Playlist

Preface

Up-hill and Down-dale - George Cruikshank, from The Comic Almanack, 1st Series 1835-1843

Texts

Live

August 7, 2026

trio ABK - Amy Denio, Bonnie Whiting, Keith Eisenbrey
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

it was warm in the Chapel but we had a fabulous time getting to know each other through improvisation

first set

Keith Eisenbrey · trio ABK 260807 A

second set

Keith Eisenbrey · trio ABK 260807 B

Recorded

trio ABK in action

August 3, 2026

Nocturne in B-flat Major (#5) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

we are within the melody
or we are cadencing to regroup

Album d'un voyageur, S. 156/R. 8, Book I, "Impressions et Poesies": V. La Chapelle de Guillaume Tell - Franz Liszt, Ashley Wass

images take time to experience
developing as they unfold themselves
they are never wholly all at once
grandeur is a process

Sonata in F minor, Op. 14 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

1
surging passion
tender regards
playful this
dramatic that
the affects flow impatiently through its spirit
this music can't hold still

2
vigorous ride
a pleasant glade
impatient with endings of phrases

3
a solemn copse
in some seasons
elsewise
in other
in the manner of variations

4
time for lickety splittings
and drifting along
and plunging down

6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: II. Elévation - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner

firmly rooted

Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 3, Wedding March from Telemark - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

from back
when peasant
was more openly used 

this music depicts the whole wedding
march included
as well as celebrants officiants and witnesses

Echo, Op. 89 - Mel Bonis - Veerle Peeters

this music
is the fluidity of a dancer's arms

2 Poèmes, Op. 71: II. En Rêvant, Avec Une Grande Douceur - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

a syntax of ordered sonorities floats by

Of Thee I Sing (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

tempo is calibrated
from a Western late 19th century  rubato flexibility
rather than
to any kind of demotic 

oops she said a bad word there

Boys, What I Was Thinking - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

the talking bit
short fat hairy legs

Marie/Coquette - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

the particulars of the roomsound segregation
on display
counts
for hi fidelity

I Confess - The English Beat [from Nancy's Mix]

pop's nod
to fusion
to MTV aesthetics
producer composed

Pay The Bubba - U-Men

playing in an empty room
shredding collectively

Phyllis Is My Only Joy - King's Singers [from Chansons d'amour]

arranged politely as needlepoint

Disco 77 - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

which was the new and hip
for those of my peers
who hip were 

the song itself
is more like a warning

Die Another Day - Madonna [from American Life]

the sounds are not only segregated from each other
they are segregated from the song being made
you'll know it's actually over when it fades

A Short Piece for Piano X2 - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundforms/Multiples]

easy passage by concordance of sonority

Bad Kids - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]

aestheticizing a lifestyle
ready to wear

Perpetual Motion 2 - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

once it gets its steam up
there is no end to the down of his downhill
but
we can stop keeping up at any point
and step off

Once Upon a Time - Steve Layton [from Bedtime Stories]

oddly haunted
to sleep
a vision
hush of night
thunder of dread
rain of drear
ushered out through the furnace room
electrocop sirens arrive
with drum agents
the scene has been scrubbed clear
and raw
rain will heal

My Man's Gone Now - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong [from Porgy and Bess]

opening her chest voice

Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

independence of times in syncopation
a slow steadiness grounds it

We Walk - REM [from Murmur]

the soundtrack of a generation
is a dreamlike substance

Held Up Without a Gun - Bruce Springsteen [from Neal Kosály-Meyer's A Springsteen Miscellany]

for banging heads to bob to

August 4, 2026

Hungarian Dance #9 - Johannes Brahms - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

workmanship typical of its era
school of Mendelssohn and Schumann

You Are My Joy (Reprise) - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

show finale
bring in the choir and the sparkly garments

The Good Old Days - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

let's have a beach fire song
cuts off rudely
just as everybody would join with voices raised
such a pity

Tangled Envisioning - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

let's write in my diary
as though to a companion 

blue lined notebook paper strumming

Third Floor Blues - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]

a living situation
troubles of the environment

Side Two Intro - unattributed [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

an articulation of purpose and place

'Round Midnight - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

we are along for the ride

Cynthia - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

dedicated to the muse
phoned in accompaniment

Incessant Mace - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]

thick heavy oozing

Basin Street Blues [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]

in sepia and tintypes
captions in English and Creole

In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

does any other time of day
have its own wee smalls
or are they only in the morning? 

do we flip
at twelve fifty nine
from the huge large hours of one
to the wee smalls of the next?

Hunger (End) - Tom Baker - Maria Mannisto, Jesse Canterbury, Greg Campbell, Brian Cobb, Tom Baker

in extremis and beyond
story told in music like diary entries
a radio opera
fantasy of dying

I Wish You'd Haunt Me - Red Ribbon [recorded live at the Comet Tavern, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

rage and grief contend

Around The World - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

globefucking in the ultrafast crowd
an advertisement for
the world
in which pop music
is presented
as seeing itself

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - Various [streamed May 11, 2023]

39
as a lullaby
or a fond goodnight kiss
{a musical comedy made entirely of Diabelli variations} 

40
grumpy
and grumpy about it too

41
heckled from under the lid
with old fruits and raspberries 

42
caught up in its own comfort 

43
with limbs tied at the ankles

Midnight Hour (unreleased) - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

in stereo no less
he says so 

the real benefit of stereo
isn't the placement of sound
it's the roundness of it
not direction but expanse

Alligator Crawl - Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

imitative dance
from story enactment
to all the rage
a mask and motions

Rolland Fischer - U.S.A. Western [from The World Sings Goodnight]

singing cowboy movie star song
singing the chattel to sleep

Joy To The World - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]

Handel was probably not unaccustomed
to singers taking liberties
of a kind
but probably not these kinds
and even Handel didn't uptranspose so bodily

Crazy Good Burger Man - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

driving notes in circles

I'm Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places - Dead Bars [recorded live at The Comet Tavern, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

the bewailed life moment

Life's Amazing - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

report from the front lines of ironic disdain

Hanging - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

the drama of drawing breath to sing
the moment
between
fully drawn

Nomos gamma - Iannis Xenakis - Hague Radio Orchestra, Arturo Tamayo]

music is a substance
a material
and its art
is in material manipulation
using all the latest thought 

its status
of latest and greatest
is in the emphatics
of its eschewal
of tradition
vehemently new
harshly new
music
as manifesto

Planina, Stara Planina - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

a stanza takes effort to push through
or to drag along

Dissident - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

this music is mid struggle

...other serious issues... - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]

in an ensemble
of strongly differentiated instrument sounds
it is more difficult
for pitch-material
to migrate from one voice into another
and avoid hierarchic thinking

4Real - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

selling a persona
with help from a quick tongued mouth

Cats Across The Way - Canals of Venice [recorded live at The Comet Tavern, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

followed by general chatter

August 5, 2026

Track 9 [from Unlabeled Christmas Album]

vaguely Celticky
but sans grime or blood or words

Third Child - Bettye Crutcher [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriters Demos]

personal history
as a minor curse

Flights of Fantasy - The Ventures [from Walk Don't Run]

snarly guitar and hand drums

Party For Your Right to Fight - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

language rhythm
pushed across the tops of the music beat rhythm

U Not Like Me - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

tough guy boast the
sound has the beat part
the talk part
and the colorist part
mandolin if I mistake not

If You Can See Me - David Bowie [from The Next Day]

the song is found in scattered rooms
in which we find ourselves transmitted
immediately

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

question
within a body of popular American music
do songs of personal devotion
to an other
appear more frequently
in albums produced
by female presenting artists?

Kurzwellen - Karlheinz Stockhausen

in this version
there is some vinyl noise that accreted
barnacles on its hull 

the specificness
of the ritual
offends reproduction 

what is strange now
is that this stuff
that was the happening stuff
at the time
should be so distant from me now
like the shoes I once wore
the formerly familiar 

pretty terrific Stockhausen of its time 

a music
of the interception of broadcast transmission
worldvoice communication
for those able to afford it
and the spies and hobbyists
listening in at home 

this has improvisational vibes
does rehearsal time show? 

is it
as much about
the sense
of the work
of rehearsal time
required
to get this
exactly
so
and
the insanity
of wanting
to notate it 

guessing it is a score
to be realized as a collaboration
in which one thread
has a name attached 

identity of the named role
confers no special status
to the individual
possessed
of said name-attached role
or
a specious synecdoche 

these sounds are made at each other
snarl to snarl

we find ourselves
in a dim
and nitre-coated foundation chamber
castle crawl space 

we meet our new neighbors
learn of their toils and grumps 

this one
is mimicking
one of Stravinsky's galumphing puppets

and the short waves come along
to take us to a new station
we modulate
we twirl the dials dreamily
to:
when will we way back today Mr. Peabody?
today
we will twirl to it all
sez Mr. Joyce

when it was familiar
I studied for clues
now that it is formerly so
I can listen without reference to its importance 

as a longtime collaborator
and listener to 45 minute sessions
that aren't this
this one seems lengthy
I wonder if it is because
the events in it
are so localized temporally
that is
there are many
exactly different sounds
in quickish sequence
but now it is done

Need (Demo) - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

the great thing about a good demo
is that there is no more to the production
than absolutely necessary to the music involved
if it needs more
why bother with it?

Sarabande (multitrack) - Keith Eisenbrey - Jim Knodle, Keith Eisenbrey [from Jack Straw Cultural Center Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

same performance as the "stereo" version {I think} 

this one sounds like two folks in a room
doing this music 

one of the projects' youth participants
while we were in the booth putting this together
sang my crazy 17-tone tone row
back at me pitch perfect
I was stunned 

nice piece past me!

Sheryl's Bane - Mikey & Matty [from Harbor Island]

is porch music
a different genre
than Alki beach fire music 

nice job backup singers!
I hear you backing it up back there!

Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]

an intimate arrangement
for an intimate venue

Chelsea Morning - Fairport Convention [from Meet On The Ledge]

one of my high school friends
was a huge Sandy Denny/Fairport Convention fan 

at this distance
this sounds like a strangely psychedelic-adjacent world
what's with the motorcar sounds?

H'un (Lacerations): In Memoriam 1966-1976 - Bright Sheng - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz]

a pitched drama
a strong sense of how its pitches move against each other
crowded shoulder to shoulder 

weakens here
as it gets dramatic
resorting to dramatic texture
not dramatic doing

Cello Set 1 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

where
we are
in it
is
where
it is

So Lonesome and Blue - The Swearengens [from Waiting On The Sunrise]

all regret rolled into one

New Red Pants - Slothrust [from The Pact]

power suit
looks to kill with
trouble to trade away

On Neal's Ashes - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]

deathfirst into memory plunging

August 6, 2026

In Concordiam - Stephen Albert - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Ilka Talvi]

multiple curtains sweep open
our host explains the layout
a lumpy prop is dragged on stage
the winds explain its workings
our host remembers Stravinsky's Duo Concertante
and other fine moments sung upon it 

this piece is well-composed
and clearly storyboarded
it fits the bill perfectly:
a new work
with nothing overtly new about it 

an easy piece to like
ends on a high note

59-Year Old Defense Intellectual - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

inside the machinery of the machine

Crashing Waves - Lori Goldston [from Film Scores]

from a distance above
their slow progression shoreward

No Strangelove Ocean - Participants [from Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions 2018]

its reverberant container
is part of its being
incorporating ones own vitrine 

if coaxed
it roams
empty display galleries

Echo Carol - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [December 1968]

effectively clever
if somewhat plodding

String Quartet #1 (Already It Is Dusk) - Henryk Gorecki - Kronos Quartet

pop the lid loose
stand back 

this music sticks to its unmoving straight line 

judgment is delivered
in stern motions of the bow 

we are furioso
or
we are depressed
and oh so 

scrubbing tirelessly

The New Diabelli Variations (beginning) - Various - Quake

1 Theme
the ditty itself

2 Jazzbelli (Mary Cassat)
heavily swung 20s style piano

3 Scherzetto on a Theme of Diabelli (Rhododendron)
the others of the ensemble cavort inside the harp

4 Variation, Fughetta (Hucbald)
flute and strings tell the weary tale
strings played by violin and cello

5 Nightmare Prelude (Hal L'ouene)
on a starkly lit stage
for solo piano
some notes are banged out
in honor of the deceased
who is shot
right there on stage
the emergency vehicles wail in the street

6 Chantibelli (Sue Donim)
as if it were the opening
of a lonely Shostakovich symphony

7 With Humor (I.M.A. Funnyman)
the clowns arrive
driving tiny cars in tight circles

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

music for liquor selling establishments
must promote the lifestyle
of customers of liquor selling establishments
it's a social contract

Waitin' For The Bus To Come - Lisa Puteska [from Untitled Album]

singing the act of its title
b/w with Aaron Keyt's If I Don't Ring That Little Bell

The Crowded Air - Milton Babbitt - Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose

all the stations tuned
in all combinatorial sets of stations
we squeeze through their twisty interstices
feel free to make any in-head connection that helps

Inside The Wallingford Transfer Station - Chris DeLaurenti

we hear the sounds of waste being transferred
from ours to ours
heave ho
away ye go
into our greeting arms 

pebbles in our pond

Track 7 - Pouch [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]

big wheels
high slung
off road
bone jarrer

Love Made Me Blind - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]

fond memories no regrets

Desire - U2 [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and The Beat]

a musicological collection
a locus and its spread

The Artist - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]

self-portrait as dialog

Bailey - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]

public blessing
witness
memorial

Sferics - Alvin Lucier

what it might be the sound of
does not immediately appear
two
no
three strands
a crackle
a whapping (quiet)
a high squeak
as of distant birds
but not from a distance
related to the crackling
as if
across a threshold

the whapping
is regularish
the crackling
is inconsistently consistent 

a multi-stranded sound
of uncertain origin 

would what I hear change
were I to know these sound's origins
mechanical or conceptual?

Coronach (slight return) - Princess [from Selling Sulphur]

ritual sway dance
as though calling up cartoon spirits
with spooky moves 

long silence

then we're back
but have jettisoned the gear

The J Stomp - Blazzed [from Blazzed]

stomp dancing across the street
against the light
without benefit of the cross-stomp

Woody - Donald Erb - Ross Powell

ah
for clarinet
title explains itself 

this music explains itself with strings of notes
gets up pretty high
E-flat clarinet?
nice tone up there
however 

Porque les vas - Chaotic Noise Marching Corps [from Smashed at Smash Putt]

power march into town
hoorah a parade 

from bar to bar
we crawl and quaff 

public figures like our pirates

The Old G---- - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]

casts hexes

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 2, 2026

Lisbon - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 161 Lisbon 260802 [260802]

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 34: 2024-2026 Arrangements of Shape Note Tunes (Part 2: Common Meter)

Hymnals find me. For decades I had been wondering how I might make use of all those notes. In July of 2023 I decided that each Sunday morning I would make short piano arrangements of each tune in the oldest hymnal on my shelf, The Christian Minstrel, from 1846, which arranges them metrically. Since mid-2024 I have been working through the "Common Meter" (86.86) tunes, and am happy to share them with you now. Part of my discipline is to spend no more than an hour or two on each one, from first transcription of the tune to finished recording. When I got to the 100th tune in the book I amused myself by writing its arrangement with exactly 100 notes.

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

Playlist

Preface

"For one subsequently cited as an apostle of capitalist virtues, Franklin took a strikingly socialistic view of property. 'All property, indeed, except the savage's temporary cabin, his bow, his match-coat, and other little acquisitions absolutely necessary for his subsistence, seems to me to be the creature of public convention,' he wrote. Laws and customs made accumulation of property possible; the public therefore had the right to regulate the quantity and use of property. 'All the property that is necessary to a man for the conservation of the individual and the propagation of the species is his natural right, which none can justly deprive him of; but all the property superfluous to such purposes is the property of the public, who by their laws have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it whenever the welfare of the public shall demand such disposition.' Needless to say, this was hardly a universal opinion among a people who had fought a war over taxes. But Franklin was unmoved. 'He that does not like civil society on these terms, let him retire and live among savages.'"

H. W. Brands, from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin 

Texts

Recorded

July 25, 2026

Lost Canon No. 1 - S. Eric Scribner [from Sketches: Electronic Music]

the reed drone sound
throws the piano sound
into soft relief
its plain edges buffed

Nocturne in B-flat Major (#5) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

as we hear this melody
it seems that we remember it
moment by moment
its memory returns 

where heard we it before
why
just then
as we remember it 

a thing built within memory
prompted by notes going by

Die Rose, S. 556/1 (After Schubert, D. 745) - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard

Liszt transcribed at a hat's drop
as part of an exploration
into the inner workings of melody 

in this one
he extemporizes wildly
but no more so
than many a jazz pianist does
to a simple show tune
Art Tatum and Tea for Two 

learned through his hands

Sonata in F minor, Op. 14 - Robert Schumann - Vladimir Horowitz

the so-called Concerto Without Orchestra
and it does play groups of figurations off against each other
in concertante fashion 

it isn't about the bravura
which this also has
but
at the beck and call
of a wild poetry 

Horowitz was criticized somewhat
for veering from the straight and narrow
of sticking to a steady tempo
into
a rubato
that distorted the structure of the rhythm 

I just don't hear that 

but these rhythms he plays
make a meter outside strict time
it doesn't exist to serve the page
it illuminates aspects of Schumann's sophisticated sense of motion 

I was fortunate as a teen to hear Horowitz play this live

July 26, 2026

Pas des echarpes, 3me air de ballet, Op. 37 - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner

not much to distract
from its through-line of notes
but a clearly drawn music

Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 2, Jon Væstafæ's Springar - Edward Grieg - Håkon Austbø

a snapshot of a characteristic demotic rhythm
(characteristic to a national identity)

2 Poèmes: Fantastique, Op. 71 #1 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

much to distract
from any direct through-line it may project 

an ephemeral region

Heah Me Talkin' To Ya - Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

the beat kept by the drums
is just the sound of the tune's feet dancing

Of Thee I Sing (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

the orchestra is a strictly professional outfit
no showboating that might suggest a reason
not to focus on the star-voice

This Boy - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

montage ready

How About Me - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

this orchestra plays like an all-star orchestra
being a professional orchestra 

that trombone player plays like he means it

Lucky Star (New Mix) - Madonna [from Madonna] 

dance instruction
latest moves
latest styles 

this orchestra plays like a machine 

a dance is an enclosed time
a bubble within experience 

this song goes around at least once too many times

July 27, 2026

Selfish - U-Men

each line differentiated within its stanza
remains OK with being strangely formed

Lydia - King's Singers [from Chanson d'amour]

this music doesn't bite
but caresses with casual suggestiveness

Waiting Game - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

each line has a space for the singing to happen
and a space for the band to respond
and articulate structural aspects

Daddy - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]

story told at several layers of lifted (and unlifted) voice 

fancy Father's Day card
sung prose

Boys Boys Boys - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

silly dance number
making hay out of one clever rhyme

Caça ao Lobisomen - Camarones Orquestra Guitarrística [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]

machismo booster

Ladder With Windows - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]

regularity in part
an in side
and an out
we ascend
to glimpse through
to the out

Side A Outtro - Unattributed [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

a brief message from our compilators

Wonder Why - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time]

the song's presence
finds itself among a jostling of times
all propelled along in a common flow

Walk On By - The Stranglers [from Nancy's Mix]

the guitar tech wants us to hear
the oh so specific distortion on the track
so he gives it a couple of bars to itself 

everybody gets a solid solo verse or two

"...out of the air..." - Elaine Barkin - Georgina Dobree [from Open Space 34]

synth and basset horn
spacious but enclosed
interactive in a believably conversational mode
these sounds play for each other

July 28, 2026

Hungarian Dance #7 - Johannes Brahms - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

provincial exotic
slight

I Gotta Feeling It's Gonna Be All Right - Victorious Gospel Choir [from Bruce Springsteen, Christmas in Asbury Park]

gospel stomping
Bruce introduces only
not part of the act

Smoke Is Rising - The True Bugs [25 Songs]

portent

Northern Lights - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]

beat as commonest denominator
industrialism enforcement

Steady Enough - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]

tribute
steady is the key word

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) [streamed May 11, 2023]

34
the clean up staff puts its parts back in storage 

35
a nervous nibbler peeking from its hole 

36
the young pining royal firstling
in long sequestered night 

37
as an old one
trying to recall
its youthful contours 

38
humphing officialdom
sets it down
in hextuplicate

The Coat of Many Colors (Live Version) - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]

the pride of humble beginnings

Shaking Through - REM [from Murmur]

sound rides on string twang
song part of track
followed by a bit of some other groove
but brief

First Light - Richard Danielpour - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

in the uncomfortable place
of film music composers
needing their serious music credentials stamped
music composed
as an appendix
to a resume 

program music
with a fig leaf
over its subservience 

a fetish
for fantasizing at length
or
this is why film cues
must be kept brutally short

Just a Little While to Stay Here [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]

the past as a constraint with rose-colored specs

Wanksta - 50 Cent [from Get Rich Or Die Tryin']

long strings of isorhymes

Hunger: The Journey of Tamsen Donner (continued) - Tom Baker - Maria Mannisto, Jesse Canterbury, Greg Campbell, Brian Cobb, Tom Baker

weary long scenes
cross the screen slowly
weary long scenes
grind to a halt

Shto ti se maika - Hope Wechkin [from Leaning Towards The Fiddler]

heritage music making

The Distance (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign) - Mariah Carey [from Caution]

cheerleading life

Zion Lullaby - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

controlled sound environment
nothing in that wasn't allowed in 

acoustic chamber ceremony

Love Me Baby (Cherry July) - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

last ditch
pity me
plea

Night Game - Dana Batali, Adrian Carr, Mark Dickinson, David Laur, Mark Nelson, J. K. Randall, P. U. Security [from Inter/Play]

echoing sounds off a surface
in a dull roar of wind
shouting at the sky
power roar
an imperfectly doubled space
how much of the echo is artifact of an echo
and how much artifice of the tech
were there separate recording devices
in different locations
within an echoing field? 

in fact
it's a stadium
as we discover
when security arrives to investigate 

the jet is jeered along
till out of range 

the panel of experts
turns the tape

My Song - Bright Sheng - Peter Serkin

planes sliding independently
spilling over
cycles of motions
stern connector plunk

Kanta Parahit - India [from The World Sings Goodnight]

could they have imagined a less comfortable acoustic
for infants to sleep
or is this the most they could accomplish?

Sarabande (Stereo Mix) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey, Jim Knodle [from Jack Straw Cultural Center Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

the piano is nicely forward in this mix

July 29, 2026

Collaborations-Griffin & Kaleel - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

around patterns of four

Dark Night's New Moon - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]

driving home song
at driving home tempo

Ferris Wheel - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]

music as a carrier signal
word freight

Spare Me The Hurt of Losing You - The Newcomers [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

music as a stage
shaped by
and shaping
how the words go

Kraanerg (end) - Iannis Xenakis - Callithumpian Consort, Stephen Drury]

a tiny fissure
and what flows through it
as understood from many angles 

loudspeaker enabled
limited by the need
at the time
to have it all done aforehand 

electronic sounds were all the rage
took right over 

this music
is for impressing with
not
for humming the tunes of 

Shreveport Stomp - The Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

precision lip service

Go - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

sound track to a mediated life
suddenly immediate

Adiobatic Expansion - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

exact intonations
no hiding
measure of angular intimacy

Heat - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

being cutesy cutesy
not taking itself seriously much

Bodyless Material - Bad Cop Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]

its artifice is its material
no body home 

let's be Throbbing Gristle

Crazy Ideas - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]

the groove is webbed within
personal among
the players
and include
any

Romulus Hunt (end) - Carly Simon - Nashville Opera, Dean Williamson

something must be happening
there are an awful lot of dramatic moments
and two
count 'em two
up-transpositions
the third
was too much 

now they're all so sorry
it was all a nightmare
and still is
we are overwhelmed
with author's message 

weird

Nefertiti - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

in the character of a cult figure
polished hardwood or stone
this piano leaks notes all over 

spacious bliss out to fade

Spis Le, Milke Le - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

cultural artifact
launched into the void

Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

the pop and crackle of warfire

Away2 - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]

paneled gestures

Little Hot Rod - Blazzed [from Blazzed]

guitars and cars
dry of sustain
close the book
back
up

Prelude and Fugue in C Major -Jeremiah Lawson 

plays with integral honesty

July 30, 2026

Please Master - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]

a desire spelled out explicitly

Prophets of Rage - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

keep the home fires burning

July 31, 2026

Fly - David Bowie [from Reality]

jank sound to start
used for thin crust
over crowded dance floor

Rocks and Glass - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet Tavern, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

taken at a clip
with oohaah vocal supplement
a missed opportunity
for some righteous shoodoobedops

Shady Cuckoo - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angles]

another song to song hopping song
Shady Grove
Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird
Cotton-Eye Joe
Jolene

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 26, 2026

St. Thomas - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 160 St. Thomas 260726 [260726]

the first tune in the book in short meter (66.86)

July 27, 2026

Banned Rehearsal 1156 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1156 260727

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Aaron Keyt - Part 3

This third collection of the music of my long-time collaborator Aaron Keyt is composed of two sets of short pieces: Hedgehogs (2014) and Music for Wallace (2016). The recordings were made at my home in 2020/2021.

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

Playlist

Preface

"[Benjamin Franklin's] penchant for bending the rules when occasion indicated...was esteemed a charming foible. When one opponent, a Frenchman, checked his king, Franklin illegally ignored the check and moved another piece. Called on the violation, Franklin declared, 'I see he is in check, but I shall not defend him. If he was a good king, like yours, he would deserve the protection of his subjects; but he is a tyrant and has cost them already more than he is worth. Take him, if you please. I can do without him, and will fight out the rest of the battle en républicain.'"

H. W. Brands, from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin 

Texts

Live

July 18, 2026

Finnegans Wake, Part 2, Chapter 3 - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer

Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

circumcentric megacycles

it was long after once

breast bare to the brine bath
he is consistently blown to adams

the sinner the badder
for bubblin' through the medium
of Gaulic Mooseopotamia 

old volcanos
makes coroners of us all 

this most unmentionablest of men
blastfumed
ah pause 

/// 

infernal machine
here comes emptybody
courting daylight
and saving darkness 

language pouring into thunder
sut down and shet up  

giant crash in Eden
and soon to bett
and drums o' bliss
every Tom thick and heavy
hip hop Horatio
his mother was a glue pot
the streets spin tales
shave on the furst of his face 

knock knock
who's without 

deluded in the high places 

foots like a glove 

bind your heads goin out
lead us not into refornication
silence 

///
the trim grimtale
nothing more is told
until now 

the man of centuries
leave the letter
that never begins to go

mister monster
in the chair
poor Erin boys go brawl
guards of Finland 

the murder of investment
once again
Wittingtom
a penance for your thoughts 

takes up the communion of sense
like his bosom fiend
Erin gone broke
after the deadbeats
the bustle of Bakerloo 

mind your pews and queues 

a strange man
wearing a barrel 

the abnihilization
of the hurdily gurdily
shut 'em up
on
all
around 

/// 

vice verse
sounding
in all Confusalem 

his round house
of seven faces 

reading
in a suppressed book 

the tale unravels around the language
erupting from within it 

the coach
with the six insides
until Arthur comes again 

anybody's beastness
as usual 

thunderburst
ravishment
the keen
of old bards 

pink ponk 

the punch of quorum
on the mug of truth 

all the boots
in the straights
hide seek
highed sink
count
the hemidemisemicolons

Recorded

July 19, 2026

Nocturne in A-flat Major (#4) - John Field - Benjamin Frith

such a music
lives in the beauty of its tone
and the fluidity of its tune
lyrical loveliness essence
and
that it hints
toward depth of feeling

Album d'un voyageur, S. 156/R. 8, Book I, "Impressions et Poesies": IV. Vallee d'Obermann - Franz Liszt - Ashley Wass

such a music
lives in the elegance and sophistication of its gesture
its passion
is its sensibility
drama essence 

it transforms itself in plain sight

Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133 - Robert Schumann - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded August 11 and September 12, 2007]

1
firm determination 

2
decorated by threads of a different meter 

3
heroic 

4
peril and plea and peace 

5
a hymn of thanks 

these pieces are partly out of my reach technically
but I think I play with some understanding of their workings 

wonderful pieces!

6 Romances sans paroles - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner

Lisztian in its drama language

Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 1, Gibøen's Wedding March - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

such a music
lives in its clever inventiveness
quaintness essence

Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

this music
asks us questions
for which there are not certain answers 

it lives
in the charms it casts
enchantment essence 

an entirely new way
to think fluently in music
the technical particulars
are of less import
than the doors it opens

St. James Infirmary - Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

concerning what comes to us all

July 20, 2026

Of Thee I Sing (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

not a moment of her voice
is uninvested with an idea

I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

some live performance
with a great deal of cymbal in the mix

Roses of Yesterday - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

so he can rhyme
discloses
and roses
across multiple lines intervening

The Old Rugged Cross [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]

hymn tunes
in the later 19th Century
tended towards a lot of sweetness
and risk coming across as sentimental drinking songs

Boy Glory - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

analytical talk with oneself
to understand ones past

Who Would Imagine a King -Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]

so sweet and softened
one wanders why Christ
would even need to be born

Beat Goes On (Feat. Kanye West) - Madonna [from Hard Candy]

circular lines
encouraging self talk

Back from the Dead - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]

a music made of parts
(guitar drums et cetera)
one person one part
segregated responsibility
inner part adds found stage dialog
(from a movie or tv show)

Party of One - Brandi Carlile [from By The Way, I Forgive You]

lazy pedaling on the piano
signifies sincerity
add strings to signify swelling feelings
must have been the finale on tour
an orchestra fills the stage

Soundscroll X: Tandâalis (Stone Drone) - S. Eric Scribner [from Ussers of Sleep]

it opens nearly inaudible
crosses the line between
in long shallow curves
we descend into their space
the layers
of all
that's under us

Turn Out The Stars - Bill Evans [from Another Time: The Hilversam Concert]

these parts
are having a good time
hanging out
supporting each other

Shut It Tight - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]

old timey tune feel
complete with string band and fiddle

Blow Away The Morning Dew (Morris) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

pastoral sentimental
social music

Jean de Nivelle (c. 1610) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

effective accompaniment
of low stringed pluckers
and on a large drum
played softly

Gave It a Name - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

repeat it three times
so it knows its the name of the song
not an unattractive idea for a song

Melodia na Neblina - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]

concerto thinking
(instrument groupings adjacent and talking)

Radio - Beyoncé [from I Am...Sasha Fierce]

selling equipment
selling selling

Mean Kind of Love - Star Anna [from Go To Hell]

lost in the subrural wastes

They Can't Keep the Sun from Rising - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]

the convenient they

For a Moment the World Changed - Steve Layton [from No Mind]

throbs of various pitches and rates
collide in partials space
new
and more interior
world

Try Being Lonely - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]

sung with space between words
clearly articulated
to expressive effect

Something Better Change - The Stranglers [from Nancy's Mix]

threat to the breezes

Ghione Dos - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

weaponized vocal projection

Hungarian Dance 2 - Johannes Brahms - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

popular tavern fare at the time

Gotta Make It to Heaven - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

grinding rough edges
life rail

Shatterbound - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

weary
down pressed
lines

End of the World - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]

young folks in dialog with each other
in song form

Cease Fire - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

a plea
then
shows the plush lining

I'm a Regular - Your Mother Should Know [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

one of Neal's songs that Dead Bars picked up

July 21, 2026

Do Something To Me - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

open with the hook-title
begging for sex
perseveres for 2'37" 

9-9 - REM [from Murmur]

broad meter
with few words
plastered toward the downbeat
chorus fills the bar with sung sound
a simple effective distinction

Rebel Without a Pause - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back]

the lines pop out of the downbeat
breath intake

Eva Ziegler - Switzerland [from The World Sings Goodnight]

a song to lull
and calm
and regulate

Walkabout [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

this sounds like an activity
that Suzie Kozawa
{who was involved in this project}
might have cooked up
wandering the studio space
with noise makers
is what it sounds like

Hunger: The Journey of Tamsen Donner (continued) - Tom Baker - Maria Mannisto, Jesse Canterbury, Greg Campbell, Brian Cobb, Tom Baker

musical cues
for kinds of page turns
the broad distances
must first be considered
scrap book song entries 

oops!
an anachronism:
It Is Well With My Soul
is from the 1870s
wouldn't have been sung
in the 1840s anywhere

The Limp - Cornelius Dufallo, Patrick Derivaz  [from Bass Violin]

we are underwater in the tidal zone
crabs emerge
feed and dance
flounder shapes hover low
birds outstretched above

Track 8 [from Unknown Christmas Album]

fulfilling a desire
to sentimentalize away
any thought

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - Various [streamed May 11, 2023]

25
big floppy notes
blunt but tender 

26
on Broadway
(movie version) 

27
we are oh so correct
oh so mechanical
and dreamy 

28
oh dear
as done by Sir Andrew
as a whole stage show
Diabelli! 

29
at melodramatic peril
mustachios twirl
damsels recoil 

30
as a bit of intricate jewelry 

31
a new scene
silly shadows
chase hordes of tall round hats
and billy clubs 

32
it got lost in a mirror 

33
as a character piece
Diabelli voice-acted

Stimmung 1968 (end) - Karlheinz Stockhausen

patterns of joining and leaving
disjoining
rejoining
regrouping
in patterns
entering ones own sci fi future world
another self-mythology
within which
patterns
sounds
and wordbitsounds  shift
between
each other 

all  those days of the week:
is this just an advertisement
for his later operatic boondoggle? 

even breathing
brought
under compositional control

Pfritz - J. K. Randall, Kevin Shopland, Marjorie Tichenor [from Inter/Play]

flute muscles and sax muscles
sounded serious
so we enter the improvisational space
those
are all abbreviations 

I remember listening to these tapes
30 plus years ago
but my sense of what they were ever intended to be
has shifted 

the demand
of the not playing your game
to be allowed
to not play your game
as an equal
that is
all this music
doesn't play music's game
and yet
it regards itself
with equal seriousness 

interestingly
contraposed to Stimmung 

those musicians
were behaving as instructed
these
are simply behaving 

OK
let's hear it for the Communist Manifesto 

oh wow man 

let the beat evacuate itself
in the wander lands 

the costume
the cast
small p production
Sargeant
Sardines
Sartines
I need some amplification here 

he speaks in a vacuum
point nine
one point two
one point two 

Phoelix the Cat
ripped by Williams

Wack It - Marley Marl [from In Control Volume 1]

the image of command and control
dance call

Daughter - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

the full presence of the production
enters in stages
exits similarly
but more lingeringly
long fade

Colors: Stainless Steel Grey - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

a swatch of it

Frenetic Interlude #2-Various - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

game show timer track

Divine/Mimosa - Swearin' [from Swearin']

this music goes places
and earns its stanzas
and its re-arrivals

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

this music
exists
in a genre-space
a set
of culture conversations
among musics
sharing common enough concepts

I Would Like to Be the Air - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

overdubbing the loop way
but keeping the distinction of spaces plain

July 22, 2026

Kraanerg (continued) - Iannis Xenakis - Callithumpian Ensemble, Stephen Drury

pitch masses shift heavily
woozily
a certain quantity of the sounds in this music
come across
as the sounds
of the world happening
as they might be depicted  by instruments
Petrushka's barrel organ squeaks
come to mind
as another example
of a similar effect
the result
is a temptation
to treat the music as a narrative
depicting a story
but
the big breaks inside of this portion
suggest a more monumental concept
though still
essentially
depictic 

an air of harsh elements
no obvious sense of humor
or sense of community
it isn't playing around
extremes are sought

All I Want Is You - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]

to fill a stadium
or a fungible recording
with song
may harm the song 

when every song
must bloat 

to fill up to the net weight required
in largely the same way
the process
can bulldoze the song
so produced 

this one wanders off at the end
letting the strings pick up the parade manure

Music from MA - Jocelyn Chang, Michael Leese, Tony Steve

I remember that Michael was big on the use of harps
these folks make pretty sounds
much gentler than Xenakis
they are in the room for each other
bends here toward a Lou Harrison vibe
flute harp and light percussion
blocks and bells being graceful and lithe
playing with a clear attempt
to be musical
and make musics 

somebody picked up a didgeridu
in the interval
now they're making an eerie atmosphere
harp has gone missing
whoops it's back
I guess we're done

Bring Me The Disco King - David Bowie [from Reality]

life on the runway
at the bleeding edge of commercially enlightened taste
technical perfection
repeated lines
weaving among the vocals
and groups of vocals

I Wish You Well - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

Mariah occupying both solo and backup
(as does Bowie)
though Mariah can sing higher notes 

clutchy embrace

Jewels N' Drugs (feat. T.I., Too $hort & Twista) - Lady Gaga [from Artpop]

miles beneath the surface
where greed lives
and lust dances to flashing lights

Herbie Blood Sharrock - Bret Harte [from Dubble Thud]

a tempo is established
by invariance
it counts for you
so's you don't have to 

we'll bliss out now
each in our own manner

Sweet Sensation - Carla Thomas [from Written in their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

this is a sharp song
performed exactly
worth the price of the whole collection

Limbo (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival) - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

moves right in
to fascinate
allows little room
to breathe
ample room
for the guitar
to make the rounds
of each table
the keys
will just have to stay in place 

pretty darned nice sounding  also 

we'll take our bows now
and bid fare thee wells to all

Juice Party - U-Men

the legend exceeds its basis I'm sure

Good News - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

never left the church
preacher extraordinaire

Winter Warn - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Lone Buffalo]

local wisdom passed along
in the Winter it gets cold
and it is long

Barks and Bites - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

this fellow is very articulate
concerning the exact degree
of his self alienation

Romulus Hunt (continued) - Carly Simon - Nashville Opera, Dean Williamson

the avante life
torn
tween dance and sports
and Dad and Mom
trying to set up his folks' rapprochement
he doesn't want them
at the track meet

Ruby, My Dear - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

got lost in his fingers

Sweet Child o' Mine - Guns N' Roses [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

articulate

Long Ago and Far Away - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

we'll wash you
in candle-lit memories

A Stocking Full of Chaw - Swingset Showdown [from Cymbal of Appreciation EP]

a rude awakening

Idiot Orange - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]

a political message?
as though personal though
cryptic

July 23, 2026

Study #4 in C-sharp minor - Jeremiah Lawson - Jeremiah Lawson

figures in eight-syllable groups

The Jolly Green Giant - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of the Kingsmen]

complete with a Keytish list of vegetables

Three Readings - Tildy Bayar [from Open Space 12]

sound and spoken language
works
if spoken language accepts
that its sound
is limited
by its words
in ways
that sound sound
refuses 

objects of spoken language
before they are statements

Powow at Crawford - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

muffled sounds
beneath an audibly present surface

Super Wizard - Ancient Warlocks [from Ancient Warlocks]

a hero
on his comic book pages
a made up world

Darling Lorraine - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]

moments in invented lives

Serenade #2 for 11 Players - George Perle - Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose

an expressionist:
expressions every last interval
each gesture significant
in all directions 

keeping track of which directions
is
thankfully
not my problem

En Reve - Norbert Moret - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, Anne-Sophie Mutter

evocativism:
a scene we witness
suddenly gets all concertoish
per the contract
this piece works best
when it isn't being a concerto 

an illustrator
a set designer

Mistica - Tania León - Cristina Valdés [streamed May 5, 2021]

lots of story before the piece
stubborn
impatient
dreamy
in turns

Ugly Beauty - Greg Sinibaldi, Jesse Canterbury [from Ascendant]

we vibrate our needs
into a liquid echo space

lonely saxophones
drifting in the dreamy

The Haunting - Slothrust [from The Pact]

trapped in a living

String Quartet No. 2 - György Ligeti - La Salle Quartet

these sounds arise in an alienated space
muttering crowds
whispers and poison
oppression
sullen obedience
always watched
it is unclear
for whose benefit
this is intended
is it fun to play? 

string quartets are serious business
and must be approached
with all due severity 

suddenly
it's the opening of Nielsen's Fifth Symphony
out on a line
to dry
in the breeze

The Rose - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

gravel beach surf
dark wharf underbelly
of city life

Under the Rainbow - Mathew Rosenblum [from Circadian Rhythms]

flute battles with media sound bits
selected for their instant recognizability
within the context of its popular culture
the battle settles into grudging allowance

Too Close - Dawn Clement [from Tempest/Cobalt]

open harmonies
sunfilled wishes
of freedom flying

Gérard - Participants [from Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions 2018]

a marked avoidance of melody
as an overt gesture
these are sounds
until they begin to march

O God Our Help in Ages Past - Alan Hovhaness - The Choirs and Orchestra of St. John's Cathedral, Denver, Donald Pearson

shaped like a choir anthem
each verse a different setting than the last
ABA
so it is easily understood
with optional unearned Amen

Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car - Billy Ocean [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

Go Dog Go pick up lines
to dance to 

A Waltzer in the House - Milton Babbitt [from Erik Carlson - Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]

voice and vibraphone
take us through a twisted copse

Somebody Said What Now - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]

recriminations and rumors
jealous thoughts

Garbageman - Steve Kennedy, Lisa Puteska [from Untitled Album]

being told off at length
through an obfuscating duplication of voice

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 19, 2026

Farnham - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 159 Farnham 260719 [260719]

this is the 159th setting I have made
from the tunes found in an 1846 shape note song book
and completes the second large grouping of those tunes
grouped by their sharing the ability
to accommodate quatrains of 8 6 8 and 6 syllables 
(Common Meter, or C.M.) 

next up is Short Meter
or S.M.
or quatrains of 6 6 8 and 6 syllables 

I have been writing these
one for each Sunday morning
since July of 2023
and am about 3/8 of the way through the book

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Aaron Keyt - Part 3

This third collection of the music of my long-time collaborator Aaron Keyt is composed of two sets of short pieces: Hedgehogs (2014) and Music for Wallace (2016). The recordings were made at my home in 2020/2021.

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

Playlist

Preface 

"Many in America remained unreconciled to Parliament's authority; many in Britain resented the Americans' ability to flout the law with impunity. The latter feeling gave rise to a demand that the colonies compensate the home government for the cost of stamping all that paper, which was never used.

[Benjamin] Franklin registered a sardonic judgment on this demand. In an anonymous letter to a London journal he wrote that the affair put him in mind of a Frenchman who used to accost English visitors on the Pont-Neuf in Paris, with effusive compliments in his mouth and a red-hot poker in his hand.

'Pray Monsieur Anglais,' says he, 'Do me the favour to let me have the honour of thrusting this hot iron into your backside:'

'Zoons, what does the fellow mean! Begone with your iron, or I'll break your head!'

'Nay, Monsieur,' replied he, 'if you do not choose it, I do not insist upon it. But at least you will in justice have the goodness to pay me something for the heating of the iron.'"

H. W. Brands, from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

Texts

Recorded

May 16, 2026

Sonata in G Major, Kk. 325 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

is the confusion
of our composing
a phenomenon
of the abundance of language at our disposal 

we can no longer count
on Fuxian certitude

Novelletten, Op. 21 #8, in F-sharp minor - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

fugatto feel rectitude
anchors the ritornello
to set off
the dreaminess
of the intermezzi 

we'll get to know this character
as they suffuse the stage 

Ungarische Nationalmelodien, S. 243b: No. 1, Tempo giusto - Franz Liszt - Carlo Grante

vigorously delicate and decorative

Sonata No. 8, Op. 66 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

this dance is a passionate struggle

No (No, Papa, No) - Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

this dance
is at a show off the clothes tempo 

shivers down the sides
an oozing shimmy

That'll Be The Day - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

imitating the American accent of the source recordings

Just One Of Those Things - Ella Fitzgerald [from Love Songs: The Best of the Verve Song Book]

a songwriter's singer
fun to listen to

May 18, 2026

All Along The Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience [from Electric Ladyland]

give your characters labels
that can be rhymed 

a list of actions
occurring among objects

Santa Ana - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

the next Dylan is something to be

Stunned - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]

a uniform mode of vocal production throughout
serviceable technique but bland

Gibberish (Wilson) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

intonation as primary goal

Snake - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]

someone is being told
off
or
what's what

Mer Girl - Madonna [from Ray of Light]

less a song
than a whole scene
played out dreamily

Gentle Fonk - Christian Asplund [from Brainstun]

if this music is cinematic
(that it heightens
the enjoyment
of visuals)
whether those visuals
are on screen
or made up in the mind
upon audition

Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

among Paul's 50 Ways
I presume

Surrealisticat - S. Eric Scribner [from Odds and Ends]

moving in a firm direction
and picking up speed

Wunderkammer - Steve Layton [from Trouble In Mind]

this music
is an object being scanned
rotated on likely axes

Life After Crawlrus - Anna La Berge, Tom Baker [from Sand]

a regular shift in the light 

foghorns and transponder pings

May 19, 2026

Sunshine Special - Frenchy's String Band [from Really The Blues]

this sunshine seems a bit down in the mouth
decidedly glum

Say Man - Bo Diddley [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo's Milieu]

pre hip hop trash talk clowns

If I Lose - The Band [from Music from Big Pink]

straight up country oom pah

Talk About the Passion - REM [from Murmur]

strings forward

Ei Mori Roujke - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

is it possible to hear this
and not be drawn to its style?
its manner?
as though it had an information attached to it? 

terminal predication

Caravan - Black Cat Orchestra [from Dante's Inferno Live Score]

in a lewd darkness

Boy Glory - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

catchy glory story

Goblin Town - Scurvy Bastards [from Battle Born]

Tim Burton ready

Actress Pt. 1 - Courtney Marie Andrews [from Urban Myths]

those difficult conversations mulled over

Don't Hold Back - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]

plainspeaking poetry
on plainspeaking music

Both Sides The Tweed - Seastar [from Sinners and Angels]

legend
from the banks
of a far away river

Sinfonia 9 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 27, 2025]

this music slithers in
takes in
every
thing

King of Kings - Johnny Blakey, Bessie Johnson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

tradition
behind
what became
commercial
emphasized speech
working into ecstatic song
or
song
to bring us back
into ordinary ecstasy

Divertimento 2 - Gail Kubik - The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose

a musical one act
multi-situational dramatic presentation
full of compositional techniques
suitable for those of tender years
high brow tele tubby town tunes 

this is the sad part
it has oboe
and cello 

oh happy bassoons
oh happy brass
oh happy winds

How Many Times? - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

the
I wanna know
kink

The Cutter - Echo & The Bunnymen [from Nancy's Mix]

plea from the fearful
in an anxious time

Hickeys Around My Neck - Audio 2 [from What More Can I Say]

how to deal with an embarrassment
(use fists) (gratuitous) 

then the abbreviated rundown
runs down
into its constituents

Wind/Again - Janet Jackson [from Janet]

ready made
from the sound effects shop
a sentimental reprise
of a love song

they trouble themselves
over a multiply shifting final sparkly chord
and then cut it off with a cleaver

Prairie Lullaby - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]

cor anglais for the heart land

Signs (feat. Missy Elliott) - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]

we'll get the whole starry list
collect 'em all

Granny - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]

opens with a long segment of nothing?
yes
then a few seconds of folk dialog

Soul Soul - Bad Cop Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]

machinery at work
the true mesmeric

Ninth Descending - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

improvisatory development of a fixed figure

Track 10 - Star Anna [streamed from Love Shades, February 14, 2023]

Ms. Anna's power
is her openness
to the song
to occupy
her presence

Caution Blues - Earl Hines [from Really The Blues]

I'll tell you
why you oughtn't do
as I shoulda
oughta
not ta
ha done
but
I'll tell it so sweet
you'll wish
you oughta
ha done it
anyway

Analogique A - Iannis Xenakis - Ensemble Resonanz, Johannes Kalitzke

combining electronic with acoustic
was all the rage 

finding ways
for two means of sound production
to co-exist
from when
their respective times of production 
were incompatible 

part of the difficulty
is in hiding the seams 

socioeconomically
one gets the benefit
of two ensembles
but
only one
needs to be paid

Some Other Time - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

the pitch expression of the beat
spreads
and spills
piles of sand
in a bicameral glass

Not Yet Three - Jonathan Richman [from Jonathan Sings!]

I love twilight
more than you do
hello?

Cactus - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

epistle from exile

May 20, 2026

Tearz - Wu-Tang Clan [from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)]

playing at film director
HIV subtext

Soundscape-Chelsea [from Jack Straw Cultural Center Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

instruments with crickets and other things

Lumber Town - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

hinge of decision
raised
as an offering
to the horizon
and consequences

Pink Three - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]

advanced soundscape
composed toward being music

Fulton County Jane Doe - Brandi Carlile [from By the Way I Forgive You]

fractured denizens
of a fractured land

Winchelsea - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [December 10, 2023]

I enjoy pushing the tunes
somewhat off their assigned meter and key

Spike Driver Blues - Mississippi John Hurt [from Anthology of American Folk Music]

giving up the hammer for good

Love Walked In - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

the introduction sets the scene
the verses are the event

The Chess Players - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

so very suave
Bond James Bond class
step into the coda fade
and you
will be returned

My Kar Kat - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

takes his strumming seriously

I Wish You Heaven - Prince [from LoveSexy]

wallowing in production

Something In The Way - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

unplugged means
no electric guitar

Colors: Grass Green - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

plays bare foot

Don't Hesitate to Change Your Mind - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]

an unmistakable feel of a pulse
somewhere
long before it selfexplicates 

a groove
that gains adherents 

steps apart
onto the platform
climb the hill 

season finale
lots of lengthy solos
end with fun for all

Young Love - Peter Fedofsky [from False Ties and Nice Hoods]

Bo Diddley heart throb
the verses are distinctly produced

Coyote - Taylor Ho Bynum, Mark Dresser [from THB Bootlegs Volume 4]

trumpet and bass
at a brisk pace
unvarying attention

I Will Be OK - Dead Bars [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

investing a moment with power

Magnificat, Op. 137 - Alan Hovhanness - The Choirs and Orchestra of St. John's Cathedral, Denver; Donald Pearson

all one's belongings
in a few cases 

the composer
before he became a brand 

short
carefully designed segments
they don't try to fit together
with anything
so composedly technical
as a transition 

each line
is set
as if in a new room 

this scribble on the strings articulation
is growing on me 

as though shadows pass
lots of exposed singing
not for the faint of heart choir 

land of eternal Gloria singing

North of the Sunset (take 1) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

hammers it with confidence

That's S.A.L.E.S. - Keith Johnston, Daniel Warner, J. K. Randall [from Inter/Play]

put pepper on books
to discourage the dog 

no amateurish technique
we're recording  

raise the cultural level a little bit 

pumpkins and peas
growth in wet weather 

knee
nickel 

artillery
is very important in war
through the door
of Steinian prose
we enter
a ceremonial place 

a sonatina
followed by another 

May 21, 2026

The Jackson Song - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]

a lullaby
lulling to life

Cold Mountain Songs: Piano Interlude - Robert Morris - Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]

long notes and short 

we hear the internal motions
that our ears discover
without necessary regard
to compositional provenance

Looking for Water - David Bowie [from Reality]

music poem
in the form of a dance

Good Morning Janet/Much Better - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

this music wants to fill your head
with itself
replacement of self
with it 

Boundary - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

program notes at a dive bar
Neal sang it at this gig

A Line - Arbor Towers [from Old]

aspiring to
a music that fascinates
to be
the musician we hear

Ms. Found In a Bottle - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 8: 2001-2002]

the blank silences
between the first items
are weighty with intent
a weightiness
shared by the word sounds
and the nonword sounds 

the blanknesses
survive past the silences 

the giant bullfrog sounds
came through the whole process
unscathed enough

analog crud in your face

Trittico Barbara - Wolfgang Darzins - Ken Benshoof

figuration freak
wiggle dance
mass shift chorale
caricaturist
finger puppeteer

That's Cool That's Trash - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

no dancing on the kissing floor
new motor scooter
with power drive

The Longest Time - Billy Joel [from The Essential Billy Joel]

this song
as a throwback
is right up Billy's alley
so early 60s it hurts

Caught, We Need a Witness - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

testimony declaration

Une gay bergère - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'N'Roll]

lute and viol?
perhaps a different plucker box

The Compound as a Ranch - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

layers of time's residue
life on the train to slaughter 

The Lonesomes - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]

her voice
is quite comfy
in this whisper light ensemble
doesn't try to aim at the back benches

Brother Bryan - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

likes to rhyme multisyllabic words

How Many - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/1950s Music]

homespun epistle rhyme

August - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs, Volume 2]

throwing some devastating pitches there

Vanessa, Act I - Samuel Barber - Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Rosalind Elias, Giorgio Tozzi, Regina Resnik

this music is a noirish monster
in shades of fantasy horror 

suspense
on the edge of its camera angles 

Oedipus...

an operatic aria
intrudes upon the drama
otherwise in progress 

music follows the lighting cues
all in Vanessa's close awareness

the long awaited
dies offstage you never smile

Come Back Baby - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]

gospel tradition
of solo to choir concertante
similar
to a blues conversation
between singer and instrument

Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 8:30 PM (continued)  - John Cage - The New Performance Group, John Cage

in this recording
the ambient presence
of the recorded room
stands for Cagean silence 

hearing pitches in space
those with ears to listen
will know
how their pitches will stand with them
consciously
or admittedly
or deniably
or not 

a space to be in with sounds
can be wonderful
even if that part of the experience
is unexportable
and perhaps
it is that communal vibe
that helps ease
the sense
of slowly passing time

Express Yourself - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]

spins on a rhyme

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 17, 2026

Meditation - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 150 Meditation 260517 [260517]

the 150th of my arrangements of these shape note tunes

May 18, 2026

Banned Rehearsal 1151 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1151 260518

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 32: Sabbatical Improvisations (part 3) 2014

In 2013 I had reached an inflection point in my big project, Études d'exécution imminent, and took a sabbatical (indifferently observed) from composing written-down music. I filled the time with various forms of improvisation, both "in-the-moment" composing, and sometimes puttering about with multi-tracking and other digitally applied effects. Here is the third bunch of them..

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