Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]
take any old sheet of paper
and paint your blues on it
Widmung - Claudia Stevens
some pitches tangled
Cold Lampin' With Flavor - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]
no edges sideways for
getting into
turns too quickly
Ashraf Sewailam - Egypt [from The World Sings Goodnight]
interestingly tuned pitch set
Track 9 - Students of Joan Schoepflin [recorded live June 9, 1998]
pedagogic music
whose prime directive
is a particular technique of
fingerwork
without any overriding musical interest
good enough
composition
A Day In The Life of a Fool - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
even if one doesn't know the words
one can trace the rhythm of the title
onto nearly every phrase
Tangerine - Solvents [from Manresa Castle]
is what love is
in the color of
(a list of)
articulated with
chorus
about being lonely
Thin Ice - No Man's String Band [from Let Truth Be Told]
title at the articulation of the stanza pair
ends in mid air
honest and decisive
The Deal - Greg Campbell, Bill Horist, Dennis Rea, Wally Shoup [from Wally Shoup 2X4tet]
an invocation
a music
can move
as though
it were atop
a chord change
without being so
a music
can move
as
though through a polyphonic matrix
without doing so
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| Skyline Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Gradus 389 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 16, 2023]
marks on maps
persisting across spans of experience
village of
notes
groups of dwellings
relations among dwelling dwellers
if two notes
are struck simultaneously
and we immediately register
its twoness
is it necessary
that that twoness
should persist
as a fact
over time
or
might our experience
of
the persisting sonority
complicate that twoness
with other
Xnesses?
or
is that level confusion?
but
an experienced twoness
can only be compared
to other
experienced twonesses
quantity-quality
quantity as a qualia
In Session at The Tintinabulary
March 1, 2026
Peterboro - Keith Eisenbrey
March 2, 2026
Detritus 13 - Keith Eisenbrey
among six notes
the various insides outsides and betweens
laid out
plain
Gradus 429 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
the ear floats above the keyboard
glances below
takes in this note
spot
and that
spiral in thermals
a vertically varied ecosystem
altitudes of
pitch
above a floor
through which
a fog weaves
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 30: Sabbatical Improvisations (part 1) 2013-2014
In 2013 I had reached an inflection point in my big project, Études d'exécution imminent, and took a sabbatical (indifferently observed) from composing written-down music. I filled the time with various forms of improvisation, both "in-the-moment" composing, and sometimes puttering about with multi-tracking and other digitally applied effects. Here are the first bunch of them
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
