Playlist

Preface

"We hear a lot about finding one's voice, but we hear less about finding a harmonious place for it to resound, about modulating it with respect to its surroundings, about stilling oneself to respect the other's voice. And even less about finding one's silence." - Barbara White "In Search of Silence", The Open Space Magazine Issue 10 Fall 2008

Texts

Recorded

August 16, 2016
Jesse James - Bruce Springsteen [from The Seeger Sesssions]

In the 30s the 'Western Outlaws' and 'gangsters' were sanctified by partitions of us as quasi Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor - a rose-colored-glasses simplification at best - and so I wonder what cred exactly Bruce is aiming at here.

I must admit, he had me with the lovely map

Pioneer, O Pioneers! - Brian Cobb [from Campfire Songs] - Maria Mannisto, soprano voice, Craig Garretson, baritone voice, Jesse Canterbury, clarinet & bass clarinet, Chung-Lin Lee, flute, Eric Rynes, violin, Brad Hawkins, cello, Brian Stone, guitar, Greg Campbell, percussion, Dale Speicher, percussion, Julia Tai, conductor

A brooding sense of isolation, distance. What strange idealism pulled, or what silent horror drove, the civilized from civilization, only to carry it along?

Gradus 281 - Neal Kosály-Meyer (January 2016)

Among other aspects, the Gradus project is a study in levels of attenuation. Here it skims the surface of continuity and coherence, exploring chaos with a probe, a poke of fingers. What if coherence were a choice rather than a desperate gambit?

August 17, 2016
Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus 1 - J. S. Bach - Lionel Rogg

The vinyl pressing I had of this recording was never good - murky and noisy, I honestly wasn't looking forward to listening. But apparently I had inadvertently sabotaged it while ripping to digital. Instead of recording the output of the turntable, I was recording via the laptop microphone. What was murky before was murky cubed, and in the background was Karen and me chatting in the kitchen, banging cupboard doors. I'm a pretty rough and tough listener, but this was, alas, a waste, not even fun in a new music found sound sort of way. So I found the recording online, and was happy to discover that the performance is actually better than I had feared.

August 18,2016
Keyboard Sonata in F Hob. XVI:29 - Haydn - Christine Schornsheim

It keeps doing that Buster Keaton shtick of finding itself suddenly in new surrounds, but with equally dizzying changes in the protagonist. Was he trying to out-do CPE Bach at his own game?

In Session at the Tintinabulary

August 13, 2016 (recording remotely at Volunteer Park, Seattle)
Volunteer Park Water Tower 160813


Karen and I got to the park early for Steve's guerrilla music session, so we hoisted ourselves up the stairs to the top of the water tower. While we were enjoying the view and the space we were surprised and delighted to be suddenly serenaded by four young women singing Bulgarian and Croatian folk(?) songs arranged in parts. By their second number I had my recorder out and captured this mini flash performance. Hoorah Seattle! - If any of the performers happen upon this, please let me know who you are so I can give you proper credit.  

Tree Stone Session - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Bruce Greeley, Aaron Keyt, S. Eric Scribner

not at Volunteer Park

SES had invited all interested to come to Volunteer Park to improvise and to perform Tree Stone, a piece that involves clicking rocks together and shaking tree branches, but mostly listening to the park on a beautiful Seattle summer afternoon and estimating in one's head how long a minute might be. Eventually there will be a link to the sound on my soundcloud site, but upload speed has been a problem lately.

August 15, 2016
Banned Rehearsal 916 160815 - Jenny Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
This turned out well, and the pie was delicious.

Again - eventually a link will appear on soundcloud. Stay tuned.