"Of modern standers-of-mast-heads we have but a lifeless set; mere stone, iron, and bronze men; who, though well capable of facing out a stiff gale, are still entirely incompetent to the business of singing out upon discovering any strange sight. There is Napoleon; who, upon the top of the column of Vendome, stands with arms folded, some one hundred and fifty feet in the air; careless, now, who rules the decks below; whether Louis Phillippe, Louis Blanc, or Louis the Devil. Great Washington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules' pillars his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go. Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in Trafalgar Square; and even when most obscured by that London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is smoke, must be fire. But neither great Washington, nor Napoleon, nor Nelson, will answer a single hail from below, however madly invoked to befriend by their counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze; however, it may be surmised, that their spirits penetrate through the thick haze of the future, and descry what shoals and what rocks must be shunned."
Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Recorded
Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms) - Dion [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
lopsided blues stanzas
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]
a song of alternating states
verses and choruses
are states
upon which
words or instrumental solos
are inscribed
3 Record Set (end) - Anthony Braxton - Oberlin College Orchestra, Kenneth Moore
threads to follow
through a dim space
tonality
a thick paste
enclosed
cut off
there is no outside
all directions
are static
indifferent
Brain - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]
a bichordal guitar-drum composition
with an all-off position
and a
flourish to finish
Concerto 10, Op. 413 - Alan Hovhannes - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Martin Berkofsky, Chris Butler
a music of nowhere
a cocoon without metamorphosis
all contact with
what exists beyond the temple walls
have been severed and lost
muted colors
one interesting thing:
he is treating the solo piano
as a melodic
instrument
not only
that
there is no real counterpoint in
its part
but that
there are hardly any chords at all
Banned Rehearsal 330 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [June 4, 1993]
peekaboo baby
from the start
a wooden rattle
loudly shaken
near the mic
in a rhythm
fades from awareness
before
vanishing in fact
before re-appearing
the ukulele
is like a baby guitar
sounds are toys we play with
John just pulled the plug on the Funmaker
a precise scientific readout
of the silliness in the room
more
tape
that's my boy
Finalala - Amy Denio - Die Knodel [from Tutto Bene]
Sounds of the Brush: Improvisation 3 - Gust Burns, Adam Diller, Keith Eisenbrey, Mike Marlin, DL Scott, Adam Weiss [March 17, 2003]
a bit of poetry in pitch conjuration
Freedom is on the March - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]
winds climb stepwise above a landscape of bass and percussion
Attitude - Doug Palmer - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 1, 2013]
taking punches at a sack of sand
Every Time I Hear That Song - Brandi Carlyle [from By The Way, I Forgive You]
there is no less reliable a narrator
than that of a breakup song
rhythm/rhyme
as they are commonly understood
are aids to the
immediate comprehension of the "rim" (number)
in the old sense
Subvector Colloquy (unedited) - Tom Baker, Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith, Jim Knodle [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 3, 2023]
negotiating a space for conversations
three interviews and an open
forum
improvisation
can liberate attention
from obsessive
preparation
an arithmetic
of irrational rim
an organized entrance
to the quartet
one at a time
in order
of appearance
piano guitar flute trumpet
this is really lovely
L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Act II - Claudio Monteverdi - Orfe Orchestra, Sergio Vartolo
from in what person
does a monologue/aria address us?
from what person do we hear it?
are we eavesdropping
or do the characters turn their masks
partly
toward us?
in Baroque small-stage opera
we are closer to the words
and the
page
hearing an opera
was more like reading a drama
than
like seeing it
sequences of stepwise-related figures
arising
in the context
of an operatic ensemble
to these modern ears
the relative dearth of ensembles and choruses
(as compared with, say, Mozart)
would get monotonous
were
not each line so demanding of attention
deep characterizations
not for the faint of heart
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXII. Unser Wandel ist im Himmel - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
didactic setting:
set in order to teach:
learn these words
by hearing their music
styles do not succeed each other
they consume each other
an elaborate culture accreted to the Church
to grace it
should now
the Church
shed it?
unsettled
Cinquieme Ordre (la) : La Villers. Gracieusement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
costumer of music
to the King of France
center of the civilized
world
Sinfonia in E-flat Major, BWV 791 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld
a duet of voices with guitar
the harpsichordist uses a two manual
instrument
left hand manual is muted
to depict the guitar
Keyboard Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 249 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
this music nibbles at itself
piranha-like
forces doors into the
inner tonalities
not so distant
but you'll never find them again
Symphony in E Major, Wq. 182/6 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock
it is important for everyone in the orchestra
to appear quite busy and
useful
so they get paid
they hope
Prussian efficiency
so fleissig!
Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 333 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout
always the storyteller
verging on the confessional
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 #2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
sophisticated amusement
its tonality is the subject matter of its going
rather than the substrate of its social propriety
a political
mirror
held from within
an image of its society
last movement
is really two movements
a long slow one
and a
sizable fast one
each complete
back to the long slow music to
finish
Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Peter Serkin
possibly the craziest symphonic music he ever composed
there are some
interesting acoustic things going on with this period instrument
it even
includes a tuning up figure to start the fourth movement
the fugue
is a heck of a chase
lickety-split
exhilarating as all
get-out
a battle to the death or the glory
Sonata in A Major, D. 959 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel
proceeds streamlike
through merry burbles and quiet pools
stream's
eye view
as it experiences itself
from rise to outflow
nights and days
in their ways and dreams
lakes at night
and their nymphs and naiads
all the assorted fae
and fae adjacent
in ancient battles
nightly renewed
it rains upon its face
hop frogs dancing
log to log
retire
to their home ponds
and pipes
and joys
tales of old
campaigns
and heroes
and escapades
Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau
domestic peace calms violent passion
Presto Passionato, Op. Posth. - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
more than a babbling brook's force to this
it is being powered and
pushed and thrust
by the will power of human heroic striving
Via Crucis, Station XIII - Jesus wird vom Kreuz genommen - Franz Liszt - Reinbert De Leeuw
unbearably tender
Auf ein altes Bild - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim
spare
Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 10, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (After J. S. Bach's BWV 665) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
implies as many other keys as it establishes
following the logic of the
chorale melody
as its key center
Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 42 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo
inscribing oneself onto future events
Symphony in E-flat Major (#2) - Franz Schmidt - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi
1
is music well-served by the gargantuan?
the large orchestra?
the immense hall?
the national audience?
even if it becomes
a mirror to that national audience
so they can hear themselves
(which is also the essential Ivesian approach)
2
our national character on display
its harmonious virtues
a set of variations
Straußian
but well-behaved
an orgy of
lusciousness
an eternal Busby Berkeley thingy
legs and legs and
legs
and bustles and bustles and bustles
and fans and fans and
fans
An Austrian in Paris
3
meanwhile
back here in contrapuntal land
shy
about
its inner workings
The Leprechaun's Dance - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]
I can almost picture the art on the sheet-music cover
Theme and Variations - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin
OK it's derivative (an early work)
but there's an ear in there
to
rhythm and its propensities
and she does know her counterpoint
[recorded May 18, 1953]
each thing doing a thing
is doing that thing
and no other thing
neither right nor left is turned to
||:rule:
it is not
necessary to see the dance
to understand a ballet score
but it
helps
at times
to imagine a dance to it
don't worry about
the actual plot
or Balanchine's style
or the original costumery
this music dances for us
or
better
get up and dance
yourself
no one's watching
Quatre Romances Sans Paroles: Romance 2, Op. 129 #2 - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux
a 48 second Romance
so fleeting so fancy
Mathis der maler: excerpt #4 - Paul Hindemith - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Leopold Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
an Artist is their own state
heroic independence
and other
delusions of grandeur
Hello, My Darling (with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
a band of musicians discuss a song from within it
God Don't Like It - Elder A. Johnson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
damn! that guitar sound!
Rock Me Lucky - Joe Lamond - [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
entirely meretricious
Carol - Chuck Berry - [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the music is intended to act as a social lubricant
to move your feet
out onto the body-display floor
Samson Agonistes (Symphonic Portrait) - Robert Starer - Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Valek
what is the social purpose
of making orchestra music since WW II?
career fulfillment?
fodder for the institutions
so they can
continue to pretend
to be relevant
while changing nothing?
a star in one's earthly crown?
Street Fightin' Man - The Rolling Stones [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
square and colorless
Irish Washerwoman - Old Thresher's Fife and Drum Band [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
comes on strong
bows out with a standard tag
(shave and a haircut
six bits)
all done in less than a minute
13 Emily Dickinson Songs: #1: Perhaps you'd like to buy a flower - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt [from A Tribute to Soprano Bethany Beardslee]
ends of lines to beginnings of next lines linked
forward vowel on the i
of till
bright and clear
The Late Great Johnny Ace - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]
any tribute to a life
from with a life
is about that life
Banned Playalong 3 - Aaron Keyt [January 20, 1988]
a solid hum
to keep us anchored
keyboard chords pull against it
the interval
between anchor and chord
is at an angle of
pitch
the hum is a creature of the recording process
(artifactual)
the piano chords also
but
their stimulating agent
is a human
more immediately discernable
however
one could read the hum
as being as fully intentional a
part of the tape-artifact as anything
the work
is its recording
(*is the angle of acoustic yank different than the angle of pitch-class yank?)
hums elicit further hums from tones
tones shed hums
they fall into
the hum bin
at the center of hummity
a sedimentary hum
is a
dense layer of hum
music for a wandering mind
Sabre Dance - Empire Brass [from Class Brass on the Edge]
the back rows of the orchestra get rowdy
arranged for brass enthusiasts
Banned Rehearsal 489 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 28, 1998]
we emerge from our muck
fixed in frustration
a discussion is
engaged
strenuous and fierce
stress induced friction
Banned
Rehearsal
is a journal of artifacts
we put together something like
a rhythm groove
choppy guitar says bwá
the Mighty W appears in
full bundler regalia
{journal entry of March 19, 2006:
has transfer issues throughout
especially at the high volume end
must have been one of our bad days
lots of gonzo drumming}
Music for Bassoon - Joshua Parmenter - Ryan Hare [from Intrada]
performed in conjunction with a computer program
that processes the
incoming sounds in composed ways
a pattern of filters and inputs
suddenly there are bassoons everywhere
chattering even in the
stairwells and broom closets
quite the ride guys!
Zither Film 8 - Keith Eisenbrey [January 21, 2008]
it separates like milk and cream
hints of regularity
Sextet II: Apostillas a Mil Panaderos - Tomas I. Gueglio Saccone - Latitude 49 [from Curious Minds]
is up-to-the-minute performance practice
worth the trouble
or will
it gray out other compositional potentials?
that is
if the purpose
of a note
is to carry a technique
rather than
the technique
articulating the note
what are we left with?
a string of
techniques?
the colors of things
their surfaces
shiny and
new
Partita - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]
I did somewhat better at controlling the tempo for these
but all those
parkour leaps got my fingers all cross-fumbled
so it ends up being
pretty much a hatchet job
clearly beyond my abilities to pull off live
oh well
what's frustrating
is that I know what all those
notes are
and have a clear idea in my ear
about how they fit
together
Comfort Me - Carla Thomas [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]
no element distracts
attention riveted start to finish
In Session at The Tintinabulary
November 10, 2024
Coronation - Keith Eisenbrey
Gradus 404 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
three rungs anticipating December 14 at 1412
(12/14 at 1412, heh heh)
we seep into the new rung
from one
to a great plenty
seepage continues
travel
by registral adjacency
a slow
broad sweep of the field
variant sweeps
at other resolutions
Postscripts
Drops
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
