Playlist

Recorded

October 20, 2019

Sonata in C minor, K. 48 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

the phrases, sometimes, come in threes
so that they seem to have gotten stuck

but the third iteration
is free to move

a game mechanic

Danzon Cubano - Aaron Copland - London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland

tourist exotic
how colorful

decked out

for our
entertainment

Kyrie - Franz Schubert - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [April 1966]

It is either in, or it is played back at a tape speed so that the result is in, F-sharp. There is a soprano solo in the Christe eleison, if that helps.

Every Grain of Sand - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]

I presume this is from his Gospel days. Musically it is about as strong as anything else of his. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about.

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) - Bruce Springsteen [from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 1975-85]

This song tries too hard. It fills space to little effect. Then it goes on and on. He wanted to do a particular dramatic thing in his set, and inflicted that particular dramatic thing on the song.

Six Crooked Highways - Bob Dylan [Key Arena, October 2006]

Never sure of his song titles. This also has it's a hard rain so that might be it. This is a recording made live from the board. The sound guy messes it up just to juice the ending.

Gramma's In The Cellar - Train Case



Train Case is Karen Eisenbrey and Neal Kosály-Meyer

this was
recorded
by me

also

the spoons
were played
by me

In Transit - Arbor Towers [from In Transit EP]



The mix has a loudness problem, but the song is strong. It has lots of guitar.

Sonata in C major, K. 49 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

I love those "hey why did he stop playing" breaks between phrases. They are exactly not any kind of Grand Pause.

This doohickey does doohickey stuff
like that

Messiah Part 3 - George Frideric Handel - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Chorus, Robert Shaw, Kaaren Erickson, Sylvia McNair, Alfreda Hodgson, Jon Humphrey, Richard Stilwell, Layton James

The vocal line is supported, re-interpreted, developed by the lines of the setting and by how the harmony re-interprets the lines by re-balancing them upon other centers. It's gloss all the way down.

Over-the-top hype of the trumpet solo entrance masquerading as eschatological theology.

Oral history, at least, has the King of England finally arriving just in time for the Hallelujah Chorus, which immediately precedes Part 3. So, did Handel know that, that is, ahead of time? Would it allow him to compose Part 3 so that his vocal stars could strut their stuff for Royalty?

October 22, 2019
What Is a Woman - Harvey Schmidt - Mary Martin [from I Do! I Do!]

"That's why a woman is only alive when in love."
Well that is a pre-feminist statement for sure!
or: Until she is in thrall she is dead.

Heart of Mine - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]

a tired song that wanders into hook and cliche.

Our Food Our Lives - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

This is the table grace I wrote to Karen's words, for use in our married life. The score was presented to her as my wedding present. Simple, pentatonic, and quite elegant I think. In practice we hold the last note of each phrase. I made this recording recently.

Ratchet - Aaron Keyt [from November Choses]

treacherous
maze to
echo through

in the dark
with mudmonsters
and possible traffic

Here I Am - Operation ID (Ivan Arteaga, Jared Borkowski, Rob Hanlon, David Balatero, Evan Woodle [from Legs])



meter and rhythm adhering closely to an image of machine time

Several Months Have Passed - Karen Eisenbrey [Common Good Cafe, Seattle, August 2016]

"far from my normal Thursday"
Karen was reading from her then just released first novel "The Gospel According to St. Rage." This section is in the voice of Barbara, the protagonist. This evening she'll be reading from several of her books at the Neverending Bookstore in Edmonds. In costume no less. I'm going to the party disguised as Barbara's dad.

October 24, 2019

Sonata in F minor, K. 50 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

here I am

let it sink in
for real

disruptive markers
knotty

Sonata in A Major (#1) - Gabriel Fauré - Pinchas Zukerman, Marc Neikrug

Neal dropped by in the middle, and we agreed that as a Violin Sonata this makes for a pretty fabulous Piano Quintet. Under cover of Late Romantic noodliness is some subtle tunesmithery and some solid and imaginative contrapuntal thinking.

Fauré for me is largely an unknown. I am familiar with the Requiem, but that's about it.

This gobsmacked me.

He also had a fine mustache, handlebar style.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

October 21, 2019
Gradus 357 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

composition:
the art of guiding the process of coherence

one among the many practices of rhetoric

a swaying of the ear

perswaysion as it were

We can analyze what we have been persuaded to hear

or we can analyze the process, the rhetoric

of how we were persuaded to hear it
as such

acoustic phenomenon, chord of nature, etc.
are only some among many common tools with which one might -suade an ear

in and of itself they (acoustic phenomenon, chord of nature, etc.)
are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for music to be heard as such
they are an enabler, not the sole basis, of composition

October 25, 2019
House Rain - Keith Eisenbrey



A squall passed by so I recorded some of the sounds it made from inside, then from outside, then

not playing spoons

again from inside the Tintinabulary.

Postscripts

mechanics trades flying marbles the on

stops beneath a way to drink the round and

you have time to breathe again i was the

just sit there

be lost

the road is a map

Playlist

Recorded

October 13, 2019
Sonata in E Major, K. 46 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

It introduces material profligately, but only gradually begins to work it, or to draw it together, except in as blockishly obvious way as could be. It is about the varieties of betweennesses and mediations. He is the sequitur whisperer.

The Unanswered Question - Charles Ives - Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin

so why not follow up on it?
overlain block prints upon each other
a colored box with idea tokens in it
or why did I write this?

Father of the Bride - Harvey Schmidt - Robert Preston [from I Do! I Do!]

father the clown

Donnerstag aus Licht, Act 3 -

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Rundfunkorchester Hilversum, Peter Eotvos, Robert Gambill, Michael Angel, Paul Sperry, Markus Stockhausen, Annette Meriweather, Suzanne Stephens, Elizabeth Clarke, Matthias Holle, Mark Tezak, Alain Louafi, Majella Stockhausen, Michel Arrignon, Hugo Read, Simon Stockhausen, Chor des Westdeutschen Rundfunks Kolne

If this is serial music
crucially serial
then ordering must matter
crucially
to it
in order for it to be it

How might that sense of ordering be experienced within our experience of this episode
or atmosphering our experience thereof

How is that different from just the sense that sequence
as a process
is distinct

things follow former things
each before another thing
another soon to be former thing

::|| American Academic:
design the ordering so as to produce effects among otherly experienced matrices
that is
order things in order
to produce an effect ||::

More Ives in Stockhausen's approach than I had considered before

or Wagner, of course
things represent other things in order to mean

one could order things
to represent other meanings
in order

***

the smaller it gets the more I like it

***

dreizehn
spoken last word of repeated line
listened to on this 13th

***

evocation or representation
opera as
sci fi sexual fantasy
overexplained

referenced image
crass
as on a slab

October 15, 2019

Resistance Side A - Chris Cochrane and Doug Henderson [March 1986]

Two composers/improvisors/music doers from (from when I knew them) the Bard scene in the early 80s laying out some sound in an acoustic space familiar to me from earlier of my days.

They have or name songs, presumably repeatable in some sense
words and everything, I had forgotten
songs with names like Goat and Stove

noisy electric guitar, an activity sometimes called playing out guitar
and short bits of twisted sung tunes reminiscent of Eno in Tiger Mountain by Strategy days, but less placid
certainly proggy
prog out guitar and saxophone and radio talk and junkyard drums (always a good idea - genuine cans to bang on)

Intermission
entertainment provided by Banned Rehearsal
we play the board upon which the PZMs were taped as they taped the proceedings
whispered: Bickleton Burger
a gift to Resistance from Banned Rehearsal

Totem Dance - Robert Tree Cody and Will Clipman [from Heart of the Wind]

Is this evidence of the cultural hegemony of Western Pop? Doing it up like Bollywood?

I could get into the drumming, which is highly competent

Ask Your Question (mix of 110903) - Your Mother Should Know [August/September 2011]

There are five tracks of this song in the folder, but only four entries in my index. The titles are not much help. Your Mother Should Know is Neal Kosály-Meyer and his sister, my spouse, Karen Eisenbrey. I was acting as recording engineer, making it up and learning as I went along.

Put the Guns Away - No Rey [from Contradictions]

breaks between lines (he stops singing) (they stop playing)
and no breaks between lines

Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 47 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

stuffed with extra notes in quick runs
articulation with surprising joints
too many notes to fit
is an image that points
to the size of the what
that it
is too many
to fit within

Carmina Burana - Carl Orff - Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Leonard Slatkin, Sylvia McNair, John Aler, Hakan Hagegard

what is not the point
hope
future as progress
discovery of any outside this circular being

perhaps it's the hereweareagain and herewegoagain that has made it a New Year's Eve staple
celebration of the cycle

book of woodprints haphazard
in order to not matter much as long as the pages don't fall out or get ripped or smudged

at worst
a museum display of medieval spirit life

Bucket T - The Who [from A Quick One]

They're having fun, but it's amusing for about three quarters as long as it lasts

Don't You Want Me - The Human League [a Rescued Record]

icky fantasy of presumed power over another
showing its insecurity
thin and blind

even calls in reinforcements from the distaff to echo his excuses back at him

Grant Us Sleep - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

One of the house prayers I wrote for Karen as a wedding present, 33 years ago. We made this recording a few weeks ago just before our request was granted.

October 16, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 710 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer


not moving much
from our original
locations

trying

(from which initial locations we are not moving much)

to get a bead
on how our initial locations
align

until someone breaks loose

a hinge poised to turn

turning not to sink in more comfy
but to unsettle incrementally

a solemn plodding in the dark ceremony

(You've Got Me Undone) - Shelby Earl [from Burn The Boats]

verse construction:
lines repeat without or with amended words
keeping each verse wrapped back toward itself

Q&A at the Common Good Cafe - Karen Eisenbrey [August 2016]

At the end of the book launch for Karen's novel "The Gospel According to St. Rage" for its original publication in 2016, Karen answered questions taken from the audience.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

October 14, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 991 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer



Our amusement at the outset was with the notion of dialing 991 in cases of normalcy. I got stuck re-composing the C Major triad. Karen discovered the joys of milk can, cymbal, and ping pong ball.

October 15, 2019
Jesu, nun sei gepreiset - Keith Eisenbrey



October 18, 2019
Jesu, meine Freude - Keith Eisenbrey

These are two more of my set of 12 chorales, composed in 2017, as the 12th part of Études d'exécution imminent.

Postscripts

life john words are spirit and life and life

ears hear and but seek other tastes savory

and loving language god speaks within them

a small road in the nether regions

an edge more or less complicated

by the motions of the whole distance between

Playlist

Preface

windows

"Text #5 'utility, quality'

'masterwork art, definitive formulation, validated method are among the crotchety gluttons at the feast of brotherhood; not its hosts'"
J. K. Randall - "Fontainebleau" News of Music May 1985

Texts

Live

October 5, 2019
Orchestra Seattle 
Seattle Chamber Singers
William White, conductor
First Free Methodist Church, Seattle

Vast Array - Carlos Garcia
Changer Story - Roger Fernandes, storyteller
La Création du monde - Darius Milhaud
The Earthmakers - Carol Sams

Roger Fernandes told us a story about how Beaver made the world.

Carlos Garcia's piece seemed, to me, underdone, full of color and full of color, but dearthed of payoff.

I believe this is my first go at the Milhaud.

Carol Sams pulled out all the stops and then some. A huge piece for masses of folks. I might be able to get a better bead on it if I were to hear it alone. That is, I'm having more and more trouble these days with masses of folks performing for masses of folks. Much of this problem is simply personal to me: I am less and less comfortable being one among a large audience. It stresses.

Prom Queen

October 11, 2019
Prom Queen's 5th Anniversary 'Midnight Veil'
and
Gala w/ Von Wildenhaus
The Triple Door, Seattle

For our 33rd anniversary Karen and I went out on the town to hear two extremely sexy singers in pretty dresses, each backed by bunches of dudes with pretty guitars and other gears. There was also a film made of music videos from Prom Queen's album Midnight Veil. We had a grand time.

Recorded

October 6, 2019
The Purposes and Politics of Engaging Strangers - Benjamin Boretz - Benjamin Boretz, John Peel, Penelope Hyde, The Barrytown Orchestra, The Goleta Anarchist Music Ensemble

Jim (Randall) says

public art

starting now from here a question arose
that's where quality was thrown (into consciousness) like trash in a can
oy
impervious to analysis or discourse
the very purpose of structure is an alienation of expression
how might one describe a word

the difficulty in producing masterwork art, is that it, as a thing, was never there in experience to experience

to refer to any particular creative expression as a masterwork necessitates the activity of pretending the existence of the class

bridge parts

do we believe in the presence of masterworks
the utterances of the knights of most worship

ontological angst
expressive coexplorer

context can not be a method
stubbornly nonverbal facts

should problem people
logically be ostracized altogether

Humoresques - Antonín Dvořák [from Naxos The Very Best of Dvorak]

silent movie music
a story teller's music
its enchantment

Banned Rehearsal 797 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
speaks in communal percussion tongues

the sound is delicate
and directionality is surreally specific

transgressory tom tom

top to bottom

hear this message from your local bodhrán
Neal ponders the train 16 coaches long

there are characters representing a rhythm section
and chord changes and song lounging not on stage

Helluva Mountain King - Chaotic Noise Marching Corps [from Zero to Lizardman]

pretty darned fun neighbors! punkassgrieg.

October 7, 2019
Sonata in D K. 45 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

full of   hesitancies
catches

like clock cogs

Messiah Part 2 - George Frideric Handel - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Chorus, Robert Shaw, Kaaren Erickson, Sylvia McNair, Alfreda Hodgson, Jon Hmphrey, Richard Stilwell, Layton James

to his credit he is clearly concerned with being certain that the words are understood, in every syllable of them

but why do we like sheep?

glorification of the kinginess of Christ
expedient in a monarchy

Lift Up Your Hearts - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [April 1966]

Outside The Rain - Stevie Nicks [from Bella Donna]

another one drifts off
none listen to the end anyway

boat

October 8, 2019
Kosály-Meyer 3 - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 1986]

five thousand seven hundred and forty seven
flies on the wall

a quiet dripping measures the conversation
a guitar is plucked
two strings alternating irregularly, open, framing a sung tone

later a conversation in fowl or wee critter talk

names of the actors
Romeo
Juliet

October 10, 2019
Nightingale Whistle - Aaron Keyt [from November Choses]

I was going to listen to the whole set of choses this night
but realized after a few seconds that it was too intense far for that sort of nonsense

bales and whirds

wall

their calls submerge
us

languid and shrill jungles joined at the solvent

Bake Eyes - Yuni in Taxco [from Sanpaku]

the jangle of it, bright, overwhelms

a tiny careful tingly shape

Loser - St. Rage [at the Common Good Cafe, August 2016]

a determined loser
powers attitude through to level two

Postscripts

begins to sing in the second longings

1 of the first stanza concerning this

dark night and its happy traits about which

everything cold

is colder

the blankness of my walls

Playlist

Recorded

September 29, 2019
The Memory of All That (pre-release version) - Benjamin Boretz - Megan Berti, mezzo-soprano, Zuzanna Szewczyk Kwon, piano



the setting

if such it is
attends the rhythm and structure of the argument
as much if not far far more than the meaning of the words
or of the whole, of its sentiment

the rhythmic structure of the argument being
as much if not far far more what it means
as what the words end up saying

Huge Guy In The Mosh Pit - St. Rage [live at the Common Good Cafe, Seattle, August 2016]

the words
mosh pit
sung or shouted
as a single word
moshpit
equal accents or nearly so

Sonata in G minor, K. 43 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

the rhythm of its formal discourse
patterning its procedures

formality concerned with formality

El Salón México - Aaron Copland - New Philharmonia Orchestra, Aaron Copland

our own unearned exotic
Northern European derived culture in a clash with Iberian derived culture
mixed with our collective unspoken sins toward our native cultures
North and South translated to the New World
which is as old as ours was

the tell: the folk elements treated as primitivistic color

When the Kids Get Married - Harvey Schmidt - Mary Martin, Robert Preston [from I Do! I Do!]

sax and violin
the oldest team in Vaudeville
(nothing else holds fashion)

Donnerstag aus Licht Act 2 - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Michael Angel, Paul Sperry, Markus

Stockhausen, Annette Meriweather, Suzanne Stephens, Elizabeth Clarke, Matthias Holle, Mark Tezak, Alain Louafi, Majella Stockhausen, Michel Arrignon, Hugo Read, Simon Stockhausen, Chor des Westdeutschen Rundfunks Kolne

waiting with stagy impatience
for something

occupying itself
thumb twiddling
left to its own devices
a(n) [insert collective noun here] of practice rooms

din?
dreariness?
sanatorium?

everybody is in their own individually packaged muffle room

bordello?
grindhouse?

penance?
cloister?
nunnery?

woodshed?
cord?

Just a Touch - REM [from Life's Rich Pageant]

perfect example of what the 80s sound could be
I wrote the word "ouffit" and then "ooffit"
I might have meant "outfit"
not certain
nor what I might have meant by it

String Quartet 2 (Quasi una Fantasia) op. 64 - Henryk Gorecki - Kronos Quartet

incremental disbetterment
something is always still, always hard, scarred
repetition disrupts

who can pen the most dire quartet?
big accordion chords wheeze in the warm strings
all those little wooden boxes set a quivering

always heavy
a weary ever so weary load

those noisy obfuscations are really noisy
its narrative is a jumble
and then he practically plays Silent Night for us

Hallelujah - George Frideric Handel [from Robert Shaw Master of the First Art Vol. 1]

repetitions in stepwise increments
a bit of Scarlatti's formalism as formalism game

"Strummy Song" - Bob Dylan [Key Arena October 2006]

tangled up in blue?
a rhythm section is only as valuable as the freedom it allows

October 1, 2019
Gradus 196 Part 2 [at Chapel Performance Space, August 2011] - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer

some foreign agent is making clanky sounds
perhaps they were outside the Chapel
knocking pipes about

learning to press the keys one mechanism at a time

in all the combos of key mechanisms there are

the nearly infinite machine

first rung (of these two): two notes - low and mid

second rung (of these two): one high A

laughter in another more distant sounding space leaks in to this one

throughout of course the fluctuating hish of people-moving machines, their engines, their tires on pavements

the goal is to learn to play piano

by playing this piece which is a piece for learning to play the piano

but only in the sense that this piece and the piano are the same

playing anything else isn't playing the piano in the sense one is learning to play by playing this piece

Siberian Delirium - Crystal Beth and the Boom Boom Band [from Yugen 3]

a hard tight wad in the high back nasal space of the mask
as though robotic

October 3, 2019
Sonata in F Major, K. 44 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

Scarlatti is that fellow you always knew or suspected was worth chatting up
and really was

listening is a life hack
reckless with trajectories

Les Eolides - César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck - New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur

about the downbeat
before it
after it
just above it

buoyant beat
no beat without an essential qualification (not a beat until qualified) (only a beat in that it is qualified)
predicates an invisible bass line
surreptitious line logic

the itness of it is deeply concerned with the preceding and succeeding its of its itnesshood (Daseinsheit?)

Batman - The Who [from A Quick One]

popronicity badge achieved
television and rock and roll
reverse engineered for flavor

Moon Over Main - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust]

close interval yodel echoed by guitar
benefits heavily by being indecipherable

gamer music
each segment a play level
playing with what would be fire in firmer hands

That Was Your Mother - Paul Simon [from Graceland]

bar talk story
and the science of the groove-like groove

In Session at the Tintinabulary

September 30, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 990 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer


As we were playing I noticed that the tiles on one edge of the drop ceiling my Dad and I put up 25 years go were sagging alarmingly next to where some had fallen several years ago. Now I need to decide what to do about it. In the meantime we rattled around the room.

Postscripts

morning and the sun was mounting willingly

and the time arrives which laechelnd winkt und

19 sinnend kind betrueben fleht hat

but the troll said (and hungrily
too) I'm going to eat you
the sound

Playlist

Live

September 21, 2019

vectorscores
graphic scores by John Teske
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Any Ensemble:
Greg Campbell, percussion
Luke Fitzpatrick, violin
Haley Freedlund, trombone
Nel Kennon, viola
John Teske, double bass
Neil Welch, saxophone

swell

ad:sr

prelude

trashfire

intonations:

threadshift

by the fucking neck

bone flute

mauler

libera me

brain slap

klaxon wail

papercut butterflies

blood on the hearth

death rattle

to imagine how fine any ensemble might sound
imagine them tuning

it never isn't tuning
pitch match activity

attention drifting through a space not designed to be attended by that particular attention

alien

(-)

d'y'wan'a tune again?
sure

all together
now a tuning
might be a polyvalent trajectory interwoven

ceremonial

dance -cession :: (pro-) (re-) (ob-)

September 22, 2019
Bill at 93: Clarinet Works of William O. Smith
Gallery 1412, Seattle

Variants for clarinet alone (1967) - Eric Mandat, clarinet

1412 (structured improvisation, 2019) - William O. Smith, clarinet; Greg Campbell, percussion

Epigrams for clarinet (2009) - Robert Spring, clarinet

Evening Ritual (2019) - Rachel Yoder, clarinet

Jazz Fantasy (2019) - Jeffrey Cohan, flute; Tate Cohan, oboe

Five (Six) for clarinet ensemble and clarinet soloist - William O. Smith, clarinet; with Deanna Brizgys, Jesse Canterbury, James Falzone, Beverly Setzer, Rachel Yoder, and Jenny Ziefel; Paul Gillespie, conductor

Largely possibly due to the long residence here in Seattle of William O. Smith, we have an

embarrassment of riches in the clarinet department. On this night that cup ranneth over.

September 26, 2019
Canções Profundas (Deep Songs)
by Steve Peters
Greg Campbell, percussion; Jesse Canterbury, clarinets; Lesli Dalaba, trumpet; Amy Denio, clarinet, saxophone, voice; Steve Peters, saxophone; Christian Pincock, trombone; Joshua Parmenter, additional electronic processing; Rafael Carvalho, viola da terra

an
island

is land

defined

by its shore

is an 

experiment in

isolation

a sweep upward

a most 

particular

land

even from afar

from which
how strange this other
shore must be

and vast

Recorded

September 24, 2019
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing - Robert W. Thygerson - University Temple Chancel Choir, Chris Vincent, conductor

with a light touch airborne dance

O Magnum Mysterium - Morton Lauridsen - Polyphony, Stephen Layton

gooey
really really gooey
lives to linger

Gradus 107 - Neal Kosály-Meyer (October 2006)

the first 6 A-naturals one more time

The silences could be where it is going on elsewhere
prone to wander, Lord I feel it

high tones suddenly close, poke lights

hey!
you awake?

In Session at the Tintinabulary

September 23, 2019

Gradus 356 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

Obvious Observation:
When there is only one note in play, that aspect of musical curiosity that might be called the "which note(s) next?" anxiety is set aside.

leaving: when? how loud? how pedaled? how prolonged? how terminated?

When there are two, anxiety returns

a book

on each page a word

and an aperture

through which aperture

can be read all or some part of

the word on the next page down

or not

in both directions

Postscripts

any more than what is works are fixed what
know how to live without spiritual
or temporal things as substance passive

a crow in the distance

to tell them through the middle

to see how far reaching

Playlist

Preface

"Snowflakes, maple leaves, spots on leopards, stripes on zebras, palm fronds, banana skins, identical twins, lizard's tails, men's eyes, women's toes, Joans and Johns differ, each unto themselves. For physical survival, I need to be able to distinguish each lizard and each mushroom. For psychic survival, I desperately want to be able to distinguish each eye and each leaf and each E-flat. How not always to think in terms of terms and kinds and types is hard work; the eschewal of broad generalizations and categories, cases and classes takes time. But there's always an unexpected payoff when I try.

Virginia Woolf said simply 'Think of things in themselves.'"

Elaine Barkin "Rules of One's Own" from "e : an anthology"

Texts

Recorded

September 7, 2019
Sonata in D minor, K. 41 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

a mock fugue
a probable canon

like JSB, the contrapuntal conceits are just the ground, the bramble through which what it actually is
wanders

Messiah Part 1 - George Frideric Handel - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Chorus, Robert Shaw, Kaaren Erickson, Sylvia McNair, Alfreda Hodgson, Jon Humphrey, Richard Stilwell, Layton James

An historical thought:
in our culture composition is considered to be an intellectual activity, the province of experts, geniuses, immortals. but listening is for anybody. Why is that? Ben Boretz says "Listening is primal composition."

One problem with music such as this, in one's own tongue, is that the word painting sticks out.

It is orchestrated like a brick wall.

An amusing tidbit:
the use of wordpainting is often pointed to, not just to help neophytes into the listening, but also as the very fingerprint of genius itself. I aver that that is most certainly what it is not.

now become a cult classic
sing along
like Rocky Horror Picture Show

A Quick One, While He's Away - The Who [from A Quick One]

in the image of Bob
but the scenes change

how many songs is this song?
Story line: a really good stupid movie.

September 10, 2019

Year 1 - X [from Wild Gift]

In my confusion I had conflated X with Talking Heads. I got most of the way through without cognitive dissonance, trouble-less, before I clicked back. Many of my favorite Talking Heads songs are by X.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - London Symphony Orchestra [from Listen To The Joy]

but it was so polite you missed it.

Desert Angel - Stevie Nicks [from Timespace]

memoir song
desert storm I suppose
one of those designer label wars from the '90s.

Das Dörfchen - Franz Schubert [from Robert Shaw Master of the First Art]

piano may as well be
not there

Rain In The Dust - Robert Tree Cody, Will Clipman [from Heart of the Wind]

The reverb makes it difficult to hear what sounds the lips are making. Short.

September 12, 2019
Gradus 196 part 1 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [live at the Chapel Performance Space August 2011]

Chapel, at the
which has a low breathy tone about it just catching air as it does
one should not hear the entrance

one should be being social during the entrance
then, once social being is done
come in
entracted
entractomogrified

some organism is making a blowy noise on something

windy in the real world tonight
Donnerwort! for real in the world tonight!
September of storms

So why is it this luscious recorded ambiance should so luscious be, as compared to any, including this actual ambiance?
Because it is a layer upon experience : experience experiencing
FLASH!!!!

far far away rumble
somebody's rattling dishes
odd

bit closer that one

long long rumbly sky

each A a mark

strange
slow
slowly doing doings
are afoot

September 17, 2019
Hjarta og Eldur - SeaStar [from Never Go Back]

of heroic deeds and dire

Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 42 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

perfectly ordinary
were it not for that bit that hangs
askew
and quite tiny

Central Park In The Dark - Charles Ives - Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin

layers combine but never bend
forever incongruous accumulation to no end

Dry Bones - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey [April 1966]

no trombones in this one

Leather and Lace (remastered) - Stevie Nicks [from Bella Donna]

public analysis of self with other :: thin
not as affecting as would have been hoped
another half song
in all sorts of dimensions

September 19, 2019
Amazing Grace - Neal Kosály-Meyer [San Diego, October 1986]

and its pitch set as ordered and inflected
as I imagine it might be like, mutatis mutandis, to understand a raga from within its womb
gospel raga blues
composition in minute differentials

{NB: Neal sang the hymn unaccompanied in an empty church for 47 minutes}

On Excursion in Portland and Environs

September 13, 2019
4 33 Hawthorne Bridge Song - Keith Eisenbrey

No blog last week because we were in Portland so that Karen could help staff her publisher's booth at

the Rose City Comic Con. I took a walk around the Willamette River. Under Hawthorne Bridge I stopped and recorded cars on the bridge deck above me. All I had was my phone, so that is what I used.

Steel Bridge - Keith Eisenbrey



On the north end of my walk I recorded this train crossing Steel Bridge.

Robert Meyer Tour - Keith Eisenbrey



We were staying with relatives in Milwaukie (Karen's Dad's Brother and his Wife). Uncle Bob showed me, with demonstrations, his fine collection of brass instruments.

Gramophone Demonstration - Keith Eisenbrey


Then he demonstrated one of his gramophones. This was one where the stylus moves up and down and the diaphragm is horizontal to the record's surface - like as if a snake had swallowed a silver dollar - and the records themselves are nearly a 1/4 inch thick.

September 14, 2019
Propane Tank Bell - Keith Eisenbrey


The next morning I recorded the sound of the bell that hangs outside their front door, made from a propane tank.

Steel Bridge (Worthy) - Keith Eisenbrey

I had left Karen at Comic Con and walked to a spot on the esplanade near the Steel Bridge to record the sounds of traffic and Max trains crossing. It ended up being an excellent spot also for passing cyclists, scooterists, and pedestrians. I had been sitting there for about 30 minutes, reading a magazine, when a younger man - mid 40's perhaps, with an intense air, wound tight, asked if I was going to be there a while and would I watch his wallet and stuff. After some confusion on my part, having not been expecting to be addressed, I agreed. He told me his name, left his phone and jacket and perhaps a syringe. "Nitro"* he said, if you do drugs. I told him I didn't. Then I told him "Come back soon," which I had to repeat. He seemed focused elsewhere, pumped, psyched up.

He met a younger man with a skateboard a few dozen yards away and together they walked out onto the walkway under the bridge. My heart began to pound some. They got to a point just before the first support. He removed his shirt, looked over both sides of the walk. He hoisted himself, gracefully, onto the rail, then back to the walk. He replaced his shirt, climbed back to the rail and with a dramatic sweep of his arms leaped feet first into the Willamette.

He surfaced quickly and began to swim to shore. His companion came back near to where I was sitting and clambered athletically over the rail and, apparently, down the embankment. A few minutes later they both re-appeared over the rail, the leaper dripping wet, and recovered his belongings.

I had been considering what to say, finally settling on "That was an extreme baptism." He said "I like that." His companion said "That was awesome," and they walked on south along the esplanade. It's all on the recording, including the splash.

*listening back I realize that my memory had failed on this point, even though I wrote the story down just a few minutes after the fact. He actually said they were his nitroglycerin pills, concerned I suppose that I might think they were worth experimenting with.

Max Train Luna Milwaukie - Keith Eisenbrey

On the orange line back to Milwaukie the announcer kept saying "Linea de Milwaukie." (I hope I spelled that correctly. My Spanish is shamefully nonexistent.) I turned my recorder on too late to capture the line, but the moon was out, hence the Luna.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

September 9, 2019
Gradus 355 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

no end in mind?
the mind can't conceive of this end
to which there is no approach

September 12, 2019
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (one way) - Keith Eisenbrey

The third chorale in my chorale project, being the twelfth part of Études d'exécution imminent.

September 16, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 989 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

We are back indoors for the fall and winter and spring.

September 19, 2019
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (other way) - Keith Eisenbrey

The fourth chorale of the above, being the same tune, but blandished an other way.

Postscripts

the and the the weather be very fine

usually congregate below a

clerk's improved is seat who could be wife on

twice
we turn a corner
in stop frame motion

Playlist

Recorded

September 1, 2019
Peter Piper - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, director [April 1966]

an adorable plush toy of a piece

Big Sister's Clothes - Elvis Costello [from Trust]

His song smithery is respectable
though I'm not sure those weird sound intro-outro bits do it any favors

The Turning - Screaming Trees [from Clairvoyance]

Syd Barrett in the new world

Jeremy - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

this song doesn't need its presented size in sound, this need to fill a large space, inflated into stadium architecture. It belongs in a cosmically smaller sort of infinite space. There is no room, no crevice, withintowhich we might slip secure.

Ave verum corpus - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Atlanta Symphony and Chorus, Robert Shaw [from Robert Shaw Master of the First Art]

that moving inner voice on the im of immolatum
a spark to die for

Carnival Overture - Antonín Dvořák [from Naxos The Very Best of Dvořák]

barker, more like
Come on in! Thrills Chills Romance and Joy!
Illuminations!
Fireworks!
Skyrockets!

wonder magic

Gradus 195 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 2011]

3 rungs in memory of John Cage the rehearsal
measuring out a long space circling past fixtures
then relativistically from the other side having been passed over after passing over the threshold to an otherly measured time

another thing Gradus is:
as the whole of Gradus is:
a piece about thinking about pitch space that acts like a micro-neural network brain flash

a crawler arising from within its own context
alarm will sound
distant accordions on the echo walls

Ocean Ambience Rocky Coastline Vol. 1 Part 1 - Pete Comley

the sea snores by the sea shells
and we have heard her
the sea caressing smooth her pebbles
for how long has the sea been making sand

the hands of the sea beat the drums of land

the lands are plate drums
the sea drums

shakes us through our soles

September 2, 2019
Sonata in C minor, K. 40 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

in imitation of another's manners
theater of being
mimics and coerces

Symphony in D Major (#2) - Jean Sibelius - London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis

his ways
to count 3
to meter 3

That tune is such a diva!

If there are scenes they move.

not scenery, but that too
and all within the path of the melody wheresountowhere'ere it goes
(nice job on the timps back there!)

heroic postures
somewhere between Duck Dodgers and Alberich

a composer who, as a theater manager keeps intricate track of his props

entry through the gates triumphal and pomp and there are the crowds and there the streamers
Daddy's home.

granular melodic synthesis
(one of the great tuba parts of all time)
nationalistical, natürlich

September 3, 2019
Where Are The Snows? - Harvey Schmidt - Mary Martin, Robert Preston [from I Do! I Do!]

is an interesting question, considering they wonder nightly and twice if there's a matinee

Dead End - Dead Kennedys [from Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust]

2-bit even among the sophomorics

Assembly Rechoired 7 - Karen (Meyer) Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [September 1986]



We had some technical issues, but this is the first tape we made in the big Greenwood House whereintowhich Karen and I moved just before we got married.

mountain dulcimer and penny whistle
(there, I fixed the missing channel)

on my part mostly obsessively noodling on small instruments - penny whistle & monochord - perhaps in an attempt to feel comfortable with them

funmaker in a new space

the phone rings
domestic: music made within house life

September 4, 2019
Once - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

too much Bono in this one for my taste
the song is packed to the point of homogeneity

Dona nobis pacem - Johann Sebastian Bach- Atlanta Symphony and Chorus, Robert Shaw [from Robert Shaw Master of the First Art]

slow tempo nearly inert fiddly bits clarify their function without giving away their destination, which simply arrives because there it is

Banned Rehearsal 709 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 2006]

if:
one is not articulate upon a device
it doesn't pay to pretend to be

and if:
one is articulate, in some or any sense, upon a device
it does not pay to pretend not to be

however:
it is not a simple nor quick task
to discern which you may be upon any given device

so:
one makes the attempt in good faith
with ears open

so that:
the benefits of sticking with it long enough to discover something
emerge resplendent

The Memory of All That - Benjamin Boretz - Megan Berti, mezzo-soprano; Zuzanna Szewczyk Kwon, piano [from Open Space 31]



the doubled struggle of
finishing a word
and sounding an interval

the tempo of the argument
as it destroys
its erstwhile subject

the piano sounds are a posture
within the stating voice

Half a Bus Closer to Home - St. Rage [at the Common Good Cafe August 2016]

"Carol Anne would have been ready to go." (Karen to Neal, who was tuning the guitar again)

In Session at the Tintinabulary

September 2, 2019
Banned Rehearsal 988 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer



On the porch as the September evening darkens and quiets
Aaron warblers his warbler

Postscripts

australian the years buried beneath that

black cloud the cultural I told him it

was supposed to my primary task to

through matrix
trace result
sand paper