Preface
"The first thing that both inspired and scared me about experientially directed thinking - about music and other expressive transactions- was that its action was essentially attributive - that it created what it looked at and listened to, by looking at and listening to it, in just the particular ways it did those things, through the particular receiving-filters those acts automatically created, as even the most innocent-seeming, passive denoting term creates attributes of what it denotes, like, say, "major triad", or, "adulteress". The way I understood it, the configuration of perceptual filters whose interaction with incoming sonic stimuli (or mentalized sonic stimuli) create the perceived phenomena for "music", are the "theory" of a given music-perceptual enaction. The temporally evolving act of "thinking in music" constitutes the simultaneous ongoing creation and music-entity-productive action of a fluid but determinate set of syntactic mindwarps which at any juncture could be described as determining, for every possible soundthing, the range of music-meaning things it could be, and the configurational geography of possible music-relational things which any set of sound-things could be."
- Benjamin Boretz "Experiences With No Names" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
Streamed
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/.
August 22, 2020
Marguerite Brown
Cycle Pieces 2020
bow-on-string-like sounds
does one rub, scrape, or pull and/or push a bow?
(drawing a bow hints at weaponry)
like blowing, bowing involves moment by
moment care
attention to surface
let's keep it small, within the temple
friendly to breathing
friendly to quiet
standing on a solid surface
comfort instruments: banjo, zither
August 23, 2020
Jason E. Anderson
Dermaptera
barn sounds
the critters chatter
the wind blows some sounds in
but others grew
up here.
Some are the flexing of barnboard to the elements
sunbeams light up
sound motes
quacks and croaks
motes made of quacks and croaks
other inside
spaces find their way into this inside space
it becomes a large 3D image
projector
establishing communication with the space aliens
all of them
everywhere
rock a bye barn on the prairie seas
(a bestiary)
these raindrops are
talking to us
this must be the landing craft
::
it all stops
except the
insects in the distance
it is still and it sounds still.
not silent.
still.
August 25, 2020
MANtrio (Melanie Sehman, Sarah Yates, Sage Romey)
public face private face
into which we have been let,
once through the
formalities.
they follow their sound admirably, patiently, expansively.
music
for each other,
and for us as them,
listening and following.
so patient.
Recorded
August 22, 2020
My Home - Antonín Dvořák - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Neumann
making a name for ones culture
is (here) a thing to be proud of
wears its Nation on its sleeve
Ariettes oubliées - Claude Debussy - Frederica von Stade, Martin Kaz
meanwhile, Dubussy doesn't look back
no question what he is doing
at the top
of civilization
we'll just forge ahead without getting mired in learnedness
reflects other art
not self art
what moves below the surface is crystal clear
and unobscured
no need to dive further
what's below will arise
Sonata in F minor, op. 6 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo
comes on like a perfumed Hammerklavier Sonata
better dressed too
latest
fashion
Liszt he must have heard and is telling you all about it
(what I heard the other night at the
last recital)
shoulda been there
he catches himself looking at himself,
not
narcissus-like
but with curiosity,
self inspection,
analysis.
does not float
it seeps in
creeps upon,
inveigles.
La Ronde des Lutins - Antonio Bazzini - Itzhak Perlman, Janet Goodman
Guggenheim
to astound and amaze and amuse and please and to strut
fleet of bow
gives the resin a workout
August 23, 2020
Symphony in C-sharp minor (#5) - Gustav Mahler - New York Philharmonic - Zubin Mehta
I!
Present :!:!
My: self
the tortured self
Hi Death Hi Def (HD!)
ourentirecultureisadeathcult
howdy, death,
death, howdy
but they have such shiny digital faces! oh little subtle death!
a Re-Romanticized Manfred! so
CUTE!!!!!!
don't look.
shut your eyes.
it's over.
always the slave:
Petrushka poor soul
such a nice chap too.
-[[those chord
changes! take fucking heed!]]
even the little internal movements [[[[[I love
that word]]]]]
are alive with it
the least known of the five no doubt the Most CRUCIAL. FULL STOP.
lost in madness
MadfreDeathCult
is that us?
does he think
that that
is who we are?
My God.
my god.
Here's the between innings squad
o how cheery!
[dressed like skeletons]
{artifacts from my then failing cd ripper may need to purchase troubles me.}
Even WE WARN of -> it <- the dire ||
(all this dancing won't help)
But
I'm the hero!
being the hero means dying.
Still See! See Still!!
!Still
the tweeninningssquad
ffllooaattiinngg
from nowhere to nowhere
going on
call that going
are we here yet?
call that on
is this on?
not on
it
goes on
each cow milking morning
every day another existential
[cr is
is]
get over it
it goes on
Make Space preparAtions are UNDERGONE
on
going PREPARATION going on
g{o}i{n}g
gig
{on}
we'll pull the whole team together
ONE LAST TIME
(sorry not that time)
YES!!
but then they leave
shut the book quick while you're still in a good mood.
think on it all later
August 25, 2020
Quartet in F-sharp minor, op. 10 (#2) - Arnold Schoenberg - New Vienna Quartet, Evelyn Lear
the question of key and tonal center and the completion of
a tonality driven
pitch set movement:
its internal motions are forced by the shapes of its pitch
bits.
the flavor of those shapes is the real key.
Veritables Preludes Flasques - Erik Satie - Frank Glazer
like Babbitt, they ask to be regarded more closely, at leisure, in print.
String Quartet, op. 17 (#2) - Béla Bartók - Juilliard String Quartet
starting here
a sequence of starting heres
we really try to open this jar.
the
nut remains uncracked.
the room is always dark, windows crammed with curtains.
no matter, always gray anyway.
one must confront to proceed.
August 26, 2020
Variations on a Noel - Marcel Dupré - David Di Fiore [from The Cathedral Organ Collection - live recital from St Martin Metropolitan Cathedral Bratislava, August 28th, 2013]
each variation discovers a new dislocation
grasps after the theme in each
to remember where it is one is sitting
a life raft is thrown
in all but a few
the tune is clearly recognizable
even when stretched or bent.
Bless This House - Prospect Choir, Kia Sams
modestly set
Three Songs - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Schönberg Ensemble, Lucy Shelton
"Rat Riddle": the motions of its body
"Prayers of Steel": the tempos don't cooperate, the beat on each other
"In Tall Grass": seen through multiples, for maximum discomfort
Symphony in D Major, op. 47 (#5) - Dmitri Shostakovich - Berliner Philharmoniker, Semyon Bychkov
1. depression and rage neither gets us anywhere we want to go we will be
beaten down.
2. semi-comic relief
3. the long waiting night waiting and hiding
4. eventual triumph rammed down all the throats at once
August 27, 2020
Dust of Snow / The Rose Family - Elliott Carter - Jan DeGaetani, Gilbert Kalish
vehemently un-profound in all possible ways
{from Journal of August 22, 1995: simple, clever, witty- just a hair over middle-brow - entertaining up-front}
Symphony, op. 112 (#4 revised 1947 version) - Sergei Prokofiev - Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi
turning aside within.
what is it we are not allowed to see?
aesthetic of
hidden avoidance.
The Soviets sure did support the grandiose.
(and the efforts
of many).
pile it on.
just steer around it.
(oh, don't mention it.)
it's a bit like as if a piano concerto might have dropped by here once.
four movements
because:
Haydn by way of Beethoven by way of Tchaikovsky,
which counts as
traditional somehow.
no matter what the movements are
of number it is fixed.
immovable.
given.
Variation format is serial baring,
going naked without
showing all
(at once)
a big piece avoids itself for 38 minutes
{from Journal of August 18, 2004: lazy galumphing, almost like Elgar, bearing a complex relationship to the luminous: Energico: a series of portraits - tune areas, like character studies in an opera - later a wild outdoorsy feel, almost Western - I presume in Russia, this is an Eastern. opens like Copland}
Concertato "Moby Dick" - Peter Mennin - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
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I called my Moby Dick piece "Symphony" after the chapter title, or so I said at the time.
Johnny Came Lately Nationalism.
nothing stands out.
reams of
muscular
good enough
all brassed up.
for pity's sake don't lift the bow, air might get in.
Love Letters in the Sand - Pat Boone [a Rescued Record]
greeting card sentimental produced with money.
(skillful whistling though!)
In Session at the Tintinabulary
August 24, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 1008 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
we gather, Karen and me on the porch, Steve nearby in a chair, Neal by phone from Outpost Lake City
August 25, 2020
Music for Wallace Book 3 - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey
August 26, 2020
Chorale 03 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey
August 27, 2020
Music for Wallace Book 3 - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey
August 28, 2020
Chorale 03a - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey
I am slowly recording the pieces I had intended to recite this Fall.
Postscripts
