Preface
"They held a roughly hammered thunderbolt,
part polished, part unformed.
The father of the gods
hurls these endlessly from sky to earth.
They'd
soldered on three strikes of twisting hail,
three each of storm, red
fire, and winged south wind.
They added terrifying flashes, thunder,
fear,
and the heat that follows rage."
Vergil - "The Aeneid" (translated by Shadi Bartsch)
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
May 20, 2022
Music, Music, Music - Ray Charles [from The Genius After Hours]
story of my life
as heavy as the accents are
the dance is light on its toes
Everything Happens to Me - Samara Joy [from Samara Joy]
breezy complaint
in jazz combo mode
guitar bass drums and mezzo
right on target
Nice Work If You Can Get It - Sarah Vaughan [from In Hi-Fi]
pulls the tune
elastic in meter and scale
May 14, 2022
Electric Counterpoint - Steve Reich - Michael Nicolella [from Shard]
a mechanism is pulsing in a corner
cheerful kitsch
not addressing
anyone
about its assigned business
gizmoid
running its cycle
the gears never transform themselves
nor naught else
machined for precision
trouble free
operation
everything will always fit
everywhere
Angels With Dirty Faces - Los Lobos [from Kiko]
its sense of self emerges slowly
from within its slow horse ride
a
long way to go
in no hurry
You - Janet Jackson [from The Velvet Rope]
whispered rhythm
vocal fry
then
sung in harmony
building up
to a message chorus
a melody
effected by dynamic expression
and careful damper working
exploring a virtual object
created in an acoustic space
by means
of its exploring activities' effect
upon a nonvirtual object
the
virtual object not being anywhere
except
within the physical
properties
of the nonvirtual object
its materials and design and
sensitivities to perturbations
a potential object
latent in a
device
does a sound
have a pitch
or is it simply at one
Rapt Away to Darkness - Jarrad Powell - Jessika Kenney [from Stonehouse Songs]
the melody and its harmonies
pull at each other firmly and tenderly
long northern evening
a broad broad horizon
Four(6) - John Cage - Stuart Dempster, Neal Kosály-Meyer, William O. Smith, Melissa Walsh [recorded live at the Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, on May 25, 2012
an emptiness can't be experienced
it being as pure an idea as can be
nothing to touch
nothing to hear see smell or taste
we can have an idea
and we can experience the having of an idea
experiencing it in our mind sense
that is
in our conscious
self
can emptiness be experienced
it can be experienced inside us
as
what it is
that the concept of emptiness
signifies
or
identifies
I have never met an experienced emptiness
Mr. Stick Snark Esq.
Pensée G'arbelle
emptiness is a need to be filled
within the
sensual experience
of concepts
Big Cheese Mity Thinker
In Undertow - Alvvays [from Antisocialites]
fill the space with a cleansing spray
cushion everything
exit
fresh like spring
knowing which end of the studio the toy steel drum is at
and which end
the hose horn is at
I can determine
that
the drum being
skewed to my left
and the hose horn to the right
that
in
order to be where I would need to be
to have heard this
that
I would be on the East wall
which is in fact
where the
microphones are
somehow
the various transformation
of right
and left channels
preserved that configuration
unreversed
in this session
I was playing many instruments
attempting perhaps
to lose my self
as the self of me that I hear making sounds
or
perhaps
not lose
but confuse
open
I discover that the tam tam identifies partly as a C-natural
playing
harmonies triadic
with the piano and tam tam together
tam tam
playing the C
in each case
Karen and I are switching ends
after which
we are easily confused
Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, a 4 voci, Fvb 118 -Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
an activity has always begun
before the prior is done
what counts as an activity
a repeated group
a sequence
a
linear progression
a flourish
Salve, Salutaris Victimis - Peter Philips - The Tudor Consort, Peter Walls [from Cantiones Sacrae Quinis Vocubus]
the voices lift each other out of their bodily beginnings
Sonata in A Major, Kk. 181 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
figurations tried here and there
replacing each other's positions
figuration activities come in ordered groups
comparable
across the structure
Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot (1943)
caricatures of waltzers
one fussy giddy
the other gracious and
ancient
with past passion
Billy Goat Stomp (take 1) - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers [from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, Chicago Days]
certainly one for sound effects
of course it's probably one of them
imitating a goat bleat
I wonder if Jelly Roll's stomps all share that
dotted quarter, eighth note, quarter rest, quarter rest rhythm
it does
sound like an impatient stomping
They Can't Take That Away From Me - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
sings as though she's saying
not reciting
sort of
definitely
not reciting
but
she is clearly cognizant of the poetics
and
enlivens them
Cool Blues - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
fashionable troubles
or a group of colors
The Maids of Cadiz - Miles Davis [from Miles Ahead]
attention is paid to every moment of how this is going
in every
instrument's part
the start and end of the track are abrupt
In My Time of Dyin' - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
evoking a roots that aren't necessarily his
making black folks' music
palatable for hip white folks
Prelude in D minor - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 18, 2022]
if the point of this prelude was to end a very minor key piece
on a
quasi-picardian cadence
but
to make that sound
the ultimate
in dire chords
then
I think I played this pretty well
Cygnet Committee - David Bowie [from Space Oddity]
opens with an evocation of delta blues
like Dylan above
but goes
several elsewheres
that is
a story is apparently told
from
several points of view
sacrificial indoctrination
300 dollars to make this machine
sent 500 later
has a knack for
not quite answering the question completely
Shed No Tears - Flipper [from Generic]
the band is noise
that must be shouted over
one imagines
that in a dive bar
the volume would overwhelm any other possible
communication
it doesn't matter
if nothing is imparted
as
long as it can't be heard
the sound inside
is a zone of common pressure
May 17, 2022
Cantus 3 - Keith Eisenbrey - The Fehrwood Ensemble [rehearsal recorded March 29, 1987]
a recorder quintet I had written the year before
I think
then in
rehearsal
this time conducting with a clicking sticks from Australia
a pulse
bird calls
long straight tones
concocting a melody
amongst themselves
interval by interval
figure by figure
57 Channels (And Nothing On) - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]
I do not like the reverb added for the hook
too much
distracts
from the song
should have left it
with just the bass the drums and
his vocal
the rest is unnecessary
Banned Rehearsal 477 - Isaac E, John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 27, 1997]
a tiny fanfare loses grip on its identity
check for plectra in the
carburetor
then the elephant's trunk
the kids were with us
so banging on things is in order
decade of chaos in full swing
- hey mom there's a spider over there
- that's not surprising
-
the reason I know is that there are two body parts
John at 6½
bottle blowing noise making lessons
Aaron plays air piano
for
Isaac
we put in our time
an angry party attitude chic
Consider the Birds 34 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
3 quick pulses
for the most part accented toward the last of them
like a galloping mouse
Pale Suit - Bigfoot Wallace & His Wicked Sons [from Virgil]
if the song mentions a train
it is put in a trainy rhythm
moving
fast across the countryside
engine chug and track pulse
Tear Shaped Bruise - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, March 27, 2017]
kept close to the strum
With My Back to the World - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
free reeds
beating like little critter hearts
over which
other free reeds soar
while a bass marks time passing
May 18, 2022
In Nomine, Fvb 119 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
opens with an interval reaching upward
from which repeated and varied
gesture
innumerable paths down are taken
sequential figures within
a voice find themselves replicated
between several
a new weave
presents
a newly figured texture garden
The Liar - Rev. Isaiah Shelton [from Goodbye, Babylon]
raising a voice in preaching
moves to song
as a means of
amplification
preaching on a melodic figure
like a psalm tone
chant
in a loose meter
on a steady pulse
make our money green
possibly but not likely
a reference to
Pique Dame
or
simply
both are about gambling at some
level
Pigmeat - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Lead Belly Legacy Volume 1]
boogiewoogie if I mistake not
a ground for fancy guitar shenanigans
Pink Pedal Pushers - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']
there's that boogiewoogie beat played for cash
talk amongst the guys at
the corner store
Do You Care - Little Richard [from The King of the Gospel Singers]
string intro
cinematic spotlight
amazing musicianship
maudlinizing piety
in much the way
rock and roll might be
thought of
as maudlinizing lusts
Matilda Mother - Pink Floyd [from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]
a mix
of childhood recollection
pre-reading
mother's fairy
stories
psychedelia
dialog
comment
and weird chords
meaningful
it says so
messageful
choke on it
slogan
shouting
sax anthem tries to make the best of it
Diversion One - Woody Shaw, Anthony Braxton [from The Iron Men]
aim at that
sucker
no Braxton in this one that I can hear
God of Grace and God of Glory - John Hughes - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]
adding stylish figuration to a given melody
how 16th Century!
but
here the aim is to be sure we heard the tune
rather than to be blown
away by the figuration composition
Happily Ever After - Randolph Hostetler
a story with a scar attached
structured story structure
themes
collected
after ever they happily lived
details accumulate from
the middle
fun with nonsense words
My All - Mariah Carey [from Butterfly]
addressed to a desired sexual partner
(clearly not me)
so:
a
pattern of desire language
offered for general use?
playing what's his name
with the shnozz
to a Roxanne
meanwhile
showing off her vocal range
May 19, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 635 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 12, 2002]
jumping right in with any old thing that pops into our heads
some
activity is being purposefully jacked into the system
when we stop
we all stop
try tickling new sounds
we wander out of music
nearly altogether
Aaron had begun a long sabbatical
and we were
trying to figure out where that left us
at our best
when we're
playing sounds not tunes
trying sounds rather than being a combo
combos have expectations
however vague
syllabusless seminar
and when we do play music type things
at their best
when
headed no place in particular
content to hold still
and be
considered
allowing where we are to shift beneath us
a slowly
morphing sound
the Funmaker rhythm box
real slow
keeps it
anchored in reality
lovely bass
played slow
with quite tasteful cymbals
clearly
composed
Gradus 212 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 28, 2012]
first run all As
second run all As
the superabundance of possibilities is only a problem
if the directional
nature of time is presumed to be a given
not chosen
that is
a solution exists
if all configurations can be considered to exist
if overlaid upon each other
within any given time span
Gradus is the brute force calculation
the stated aim
to
learn to play one combination of keys at a time
is unattainable
not because one won't learn thusly to play
but that the task can't
be completed
it is literally about the ordeal
The Art of the
Ordeal
Odds - Ephrata [from Ephrata]
whatever it might be about in the words
isn't what it's about
it
never is
certainly not exclusively
how it is sound
and how that singing fits
or doesn't
within
the song as sound
all vices versaed
is an avatar of a cultural
snapshot
a breath is a limit and an episode
an articulation and the articulated
span
a synthesis
a literal expression of the body
then the
tongue gets involved
an intermediate articulation
part one
free reeds
part two
reeds free
pitch is a part of how we communicate biologically
not a parameter
part 3
clangs
breathless coda
In Session at the Tintinabulary
May 18, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 14 - Aaron Keyt
Anybody's Fingerbook 5x5 (augmentational) A B C - Keith Eisenbrey
Prelude in B-flat Major - Ken Benshoof
May 19, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 15 - Aaron Keyt
May 20, 2022
Lift Every Voice - J. Rosamond Johnson, arranged by Keith Eisenbrey
Last week I arranged Mr. Johnson's excellent melody for use in our church service
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1989
