"Language is always trying to tell us we don't know how it means."
George Quasha - from "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole"
Texts
Recorded
August 5, 2023
Song 2 - Curtains For You [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
breaks through into a wide airborne groove
then back
Music of Tond (Side B) - Steve Scribner - Tond Band [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, September 22, 2017]
a reading in fictional music theory
then some action
then music
moving gently
incense seep
its own exotic invention
moving from place to place
everybody's goblet kept full
each
pipe
with soft embers
||
concert music:
requires close and imaginative listening
to be itself
atmosphere music:
allows entry and exit in awareness
dance music:
to be heard in moving
(if you're not moving
you
are not listening
as it needs to be attended)
this music:
pervades and persists
a spice
a space
a
binding agent
effacing time passing
refined pleasure
In memoriam Aretha Franklin - Jeremiah Lawson
music
with a musician's music
in ear
the physical action of
playing this music
articulates its fluid pulse
into knuckles and
bones
pulse segments
Étude in C-sharp minor, Op. 10 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
high speed chase
Fantasiesücke in D-flat Major Op. 12 #1 - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage
the key melts away in the languid air
Fuga, Op. 81 #4 - Felix Mendelssohn - The Emerson Quartet
a double fugue
of few articulatory cadences
Friendship - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush
the tone begins pious
but bends fervent
Once In A While - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
melodic head rhyming
The Edge Of The Sea - Sarah Vaughan [from In A Romantic Mood]
a tawdry bit of sentimentality
transformed utterly by invested singing
It Makes No Difference Now - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music]
a story teller
tells his story's side
it begins to show
that
he's not entirely broken up about it
Do I Move You? (version 2) - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]
from your head down to your liver
anthemic raunch
About to Make Me Leave Home - Bonnie Raitt [from Sweet Forgiveness]
helluva blues band she's got there
to the point I'm sorry it fades to
end
though there is good time to groove on it
the 80s' love affair with mechanical precision
Aurora Bridge - The Young Fresh Fellows [from Refreshments]
Seattle loves to bemoan the passing of old buildings
a comic song with
localized humor
Pony Boy - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]
gitty up gitty up gitty up gitty on
Fuck 'Em - Ice Cube [from The Predator]
an interview
Josephine - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]
tasteful arrangement
repeating the chorus
messes with the
narrative line
in a similar way
to what happens in da capo arias
Driving While The City Sleeps - Steve Layton & Improv Friday [from Shared Circle]
as though through everybody's dreams
or their substrate
Why Do You Dream - Prom Queen [from Doom Wop]
this temptress
doesn't come across as entirely harmless
Ex-C3 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Ex-C]
rhythms in low frequency dissonance
as the strings enter above it
their interplaying
has a fugue-y vibe to it
but I don't know
why it would need to be a fugue
to accomplish that
so
whether it is or isn't
is irrelevant
Caprices in forme de Valse in C Major, Op. 2 #1 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Gützmann
pulling back at edges
a game with rules
It All Depends On Who Will Buy The Wine (undubbed version) - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']
a portrait
in which one may recognize oneself
or another
within a milieu
a warning against moral turpitude
Very Early - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]
comfortable with cycling back regularly
able to stretch out in the
middles
a relaxed waltz
Good Morning Good Morning - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]
perhaps my favorite song on the album
the brass band has a shredded
sound to it
the psychedelia at the end is fine
blatant
honestly modest
Doyna - Itzhak Perlman [from Tradition]
national pride music
commercialized folk music in a tux
a ritual for entry into the unconscious
why oh why
did they add
Arlo's modern production version
as part of the track
and not
separate it out??
it's a fine enough performance
but its tone is
dissonant to the simplicity of Woody's guitar plucking
You Wanna Be Me - Nas [from 8 Mile]
Shakespearean in its insulting scope
Pavan (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
the midi piano has a heartless sensitivity to it
uncanny
a strange
universe
in which pitch seems to matter
I rather like this
nice job past me!
Espionagem Industrial - Camarone Orquestra Guitarristica [from Live In Natal]
sleekly dressed movie heroes
arming themselves
moving fast
quick cuts
here's the closet with the big munitions
count
carefully
Banned Rehearsal 943 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 5, 2017]
the pitch world
is a 3-dimensional flat surface
experienceable as
locations
timbre differentiates itself
in a different geography
the math involved
in relating their disparate geometries
adequately
is deep shit
the piano is discussing matters with
the otamatone
Banned Rehearsal:
constructing irreproducible sounds for 40 years next
June
Hollywood histrionics sneak in
through Tchaikovsky and cellphone
technology
and here's Mr. Alpert
imagine that
the ritardando
entertainer
frog chorus
a fabric of bands of sound
kind of a hi-tech version
of Neal's
Ecclesiastical Musings
a saturated undulation
Can't Believe You Wanna Leave (take 8) - Little Richard [from Little Richard]
the way his voice ends its lines
often
with a molto sotto voce
upper yodel squeak
Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd [from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (digital)]
the best James Bond movie opening song ever
Housequake - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]
dance call song
My Old Hen's A Good Old Hen - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
an incantation with a threat
Violin Concerto #2 in G minor - Antonia Vivaldi - Pinchas Zukerman [from Masters Of the Bow]
whoosh
that's a bunch of notes fired at one
Santa Claus Is Coming by Ground - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
Where She Is - Tyrannosaurus Grace [from Much More Than A Story]
I have an ingrained distrust
of anyone telling me the way it is
Womanarchist - Bad Cop/Bad Cop [from Warriors]
the image of power
donned as a costume
Lost - Doug Haire [from Western Stoner]
campfire crackle
river below terrain
wind above
rising
whistling
(I'm hoping the fire crackle
is from a
different track)
the wind means business
dog or duck
bark or quack
groan
roar
uh oh
Woody 'N You - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]
on this end
the sense that there may be an underlying set of changes
or a reference melody
is less than relevant
to the thrust of
it
One Single River - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]
the presence of the recorded sound wanders about
as though the tape were
loose across the heads
or perhaps is slightly woozy
Never Let Me Down - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]
homage to John Lennon
Breath - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]
proximity to power
effaces communication
If Ever I Would Leave You - Glenn Tate [from Some Of My Favorite Love Songs]
a song
translated as a piano solo
for reminiscing to
the cornet
among a motley sequence of pick up instruments
then a
still place
with marimba piano and tam tam
all PP
a tour of
sounds in space
spasmodic bursts
calm expanses
knocking
about in isolation
stray musical procedures leak in
radio dial
twisting
to static
at last
so peaceful
...and brought it away... - Aaron Kirschner - Peter Nelson-King [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 22, 2023]
a tree in mind
Alle menschen müssen sterben - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded November 7, 2019]
a stern lesson
{true confession
when I was first starting to compose
I worried
that I wouldn't be able to come up with tunes of my own
I decided that I
would probably need to base everything on the chorale melodies in the
Bach-Riemenschneider chorale collection
It took me 40 years to finally
do that
(though for different reasons)}
Brass Band In The Marianas Trench - Tom Varner [from Sound Vespers]
gorgeous low frequency quiet sounds
hang out
with the weird fish
in the dark
Johnny One Note - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]
jazz choir novelty number
A Change Is Gonna Come - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You]
gospel sermon
the drums sound like real drums
The Lord's My Shepherd - Jessie Seymour Irvine [from 100 Greatest Classics]
ponderous plummy piety
church choir favorite
Extract Meanings/Exchange/Inhabit - The Bard College Composers' Ensemble [from Open Space 6]
1
exertion
to budge each inch
fine tuning
2
honk and whap
robust Klangfarbenmelodien
a parade in all
directions
evacuative purge
3
confined
held back
or approaching
or borne on
billows
the ground is soft and springy
drifting by the wind
My Saving Grace - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
intro from all angles
then we'll have a hymn
not for singing along
with
she sings her own backup chorus and harmonies
claustrophilic
Metamorphosis Happens - Tom Baker Quartet [from Look What I Found]
get moving
repeat
now under a fair wind
or downhill
jauntily we roll along
mind the curves
made it to the bottom
push it back up
I Love Julian - Karen Blaine [from Modern Day Living]
just another self-proclaimed smartest-guy-ever
in my humble estimation
U.S. 101 - Low Hums [from Night Magic Wine]
celebrate road trip legend
Strengur - Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir - Halla Lovísa Loftsdóttir [from Strengur]
music of objects
strings and drums being strings and drums
resonance enhanced
if all else fails
let the freckles belt one out
Joy To The World - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols In Brass]
this album appears in my collection from Karen's family
via a
ferociously unlistenable cassette dub
when I was digitizing I made some effort to replace such horrors
with
better copies available commercially
I was surprisingly successful
at many odds and ends
and surprisingly unsuccessful at others
Sheep May Safely Graze - Johann Sebastian Bach [from 100 Greatest Classics]
recorded in a warm bath
with portamento up to eleven
no detail of
sound
will disturb their grazing
Watchulookinat (A.K.A. Backing Vox Up) - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]
vocal and backups
weave around the center of the song
Pavan - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey, Matthew Weiss [recorded November 12, 2009]
violin and piano parts linked intimately
through the pitch-set
transformations
details of which I have forgotten
and sizes of
phrases
all without any sort of lockstep
they seem relatively
independent
I like that it comes across as quite expressive
but
never espressivo
a solid piece
Break Away - Specyfi [from Nine Songs]
a metal band from the midwest
that sounds just like a metal band from
the midwest
steady state power usage
Gradus 322 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 2, 2017]
quiet stream
sultry afternoon
once an image is in the listening
mind
additional information can be accommodated into it
or modify
it
up to point?
image modulation
or
one could simply
decide upon a different image
a rocky landscape
stills
or
howling winds
or less concrete of a reference
an unstable slope
in a geometry within the pitch realm
a landscape with its
antecedent processes
can I force
or convince
my mind's ear
to be blank
and allow whatever arises in interaction
without influence of an
agenda
partially
listening is an agenda
Unforeseen - James Falzone [from So Far So Still]
an elastic pitch path
stretched and relaxed
twanged by whatever
hand
twangs a fipple flute's voice
The Last Time - Big Brother And The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
the music subserves her delivery
that is
her delivery transforms
the music
as she talks
a blue streak
Anyone Can Fill Your Shoes - X - [from See How We Are]
a string of words
on a brand-name sound
Octopus and Crow - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]
k'aw k'aw
Mr. Crow
cousin mosquito man
bear man
cousin
slug man
cousin flea man
octopus lady
Vor - An Auf [from An Auf]
rhythms of fingers wiggling
Love Him Or Leave Him To Me - Rachel Harrington [from Making Our House A Honky Tonk]
the pulse of open sky and empty roads
Thanksgiving - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]
subject matter
prosaic on the surface
but goes weird
an
attractively transparent sound
Overture to 'Trionfo della Fedeltà' - Maria Antonia Walpurgis - The Seattle Baroque Orchestra
the notion
of masterworks by geniuses
was a Romantic phenomenon
but now
all of the past's works
are judged according to its
rubric
and we search for hidden masterworks
among the forgotten
and neglected
why is it that
that we seek?
is that all that
music is good for?
this music
for instance is perfectly competent
and enjoyable
as an image of the past
it doesn't need to be
masterful to be that
just skillful
The Little Things - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]
all the things you don't do for her
instructions for better behavior
Capriccio Italien - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [from 100 Greatest Classics]
at least they seem to have included all of it
this part of Italy is dark
and troubled
like Russia
oh good
here's a local wandering
home
much sunnier now
so
a series of dances
with
soulful bits to chaperone them
Meteors In My Backyard - The Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]
calling for a near miracle
as an aspiration
stardom as a goal
I have three zither type instruments
(excluding the keyed ones)
and I strummed them
for some pitched sound
to use in a music
as film project
What Love Looks Like - Shannon Stephens [from Pull It Together]
lots of guitar string squeak
and all the little things
that
Dolly's guy wasn't remembering
August 11, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 944 - Jennifer Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer, October 9, 2017]
thinking about architecture and music
at lunch this afternoon with Karen
from the dialogs of organ or choir
and cathedral
opera
and theaters
orchestras
and auditoriums
stadiums
and industrial scale sound design
digital processing
microphone and speaker design
recording engineering
down to
my own personal habit
of listening
while seated on our
living room floor
in front of stereo speakers
the designs of music
and of the spaces in which we encounter it
are rooted in the same communal necessity
our need to hear each
others music
in order to be us at all
do others of our fellow creatures
construct acoustic environments
for inter-communication?
we perceive music
and its acoustic environment
as an indivisible
whole
query
is it also a quasi-synthesis
as song is
or
as I
wonder if song is?
our concepts of music
top to bottom
include the spaces in which it
is encountered
as much as ostensible content
(its notes, et
cetera)
no architecture is invisible to music
this is a lively session
with elements of activity
that stretch
back to Dave's basement days
Chaos Magicians - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 6, 2023
Wells - Keith Eisenbrey
a three voiced keyboard arrangement of the hymn tune
as found in "The
Christian Minstrel: A New System of Musical Notation; With A Collection Of
Psalm Tunes, Anthems, and Chants Selected from the Most Popular Works in
Europe and America. Designed for the Uses of Churches, Singing-Schools, and
Societies. by J. B. Aikin. One Hundred and Fifty-Second Edition. 1846"
August 7, 2023
Gradus 386 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
a rung
prior to its activity
is a set of pitches to be exhausted
a task
that aspect
of any activity
that is task-like
is
in that sense
Heraklean
judged by the keystroke
from rung one to rung two
Neal's approach
to the intervals
within his chosen pitch set
has changed
dramatically
more than just the different notes at play
August 9, 2023
Sinfonia 3 - Keith Eisenbrey
on piano
Invention in D Major - Gavin Borchert
August 11, 2023
Invention in D minor - Gavin Borchert
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2004
