"'He leaves it all at the wrong houses.'
Mr. Winkle looked perplexed, and
Bob Sawyer and his friend laughed.
'Don't you see?' said Bob; 'he goes up
to a house, rings the area bell, pokes a packet of medicine without a
direction into the servant's hand, and walks off. Servant takes it into the
dining-parlour; master opens it, and reads the label, "draught to be taken at
bedtime - pills as before - lotion as usual; the powder. From Sawyer's,
late Nockemorf's. Physicians' prescriptions carefully prepared:" and all the
rest of it. Shows it to his wife - she reads the label; it goes down to
the servants - they read the label. Next day the boy calls: "Very sorry
- his mistake - immense business - great many parcels to deliver - Mr.
Sawyer's compliments - late Nockemorf's." The name gets known; and that's the
thing, my boy, in the medical way; bless your heart, old fellow, it's better
than all the advertising in the world. We have got one four-ounce bottle
that's been to half the houses in Bristol, and hasn't done yet.'"
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"
Texts
October 20, 2023
Sonidos: Music of the Americas
Seattle Modern Orchestra
Christine Lee, Maria Männistö, Marcin Pączkowski, Angelique Poteat, Sarah
Pyle, Julia Tai, Cristina Valdés, Jordan Voelker, Bonnie Whiting
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Espacios, objetos, sonidos y tiempo - Angélica Negrón
we all plug in
chord of nature sonorities
tiresome?
or is it
just me?
mellifluousism
cristales y susurros (whispers and crystal) - Silvina Milstein
concerned with its own knottiness
slowly flying fish
singing as
they leap
in scholae
Retour - José-Luis Hurtado
where you have landed
is probably perilous
Bestiario: seis - Luis Fernando Amaya
the specimen
means to move itself
from its slide
laser
guided scalpels and probes
abrupt finish
Trio Variations - Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
by the end of this talk
the chalk board
will be full of arcana and
sidetracks
we'll need to consider carefully here
the crux of the
proof approaches
the going roughens
October 14, 2023
Intermezzo in D minor, Op. 4 #5 - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage
moments come and go so quickly here
narrowly bounded chromatic melody
arched over by wide leaping bass
Mazurka in D-flat Major, Op. 30 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
proceeds by trying on alternates
to check the effect
so many
lightings
so many faces to try
this is Chopin's earbrain thinking
Song 16 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner
the ground gives way
the mist rises
Suburban Eyes - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
surface of the pulse
as though in cross rhythm to meter
or
they hover ever so slightly apart
Long Tall Sally (take 1) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
no wonder the popularized version sounds so rushed
the arrangement was
conceived to be much more relaxed
plenty of time for skirts to twirl
No Letter Today - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]
the ironic remove has been offloaded onto the horns
I'm Going Back Home - Nina Simone [from High Priestess of Soul]
and she's quite cheerful about it too
perk up the mood on the dance
floor
Just A Little Lovin' - Sarah Vaughan [from Feelin' Good]
big band arrangement
Vegas style
One - Carole King [from Simple Things]
the keyboard playing supports the sincerity
not enough to it to support
ironic commentary
marking time
flute stands for holistic earth
health
Times Square - Ornette Coleman [from Of Human Feelings]
traffic every which way
flashing lights
party all the time
losing track of oneself in the hubbub
one's parts are sold
separately
Zeroes - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]
as though live
and it might be
a hand extended through the radio
Black Sheep, Black Sheep - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
two stanzas
solo vocal
flexible meter
to fit the scansion
the theme of the text
taut
between the two stanzas
Quality - Paul Simon [from Songs from The Capeman]
songs across the street
stoop to stoop
fast talk
to
cool it down
buster
Further On Up The Road - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]
kick drum
1 + 2 + 1 + 4
stable
solid mass
block of
amplified sound
Fragments and Ecstacies - Jarrad Powell [from Stonehouse Songs]
the text's scansion floats on a liquid surface
at the gentle mercy of
winds waves and currents
Summer Conversations - Steve Layton and Improv Friday [from Summer Mirages]
when we hear a filtered sound
we can search out the source
prior
to filtering
(as we habitually do with, say, a recording of a string
quartet)
or
we can isolate the filter
or
take the sound
as what it is
referential both to its source
and to its filter
Low Tide - CEP [from Drawing the Target Around the Arrow]
song-writing in the industrial sense
can arise as an activity
out
of guitar strumming
keyboard noodling
drum tapping
horn
blowing
or knob twiddling
(as here)
Improbable Ensemble 4 - Sascia Pellegrini [from 4 Improbable Ensembles]
orbiting warily
each twitch propagating tensely
each tone
is
a moment to itself
no well-worn melodic paths to be seen
a
wilderness of moments
note: (def)
an episode of pitch,
an instance with time
the tense wariness eases into a truce
Funny How Time Slips Away - Willie Nelson [from . . . And Then I Wrote]
one side only
meet on the street
lots of space between the words
for the instruments to go
uh huh
yup
I hear ya
Wassail Song - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
a drinking song for Christmas
Hank, Karen and Elvis - The Young Fresh Fellows [from The Men Who Loved Music]
all the bad news about all the faves
Code Name 7 - Greg Sinibaldi [from Frieze of Life]
protagonist ventures into the night
which gradually returns the favor
is what we say
in the presence of an experience
about that
experience
is what we say
about an experience
in the presence of that
experience
streets void of all but mood
Misty Mountain Morning - Back Burner [from Simmer On]
string band
North American comfort food
family picnic music
the peril
is in retreating into itself
and circling the
wagons
Blow - Beyoncé [from Beyoncé]
satisfied sighs
in rhythm
pattern of verse to chorus
et
cetera
is from the dance to the surface
not dance to a song
but sing to a dance
weighed down
significant ballast
frivolity lost
You're On Your Own, Kid - Taylor Swift [from Midnights]
trying on self-awareness
of a certain disillusional character
Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand - The Who [from The Who Sell Out]
a cool appraisal
of the goods on display
for acquisition
Eric B. Is President - Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid in Full]
beat
as reference for rhythm
pole dance
it is conceivable
for the dance
to transform the reference pole
for the
referrer
to transform the beat
in this sense
gallant era
phraseology
is a medium for such an activity
Dirty (feat. Redman) - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
clever solo vocal entrance
coming through an assembled song
for
dance party
loosen up the club scene
Again Today / Hiding My Heart - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]
front half
nursery rhyme to warm up
for the meat of the matter
song's doorknob
coded lines:
those with harmony singing are
the front half
those without are the twist to the personal
Binders Full of Women - Red Ribbon [from Time Is Running Out]
escape from paternal oppression
For The Worse - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
rurally twanged lead guitar
polished up with suburban shiny
Track 6 - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddler's Inn, March 7, 2022]
in this more intimate space
the interval
between song-Star
and quotidian-Star
is narrower
Bring It On Home - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]
how to ad lib
first lessons
it's working!
it's working!
Madrigali, "Six Fire Songs On Italian Renaissance Poems": II. Quando son più lontan - Morton Lauridsen - Polyphony, Stephen Layton
Gesualdo fan fic
sure
why not
That's Entertainment - The Jam [from The Sound of the Jam]
stripping the information
otherwise gleanable
bare
robotic irony
robotic aspiration irony
we are cool being cool
Vacant Train - Head for the Hills [from Robbers Roost]
back to comfort food
with fiddle!
the country stanza starts with a stack of placeholders
with the pay-off
line at the end
there now
there's someone else trying to go all beat poet on us
Michel - Waxahatchee [from American Weekend]
the filter on the voice
may just be the original equipment signal
recorded in a closet
Song 5 - Arbor Towers [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
a gentle voice
with gentle guitar
and even gentle drums
with
apropos poetics among the chatter
went a bit crazy there
for a
briefness
to break
to start again
more gently still
a
quiet dance
tail off
Bygones - Robber's Roost [from Rage & Reason]
clearly
there were time and resources afforded to the making of this
whole album
some of his busker recklessness has been focused
but
the I-am-what-I-am persona remains intact
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - The Beatles [from Anthology]
an alternate version
vocal somewhat buried in the back
The Bridge Is Over - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]
utilitarian instrumentals
drum (machine?)
and one-finger piano
Track 16 - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]
putting a voice to an aspect of our better angels
Track 16 - Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
a lame rap parody
Richest Hill on Earth - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from River Rats and Pipelines]
a lament
Pink Drink - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
pink drink
will you save me
Rubies - Mikey and Matty [from And It Came to Pass / Not to Say]
text and sound surround a core moment
otherwise hidden
Windout - REM [from Dead Letter Office]
parts of lines allocated to projective locations
Sunflowers for Alfred Roy - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
carefully using simple words anyone would know
In the Silence of Midnight - Bonnie Loggins and Mary Lomax [from The Art of Field Recording]
when the death angels came
old voices in old harmony
singing and
shouting
on the streets of pure gold
Funk The Evening - Black Plastic Clouds [from Electroplate]
even weight on each beat in the intro
verse accents on 2 and 4
chorus mixes it up on the inner beats
Hold It Close - Anxious Arms [from Never Was]
as in an empty room
the band comes in to cover up what anyone might say
Down In New Orleans - Doug Kolmar [from So Said Life]
legend rehash
tourist brochure
Unashamed - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]
vocal shimmy
squeezes in
from within the synthy reed lick
that opens
self-referential
artist's statement
the
high value production
tends to subvert
the I-am-what-I-am-ness
of it
Weapons of Mass Distraction - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]
nose right down into the toolbox
hogs in slop
short-form
improvisations
the necessarily close proximity
of everything to
everything else
gains a kind of coherence for it
the players
limit their sound world
to a few items
the session
becomes the residue of them listening to each other
through
those particular objects
Okienko - Stanislav Surin [from 10 Songs]
with piano guitar
and a second voice on one verse
Shakes - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]
aimed squarely at the room
incantation within bells
the action and its enclosure
within its
combination
is the passage
and the vessel across the river
wait for it
more than once
Completely Yes - Total Experience Gospel Choir, Pat Wright [from Bits and Pieces]
from the bottom of my heart
to the top of my voice
ecstatic
surrender
a cantata of a song
episodes of tempos
and rhythms
of call and response
Night and Day - Glenn Tate [from Some Of My Favorite Love Songs]
some of it we remember well
so it jumps into a higher register
Chapter 5 - Nancy Cole-Silverman - Adam Verner [from A Much Married Woman]
or
would it make more sense
be more accurate
to say
Episode 5
text as a spoken theater
descriptions read like
screenplay instructions
the director
excuse me
The
Director
Hully Gee!
mustachio twirling
Transsexual Girlfriend - Mud on My Bra [from Demo #2 (Manger Studio Mixes]
not invisible
Flow of Everything - Michael Bisio, Matthew Shipp [from Flow of Everything]
streams merge in a conceptual space
between the sounds
that hold
them
locked
more or less
in place
the difference
between Mississippi and Missouri and Yellowstone
is nomenclature alone
the river is one
acoustics is so not where the action is
Congratulamini nunc omnes - Nicolaus Zanguis - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of the Krummhorn]
the servants have arranged a little something for your Lordships
hit it
guys!
how delightful
throw them a pfennig
Vines Claim the Ruins - Pete Comley [from Lost City Music, Vol. 2]
literature
music
drama
dance
all do obeisance to the
movies
sound and light
round each other out
into a new
sphere of aesthetic image
these are things we can make speakers do
and these are things we can make shadows do
they join in our
experience
Doorbler - Bruce Hamilton and Friends [from Mash Hits Vol. 1]
multiple distinct reality bubbles
jostling each other in a close space
the hinge on the outer gate squeaks in the wind
Not My Baby - Alvvays [from Antisocialites]
big warm well-tuned acoustic guitars
how classy
vocal is
engineered to sound like a huge stadium
amplification
but
whispered in your ear
for you alone
in the magic circle
on
the edge of overwhelm-ment
Difference (feat. Stephen Fandrich) - Gamelan Pacifica [from Vessel]
virtual reality
built on the steady rocks
of standing waves
the caws of crows
is this a new aesthetic realm
or a new
cognitive state
that aesthetic desire seeks to engulf?
the fundamental I want
is below where I can hear
The Christmas Song - London Symphony Orchestra [from Songs for the Holidays]
the old chestnut over-roasted
Say Hi to the Bad Guy - Ice Cube [from The Predator]
and now for something completely different
point of view cinema
Rock My World - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]
demand
challenge
guy music for guys
Fiend Folio - Ephrata [from Ephrata]
the Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan in Barbieland
Dark Trees - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
Seattle loves drones because?
the winters are dark here
standing
waves are objects persisting in space
Ave Maria - Johann Sebastian Bach/Charles Gounod [from 100 Greatest Classics]
a Catholic devotional hymn
set to a quintessentially Lutheran's harmony
A Man Is Falling - Byron au Yong [from Yiju]
three stanzas
singsong vocals
with overdubbed harmony
Victoria - Bad Cop/Bad Cop [from Warriors]
words and setting
for the purpose of attitude display
Tree Line - Jostaberry [from Hello Turbine]
melody and harmony wander in separate directions
linked by a tether to
keep them closish
River of Fools - Los Lobos [from By The Light of the Moon]
domestic extended home life
the world as seen from looking back on it
Joey (Concrete Blonde) - Prom Queen [from Covers]
two and three syllable lines tightly rhymed
inside it opens up
epistle to an estranged someone
Zap Sistah - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]
witness and preachment
accumulating its completeness in episodes
Rollschleppe (Escalator-Schlep) - Eric Nathan [from Missing Words]
atmosphere
thick with arpeggiations
up lifting
(now we're
inside)
the gravity is strong
and we feel our massiveness
with a head start
our inertia will surely strive
no wafting
without struggle
Sableyalo mi Agontze - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir, Philip Koutev [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares]
old is the new new
(Ben?)
closer to Bruckner than Gounod was
Kheshagga - $.99 Dreams [from Brood of Bau]
evoking an inverted vibe
the new is an enclave of the old
which is
permeable to it
and that's just for openers
Electric Owls - Merchant Mariner [from Merchant Mariner]
fancy song composition
surround song
Hannah Selini: Mid Day - Stephanie Lamprea [from Quaking Aspen]
prog chamber chorus
if a thing is said
it can be filed in the
loops
where they dissonate
to their heart's content
One Tree Hill - U2 [from The Joshua Tree]
here's what bugs me about Bono
there's something of the Lorenzo Saint
DuBois about his projection
just under the surface
not to mention
the whole showbeeswax altar-call
Way Down - St. Paul de Vence [from St. Paul de Vence]
music (here) is handcrafted paper
within which the song is interwoven
Eleckatricity and All - Annalisa Tornfelt and the Tornfelt Sisters [from Roll Columbia]
hiding the payload behind singsong rhymes
~--~~--~~~-~--~~-------~~-~~~~(Rojahn Remix) - Lost Chocolate Lab [from (Previously) Clean]
a familiar walk
in a familiar light
being here
doing that
Liberian Girl - Michael Jackson [from Bad]
dance and song are one
Human Fly (Cramps Cover) - Cowgirls, The
underground punk classic
Datcho Reverb - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Feeexta]
there certainly is some reverb in there
no denyin'
Smoke (feat. Leanna Keith) - Kaley Lane Eaton [from Cedar]
aestheticization of resignation?
Mahlerian?
Serenade in D Major, Op. 8 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Emanuel Feuermann, Szymon Goldberg, Paul Hindemith
pleasing for all concerned
urbane
polite
echt gallant
it is tempting to hear "the real Beethoven"
holding himself back
in this
but
he was feeling his way along
just like the rest of
us
the conversations among the players
are occasionally clumsy
especially in their attempts to be balanced and polite
Where Shall I Go? - Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Itzhak Perlman [from Tradition]
the melody is active at the starts of the phrases
holds the last note
the accompaniment is active at the ends of them
a back and forth
rhythm
Black Rabbit - Low Hums [from Low Hums LP]
well into the song
and the beat has stayed away
the vocalist's
accent
is remarkably like Robin Jackson of Robin Jackson and The Caravan
(are they both from the same town?)
more of a primitivist beat
than a rock&roll beat
when it finally does come in
all on the
toms and kick
the occasional cymbal splash
at segment ends
Reckoning - The Maldives [from Mad Lives]
hey it's a banjo!
the scene
in the sunset
on the glider
on
the porch
as the credits roll
I Learned That From You - Denise Glover [from Dreams of the Butterfly]
which is the last line in each verse
you can hear it coming
by its
rhyme-tell
simple means clearly managed
In Session at The Tintinabulary
October 15, 2023
Ward - Keith Eisenbrey
this weeks shape-note tune arrangement
October 16, 2023
Gradus 389 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
an epic introductory list
I choose not to check his work
traffic
song
a good tune is one that is transparent to its intent
it
is in the intent's interest
that it is good
this music has grown from
but now begins to step out from
a compositional rule
is just an imaginary path
chosen to be
followed
designed to be followed
a discipline
a
proposition
in listening
I hear a persistence upon certain pitches for long periods
but that is my imputation upon the evidence
which
though it
is not
I presume
innocent of Neal's intent
is certainly
innocent of any intent I might impute
anew!
anew!
proximity binds
geography is destiny
open parallels and other sins of polyphony:
a treatise
knock knock
who's there
impatient arpeggio
October 17, 2023
Sinfonia 6 - Keith Eisenbrey
on piano
October 20, 2023
Invention in A minor - Gavin Borchert
I recorded this revised version (by Gavin) of one of his set of 19 2-part Inventions
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 5: 1984-1988
This volume covers 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
This volume 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
This set of pieces was written in Red Hook, NY, and Malabar, FL, as I was beginning to think about thinking about music.
Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982
These are 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
These are the keyboard works I composed while an undergrad at the UW.
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2010
