Playlist

Preface

"It's easy, again, for an inattentive or dismissive listener to write off so-called 'serial' music because its underlying structural formalism is thought somehow to exclude expression or emotional commitment or whatever, but perhaps the reason for any kind of radical break with an existing tonal grammar is that it makes possible new forms of expressive engagement with heard sounds, including engagements that are highly imaginative. Again, the formal rigor is kind of the point: careful compositional attention to certain kinds of within-music relationships ensures that the aesthetic break is maintained, and by foreclosing certain tried-and-true comportments with musical 'things' syntactic relations between them, and other aspects of musical structure (which elsewhere Ben defines as 'the coherent juxtaposition of everything relevant to the identity of a musical work') the possibility of ever new comportments remains alive. Permanent revolution, at the level of musical aesthesis. (That something like Group Variations can still sound radical 58 years later attests to this, although admittedly it does also sound 'of its time' -- I just happen to still appreciate the radical promise of that time, even if the promise itself remains perpetually deferred.)"

Chris Stover, from the liner notes to Music of Benjamin Boretz, Open Space 60

Texts

Recorded

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 22, 2026

Nocturne in C Major (#7) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

octave leap figure
a constant throughout
until it finds places to go
to wrangle with the rest of the music
back to the fold
one's return to home base is unmistakable

6 Etudes D'execution Transcendante D'apres Paganini, S140/R3a: No. 1 In G Minor - Franz Liszt - Gianluca Luisi

using tremolo
to effect a sustained sonority

Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133 - Robert Schumann - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded January 13, 1985]

the recorded sound is wobbly
but I play this first chorale with a clear intent
it never sounds like I don't know what I'm going for
I must have worked this up
while I was still living in Bellevue
as I moved to Seattle just before I recorded it
{NB actually I moved the next week}
not half bad for an amateur

6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: V. Chanson brétonne - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner

a stalwart hero
out and about
on their stalwart hero rounds

Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 6, Myllarguten's Gangar - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

halting hemiolae

My One and Only (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

evidence of industrial perfectionism at work
once splicing became standard practice

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 23, 2026

Mother Nature's Son - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]

inventing a new person to be
for the duration of a song 

melody grows more elaborate
with each line 

repeat title at end

Pilgrimage (Live in Toronto 1983) - REM [from Murmur]

its relation to words
and how they might mean something to listeners
is peculiar
we are put in the position
of pretending to understand
or presuming it doesn't matter that we do or don't 

a poetry of the appearance of poetry

Flea Circus - U-Men

what I appreciate about these U-Men tracks
is that their stanzas
if that's what they are
don't follow a standard pattern of fours and eights
and shift tempos with precision
(this one is mostly in six: 4+2)
but with no pretense to finesse

And I Love Her - Scott Robinson [from Thinking Big]

analyzing the Beatles tune improvisationally
boldly high

One Room - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

two word repeat at certain spots in the chorus 

find out
find out
get to
get to

As Time Goes By - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and  Roses]

that old
play it Sam tune
instant sentimental

A Short Piece for Guitar X45 - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundforms/Multiples]

building therewith
a choral sonority

Fashion of His Love - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]

machine for dancing

Every Sunset at Once - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]

proclaimed
in Rugglesish blocks of stone

Nobody - Sharkie [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

attitude release valve

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 25, 2026

Bess You Is My Woman Now - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong [from Porgy & Bess]

aside from the soloists
who command attention
the studio musicians in the orchestra
are playing as exactly and impersonally
as it is professionally possible to do
I trust they got paid for disappearing

Reaching for the Moon - Rusty Dedrick [from Irving Berlin, All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

the movement of sense
as it progresses through the words
and the movement of sense
as it progresses through the music
conspire as one

TV Movie - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

let's be a Sun Records star

Deep In My Soul - Edward Elgar - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

motet after the school of Monteverdi and progeny

Bowing And Scraping - Andre Previn - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

uptight

Cello Set 4 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

this music asks a question

We Have Spoken - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

settling into a life

Stuck in Salina, Kansas - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]

perils of a wandering life

Innocent - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

this music develops its sense of self
by turning back in toward itself

I'll Be Your Shelter (In Time of Storm) - Homer Banks [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

this music gets out of the song's way

Introspection - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

we hear it over again
study its motions

Halloween - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

we pause between stanzas
in different ways
than between lines
or on long held words 

a writhing sex fear

Eh La Bas [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]

bandstand in the city park
tourist appropriate

The Promise Keepers - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

tent meetin' refuse bin

Go Go Homemade Video Game, Sean and Others - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

item achieved

Meet Me On The Corner - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

pounds the beat without bounce

Time Never Goes By - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]

everything else does

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

Let Us All With Gladsome Voice - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [December 1968]

in two voices

Rebonds B - Iannis Xenakis - Steven Schick

migration into broader spaces
on the same pin's head

Rebecca Hadwen-England [from The World Sings Goodnight]

baby bunting and rabbit skins

Last Kiss - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

sad story
so drive carefully out there kids

Spanish Lesson - Madonna [from Hard Candy]

minimal pitch spread

I'd Rather Be High - David Bowie [from The Next Day]

constant pitch level at beginnings of things

Just a Fool (feat. Blake Shelton) - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

wide range of pitch
anthem of weeping to the bartender

In His Own Words - Milton Babbitt [from Erik Carlson: Ever Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]

the tones are guilty
dreary classrooms in Los Angeles

Gap 1st Batch 1-4 - J. K. Randall - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded August 21, 2026]

2 and 3 are fine
but 1 and 4 need more care taken
in the tempo and regularity of touch 

radically exposed music

Video Phone - Beyoncé [from I Am ... Sasha Fierce]

now we're selling tech

Angel Mine (feat. Lena Simon & Charlie Smith) - Dawn Clement [from Tempest/Cobalt]

spinning out of a lullaby

Snowflake - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

whines of the disaffected knowitalls

Entange - Bruce Huber - Bard College Composers' Ensemble

we are moving through a space of sounds
holding still
a saxophone blows in a dim window
other sounds observe
turn their heads to us
as we pass
they've been here longer than we

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 26, 2026

Down So Low - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]

voice and piano respond to each other in the intro
intake of breath left in
actual bodies making music in a room together

Forest Show (continued) - John Teske, Neil Welch, Greg Campbell [recorded live August 4, 2018]

we prepare to march with tiny bells
the squitch of feet on gravel
below the tinkle of bells
behind airplanes in the distance above
we are a brook of sound
into the forested ravine
some wordless shouting heralds our passage
horns greet our arrival
and papa bell
lowing
bowing

Sugar, Free - Wadada Leo Smith, Benjamin Boretz [from Open Space 52]

circling each the other
aware
sudden
pin point
immoving
end of the preliminaries 

liminaries entered
the chamber extends into gallery after gallery
we shout to the distant voids
share notes
pull the same cart

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

The New Diabelli Variations (end) - Quake [recorded live at Benaroya Recital Hall, Seattle, February 10, 2003]

8
{mine}
as composed by an acolyte
of the Viennese School
for piano trio 

9
geoduck field spit spurts 

10
still morning on a lake
rippleless 

11
in pop minimalism mode 

12
watercolored 

13
the circus is back in town

Tony Silverado - Camarones Orquestra Guitarrística [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]

a personal theme song
their sleek ride and flash duds

Track 12 [from Unknown Christmas Album]

set phasers to warm and fuzzy
a version of Silent Night
in an unfamiliar language

Solo Piano - Tildy Bayar [2018]

an arrangement
of thought game pieces
a garden of stones
sand
and twisted wood
attention magnetics
to be played
in an empty room

Warfare - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]

layered delivery
polymodal

Beyond Years - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star, I'm a Sinking Ship]

coming to terms with loss

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 27, 2026

Art is Either a Compliment or Do Something Else, Cage reads Jasper John's statement - John Cage [from Text Pieces]

makes statements in a mild upspeak
a list of things said

Henryesque - Hope Wechkin [from Lean Towards The Fiddler]

a cheery energy
in a minorish mode

Celebrating the Life of Carl Richard Eisenbrey (continued) [recorded live at Langley United Methodist Church August 26, 2018]

pastoral prayer
a reading from Mark
a Eulogy
we sing Amazing Grace

Come Swallow Me - Bad Cop, Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]

an awkward bot
working on its moves
not designed to sing
it does anyway
works its way into an unfortunate regularity

Some Kind of Cowgirl - Slothrust [from The Pact]

a confession
an apology
an attempt to come clean
an admission

Track 2 - Neil Welch [from A Response to the Wednesday Morning Shooting at Café Racer]

trisecting breath
into sound strands

Illusion - participants [from Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions 2018]

hovering in acoustic stasis
enfolding
releasing

Lively - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

a lilting lazy twelve
punctuated by a de-lilted bar or two

Burnout - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]

restless heart

Give Me Your Moments (Misfits) - Canals of Venice [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

filling shoes

8th Grade - Mariah Carey [from Caution]

aside from the profit motive
what is a pop song for? 

an essential part
of a species of spectacle
a fantasy assist

Greyscale - Mikey & Matty [from Harbor Island]

or
of a social event
an empathy assist 

a lubricant

Nothing - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]

part of the spectacle
is the particular distance pertaining
between music and listener
the size of the spectacle's stage
anywhere from arena to porch

Friends, Neighbors - Lori Goldston [from Film Scores]

what's there
must be immediately there
so as not to pull
from the form of expression
it exists within

Swedish Sleazeballs - Blazzed [from Blazzed]

or
to pull from the form of expression
it presumes to exist within
or
to invent the form of expression
it might exist within

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

Full Moon - No Man's String Band [from Let The Truth Be Told]

to establish a social connection
we're one of you
you're one of us
we recognize us in you
and you in us
a closed set 

waddaya know!
the moon is rising
into an eclipse tonight
even right now
in my sight
through the window

If It Isn't You - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]

unconditional surrender anxiety

Pussy Weed Beer - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]

reduced to essentials
of infantile escape desire

Dragon Chaser II - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]

speak of the devil
cruising with curled lip and swagger
(fear response)

Baptism - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]

tech applied to vocals
to leave little but the rhythm of the lines
and an occasional intelligible word or two
the point must be
to speak
but not necessarily be understood
unless they're relying on the liner notes

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 23, 2026

Inverness - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 164 Inverness 260823 [260823]

August 25, 2026

Gap 1st Batch 6 - J. K. Randall

August 26, 2026

Gap 1st Batch 1, 4, 5 - J. K. Randall

August 27, 2026

Gap 1st Batch 7, 9, 10, 12, 13 - J. K. Randall

August 28, 2026

Gap 1st Batch 13, 14 - J. K. Randall

Postscript

Drops

Music of Lockrem Johnson, Jim Knodle, Aaron Keyt, and Peter Nelson-King
Keith Eisenbrey: piano, clavichord

This album brings together various pieces that have found my fingers recently, including some of the late Lockrem Johnson's last compositions.

1-7 - Lockrem Johson -  Seven Preludes for Guitar, Op. 51 (performed on clavichord)
8 - Jim Knodle - In The Unknown Tongue
9 - Aaron Keyt - Anvik
10-15 - Peter Nelson-King - Seedlings
16-19 - Aaron Keyt - Four Little Piano Pieces
20-25 - Aaron Keyt - Variations

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

Playlist

Preface

"The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness of things seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings and engravings they have of their whaling scenes. With not one tenth of England's experience in the fishery, and not the thousandth part of that of the Americans, they have nevertheless furnished both nations with the only finished sketches at all capable of conveying the real spirit of the whale hunt. For the most part, the English and American whale draughtsmen seem entirely content with presenting the mechanical outline of things, such as the vacant profile of the whale; which, so far as picturesqueness of effect is concerned, is about tantamount to sketching the profile of a pyramid. Even Scoresby, the justly renowned Right whaleman, after giving us a stiff full length of the Greenland whale, and three or four delicate miniatures of narwhales and porpoises, treats us to a series of classical engravings of boat hooks, chopping knives, and grapnels, and with the microscopic diligence of a Leuwenhoeck submits to the inspection of a shivering world ninety-six fac-similies of magnified Arctic snow crystals. I mean no disparagement to the excellent voyager (I honor him for a veteran), but in so important a matter it was certainly an oversight not to have procured for every crystal a sworn affidavit taken before a Greenland Justice of the Peace."

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

Texts

Recorded

March 22, 2025

All I've Got To Do - The Beatles [from With The Beatles]

what is fame
as to a song
when we're listening to it
that is
when that song
is being
its real self?
a stumbling block 

relative cultural importance
as ontologized
into our consciousness

Bookends Theme (instrumental) - Simon and Garfunkel [from Bookends]

LP album concept or conceit
structural as to song order

Candle In The Wind - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]

fame itself
as the subject of a song
that has gathered its own measure
of it

Main Street Saturday Night - Carole King [from Welcome Home]

a well tucked bed
of rhythm
to groove on
happy days
party in the streets

March 23, 2025

MFA Octet (Part 1) - Ben Boretz, Jill Borner, Nancy Chase, Keith Eisenbrey, Bruce Huber, Anne McLellan, Dan Sedia, Chuck Stein [recorded at Bard College, June 19, 1983]

a glorpy motion
gastropedal 

accreting space
unto itself 

it nears us
a village swarm 

digging
in

The Wild Truth - T Bone Burnett [from The Talking Animals]

a big empty room
obscures the detail
of everything

Banned Rehearsal 343 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 22, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 343 931022

Daddy made the baby cry
stressed out times
stressed out sound
it barks and whistles
runs back and forth
tongue wagging
shrill and close 

Titans of noise
whipping in the gale 

loud for long stretches
press the walls outward
noise density 

phew
a breathing space

we must permeate these walls
with sound
properly primed
not neutral 

synth is too forward in the mix
to my ears
not even the Mighty W
can quite compete with it 

how does one relate
to an omnipresent sound
a being
without breathing

humans communicate
between breaths 

clinging clangor

{journal entry of October 27, 1998:

more silliness with synth and organ}

March 24, 2025

A Rose Is Still A Rose - Aretha Franklin [from A Rose Is Still A Rose]

text trope:
advice and encouragement
after a breakdown
or breakup 

the text
is in the guise
of direct address
to someone
an individual 

I could imagine it
being taken personally
but
how about the music part? 

the notes rhythms instrumentations et cetera 

to my ear
its placement
is not to be taken personally
it confers authority

Banned Rehearsal 649 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 9, 2003]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 649 030509

prolongation
of feeling out the space
well into its proper inhabitation 

we melt into a pool
on the floor
an active pool
a cogitation puddle
agitated 

feedback's empty stare

If Wishes Were Horses - Star Anna and The Laughing Dogs [from Crooked Path]

under the wide western sky
out of town
is not far

Banned Rehearsal 837 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [Mary 27, 2013]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 837 130527

setting out the tokens
rattling sabers
settling in
to be conveyed
wait for the rhythm-freight cars
to pass 

idly idling
each at their own lab table
some sharing across 

a difficult nut to crack
suddenly
we find ourselves
in a new space
next door
stuck
in a groove

counting play

Found in X Minor - Josef K [from Found on the Stone Pitch]

synthetic dream state
but why synthetic?
a designed space
cinematized architecture
we are immersed
then abandoned 

outing
ones in
by abandonment

Demolition - Keith Eisenbrey [March 31, 2023]

Keith Eisenbrey · Demolition 230331

an engine
and scraping
and striking
and snapping 

the image of the space
those sounds are in
is not obviously
like the image
of outdoor space
one has
while
in
an outdoor space 

the imaged space
is much smaller 

restricted
to the space
between the speakers 

sounds do not blend here
they coexist
without touching

March 25, 2025

Madrigals, Book IV: "Io mi son giovinetta" - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

music
as fleeting
as tongues
can trip

Ich bin eine rufende Stimme, SWV 383 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

sing it again
heavily underscored
the notion
that it is essential
to understand
in order to accept
or acknowledge
Grace

Nun lob, mein Seel, der Herren, BuxWV 213 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

is there a line
between an arrangement of a song
and a composition
using that song
as a cantus firmus?
clearly
no
at least
not a clear line

Premier Ordre (sol) - Les Abeilles. Rondeau - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

fabric that sparkles as it drapes

Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling

by means of canonic procedures
the various spans of melody
are heard
at once 

it fits
with itself 

dissonance
resolution
provides
the recited text
with a charisma
of solid factiness 

Protestentism's
endless commentary 

but
with some time to think
and respond

Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 267 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

economical figuration
the same figure set
at every turn

Les Boréades, Act II - Jean-Philippe Rameau - Orfeo Orchestra, Purcell Choir, György Vashegyi, Sabine Devieilhe, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Bendikt Kristjánsson, Philippe Estèphe, Thomas Dolié, Tassis Christoyannis, Gwendoline Blondeel

dance
as an articulation
within the drama 

artifice
preferred to verisimilitude 

as a matter
of cultural control 

we trust
what we have made
sooner
than we believe
in what appears to be true

Sonata in A Major, K. 331 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida

pianist thinks vocally
the articulatory breaths
are all there
even though
the legato
rarely lifts 

a light and clear tone 

the Haydnesque sized sonatas of Mozart
served
one thinks
a different social
and economic
and intellectual purpose
than Scarlatti's? 

this particular sonata
is dramatically inert for Mozart

String Quartet in F Major, Op. 74 #2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - The London Quartet

open with the stupid version
or
did that ever really happen? 

finish
with comic swordplay

Sonata in G minor, Op. 22 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

a fusillade of notes
to soften us up
quick answers
ricochet
off the offbeats

we find ourselves
finding a key
to be in

a song
as it disappears
along the mountainside 

lord of misrhythm 

virtuoso
impresario

Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

coy
about letting on
it knows
its key
stomps its foot
and proceeds
to tell
a long
sad
story 

broken hearts
and passionate declarations 

the curtain
slams shut

Slavonic Dance in D Major, Op. 46 #6 - Antonín Dvořák - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - John Farrer

an antique country dance
all done up pretty

Prelude in E-flat Major, Op. 42 #8 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

we hear a bunch of notes
and figures
though connecting the one
to the other
can overwhelm 

keeping track
of midges
in a cloud

Preludes Book II: #11, Les tierces alternees - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking

quick
lightfooted
squirrel scurries

March 26, 2025

When The Jazz Band Starts To Play - Tom Morris [from That Devilin' Tune]

clown school
practiced bits

Sawmill Moan - Rambling Thomas [from Really The Blues]

pulse and balance
lurk nearby
in constant reference

Having Myself A Time (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

each rhyme sequence
clearly melodicized

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (1938): No. 1 (abandoned) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]

going through attic junk

Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata VII - John Cage - Adam Tendler

withheld intimacy
close to us
but blank-faced 

it would be interesting
to hear these
without the preparations

Melancholia - Duke Ellington [form Piano Reflections]

mood poem

Moscow-Cheryomushki, Act 2 - Dimitri Shostakovich - Residentie Orchestra The Hague, Gennady Rozhdestvensky

life
as a circus
often malevolent
everybody's living situation 

comings and goings

The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came [from The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]

a little cantata
in three stanzas

Stormy Monday - ? And The Mysterians [from The Best of ? And The Mysterians]

blues aloft

Drive-In Saturday - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]

the messed up recent past
remembered
in the messed up recent present

Track 1 - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at Roxy July 7, 1978]

a bunch of cheering
and an announcement
more cheering 

hey! hey! 

say a few things first

Allergies - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]

show-off vocal
stutter nerves guitar

Please Think - Benjamin Boretz - Tildy Bayer, Benjamin Boretz, Keith Eisenbrey, Bruce Huber, Penny Hyde [recorded at Bard College, March 4, 2088]

the last sounds I made
in Bard Hall
part of a multimedia piece
Ben was putting together 
for a thing
in Syracuse 

the last time
I was in New York
I played ("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...")
while other things were happening:
Ben and Penny
read from portions of Language ,as a Music
Bruce
played occasional quiet electric guitar{?} sonorities
and Tildy
I think
was in charge of a visual element
that included pages
of  If I Were a Musical Thinker 
and
may have also played some quiet Crumar tones
{unless that was Bruce} 

I played my bit
pretty true 

Penny gets the last word
Crumar fades us out
{lightning in the southern sky} 
conversation emerges
from out of hiding
{rain on the street}
{and there's the thunderboom}

Lonesome Cities - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]

calling forth cinematic sweep
on a Vegas stage
complete with Amen

Banned Rehearsal 499 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 20, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 499 980620

a continuous cognizance
in making sound oneself
of every other sound
in the space
including ones own 

I'm of a wonder
whether some of this
is sound
made out of doors? 

one mic out
one mic in? 

a space inside a space 

performative avante gardity  

poly-spatial audio curation 

I can't easily picture
how we made this sound
such distances
singing together
how many echoes of us
do we hear?

{journal entry of May 15, 2006:

sitting next to the snare drum
comment
on passing denizens
mostly
not making much sound
other than
the snare drum
playing gently
batteries failing perhaps?
as though
from another room
except
the snare drum
in all its glory
how did we do that?
perhaps we used the Sonys?}

March 27, 2025

Thru The Winter - Bettye LaVette [from A Woman Like Me]

a groove
can be a solid ground
upon which a song can pass
without faltering
in that sense
it can serve a worthy function
within a culture of songs

Zither Film 11 - Keith Eisenbrey [March 20, 2008]

consisting
of a single
bp
a minimal texture
maximally elaborated

Half Walk - Half Run - Jesse Canterbury - Jesse Canterbury, Tiffany Lin, Brian Cobb, Paul Kikuchi [from Crosstalk - Here Now]

motions above
beneath
and between
the sheets
of surf wash

Corollaries: Down's Up - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 9, 2018]

probe balloon
passes upward
through the resonance spheres

Totem 22  - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]

nothing exists
save the signal set
and their doings

My Way Is Clouded - Manhattan Harmony Four [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

in a peculiar four
irretrievable
from the plunked chords
that introduce it

See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson [from Anthology of American Folk Music]

fiddly guitar fingerwork
under the ends of blues lines

Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland - Eddie Condon [from That Devilin' Tune]

taking turns in the spotlight

I Can't Give You Anything - Peggy Lee [from Rendezvous with Peggy Lee]

the post war night club circuit
incitement of baby boom

There Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down - Brother Claude Ely [from Goodbye, Babylon]

Grave
and
Down
each
significantly prolonged
a duration rhyme

What Would I Do Without You - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]

a pleading blues time

Frosty The Snowman - The Ronnettes [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]

wall-o-sound
depersonified musicians
the singer
has a New Yorkerine diphthong
on
the fraw
of frosty

Ugly Beauty - Thelonious Monk [from Underground]

the melody
spans its entire stanza
occupying every moment of it

Searching for the Right Door - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]

making a music
with a technician's arsenal

Astro - Sun Ray with Walt Dickerson [from Visions]

flying by ear

MFA Octet (Part 2) - Ben Boretz, Jill Borner, Nancy Chase, Keith Eisenbrey, Bruce Huber, Anne McLellan, Dan Sedia, Chuck Stein [recorded at Bard College, June 19, 1983]

we are the wind that blows after hours
a guiding incline

eight instruments
imitate an ocean drum
every tiny rolling orb
clearly drawn
across the head 

we roll
jostlingly around 

tilt maze
marble puzzle 

we find ourselves
in tuba land
floating
in the drift
of the moment's sensibility

Strictly Business - EPMD [from Strictly Business]

sucked in
the ritornello
is the articulation
of rhyme streams

Banned Rehearsal 344 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 29, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 344 931029

taping the microphones
to their spot 

tuning pegs
for tuning 

learning the anatomy
of an accordion 

life is
full of forbidden brushes 

there is a gap
between the sounds
that are in space together
and spaces
that are in a space together 

sounds in rooms
||gap||
rooms in rooms 

conversing with toddlers

we adopt a simpler phrase structure

matching their competence 

rooms contain sounds
or rooms 

snares on
snares off 

using words
language is discovered
is music also discovered? 

the first moment
of recognition
that music
is a thing
that can be named
but described
only superficially 

Keith in a cape?
lined in silk
with a graphic
of all the Houston Cheerleaders

In Session at The Tintinabulary

March 23, 2025

Grafton - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 90 Grafton 250323 [250323]

March 24, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 1122 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1122 250324

March 25, 2025

("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz

March 26, 2025

Prelude in D-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson

March 27, 2025

Prelude in B Major - Lockrem Johnson

Prelude in F-sharp Major - Lockrem Johnson

Prelude in B-flat minor - Lockrem Johnson

Prelude in A-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson

March 28, 2025

Prelude in F-sharp minor - Lockrem Johnson

Postscripts

Drops

One of the shining lights of the local music scene during the pandemic lockdown was Nonsequitur's Wayward in Limbo series: 134 commissioned recordings of new work by local musicians. I was honored to be asked for a contribution. The essential intimacy of the clavichord seemed fitting for the occasion, and I offer this series of short improvisations for your enjoyment.

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

Playlist

Preface

"Could a deaf man who had never heard understand music? Probably not, since we could never convey (or tell if we were conveying) the relevant relational information, for that is based on the intersubjectivity of auditory perception. And his world would be altogether so different where, especially, events prominently involving auditory aspects are concerned, that the problem of determination would be insurmountable: imagine that we take him to an orchestral concert, the advance information having been given that he was about to experience "music". Then he sees a succession of events associated with discriminable objects, including people, instruments batons, etc. 'How did you like the music?' we ask. 'It was beautiful' is his answer. Our enthusiasm at thus having created yet another music-lover against what appeared to be insuperable odds so overwhelms us that we offer to take our friend to yet another concert. this time involving only a string quartet. He accepts with pleasure, and in the event observes a subset of what he has already become familiar with from his previous encounter with "music". 'How charmingly intimate, what graceful and elegant music' is his report this time. But then we take him to an organ recital, with no familiar instruments in view. At the end he turns to us in unconcealed irritation: 'You call that music?'"

Benjamin Boretz - from "Meta-Variations: Studies in the Foundations of Musical Thought"

Texts

Recorded

January 6, 2024

Fantasie in C Major, Wq. 59/6 - Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach - Alexei Lubimov

the depth
of dynamic contrast
and articulation
and precision
on this instrument
(a tangent piano)
are astonishing 

we gave up so much
for more power

this music follows its momentary thoughts

Étude pour le pianoforte d'apres les caprices de Paganini in E-flat Major, Op. 3 #5 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

figures in the top
trade with figures on the bottom
in a rhythm
a back and forth
patta-cake
quick time

Zyczenie op. 74 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Ewa Podlés, Garrick Ohlsson

a little waltz explosion
between each stanza

He is There! - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich

gung ho
off to war
confident in rectitude
of being a Yankee Boy

In Walked Bud - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]

the lower voice of the tune
pulls the upper down
against its will
and active resistance

Johnny Todd - Bob Dylan [from A Tree with Roots]

selected portions
of grab bag songs
(the album)

Deep Into the Night - Sarah Vaughan [from Feelin' Good]

classic jazz chanteuses
reinventing themselves
as swanky nightclub acts
going pop
selling out
just trying to make a living 

nothing new for Madonna and company
path paved by Satchmo?

Keep This Heart in Mind - Bonnie Raitt [from Green Light]

the changes quicken at the ends of stanzas

Sweet Water Rolling - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from American Folk Songs for Children]

the concise brevity of this is salutary

Paradise - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]

ooo
its mooody
with melodic hints
of greensleeves

a sense I have
for no reason to which I can point
beyond my gut reaction
that
it's just altogether too much
all an act
prepared
controlled
not trustworthy

C  Garden - Steve Layton & Improv Friday [from Summer Mirages]

foghorn testing ground
signaling locations with sound
points on a chart
the octopi have their own system
the whales another
barnacles are infamous blabbermouths

So It Goes... - Taylor Swift [from Reputation]

hard break between segments
small to big
back to small
without the hard break

Hole In  The Ground - David Bowie [from Toy]

Bowie didn't so much reinvent himself
as he did reinvent the characters he was portraying
reciting poetry
as a part of the dance
zusammenkunstwerklich

January 7, 2024

There'll Be No Peace Without All - Ray Charles [from A Message from the People]

a lament or complaint
and projected conclusion of the current course
in short
a prophecy

Nameless One No. 2 - Sun Ra [from Celestial Love]

there's that crazy keyboard again
part celeste
part vibraphone
part electric guitar
but
if this is a reed based electronic keyboard
then it is essentially an electric kalimba
believable

Four Hebrew Dances - Rae Colborne - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of The Krummhorn]

can a music have a national identity?
at end
tape mechanism sound
clearly not part of the music we just heard
and yet
capable
as a sound
of being part of some other music
it just didn't happen to be a part of this one

Is The Place? - Greg Sinibaldi [from Frieze of Life]

can the concept of silence be a radish?
can the silence of radish be a concept?
can the radish of concept be a silence?
can the silence of concept be a radish?
can the concept of radish be a silence?
can the radish of silence be a concept?

yes
if memory serves 

across broad spaces
measured out

I Think I Love You - Waxahatchee [from American Weekend]

there is a quiet hiss
that sounds like
it could be
the sound
of whatever machinery
might be in use
to record with
or
of the amp

Ballad of the Great Grand Coulee - Darrin Craig, John Newfeld [from Roll Columbia]

rural
dust abraded speech
oldtimer
tellin' straight

Ensemble 1 - Sascia Pellegrini [from 7 Percussion Impossibilities]

each drummer follows their own logic
as well as the logic of the other 

they contend

January 8, 2024

You'll Never Walk Alone - Aretha Franklin [from Amazing Grace]

congregational participation
the congregants participate
in the soloist's musical ecstasy
share it
(a soteriological model)
id est
we share
in Christ's resurrection 
and that
is our salvation

Stop The Violence (Massive 12" Extended Version) - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]

nice vacation music
the president's still on one
full of humor and wit

Blank Page - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

how is this into-the-rafters vocal delivery
the music of those words? 

which are
as best I can tell
personal and intimate

Sleeping Fish - CEP [from Drawing The Target Around The Arrow]

fish tank fish
a bubble in a harsh world

All Up In Your Mind - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

echoes pull words from the lines
and run into the basement with them

Gardening At Night - REM [from Dead Letter Office]

this song rarely fails to take me back
to The Oaks
in Barrytown
an attic apartment
a long narrow room of books
into where
music was played back
on cassette decks

Dr. Strangelove (Jack Flash) - Prom Queen [from Covers]

patterns of 3 2 or 4 syllables
in beaded strings
a bracelet

7,500 Kisses - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]

an intense conversation
high personal stakes

Missing Words VI- III. Witzbeharrsamkeit (Joke-Insistence) II - Eric Nathan - Re:Naissance Opera [from Missing Words]

displayed in enclosures

Curtains (Electric Sheep) - Bruce Hamilton and Friends [from Mash Hits Vol. 1]

sounds are made by agents
which we personify
costume
and cast onto an open stage
to enact the scene
their sounds are making

Blood and Bubblegum - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddler's Inn, Seattle, March 7, 2022]

tastes like cigarettes
and the tip of my tongue

Stone Blues - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]

novelty song blues
acting the type

Epigraph - Benton Roark - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]

one imagines
that in the world of game (video) music creation
there exists
a fringe of weirdos
this may fit that

Track 13 - Curtains For You [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]

does the bar crowd
participate in the musical ecstasy
of the band
even if
they're not actively listening
but
being bathed in its continuity?

Rock de Roqueiro - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Live in Natal]

all done for the evening
thanks guys

Beautiful Killer - Madonna [from MDNA]

aural not-quite soft-porn
controversial gunshot

In The Morrow - Brandi Carlile [from Bear Creek]

watching ones own dissolution
as it happens

Movie Star - Swearin' [from Swearin']

song can rely
on a disjunction
between
the thrust of the words
as they might be written
and read
and
the person of the singer character
within the song

(I Ride) My Station Wagon - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]

love song
to a car type

The Pleasure is All Yours - Tomten [from Live from Sound-Off 2012]

lessons in industry

Étude pour le pianoforte d'apres les caprices de Paganini in G minor, Op. 3 #6 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

the key of epic struggle
against the elements

Wiosna, op. 74 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Ewa Podlés, Garrick Ohlsson

tunes that focus on a few notes at a time
patterning them discretely within the stanza structure
more like a song
straight ahead
than like an "art song" or Lied

Allegro - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo

surely this young man wears a tie
and a proper hat

Monk's Mood - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]

some notes set others in motion
some notes reset the trap
these things happen
when pitches pool on the floor

Cool Water - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]

there is a sense in which
this album
is a catalogue of examples
of how to turn anything
into the same song
as the others

Hey Mister - Ray Charles [from A Message from the People]

from the aggrieved

River of Tears - Bonnie Raitt [from Green Light]

life in the hardworking land

Photograph - Sarah Vaughan [from Brazilian Romance]

the tawdriness of the song
disappears behind the glow of that voice

Of All The Beast'es - Mike, Peggy, and Peggy Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

a panther
cry for Suzy Anna
turkeys in Atlanta
rhyme game

My City of Ruins - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]

can one take oneself seriously
as the voice of anything
more extensive
than their own person? 

without a certain amount of hubris
not my branch of church
too much Sister Amy for my taste

The Last Time (feat. Gary Lightbody) - Taylor Swift [from Red]

life in the cinematic suburbia of teen yearning
end of Act 2
the big breakup

Gaia - Steve Layton & Sound In [from Further Journey]

a cave
where the jungle's sounds
all collect
higgled and piggled
out of their history
bearing Ghosts
of their places of origin
settlement
is inevitable
nature's inexorable forces

Totem 47 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem IV]

industrial
sure
medical
sure
believable 

systems monitor
and communication hub
ear to the ground
Erde's borborbygmi
whalish wails
raceway surface

the aliens have had enough of our nonsense
they're taking off in their space orbs

What a Friend We Have in Jesus - Aretha Franklin [from Amazing Grace]

composed to put us on the same page
tap your feet
if you have 'em
become entribed

Smile - Sun Ra [from Celestial Love]

interesting voice
falsetto?
[June Tyson]
I don't think so
the low end doesn't sound like it
plus
a hint of vibrato up high

Pastorale - Keith Eisenbrey - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of The Krummhorn]

with foghorns
(the running out of air
was instructed
by yours truly
as a means
I suppose
of activating the duration and cutoff)
very much
thinking of those notes
as sounds
with attack and decay envelopes
only finding the melody
after the space has been properly prepared
more of a ceremony
than a pastorale I think

Claude et Eric - Gren Sinibaldi [from Frieze of Life]

stop
every few steps of moving
to listen
are we still all here
are we still alone
OK
we have arrived
lets get things cooking on the stove here

XO - Beyoncé [from Beyoncé]

not all the instrumentals
are in the same room
some
are much closer
than the same room
celebration dance

Ball (Demo) - Waxahatchee [from Out in the Storm]

what exactly
is the point of view
of the recording artist? 

Brujería - Christina Aguilera [from Aguilera]

sultry tale told
with dance and verses

Essays in Bdp-ism - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]

the material world of entrapment
overlaying echoes
points out
how melodic the speech is

Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (Sophie B. Hawkins) - Prom Queen [from Covers]

shucks
you're the only shoe that fits

Washington Talking Blues - Scott McCaughey [from Roll Columbia]

way out across yonder somewhere
people changing places

Baby Loves That Way - David Bowie [from Toy]

economic use of pitch and harmonic vocabulary
drummer is on a tight leash

Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars) - REM [from Dead Letter Office]

carting heavy stuff
here to there
in frames of film
out of town

Trio Procession - Bruce Hamilton & Friends [from Mash Hits Vol. 1]

titles
can be code names
or desriptors
or genre/conversation marker
sounds in a box

Verge of Crying - CEP [from Drawing the Target Around the Arrow]

code names
can be titles
one senses the dial twiddler
lurking above
and behind this
eyes closed
headphones activated

Missing Words VI- IV. Dielennystagmus (Hallway-Nystagmus) - Re:Naissance Opera [from Missing Words]

if a note emerges
like a spirit
and winks out
like a car rushing past
is it
still
a note? 

austere layout

January 9, 2024

Bard Improvisors' Ensemble (side 2) - Tildy Bayar, Hillary Butler, Dan Sedia

this concerns itself
with its room
the room these sounds are in
has come to this room
(where I am sitting)
for a visit 

exact proximity
even the flooring 

the piano
is embarrassed to find itself
muttering happily to itself
wakes with a start
oops! 

vocal puppets
all quiet (not!)
but the room
is still with us

Wrong Five O'Clock - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]

oops
bad boys
get comeuppance

Biopsy of Statecraft - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]

pitchcraft for sure

Track 14 - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddler's Inn, Seattle, March 7, 2022]

the shape of the stanza
is announced
then filled
with a tale of retribution

January 10, 2024

Track 14 (fragment) - Curtains For You [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]

in this dive bar
the colorful keyboard sound
gets lost
behind the bass drums guitar mass
my DAT ran out
before the song did

Equinox - Benton Roark - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]

start with the sheen of tiny bell sounds
fill in below
conclude
with the holy oomph
of a trombone chorale

I Fucked Up - Madonna [from MDNA]

"nobody does it better than myself"
is a way of distancing ones ego
from culpability 

it was my self
that oopsed
it wasn't me 

then proceeds
to provide excuses
for ones
self's
behavior

Just Kids - Brandi Carlile [from Bear Creek]

the modern pop song
as a genre
is an electrified creature
stripped
of its production trapping
what's left? 

is
the structure of the song
(its "song form")
et al
so designed
so as
to maximize
the POW
of the electrified creature
and thus
would not be able to stand
on its own song feet?

Naked - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]

Sonny Don't - Tomten [from Live from Sound Off 2012]

advice in adversity
with country twang

Smutna rzeka, Op. 74 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Ewa Podlés, Garrick Ohlsson

the piano part
keeps out of the way
an entirely different way
for Chopin to treat the piano
as an instrument

Her Eyes - Charles Ives - Douglas Dickson, Kenneth Tarver

for an accomplished young man to sing
during musical evenings
in Bourgeoisieland

Who Knows? - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]

lively imagination
in the piano
(when it is the)
accompaniment
always supportive
never grandstanding

Banks of the Royal Canal - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]

this one
is more of an intended performance
a demo
or test of concept
the arrangement
needs to be relaxed and bland
so that
they don't distract from the singer

Run To Me - Sarah Vaughan [from Feelin' Good]

tiny little harpsichord
songs of the day

Can't Get Enough - Bonnie Raitt [from Green Light]

stylish accompaniment
but it doesn't develop much
keeps to its lane

Valentine's Day - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]

mellow make-out montage

Go To Sleep - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

go to town
buy a pretty little pony
odd verse about parental abandonment

Moths on the Porchlight - Steve Layton & Improv Friday [from PPP]

I wonder sometimes
about the sequence of inventions
vis a vis a cut such as this
and a title such as that
chosen after?
or part of the score?
grabbed from an ever-replenishing bag
of random song titles? 

how much credence
do I want to give the title
as somebody's description
of this music?

Gorgeous - Taylor Swift [from Reputation]

her dilemma
goes round and round

Totem 54 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem V]

a contending knot-node
of cultural identity
but
culture is
at root
idiocentric

What Have They Done To My Song - Ray Charles [from A Message from The People]

a rhythm lesson
advanced

Drop Me Off In Harlem - Sun Ra [from Celestial Love]

big band arrangement
investigates itself
remains true
collaborative efforts
not aimed at triumph

Krummy Kuartet for Krummhorn Konsort - John R. Phelps - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of The Krummhorn]

in multiple movements!
a regular concerto
fast slow fast
send 'em out smiling

Noccalula - Waxatchee [from American Weekend]

as though on the piano
in the church basement
self dialog
at odds

It Takes a Married Man to Sing a Worried Song - Pharis & Jason Romero [from Roll Columbia]

expecting several more
paternity and prosperity

America Has a Problem - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

constant strobe pulse
same act
on rotation every thirty seconds
this
is a different part of the ride

Precious Memories - Aretha Franklin [from Amazing Grace]

the structure of the music
allows room for participation
and
instructs on its proper applications
acculturation
in sanctioned ecstasy
(sanctified ecstasy)

The Bridge Is Over (Bladerunners Edit) - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]

cymbal and snare
cut the sound
into squares
of several sizes

Cease Fire - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

nothing that can be said or sung
to be improved
by multiple readings
piled thick upon each other

You Are Here - CEP [from Drawing The Target Around The Arrow]

these dissonances
resolve
are completed
their motion
is perfected
in a  throbbing
rhythmiverse

Can't Help Thinking About Me - David Bowie [from Toy]

oolloolala
step across
return to the top
of the verse

1,000,000 - REM [from Dead Letter Office]

adventure hero
in the movies

Dream a Little Dream of Me (Mama Cass) - Prom Queen [from Covers]

accompanied by ukulele
campfire
and crickets
and 78 rpm static

I Love This Cunterie - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]

recite right along
with the orange-haired gizmo
in harmony

Missing Words VI- V. Witzbeharrsamkeit (Joke-Insistence) III - Eric Nathan - Re:Naissance Opera [from Missing Words]

let's pretend
to defang Beethoven
by humiliating a seed motive

January 11, 2024

Mettle/Meddle - Bruce Hamilton & Friends [from Mash Hits Vol. 1]

incoming
with assault vehicles
full blast destructors

Ramblin' Blues (Portland Town) - Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons [from Roll Columbia]

pay-off line
pulls back
to hey hey hey
takes 'em all
to the ocean blue
Klickitat too
for Uncle Sam

Silver Lining - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddler's Inn, Seattle, March 7, 2022]

the words
bend
to fit the music
that was bent
to the way
the words
want
to bend

B-Day Song (feat. M.I.A.) - Madonna [from MDNA]

birthday
in a happy world

Nice Shoes - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]

an unlikely story
for bragging
in the locker room
but then I woke up

Take Off - Northern Departure [from Live from Sound Off 2012]

some banjo scrubbing
and mandolin flight
yee ha!

In Session at The Tintinabulary

January 5, 2024

Sinfonia 10 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 10 Sinfonia 10 240105 (midi)

I had hoped to have this one completed last year, but some better details found their way in while late in clavichord workshop phase. 

January 7, 2024

Dunstan - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 27 Dunstan 240107 [240107]

this weeks shape-note tune arrangement

January 9, 2024

Sinfonia 10 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 10 Sinfonia 10 240105 [240109] Clavichord

Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist - Aaron Keyt

January 11, 2024

Sinfonia 10 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 10 Sinfonia 10 240105 [240111] Piano

January 12, 20242

Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen - Aaron Keyt

these pieces of Aaron's are from a 2019 collection of hymn tune arrangements. I have been recording them on clavichord, which accentuates their Keytian oddities.

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 10: 2005-2007

Volume 10 includes my breakthrough piece "Hockets", in which (using a bespoke computer program) I found a way to compose in two simultaneous syntaxes: mod-17 order-determinate and mod-12 content-determinate. Also included are "The Abyss" a computer assisted electronic piece based on stanzas from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"; a hymn setting with words by Fanny Crosby; an etude for piano; a set of variations for string quartet (in a midi realization); and "Pavan" for violin and piano, exquisitely played by Matthew Weiss.

Volumes 1 through 9 are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com

All are free for download.

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2016 and 2017