Preface
"Postmodernism in music is premised on the idea that people have to compose, perform, listen to, and review music no matter how useless, pointless, rootless, disengaged, culturally archaic those practices have become. Business, after all, is business. And what is called minimalist music, in postmodernist talk, strenuously and overtly celebrates the pervading poverty of our cultural spirit, and the mechanical functionality which has increasingly become what passes for our relations to one another."
- Benjamin Boretz "Interface Part V: On Thinking About Various Issues Induced by the Problem of Discovering That One is Not a 'Composer' And That the Space which One Inhabits Musically is Not 'America'" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
Streamed
The Staycation Festival #8 Hosted by South Hudson Music Project, The Royal Room
Solos: Drummer Session
Bonnie Whiting, Juan Pablo Carletti, Dio Jean-Baptiste, Greg Campbell, Bobby Previte, Andrew Drury
impressions as they came along
blue rhythm sticks
pot lid
dinosaur in the next room on a shelf
a conversation between RH and LH illuminated by variant lid scrapers
from an overhead light fixture
drums visible and hid
frame rate can't keep up
tempo and all it takes
Duck Island
advanced sticking for Roger Stone
w/ Uke and Tuba and backdrop
a stick is not the head alone but also the hand that holds it
melodic unsnared snare drum
dance
masked drum
more Duck Island with singing snare
soccer ball on top of head
(frame rate can't keep up with that either!)
Bonnie (again) with thunder drum
renders Nascar nugatory
metals
drum rock bay with wind
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/.
Robb Kunz - In the Days of the Long Forgotten
from a collector's selection
the sounds are meant to be the sounds they are
though sometimes their origin is uncertain
mostly we can make a guess as to what is making the sound and in what originary context
- not always -
- and probably not always correctly -
but the correctness of our guess is not as crucial as the relative self-certainty of that guess
birds are birds
shouts are shouts
drums and shakers are drums and shakers
ah the fair!
how we miss it!
very frequently more than full
words engraved upon ironic remove
July 19, 2020
Eric Lanzillota
tone-like sound with pulse-like behavior
no room down here for contrapuntal weavings
it only just rises to near awareness
we bend our ears
down to get closer
to that membrane
something of a rubbery tone to it
inner-tube material stretched across a lake sized frame
its vibratory movements arise out of deeper instabilities
something big feeds back
whispers glimpsed for a moment only
or two
joined in near overlap
boots crunching snow
July 23, 2020
Kelsey Mines
No Rhyme No Reason
thoughtful reconfigurements
the greater chaconne
a thinkers music
composition improvisation synonomy
no sound wasted
in no way not approachable
Tell Me Everything
Inside
Do The Right Thing
helpful tool
Let Me Check My Calendar
Reparations
all the debts
all the way down
Recorded
Die Geburtstag der Infantin (Der Zwerg) - Alexander von Zemlinsky - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gerd Albrecht, Inga Neilsen, Beatrice Haldas, Kenneth Riegel, Dieter Weller, Olive Fredricks, Marianne Hirsti, Sheryl Studer, Frauenstimmen des RIAS-Kammerchores
a small cast one act opera from somewhere in the style flow of Debussy and Mahler
an icky strange tale dressed up like a Disney Princess
(the evil queen as a child)
the mix of voices as they develop is quick and exciting
In a very strange corner of the Märchen space opened by Lohengrin
a (sort of) song contest, no less
a singer's opera in the first person
dancing in the next room
July 19, 2020
Well of Salvation - H. C. Gatewood, (D.D.I.M.R.A.) [from Goodbye, Babylon]
a sung sermon is a collaborative endeavor
something deeper than mere collaboration, socially
psycho-theologically speaking
collaborating in tongues
sermonizing on the shoulders of the children of God
but it isn't what you think
what this is can't be thought
Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute, Volume 3 - Ottorino Respighi - Philharmonicia Hungarica, Antal Dorati
factoid: these are transcriptions
Respighi put his name on notes written by others
factoid: his work is to rescribe the notes to enable a different instrument to perform them
given: he did it well
but: in doing so, the social interaction among the notes has changed
the lute is a puppeteer's instrument: one brain many strings for multiple sound paths
transcribed: far more many brains brought to bear to imitate a single person's music
(it is refreshing that he refrained from gargantuating them)
a politics of a prior social order
a shade from the long dead
Piano Quartet in G minor - Johannes Brahms, orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle
same trick of transcription
though the kind of thing a Piano Quartet is, socially, is different than solo lute, as is a string orchestra (as in Respighi) different than the whole state-of-the-art symphony orchestra (as here), socially, politically
also however, an analysis
(going back to the Brahms that hadn't quite escaped his Romantic youth)
this has been said: Brahms's best symphony
may be that, but if so also: his best tone-poem, best opera, best ballet
such expanses
this has!
Circus Polka - Igor Stravinksy - London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas
thumbing his nose at Ravel's La Valse
No More, My Lord - Jimpson [from Goodbye, Babylon]
ax and voice root song
Structures pour deux pianos Book 1 - Pierre Boulez - Alfons Kontarsky, Aloys Kontarsky
how many?
how are we to be counting here then?
the piano is not treated as a percussion instrument, but as a synthesizer
things have now broken
Control Freak as French Beat Poet
this is a clinical environment
lots of fun though
fooled you!
now I didn't
School Days - Chuck Berry [from The Best of Chuck Berry]
ventriloquistical ad man
She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
be the most romantical sappy clown you can
don't forget to pronounce it all real country-like
Stan Freberg would eat this for breakfast
[ultra big fab fun factoid from Wikipedia: George Lucas interviewed Stan Freberg for the voice of C-3PO. Stan recommended Anthony Daniels]
24 Preludes (9 through 12) - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [from a recital in June 2009]
9 - rushed, but the idea is right
10 - without lingering more than is written - clearly a long cadence
11 - so clear!
12 - weird, man
Superstition - Stevie Wonder [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
pitch and weight tightly bolted together
so it won't shake loose
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") fragment - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [from a recital in May 1986]
Neal recites the Joyce passage inaudibly
I was obsessed with nearness
cuts off when the tape ran out
July 20, 2020
String Quartet 5 - Milton Babbitt [from Erik Carlson - Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]
stick with it
quite a ride
hop on anywhere
follow the lines
however you fancy
many paths are adequate
if you stick it out
even if inarticulable
Seeds - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded July 2010]
it is strange how the size of an idea is different: in the inventing mind, on the page, as performed
as invented: tiny, enclosed
on page: no more than a short line of staff
extended into performance: extremely varied but each significantly larger somehow than any of the expressions of it
these don't move outside of themselves
they circle around
like ideas do
Take This Ride - Ken Chambers [a Rescued Record]
set out the four square parameters
so that the game is clear
charisma, sadly, is a cruel mistress
Res Roll - Isaac E, John E, Holden K [ca. 1997]
some of our local young folks when much younger filling a tape
types of taps are demonstrated
with captions
Sometimes You Have To Keep Short - Anorak [a Rescued Record]
resists building into much
happy to assemble without a goal
happy to find
Through All the World Below - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded July 2015]
a hymn
hymn writing is a discipline
a melody that tracks the structure of the strophes
a harmony that stays out of the way
Hona Hai Kya - Ram Sampath [from Bollygood Volume 1]
money sounds like money
Figure Study - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [January 2017]
many fingers in several similar tempos
July 21, 2020
Fantasia, Fvb 2 - John Mundy - Claus Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
canon, fugue-oidal
is a species of Fantasia
the tune wanders through the voices
but isn't fixed
L'Orfeo, Act III - Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi - Ensemble La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina
all of our instruments are defective
where are the Krummhorns of yesteryear?
3 Bransles de la Torche - Michael Praetorius - New London Consort, Philip Pickett [from Dances from Terpsichore]
this music is for a social activity, not for itself
Courante Zimble in A minor - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
this music is for enjoying while playing and while listening to
to get inside of
not concerned with any greater architecture
Sonata in D minor - George Frideric Handel - Michala Petri, Keith Jarrett
like the curtains, the furniture, the dresses, all the costumery of social hierarchy
a certain tone must be maintained to demonstrate excellence of skill and taste
for long evenings
July 22, 2020
Douzieme Ordre (mi) - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
the ornaments trace a path or several
but there are others
the rolling hills of its more obvious melodic profile hides things
hidden fingers explore your pockets
there may be hierarchy among the voices
but they are of the same stuff
any, as a type of thing, could serve for or in any hierarchical capacity
and probably do
July 23, 2020
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band I, Prelude and Fugue in C minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
Prelude: the shape of the fiddly stuff morphs and the pointy stuff subsides
Fugue: legato kept away
Sonata in B-flat Major - Georg Philipp Telemann - Michala Petri, Elisabeth Selin
for good children
vast tracts of music of this era are, and were never thought by any to be more than, decorative entertainment for genteel elegance. Often interesting, but stuck, paralyzed
Sonata in A minor, Wq. 49/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi
for an audience of as few as possible
as each additional person would reshape, in totality, the sense of the music for each of the others
private, but not exclusive
the space it shares is too far interior, too intimate a room, to inhabit
we visit
Postscripts
sensory night length the spiritual
rare since this base manner lead lowly ex-
ercise turning back the time sweet john says
the cat sleeping on my ankles
the fox crisscrossing the field
my shadow on the down road
No comments:
Post a Comment