Playlist

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

Preface

"'No fairy fingers can have pressed the gold, but devil's claws must have left their mouldings there since yesterday,' murmured Starbuck to himself, leaning against the bulwarks. 'The old man seems to read Belshazzar's awful writing. I have never marked the coin inspectingly. He goes below; let me read. A dark valley between three mighty, heaven-abiding peaks, that almost seem the Trinity, in some faint earthly symbol. So in this vale of Death, God girds us round; and over all our gloom, the sun of Righteousness still shines a beacon and a hope. If we bend down our eyes, the dark vale shows her mouldy soil; but if we lift them, the bright sun meets our glance half way, to cheer. Yet, oh, the great sun is no fixture; and if, at midnight, we would fain snatch some sweet solace from him, we gaze for him in vain! This coin speaks wisely, mildly, truly, but still sadly to me. I will quit it, lest Truth shake me falsely.'"

Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.

Texts

Live

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

November 22, 2025

Harmonia Chamber Players II
University Unitarian Church, Seattle

Eight Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson - Aaron Keyt - Karen Dunstan, Jennifer Chung

watch your fingers now
these settings bite back

Six Poems of Carl Sandburg - Carol Sams - Cassandra Willock, Anjali Chudasama, Lyon Stewart, Gabriel Salmon

syllabically playful
Monteverdish
attending to phonemic colors
fast and loose with word repetition

String Quartet No. 2 ("Riddles") - Huntley Beyer - Stephen Provine, Fritz Klein, Katherine McWilliams, Matthew Wyant

humane and pleasing
a gracious host

Recorded

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

November 23, 2025

Madrigals, Book IX: Bel pastor, dal cui bel guardo - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano - Rinaldo Alessandrini

syllables
and phonemes
and notes 

oh my!

Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist, BuxWV 208 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

these lines are having a quiet chat by a warming fire

Nun ist das Heil und Kraft, BWV 50 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Wurttembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Helmut Rilling, Arleen Auger, Philippe Huttenlocher

the fugue is instructive of the text set upon it

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 301 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

clarity of figure of the moment
their metrical contours
and the tightness
of their fitting together

Kreisleriana, Op. 16 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage

feral meter
spills over the ends of lines
until
its bursting forth
is exhausted 

the placement
of the notes
we hear
as the tune
with respect
to the notes
within the figures
that echo it
or pre-echo it
metrically 

shuttles us
across the gap
between adjacent metrical cycles 

mind you
this is all going by
lickety-split
so
hang on tight 

a book of daydreams
there's always time to be found
for a lovely decoration now and again 

multifaceted moments of experience
(kernels)

Buch der Lieder I, S. 531: No. 1, Die Loreley - Franz Liszt - Alexandre Dossin

transformation by touch
off on an adventure!
this music tells tales

Etude in F-sharp Major, Op. 42 #3 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

those damned little triplet trills

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

November 24, 2025

A Monday Date - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

showmanship up front
wow 'em with razzle dazzle

The Middle of Love - Blossom Dearie [from Give Him the Ooh-La-La]

all the iddle rhymes
preposterous sky

Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]

the musicians respond
as though they meant it

The Love of My Man - Etta James [from Tell Mama]

testimony
with extravagant vocal expression

Any Colour You Like - Pink Floyd [from The Dark Side Of The Moon]

an instrumental interlude

Fire - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]

could imagine this song
as an Elvis the Pelvis rockabilly

Every Breath You Take - The Police [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

jealousy
threat to chattel
woman
object

Perdulaise - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 19, 2006]

so that
each moment
is clearly drawn
with no sound extra

Just Say I Love Him - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]

cabaret vibe

Gigue - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]

more easy-going than jolly

Track 5 - Eckstein Middle School Students [from Mach 6]

something stirring and patriotic no doubt about it 

all the approved inspirationals

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

Zither Film 28 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 22, 2008]

bursts of bursts
could one count them?
gets easier later 

coincidence complicates count
each burst
an object 

does a blip
count
as a burst?
can bursts count?
can blips? 

the incidence
of coincidence
diminishes
as it goes along 

these silences have flavors
nameless flavors 

the anominable flavors of silence

November 25, 2025

I Wanna Be In The Deadbars - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle]

with distinctly tin pan alley changes
equipment adjustment

Frankie and Johnny - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 29, 2019]

with distinctly non tin pan alley changes
in order to open thoughts
about how such changes function 

making recalcitrant material sing

Spaceship - BLDGS [from Dirt Cult Records - Dead Bars- You Don't Have to Be Cool Vol 1]

four line poem
and short ones

Get Up Off Your Knees - Ethel Waters [from That Devilin' Tune]

laying down the law

When Will The Blues Leave? - Ornette Coleman [from Something Else!!!]

last line
of three
wraps it up

Do You Want To Know a Secret - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]

speaking directly
to the listener teen

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

Cyprus Avenue - Van Morrison [form Astral Weeks]

story teller
letter writer 

instrumentation extends
past from the song

A Quiet Place to Live - Carole King [from Fantasy]

journal entry
addressing herself

Pléïades: IV. Peaux - Iannis Xenakis - Red Fish Blue Fish

drums have location locked down 

the timpani are revving their engines

JB KEE 831105 - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey [November 5, 1983]

guitar tuned loose
piano
and Roger
a bass line
and some chords
chatting after
music on the back porch

Rattled - Traveling Wilburys [from Traveling Wilburys]

old-guy get-together

Gone With The Wind - Sun Ra [from Monorails and Satellites]

the annotations
have a dance party

Track 7 - Richard Rorex and Reid Merryman [from Mood for Rochelle]

a smoke filled cabaret
from South of California

Banned Rehearsal 660 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 17, 2003]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 660 031117

how we chatter
toward discovery
get onto something interesting
to gnaw at 

change of topic
by collective drift

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

Symphony No. 1, Fifth Movement - Chuck Graef

Appalachian Haunted Spring
across the prairies
brave skies
starfilled nights 

the strings have gotten all excited
and tied themselves into a fugue 

all the ponderous beasts arrive
to assist 

holy sweeping panoramas Batman! 

clean up crew
with timp buckets

Dixie Cups and Jars - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

something vaguely bad going down
by the beat writing alone

Polluted Skies - The Bombpops [from Dear Beer]

80s surf vibe

St. Peters - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [August 27, 2023]

Keith Eisenbrey · 08 St. Peters 230827 [230827]

the added parts
disguising
as other hymn tunes
among
the given
hymn tune

Deep River - Forbes Randolph Kentucky Jubilee Choir [from Really The Blues]

must have been a challenge
to place the microphone

My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

predicaments
must rhyme
to be
with the time 

the unmistakable cleanliness
of a recording studio

Masters In This Hall [from The Life Christmas Treasury]

I have sung exactly this arrangement
in costume no less

Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel [from Bookends]

humming moans in the back

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

November 26, 2025

Jesus Children of America - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]

it is unclear
to whom he is addressing this song 

odd message for the dance floor
as
it is more of a sermon
or harangue
than a titillation
or encouragement to romance

Eternal Day - Sacred Harp Singing Group [from The Art of Field Recording]

truly scary

Batman - 6 6 12 [from Bard Sampler 82-83]

there were always people
who had picked out some tune or other
and would plunk it out
on any piano they ran across
to pretend something 

kin to Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
and Chopsticks
but for guitars

Banned Rehearsal 151 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [September 1, 1988]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 151 880901

a marching rhythm
on drums
a few low notes on piano
and tenor sax
with a new player
(Karen?) 

in a music mood
a loud music mood 

did you ever notice
how a saxophone
looks like a steam engine? 

some sessions have a Dada energy 

rousing rendition
of Sentimental Journal 

we find a stiller room
where sternness weighs heavy 

music box to the rescue 

aunty sesquicentennial 

a goal of this music
might be
not to be great
but
to allow ears a space to wander in
or out 

this certainly succeeds
in not being great
very often

There Will Always Be You - Lennie Tristano [from Note to Note]

the good stuff passed
sub table
sub fame 

straight thought
for any to hear

Da' Art of Storytellin', Pt. 2 - Outkast [from Aquemini]

since I don't understand
most of this tongue
it becomes
a drumming
that trips
but that's incorrect
it jolts
forward
with a propulsion
of explaining
it tells
it
to you

Water - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers]

playing with back-masking
like Rain 

an epistle
into the could have beens

being a working band
is a kind of disaster
to endure
perpetual crisis 

add success
and stir
for melee mode

Carter Falls, Paradise River

Zither Film 29 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 23, 2008]

beginnings are fun
endings allow thought 

experiences
consist
of a set of dyads
the first member of which
is signal
and the second member of which
is theory
theory
is signal's reverberation
signal
is theory's inspiration

are these random sounds
gathered into a temporal box
or
do they gather themselves
by some pre-conscious meta-theory? 

when and where is all this happening? 

is there anything they have in common
(so as to effect a grouping)
that we haven't theorized
because
we would never
need
to be able to
do so
in order
to survive? 

the concept
of a moment 

we stumble through our lives of moments
pretending to ourselves
that we have been here the whole time 

where does attention flag to
when it flags? 

the sparse and specific nature
of the sound bits
allows one
to note
the effect
some
produce
on the guitar
leaning
to the left speaker's left
and
to surmise
a similar
potential
effect
(much subtler)
from the clavichord
to the right speaker's right 

name
moment
person
spot

Track 2 - Red Ribbon [recorded live at The Comet, March 5, 2013]

hi everybody
a great weight
sinks deep in 

firmly planted heel

Figure Study 180820 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [August 20, 2018]

Keith Eisenbrey · Figure Study 180820

soon to be
on one of my bandcamp releases
need to see what I can do
about some clipping artifacts 

this is me
thinking out loud
with my hands

Wonderland Trail, near Carter Falls

Pure Lands Pt. 2 - Ensemble Unnamable [from Fourth Floor]

this sounds like a music
made in a room
the real thing 

a violin
and a piano
with people around them
and movement of body sounds 

must be a dancer or more 

we are moved
slow as shadows
moving toward dusk
holds intensity

He Is My Story - Arizona Dranes and Choir [from Goodbye, Babylon]

a strong rope
piano
and something dulcimerish
and Arizona
and others
singing along 

boom chuck chuck
boom chuck chuck

Mad About The Boy - Morgana King [from Sings The Blues]

head rhyme
sad about the boy
glad about 

I sense some conflict
in our narrator 

a rhyme twist song
cinched tight

Here Comes Santa Claus - Bob B. Sox and The Blue Jeans [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]

so bright
it hurts my teeth

"8"Teen - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

a brag
and an apology
at once 

heat it up to finish

Wonderland Trail, near Longmire

November 28, 2025

Don't Bring Me Down - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]

it
(recorded music)
is produced
in the real time
of the past
and
is
amply annotated
in the historical record
so that
we can trace influences
or
so that
we think
we can
but
are the facts
of a track's influences
what the track is?
for whom?

Shout, Lulu - Uncle John Patterson [from The Art of Field Recording]

brought back from England
years ago
first banjo
my daddy got
first tune
ever played
on a banjo

In Session at The Tintinabulary

November 23, 2025

Majesty (double) - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 125 Majesty (Double) 251123 [251124]

the tune is by Billings
this was fun

Nisqually River, near Cougar Rock

November 24, 2025

Gradus 423 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

first:
and then: 

paths across the pitchscape

deep background purpose of Gradus:
to addle the earbrain
change its hearing 

countable thoughts
so plain
begin your count
from any point

November 25, 2025

Detritus 9 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Detritus 9 251109 [251125]

Detritus 10 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Detritus 10 251111 [251125]

Detritus 11 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Detritus 11 251112 [251125]

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Gavin Borchert (part 1)

some piano pieces from 15 years ago or so, and a bunch of more recent two-part inventions 2020 played on clavichord.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

Playlist

Preface

"We make things dumb dumbing things down."

George Quasha - from "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole" 

Texts

Live

September 7, 2023

Christoff + Goldston + Icasanio
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Christopher Icasanio

four drums
four cymbals
rolling
singing cymbal

high skill development
to require attention
and overwhelm self-consciousness with intent activity
allowing access
to what then comes through
music
a carrier wave
for that which comes through

drawn down into pianissimo

Stefan Christoff, Lori Goldston

gentle souled
lyrical spirit
wisps on the broad back of a sustained sonority
constant immersive embrace
melody only partly described by its notes and rhythms
as much by the care taken

Recorded

September 2, 2023

Focus - St. Rage [completed at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, on November 12, 2017]

the glockenspiel is a nice touch
just a pinch of sparkle dust

Meditation 3 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Meditations]

nearly subaural pitch sonority
beneath slowly shifting tones
with throbs and geigery taps
a miasma and its chemical cloud
and leechings
and seepings
a cell dividing
conflagration threatens
briefly
passes away

Sonata in D Major, K. 311 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout

the glow of the strings inter-reverberating
when the dampers are lifted
is a different color of glow
than is heard on a modern piano
with its heavier tauter strings

whether the difference in sound and response
between a period forte-piano and a modern instrument
is more true or not
to what Mozart intended or not
or
to
therefore
what the piece is
assumes
that this
is the goal of performance
it is not
the goal
is to realize the implications of the score
in the realizor's own music-tongue 

there is no vitrine capable of containing music
outside those of our own conceptualizations

Études sur un Thème de Beethoven - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage

voicing study
launches into outer space
on the thrust of a single chord
the wind blows loose leaves
into ephemeral poems
figure magic
a music or two
converse within the fingerwork
keep in mind
that Beethoven's 7th Symphony
(of the titular Thème de Beethoven)
was a recent piece at the time Schumann did these
- 30 years?
- 1812 to 1832
- just 20!
not so long as all that 

chromatic neighbor tones used
to bend the harmony into new forms
poetic harmony flux

Nocturne in C minor, KKIVb/8 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

an ornamental earmind
each moment a new figure

The Tides of Manaunaun - Henry Cowell - Henry Cowell

a song with a thunder effect
drum that responds harmonically
in proper motions

Shall We Gather By The River - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

the harmony debases itself at
"at the throne of God"

Savoy Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

some intimate guitar playing
as though for those who sit on porches

Waltzing Down The Aisle - Sarah Vaughan [from In A Romantic Mood]

unashamed Hollywood arrangement technicolor ready

Careless Love - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]

preaching from personal witness
to a late night
lazy
modified
chattanooga choo choo
back rhythm

Brown Eyed Handsome Man - [Nina Simone from High Priestess of Soul]

all those stories
each told from within a tightly held conceit

Labyrinth - Carole King [from Simple Things]

the ping of her voice occupies these production numbers
in an oddly sincere character
new age propaganda

My Love Will Not Let You Down - Bruce Sprinsteen [from Tracks]

cue up my signature E-Street sound
apply on my command

Bad - Michael Jackson [from Bad]

a strut
I had a bad bike
no more

Little Pig - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

what is a folk song?
a song that has been floating around a population of musicians
originated by someone
changed by others
but
all they remember
is where they heard it
and who had changed it
into what they heard

September 3, 2023

Boundaries 7 - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]

information provided
abstraction of speech

Dungeon Ghost - Goat [from Live at Sonarchy]

adrift on an inland sea
gentle harbor swells
pressure increases
the surface warps
now we're moving forward
with power behind us 

it has passed on 

hum
idle
keeping the lights on 

this music is a being
that comes and goes
gently but certainly

Track 3 - Black Plastic Clouds [recorded live at The Sound Effects Cafe, Seattle, October 26, 2012]

cartoon hero song
donning manliness as a cloak
a manliness-fashion show
for displays of manliness cloaks
a long track with several songs strung together
the way dive bar bands do sometimes

City Life - Steve Layton [from No Answer]

constant motion without progress
plant two just came on line
assimilated
there's plant three
also assimilated
plant four
plant five
all hum along
check the settings
and yes
the biggest whammy
plant seven

Connecting - Jostaberry [from Hello Turbine]

a happy connected land
a song
that is less a musical setting of a poem
than a music upon which poem parts have been pasted

Caprice en forme de Valse in B Major, Op. 2 #5 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann

the opening starts just like Mahler's fifth
not Clara's fault of course
she got there first
but it jolts just the same
the trumpet calls the dancers to the floor
having fun with repeating action

Baby (demo) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]

apparently something recorded for the studio's files
kept on his permanent record

(Be Careful of) The Stones You Throw - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]

a collector of songs
who also composed his own
allows songs to inhabit

Gamblin' Man - Bonnie Raitt [from Sweet Forgiveness]

hey you a lecture to you yes you backed by a band

September 4, 2023

Raisins and Almonds - Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Dov Seltzer, Itzhak Perlman [from Tradition]

so much warm glow

Hollywood Ending - Sleater-Kinney [from One Beat]

our syllable
stuck onto the notes
word splits
are ex
pected
words as syllable sets

Losing Heart - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]

is so much battle armor required
to say a thing safely?

Track 3 - The Hunting Club [recorded live at The Sound Effects Cafe, Seattle, October 26, 2012]

a simple keyboard figure repeated
from which the vocal in the first verse hangs
a scamp from an elm branch
the rest of the time on the ground

Focus "vocal" - St. Rage [completed at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, on November 12, 2017]

not your typical pop sound

Ketawang Panembah - Gamelan Pacifica [from Vessel]

homogenous color scheme
by instrument design
and pitch mode design
a malleable homogeneity
allows collaboration within it
a shared space

September 5, 2023

Lovin' Up A Storm (take 3) - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']

charming sleaze bag
charming to some
sleaze bag to many

Very Early - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]

the beats seem to trip over each others' feet
as though they had been re-sequenced

Jump Street - Ornette Coleman [from Of Human Feelings]

busy surface sixteenth notes
ripping by 

The Ballad of Dorothy Parker - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]

a whole little flirtation at the cafe
not the Dorothy Parker the writer
the wit
a different one

Track 11 - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]

same song as last
in battle with the recording
understood perhaps
without the sudden cut-off
song
an enclosed scenario
question is always
nope
cut-off

I Blame The Jews - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]

from a mock Mel Gibson

April Fool - Tea Cozies [from Bang Up]

power pop
girl group
theme mood
for mall teens

Praia da Lese - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Feeexta]

this room is too pumped up for my comfort

Only Guessing - Star Anna [from Live at Rimbert Illustration]

playing a guitar is how we sing with our hands
the motions needn't be fancy to be true

Agon - Igor Stravinsky - Los Angeles Festival Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky

fanfare of unsteady gait
divided attention
snagged
pestered 

the parts have had a few too many
all of them
each and severally
even the nightwatch 

a dark turn is taken
a strange and cautious alley

God Rest You Merry Gentlemen - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols In Brass]

a stern greeting

Zeroes - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]

the new Ziggy Stardust
with snazzy gizmos

Don't Trust 'Em - Ice Cube [from The Predator]

paranoia porn
sequence of interstitialized vocals

Dancing In The Ether - Tom Baker Quartet [from Look What I Found]

implications of low tones
and squeaky swings

Mellow Toner - O-Face [from Shrug Life]

concerning the propaganda
to be more manly
about it

Jesu, der du meine Seele - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, December 12, 2019]

accompanying chords transpire in fluctuation realms

Of Everything - Michal Bisio, Matthew Shipp [from The Flow of Everything]

piano thinking
along Thelonious's lines
but with fascinating commentary
relaxing into togetherness for another sally

Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly [collected by Neal Kosály-Meyer in Bo and the Beat]

we can hear the size of the studio
it's a real place
the drums are muffled like cardboard boxes

Melancholia - The Who [from The Who Sell Out]

I self describe my outfit
I hope they don't ruin this song by tacking on an ad
I'm kinda digging it
damn they did
oh well

Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 18, first movement - Serge Rachmaninoff [from 100 Greatest Classics]

great cinemetography
less adept editing
we must kiss every brick of the privilege palace
as we are torn away

Caprice in E-flat Major (#17) - Nicolo Paganini - Ruggiero Ricci [from Masters of The Bow]

display
as image
conjured

Zwischen - An Auf [from An Auf]

synaptic regions
micro dissection

Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z.) - Beyoncé [from Beyoncé]

moment in a box
inescapable

The Vapors - Shelby Earl [from The Man Who Made Himself A Name]

some gamer thing?
or is it about vaping?
not
I presume
the euphemism

Kraftfahrzeugsinnenausstattungsneugeruchsgenuss (Automobile-Interior-Furnishing-Aroma-Pleasure) - Eric Nathan [from Missing Words]

keeping the pitch work in clear view
right on top
a little poem

September 6, 2023

Before You Accuse Me - Bo Diddley [collected by Neal Kosály-Meyer in Bo's Milieu]

blues platform
for type tale text

Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk - Pink Floyd [from The Piper at The Gates of Dawn (digital)]

meds kick in 

Trumpet Voluntary - Jeremiah Clarke [from 100 Greatest Classics]

how rotundly tory

Wastin' My Time - Boomkat [from 8 Mile]

plain words from anyone
set as singing

Babe - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury  [from Kitchen Recordings]

eloquent slide guitar doings

I'm Not Going Anywhere (And Neither Are You) - Swingset Showdown  [from Short Bus Ruckus]

song as public opportunity to say things hard to say in regular life
or
an example of what one might want to say in regular life

O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, November 21, 2019]

of music and its parts

Bathing - Wang Lu - Stephanie Lamprea [from Quaking Aspen]

hyper expressed words
harsh sound
really getting into the particulars of imagined horrors

Symphony in G minor "1905", op. 103 (#11) - Dmitri Shostakovich - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

light changes dimly
troubled memory
sullen containment

an orchestra of what 80?
all trained to perform exact acts
to enact this re-enactment 

a hubbub boils up
seethes down
as we were
subito activity up front
ends in weary sadness
from which we move to more heavily laden sadness
grim resolve
the songs will be sung firmly now
back to that monk in his cell at the beginning of Boris
inert
activity somewhere near

September 7, 2023

Penny Lane - The Beatles [from Anthology]

in celebration of benign civil service
bankers policemen firemen nurses barbers
things to be
typical genders unquestioned

See How We Are - X [from See How We Are]

the process of anthemization blurs distinctions among their subjects
all fade into a blob of subject matter

Misty - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]

the pianist disappears behind dreamy memory fog

The Island Life - Peter Fedofsky [from The City of Good Neighbors]

fear of circumnavigability

Hills - Chris Brokaw [from Stories]

personal messages
below the radar
among the equally lost

I'm With You - Lures [from There's No Pressure]

from word's point of view
song is poetry with a specific pronunciation
from music's point of view
song is an analytical statement
about a poetry

Part 5 - Claire Lodge [from Seconds]

the articulation point is not cadence
but arrival
at time point
at downbeat
or its subsidiaries

Raunchy - Bill Justis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

an instrumental back when such could be a country hit

Don't Go Home (My Little Darling) - Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology]

dances from a simpler time

The Nun's Chorus - Johann Strauss [from 100 Greatest Classics]

European sacred signifier 

unadorned
homophonic
syllabic melody
clear articulation of cadences
the soprano line is uncomfortable in its wimple

Lullaby - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]

lines drift toward the top of the mouth cavity
a dance song
finds a groove
and spins its words around that

Dreams and Drunkenness - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]

In Seattle
in my experience
there is very little dancing going on in dive bars
those who are there to hear the bands
crowd up front
which can occasionally result in a mosh pit
which is a sort of mob dance
but mostly there's standing and bobbing
standing and bobbing in a crowd
is a popular pastime

Haunt Me - Red Ribbon [from Time Is Running Out]

composed from the words

Kitchen - Keith Eisenbrey [November 14, 2017]

Keith Eisenbrey · Kitchen 171114

putting things away
with their clinks and hinge squeaks
running sink water

In Session at The Tintinabulary

September 3, 2023

Slade - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 08 Slade 230903 [230903]

Another arrangement of an old shape-note tune.

In The Unknown Tongue - Jim Knodle

I made a recording of Jim's piece, leaning into its hymnodic melody and phraseology.

September 4, 2023

Gradus 388 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

number count
quantity
size
we count things
we perceive quantities
do we?
and proportions
when?
keeping track of it as it goes
a memory skill?
a psychic trap?
discipline
attend to the smallest instance of now that you can
eschew memory
shun prophecy
gesture attempts to jostle me off task
get right down inside these
sound itself
as an experience that (physically) requires time to happen in
and to be perceived in
jostles us out of instant perception
there is no instant instance of sound 

like the Quasha question
when is the meaning of a sentence
before it gets there?

that A
for so many years
the root
the tonic
 transformed now
to a flatted mediant
the method
(global)
of sequencing the new pitches in Gradus
some from the bottom (left) (like A)
some from the top (right) (like E)
tends to obscure their relationships to each other
from his nomenclature
without also knowing the order in which the pitches make their appearance:
A E C-sharp G B D F-sharp
constructing a D Major collection
starting from its Dominant Seventh segment
plus the Subdominant
pulling the final trigger on D Major (D Aeolian)
by means of its mediant

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982

I have begun sharing collections of my compositions in albums on Bandcamp. AKU was composed in 1981 for the Synclavier in the Department of Systematic Musicology at the University of Washington, and Book of Windows occupied my time between graduation and launching myself at the East coast in 1982.

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 2009

Playlist

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

Preface

"We feel that in this place we lay ourself open to the inquiry whether Mr. Winkle was whispering, during this brief conversation, to Arabella Allen, and if so, what he said; and furthermore, whether Mr. Snodgrass was conversing apart with Emily Wardle, and if so, what he said. To this we reply that whatever they might have said to the ladies, they said nothing at all to Mr. Pickwick or Mr. Tupman for eight-and-twenty miles, and that they sighed very often, refused ale and brandy, and looked gloomy. If our observant lady readers can deduce any satisfactory inferences from these facts, we beg them by all means to do so." 

Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"

Texts

Recorded

June 24, 2023

Fantasia, Fvb. 296 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a composer's piece
it explains itself carefully

Ecola State Park, Oregon

Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

for young and old

Slow March - Charles Ives - William Sharp, Steven Blier

Schubertian simplicity

Chicago Stomp Down - Duke Ellington [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

vocal imitation of a brass solo
lots of knocking about on wood

Loose Nut - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

three measures of the same
then the fourth is different
A A A B 
A A A | B
or A A | A B
or the third A
just starts that way

If I Knew Now (What I Know Now) - Sarah Vaughan [from Swingin' Easy]

takes her own solo

Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way) - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]

horns on either side
the same stanzas go round and round

I'd Stay With You - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

romantic politics in the 60s
still mired in the man calls the shots
at least
in the high-end joints 

she wraps her voice around you
and makes you believe
in your power
over her

Ecola State Park, Oregon

Hearts of Stone - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

it's an inspiring comfort song
and everybody plays
in inspiring comfort song mode
they put on sincerity face

Le peuple en Suisse - Nina Simone [from Fodder on My Wings]

a song to tell things expressively
followed by another song
to sing things inventively

Three Poems for Violin and Piano - Donald Erb - James Stern, Audrey Andrist

1
taking long strides
boulder to boulder
each transfer
judged with care
some passages require quick precise flow 

2
middle of some night
shy critters scurry
gnaw timidly
piano
prepared in the upper octave
or perhaps
a muting agent is applied
sounds like yet another kind of touch
believably pianistic in gesture
the pianist is allowed to keep their mode of being
stay in character
the critters
somewhat bolder
more numerous 

3
watching over an upper place
and a lower place
swiftly risen to
and fallen from
observe any place
and it drops away
this one looks back
winds up
gestures of registral travel

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 26, 2023

Hallelujah - George Frideric Handel [from World's Greatest Choruses]

let's flatter the king shall we
through the back door
by deifying kinginess

Front Porch - The Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]

play it here
play it there
jump back and forth
shift from haunch to haunch
the third place
stepped away to
so that
jump back
to haunch to haunch
groove dance

Intermezzo IV - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]

inventing a diagonal motion with dyads

River Rats and Pipelines - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from River Rats and Pipelines]

talking trash about somebody
not sure who
lovely thicket of plucked and strummed strings going on in there

Ecola State Park, Oregon

Gradus 318 (part 3) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, August 19, 2017]

I am convinced
that earbrain increases the psychic gain of incoming spoken language sound
is there also a boost
a different boost
provided to music
over and above the traffic birds and audience hush
is there a pre-conscious
and hence unavoidable
even if learned
experiential status
given to music sound
like that
given to spoken sound
but
not the same
if
this special experiential status
is learned
how deep is that learning
deep enough to be unlearned?
to what end?
Cagean enlightenment of some kind?
is the Ego unlearnable?
for whose benefit?
however
if there is indeed
a pre-conscious distinction made
a border
or shore
or limn
might it not be interesting
to explore that
find its hills and valleys
its thin spots
an internal psychic skin

Vancouver - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]

this is what this is
a melody of bowed string tones
a through-composed melody
made of bowed string tones
magic

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 27, 2023

Hanskin - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

the squareness of a thing
does not preclude the ability of other squarenesses
to skew it

and we thus bid a fond
s'long!
to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
well worth the deep dive

Jesus Is Getting Us Ready for The Great Day - Luther Magby [from Goodbye, Babylon]

pump organ and spoons!
I hope the spoonist
is spooning something other than their knee
or there will be bruises
on the great day

Walkin' (Live) - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

each soloist twists around the bass line
in a different minding of time's flow
even the bass

I Fall In Love Too Easily - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]

the delicate science
of fingery chords

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 28, 2023

Good King Wenceslas - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]

arranged and played without clever fuss

Duo 9 - Benjamin Boretz, J. K. Randall [from Open Space 55]

in characters
piano oracular ponderous
Crumar full of inquiry
nervous
commenting
the Crumar has split its being
into timbral/registral regions
a loud animal holds forth
a struggle of sorts
not a battle
but a wrestling
with a strenuous and emphatic consideration
of a recalcitrant substance
staring at it now
uncertain of its nature
startle it
bathe it in flames
no apparent change
it's a puzzle
all the way down
and up
and out
and in

Weasel Face - Ramones [from Halfway to Sanity]

telling stories at a shout
in a loud space
to display how rock and roll they are

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

Green Green - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]

an epic
: a song
then a vamp that comes and goes
on slidily tuned guitar
: then another song
none of it profound
half-assed pride
then a comic artifact type song
to put it together
and what does it add up to
does it matter

Monica's Blues - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]

banjo and trumpet
a drone seems to have switched sides midway

Unter - An Auf [from An Auf]

as perhaps one might relate spatially
to a bridge deck or several 

enter the electric troll beings
an incitement is splintered into the filter chamber
overwhelming oneself with ones echo land

Psalm X - Ask The Ages [from Ask The Ages Live at The Chapel]

drums and bass converse in bursts
a slow melody hovers over the tingling bells
eloquent and passionate
the discussion continues in the quiet room
or
we have stepped outside to breathe
take the air

Laurent's Tomb - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]

piano pounding
or I suppose
forte pounding
this style of playing only plays one dynamic

Living With It - Jostaberry [from Hello Turbine]

somewhere between early Pink Floyd
and late 70s Charles Dodge

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 29, 2023

Hesitation Blues - Al Bernard, C. Quealey, Bobby Davis, Al Duffy [from Really The Blues]

blues
the word
used as
any personal situation
publicized
within the prescribed poetical/musical (song) form

It's You - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man Original Cast Recording]

dramatic punctuation
by the barbershop clown corps

Caterpillar - Big Brother & The Holding Company [from Big Brother and The Holding Company]

late issue novelty song

The Blue Danube - Richard Strauss [from 100 Greatest Classics]

space ships
ball gowns
large orchestras
displays of wealth and power

Skins - Pete Rock and C. L. Smooth [from Mecca and the Soul Brother]

beat
then verse
then beat
then verse
then beat
then verse
then verse
(another sex brag)
then verse
then beat

Impossible - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]

faux informality
a plaint with underscoring
courtesy of the auxiliary singers
a fade (also faux)

Songs in the Wind - Lockrem Johnson - Lorri Froggét, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]

the first dissipates
some hold fast 

nicely done Lorri
and past me

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

Belle of the Ball - Ephrata [from Two Songs]

bright and shiny sound
everybody sings
nothing essential ever changes
mood song

Gradus 318 (end) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, August 19, 2017]

so
why
after all these years
do I listen to music
have I been beguiled by some magic

possibly

because it gets me somewhere

where?

do I enjoy it

huh?

because I have a talent for it

do I?

what does that consist of?

I tell myself
because it provides me access to others

does it?

how?

because I'm not particularly good at anything else

possibly

presuming I am any good at it

because I find it fascinating

back to the magic trick

true to this extent
it remains essentially unaccountable to me
as a phenomenon among us
we focus so much attention on what it is
and how it is
that why it might be at all
is swept under the rug 

|| there's a new note ||
and some more ||

we might couch the why question
in evolutionary terms
it seems to be biological
but
no evolutionary explanation is certain
even limited to scientific certainty
since control groups cannot be had
but
then
even if we could ascertain
that it is because it provided an evolutionary advantage
that is
within the population as it propagated
a propensity for musical interaction
was advantageous
or at least not in-advantageous
where does that leave me
a statistical outlier
reasonably
I've been called worse
but as to what
a propensity for a musical mode of social intercourse
coupled with a desire and need
to engage in such
does anybody else wonder about this
or is it just me
I may be an outlier
but I'm surely not that far out there 

|| Neal perorates || 

Ben might turn the question to:
well
why is language
it seems to be a tool of psychic interaction 
language is there
so that
we can communicate what language communicates among us
it is
literally
a psychic power

like language
music might also
simply
be a psychic power
just one that can't be adequately described
or understood
by use of the psychic power of language
but
for which we seem to have a species-wide potential propensity

June 30, 2023

Spring Storms - Steve Layton [from Moving Bodies]

incoming aliens
at the incoming alien port
on a busy day
arrivals can be sudden
scans required

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 30, 2023

Fantasia in C minor, K. 396 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kristian Bezuidenhout

strength in slow motions
delicacy to tie the ribbons and bows
big passions
the stage expands

String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 (#2) - Felix Mendelssohn - The Emerson Quartet

1
introduction reduces itself to a unison tone
through a needle's iridescent eye
stagey drama and dialogue 

2
 happy and calm
the proper bourgeoisie homelife
not without its proper drama
though oh so proper it is too
calm restored
all are fed 

3
the village at night
beneath the sleep
the pacing watch
their duties keep
playful wags
wisps of the street
keep
their games
under cover
titter behind their hands 

4
UPROAR!
ALARM!
ANXIETY!
fret and worry
what to do
the stagey drama
has come to a crisis
Father's
hymnish calm
will set all to rights
little ones
knot your knickers not

In Session at The Tintinabulary

Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon

June 26, 2023 

Gradus 384 - Neal Kosály-Meyer 

a new mod-12 pitch class
"6" or F-sharp (or G-flat)
and a new pitch
the lowest
of thems as was formerly known
as "6" alias Fis
cloak drawn about face
that sort of low note
I'm guessing from the sound
that it is one of the double-strung notes
among the first if not the very first

Answer --> ||Y||

did I get it right? 

at supper just now
Karen said that she had come through the listening room
and I was seated on the floor
listening to no sound at all
she thought
"he must be listening to Gradus"
was she right

Answer --> ||Y|| 

overtones have overtones
the D-natural comes in
at an acutely odd dissonance
the D is
of course
the corde
{NB: Huh?} 

I remain
after some study
firmly undecided
as to whether I feel said odd dissonance
feels like it wants to resolve in or out
to resolve inward
is vaguely archaic
resolving outward
more open-ended
lightened
NlightNd
what if
we could resolve one tone inward
and one tone outward
similar motion 

being in a state of dissonance with
is a persistent issue
I'm wondering what the answers were

June 30, 2023

Two Part Invention in A-flat Major - Gavin Borchert

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

the complete listening journal doodles from 1997 and 1998

{NB: There were no doodles in 1996. My listening journal is meager during the decade of chaos, when our children were small.}