"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
