Preface
"......... although music stands alone, I don't mean that it is defenseless, --- that it can be interpreted freely. It is necessary to stipulate that each music puts forth its own language. It is necessary to stipulate that each music desires its own context. It is necessary to stipulate that each music prepares its own ground from which all external articulation becomes possible."
- J. K. Randall "ADVT.: Repeat After Me" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
June 13, 2020
Your Mother Should Know (Neal Kosály-Meyer)
Performance! Art!
Karen sings along to the computer image, since she couldn't be there. The lighting is harsh and abstracts the image to match the abstraction of the sound that comes through the stream.
Yellow shirt: Mr. Mustard in the library.
Wayward in Limbo
"With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series now moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is curating and commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of exclusive material. Many of these will be essentially 'live' performances recorded at home for this occasion. Others may create a mix of pre-recorded material that has not been previously released elsewhere."
- from the Wayward Music Series website at https://www.waywardmusic.org/.
June 13, 2020
Cruel Diagonals (Megan Mitchell)
Groups of like sounds are the matter, and they are spacious. Pressure from nothing sustains them, tatters them. Vocal sound group orients us to our ground, our stand spot, our place from which. Drum sound groups are the other bodies. Electric humming (sinister) is sealed off, malevolent. Industrial voices, cloistered, scene by scene, room by room, in a mechanized process.
June 14, 2020
Kole Galbraith "Kennewick Man"
we may now be there
a low tone throbs
a white noise also throbs, but goes
other tones are here now
so far everything comes in from inaudible in a slow fade
. . . there, ictuses
but only in re-iteration of an already present tone
the differently paced throbbings of tones allow various groups of tones to shift their balance in respect of each other - a kind of melodic motion in which we can choose our path with minimal coercion
radiochatter choppiness in some tones
an outside is incoming
it vanishes, except the low throb, which is now a faster constant pulse, an engine below
another group of throbbing sounds throbs
our rate of passage is constant, inexorable
long waves on a low slant shore
we are moving but not by foot nor in any direction
except now that we have moved we find where we had been headed
back into the space of a room with synthesizers in it
or perhaps in a small boat in a quiet spot
shovel in loam
June 16, 2020
Paul Kikuchi
Paul Kikuchi, Miuri Remi, Nakamura Hitomi, Christopher Yomei Bladsel, Tajima Kazue
a succession of layered removes all at the same remove
filmlike - flat screen
now we may be outside in a quiet space
then quieter
inside surrounds us with long bowed string tones
we wander to holler into echoes halloo!
the halloo!ed hollers
Recorded
Missa Pape Marcelli - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - King's College Choir, Cambridge, David Wilcocks
the uniformity of script
hold the book quietly
the language of this is for study, it is studying its text, shaping it as it goes
plastic polyphony
his lump of clay
cathedrals are for singing in
they are made to sing by singing in them
Mass for Four Voices - William Byrd - BBC Singers, Bo Holton
turbulent
a voice, a part of a counterpoint, can be realized by a single voice, sung by one
or can be realized by a group of such, who thus, share a voice
tempo change sneaks in through clever quasi hemiolas
The poetic patterning of the liturgy helped shape the later forms of classical European art music, the looping and staggered entrances of imitative counterpoint
June 14, 2020
L'Orfeo, Act I - Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi - Ensemble La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina
so hopeful!
the structure of this narrative:
tiny scenes like sentences
promenade-ritornello
larger scenes like paragraphs
so artificial, this structure
so mannered
but that just makes it more believable as a story
opera began as a literary conceit
and never budged
Passameze, Gaillarde - Michael Praetorius - New London Consort, Philip Pickett [from Dances from Terpsichore]
triumphal
fit for a king
Two Noels - Nicolas Lebègue - Marie-Claire Alain
organ music is always in a dialog with its space
space talks back
Praeludium in G minor - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
a long tale with subplots
before the talkies
melodramatic
and funny too
Come, Redeemer of Mankind - Johann Pachelbel - Howard Wolvington [recorded during service at the University Temple United Methodist Church, December 8, 2019]
building these monumental technologies to serve the word, in the guise of the verses behind the chorale tune, monumenting scripture
La Descente d'Orphee aux Enfers, Act I - Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Patricia Petibon, Monique Zanetti, Katalin Karolyi, Sophie Daneman, Paul Agnew, Jean-Francois Gardeil, Steve Dugardin, Francois Piolino, Fernand Bernadi
never before more so or since
Baroque: another service economy (heads rolled) it sparkles!
rolling heads sparkle
when operas were tone paintings
they are even named that way, as if they were a painting
not the whole myth, just the one scene
music is color time
revolutionary creativity would not be tolerated
it was necessary to practice subterfuge
suddenly these cardboard cutouts came to life on stage
we have been sucked in
the power of myth and drama: formidable
the history of record keeping and record retrieving - of scholarship - is ripe with regicide
Bach (JS) is the wrong lens through which to understand the Baroque
He was looking forward, as should we
Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir BWV 131 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmuth Rilling, Kathrin Graf, Arleen Auger, Gabriele Schnaut, Helen Watts, Adalbert Kraus, Kurt Equiluz, Wolfgang Schone, Figuralchor der Gedachtniskirche Stuttgart, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
The BWV folks should have bent and called this one 130.
the text has seeped into the frame
it fairly drips with it
chorale melodies float through like ghosts
text includes commentary in poly-directional text space
mash up of mix and mash parts until it moves like a body
Sonata in A minor - George Frideric Handel - Michala Petri, Keith Jarrett
Duets are about the right size of thing for Handel. In close quarters the energetic folk element can activate.
virtuosic displays :: in the royal era :: see what fine talent I command :: show off for my friends, low clown
June 16, 2020
Dixieme Ordre - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
Each thought is given its just proportion
celebration of rectitude
no innocents led astray
stay put or move by step
by step
by step
tyranny of the barline is addressed with playful repetitions and immovables
clever mechanicals
June 17, 2020
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band I, Prelude and Fugue in C Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
the unsustained arpeggiations above the sustained notes keep those lower strings vibrating and lively
fugue cadence: arrival at tonic area - chromatic cadenza - resolution
Sonata in C Major - Georg Philipp Telemann - Michala Petri, Elisabeth Selin
two recorders
the super power of recorders is their precision of intonation
there is no mistaking it
and no fudging
merciless
Sonata in A Major Wq 48.6 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Bob van Asperen
harpsichord
grinds to halts
doubles backs
abouts faces
misses entirelies
forgets whereabouts
several time schemes competing for space
packed
June 18, 2020
Symphony in A Major (#14) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Hanover Band, Roy Goodman
how corners are turned and where they hide
I guess we're exploring
politely domestic
paternal calm decorum
how to be a good servant
do not disturb
do not observe
nor let in
Symphony in F (#6) K. 43 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schröder, Christopher Hogwood
laden with tasteful balance
Sonata in C Major, Op. 10#1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Artur Schnabel
impatient
all the same material
all the same figures
but nothing will be the same ever again
the balance is implied, but not explicit
no need nor time for that
slow movement sneak attack
hints of keys like show of dagger from under cloak
the violence inherent in the system
affect riot
ends in sullen smolder
In Session at the Tintinabulary
June 15, 2020
Bannedecameron 200615 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey
We had hoped for Neal to call, but there were communication issues that day so it was just Karen and me on the porch at the Tintinabulary.
Postscripts
the always seemed so suited to the flock
friend brick factory had a stained a grimy
was copper in back the tin minister's
increment
through matrix
trace result
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