Preface
To try to put down old Bartlemy Fair! I don't know who's to blame:
Whether it's the west-end nobs, or the city folks -- confound 'em! I could cry with vexation
But this I will say, if it's the latter, they ain't fit for their city-wation.
What is to become of all us poor showmen, as has embarked every penny we've got,
In learned pigs, and crocodiles, and sheep with two heads, and wax Thurtells, and what not?
It's werry unfair to make us an exception to the general rule of the nation;
You orts to consider our wested rights, as free-born Britons, and allow us 'a compensation.'
When you stopp'd the rich West Indy merchants from dealing in poor African ______,
You allowed them twenty millions of money; and surely, showing a few hinnocent wax figgers
Aint worse than stealing one's black feller creturs, and carrying 'em off, and treating 'em worse than swine;
And, let me tell you, a lamb with two tails is much more preferabler than a cat with nine."
from The Comic Almanack, 1st Series 1835-1843
{There will be no blog post next week, May 9, but I intend to be back the week after that, on May 16 -kee}
Texts
Recorded
Soundform 1 - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundforms/Multiples]
a stillness passes through
Sunnyside Ave - Peterman [from Red Vinyl]
holding a constant rhetorical pressure
Samos - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]
passage through an imaginary garden
Totem 28 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]
a lone hollow whistles in the void
Sonata in A Major, Kk. 323 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
cheerful at the work bench
Novelletten, Op. 21: #6 in A Major - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
we twist easily through
separate into staggered entrances
to
regroup
at a later measure
Buch der Lieder I, S. 531: V. Der du von dem Himmel bist - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard
where Schumann pulls us closer
Liszt spreads out before us
our spirits are enraptured at the prospect
Sonata in C, Op. 70 (#10) - Alexander Scriabin - John Ogdon
the tonality of a passage
is a motion in discrete increments
Shine On Me - Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
sharing community vowels
Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong [from Porgy and Bess]
ironic lullaby
Money (That's What I Want) - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]
the economic engine hindwards of it all
Never Let Me Go (Alternate) - Bill Evans [from Alone]
accentuated lines
as though they swerve close by us
or trace the
path
of the distance
between two dancing bodies
Thundercrack - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
a little country song to relax to
the arrangement is attractive
and more transparent than some of his more orchestral work
does
rather go on and on though
Think of Me - Madonna [from Madonna]
while we dance
the singer spins a conversation
such as dancers
might need to have
a communication aid song
as social commodity
packaging all the way down
You Could Look It Up - T. Bone Burnett [from The Talking Animals]
accusatory stance
On a Plane - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]
heavy word accent
2-count
in pairs
Romeo and Juliet - Brave Combo [from Box of Ghosts]
to words serviceable and easily forgotten
Sister Twin - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
the whole sound
is pitched forward in the head
Royal Blooded Dingle - Christian Asplund [from Viola]
speed talking
Boundary - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]
fiddling with the set up
then Karen sings it
folks are reasonably
polite at the bar
a bit of an oddball song for a dive bar
more
loungey
Hollow by Footsteps - Tim Root [from Constance and The Waiting]
thoughtful memory scene
big drama on the screen
the music says so
with Rachmaninoff fists
Ent'racte - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]
an amusement
a bit
of a quodlibet
Ideas - Monk Hazel [from That Devilin' Tune]
quick footed
Walt Singing - Norman Monath [from Songs of The Pogo]
plink plinky plink plinky
Super Nova - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
going in hot
Laughing - REM [from Murmur]
narrow ambitus
wider ambitus
to differentiate parts of the melody
as parts of the poem
Into Thy Hands, O Lord - Cambridge Singers [from Brother Sun, Sister Moon]
goes by above our heads
Cold Mountain Songs: No One There - Robert Morris - Deborah Norin-Kuehn, Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]
hesitant empty
Danza Mora - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]
a dance is a social network
worked from above
Assembled Introductory Fibs - Chamber Music Camp Participants [from Eisenbrey 2003]
Mom talks about a Pennsylvanian
who went to Egypt
there must have
been props
Survival - Courtney Marie Andrews [from Urban Myths]
distinctive use of small vocal ornaments
and brief melismas
Song 3 - Old Man Williamson [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]
a tendency to overdo introductions
to turn every outing
into a
stadium sized triumph
Impermanence - Joey Largent [from Earth Drones]
sound as of cars along highway
or waves upon shore
a low gong
signifies portent
or time passing
this music comes across
like the somber opening
of a spectacle
such as a beheading
or crucifixion
or the recession
in aftermath
mood sign
exit through the darkness
to the fore
Throw Down in Whispertown - The No-Ones [from My Best Evil Friend]
aging surf rock
I Used to Call Her Baby - Dallas String Band [from That Devilin' Tune]
the string bass
is played with a bow
to insinuate the pitch
the way the singer does
somewhat louchely
Do It Again - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
lifting clever devices into grandeur
Everything Happens To Me - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings: 1962-1968]
some songs present themselves on stage
with lights and choreography
Smash It Up Parts 1 and 2 - The Damned [from Nancy's Mix]
my guess is that the original Nancy's Mix
skipped part 1 of this
as the compilator
was much more into the smashing
than the
soulful
music can be a signifier
of shared attitudes
its signification is
its meaning
coolness is all
To a Lady Seen from the Train - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]
glee club bon bon
Prelude - Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'N'Roll]
a tonality discovered in scraps
Wishlist - Pearl Jam [from Rearview Mirror]
constricted thoughts
easier to ship in bulk
Don't Think Twice It's All Right - Karen Blaine [from Dirty Money]
everything in its place
chords
rhymes
and breaths
Anthem - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]
the opening repeated segment
is in square time
with a fetching
hesitation
in its final breaths
a melody
with a warm human
heart
Song 4 - Peterman [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]
about a town in New Jersey
which spends its life staring across the
river
at success
brutal and unlovely
Thumpy - Bret Hart [from Dubble Thud]
it is a happy thing
that there is a place in this world
where such
things as this
can be
even with the inhuman grid of clock time
quietly harvesting us
Psalm 22:9-10 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]
there are times
when I have needed to be doing self proving
many
of my songs are demonstrations of skill
Good Old Turnip Greens - Bo Chatman [from Really The Blues]
cuisineology
as social satire
regarding racial issues
Leave My Woman Alone - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]
back off friend
Ray is the master
of the use of back up singers
to turn his words into dialogs
Long Green - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]
drink along
swig dance
more fun than Louis Louis
Those Conga Drums - Jonathan Richman [from Jonathan Sings!]
for Jonathan this counts as a big production
but its heart seems to be
mostly in the right place
The First Noel - London Symphony Orchestra [from Joy To The World]
the back up singers did say
on a throwaway figure
the singer overdoes the word painting
by enunciation
negotiating those vowels in Soprano
is a technical challenge
and
this singer is up to it
but why?
a sad melody played beautifully
how sad
my melancholy
is more melancholier
than your melancholiest
melancholiations
Track 12 - Eckstine Middle School Students [from Mach 6]
nightclub cosplay club
I Woke Up - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
going for a Dylanish rhythm to his lines
The Seer - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]
film in strophic scenes
a ballad
Agnes Gray (Echo Wanderer's Wild Violet Mix) - The Science of Deduction [from Alternate Works]
we are lifted
by alien space beam
into the land of eternal
artifice
wash yourself clean in dance
Juice - Tom Baker, Anna La Berge [from Sand]
careful notations are made
of each sample in turn
further tests
beyond each further test
maximal universal scanning device
all objects
known
by knowing each
data securely stored
severely stoned
'Mid the Pyramids - Clarence Jones [from That Devilin' Tune]
loose jointed mule cart
16 frames per second
Ballade of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]
she loved the boy next door
who worked at the candy store
oops
jilted him for movie stardom
but came back
how sweet
Good To Me As I Am To You - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]
the blues are a chamber music
of commiseration celebration
Gastrophone - Ross Rabin, J. K. Randall, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]
the mechanism moves jerkily
regroups fallen parts
between each
heavy footfall
personifying music
by imagining a body
whose motions are this
music
a man of loose parts
and doohickeys
its giant joints
squeal
and scrape
we perch upon our pile of wreckage
and bellow like a bear
Steppin' Out - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]
more threats to keep women under thumb
Dere's No Hidin' Place - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]
very low bass at the cadence
Blood Hound (feat. Young Buck) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich Or Die Tryin']
at the ends
he rhythmates his rhymes
Beadie and Bob - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]
lounging at the corner
checking out the scene
Coronach - Princess [from Selling Sulphur]
music here
is a flavor of din
a sonic density
and little
else
Fuck Me - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]
full powered failure celebration
5 Duets - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]
originally for two clarinets
they become fingering studies on piano
how two agents collude
to share material
only occasionally
colliding
leaves off
at its most focused point
I Would If I Could - Al Miller [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
we amuse ourselves
with stories from our common life
populated by
clown types
Jailhouse Rock - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]
hammer hand piano pounder
Song To A Seagull - Joni Mitchell [from Song To A Seagull]
a voice to which a gender might attach
is a voice first
idiosyncrasies of vocal anatomy
among a population
the
stereo goose
on the last strum
was unnecessary
R. P. Williams Blues - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]
doing what he does into orbit
Dragana I Slavei - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares Volume 2]
sophisticated vocal arrangements
with vocal style
that signifies
folksiness
No Woman, No Cry - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]
Nina shows off her brand of vocal technique
Moment of Clarity - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]
a tense scene
in stasis
for the duration of the poem
voice is a performance of self
to listen with self identification
is transference
Roach - Chaotic Noise Marching Corps [from Smashed at Smash Putt]
street fair clown band
tattoo drumming
gots their them there rudiments down
by thunder
sticking by Stone
Capitol - Bad Luck [from Four]
nasty weather
officious liaison
punctiliarly punctual
I hope
I'm not intended to follow these instructions
it spit sputters
- lickety split
- bullet lists
once a certain velocity is achieved
rules will be difficult
Track 9 - Star Anna [from Love Shades, streamed February 14, 2023]
we value a voice
for the specificity of self it performs
selves are valued
as we value each other
Crazeology - Bud Freeman [from That Devilin' Tune]
long hanging stylish suits
flash pants hats and dos
dance with hips low
College Man - Bill Justis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]
frat rat twist party strut
I'm Running Out of Love - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]
daytime television plot land
In Bluer Skies - Echo & The Bunnymen [from Porcupine]
to sing
to give a poem a voice
and self
in the voice
Make It Funky - Audio Two [from What More Can I Say]
we describe our dance
and provide examples
ends with a width of cycles
for a clever party
to layer a new cut
atop
Down In Honky Tonk Town [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Vol. 3]
old timey jazz
for the visitors to marvel at
glitzy entertainment
all the prescribed raunch
(family friendly)
All For Me Grog - Scurvy Bastards [from Battle Born]
beer hall guzzler
Truth Or Dare/Greatest X - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]
what happens to a song
when we gender the voice that sings it
especially when the musician
seems intent
on signaling one
how much
is costume
Healthy Punk - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]
bands run a risk
of becoming an attitude brand
Track 4 [from Unlabelled Christmas Album]
this music is wrapped in silks and incense
How Firm a Foundation - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]
demonstrating to myself
that I can write music skillfully
but not
fussily
Since I Laid My Burden Down - Elders McIntosh & Edwards [from Goodbye, Babylon]
tent meeting rouser
lifts the whole canvas
Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller - Chuck Berry [from The Best of Chuck Berry]
about a daughter?
Someone's Coming - The Who [from Magic Bus]
the brass players sound bored
I hope they got paid
Stand Back - Stevie Nicks [from Timespace]
the backing groove functions like a fancy metronome
the greater
timekeeper for dancing fools
Where Is My Mind? - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]
much of the industrial sheen
left out on the sidewalk in a heap
once again
back to basics
small stage
small audience
intimacy
France - Jean Lilensen [from The World Sings Good Night]
very short
Yes - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]
establishing boundaries
Special Agent - Goat [from Special Agent]
if a figure appears
in a pairing
with a like figure
that
implies a trajectory
from one to the other
but also a duality of
types
the one type
and the other type
do subsequent figures
sort themselves into like pairings
interlocked along the rhythm webs
or
do they only need to
seem to
or
be likely to
in order
to provide
the
experience
of cohering
dancing in the light
of a suburban young love fantasy
Drive This Thing - Lost In Space [from Live at The Player's Lounge]
work it low inside
Silent Crowds - Movement [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]
elemental guy thing
He's Coming Soon - Laura Henton [from Goodbye, Babylon]
tent meetings were traveling circuses
music was among its many
attractions
Something Inside Me - Ray Charles [a Rescued Record]
Ray owns his vocal in this
Slim Slow Slider - Van Morrison [from Astral Weeks]
evanescent images
addressed to their object
Leave a Tender Moment Alone - Billy Joel [from The Essential Billy Joel]
mansplaining man's many moods
its the same ride the second time around
When 2 R In Love - Prince [from Lovesexy]
clarity in the mix
was carefully crafted
all the parts fit
together
Save Room For Me - Fastbacks [from Zucker]
teen bedroom
pajama party
bop
The Loneliest Guy - David Bowie [from Reality]
swimming slowly
dim lit depths
Another Crazy Song-Zander - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
convention floor showcase
a social music
can serve as a pattern of acceptable behavior
for
that social group
how to be
this
or that
type
of
gender
for
each other
Mountain - Whtiney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star - I'm a Sinking Ship]
gendered larynxes
Jeremiah 17:5-6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]
better and better every time around
Nightmare - Alfonso Trent [from That Devilin' Tune]
not from the tent meeting circuit
this is from a different demimonde
or its afterparty
Get a Job - The Silhouettes [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
live the small town
change in your pocket
teen dream
Can't Get Enough of You Baby - ? and The Mysterians [from The Very Best of ? and The Mysterians]
want your arms to wrap around me twice
Walk With Me - Brady "Doc" Barnes, Lucy Barnes [from The Art of Field Recording]
daily work song prayer
Where Duty Calls - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
duty is suprasocial oppression
Me-Jane - Pj Harvey [from Rid of Me]
guitar heavy
Stormy Weather - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
conjuring a whole scene from memory cues
Love Story - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]
credits roll on sappy romance
Go To Orange - B'Shnorkestra [from Go To Orange]
finding a comfortable berth
within the prevailing culture
Seven Months - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]
this version of the song
is more static
than some of her earlier
performances
more subdued and constant
Got to Make a Comeback - Eddie Floyd [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]
quite the throb on the guitar
it has an effect
on the sense of the
meter
In Session at The Tintinabulary
April 26, 2026
Welford - Keith Eisenbrey
Gradus 432 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
after the new note is runged
a blast from decades past
a lone
A-natural
as companion
a grizzled veteran note
this one
is becoming many
repeatedly
thresholds of audibility
among the envelopes of partials
as they
decay
the new old pitch enters
and the cosmos shrinks
to the gap between
them
their interval relaxes
into a more generous value
April 30, 2026
7 Preludes for Guitar - Lockrem Johnson
these little pieces came up in my listening recently
in Douglas Rice's
fine performance
and I wondered what they might be like
as pieces
for clavichord
so I recorded them to find out
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Gavin Borchert (part 2)
This volume collects 30 additional two-part inventions by Seattle composer Gavin Borchert, performed on clavichord. The recordings were made at my home in 2023.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
