Preface
"Our survivals depend on one another's. Trouble begins the moment you try to
persuade me (and thereby yourself) that our struggle is my struggle
too; or even - especially even- when you try to persuade us both that
mine is yours too. And yet, of course they are. And yet, that's never
what we're addressing when we're operating the institutionalized ideology that
they are: the spiral of incoherence is perpetual: Self-assertion is the
problem; self-assertion is the only means we have available by way of which to
attempt a solution. the problem is, obviously, insoluble; also inescapable."
- 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
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/.
July 25, 2020
Haruko Crow Nishimura - Witness Tree
A low quiet drone tone
acts as a membrane
upon which intonations rub
like bows.
What could be done
were the sound box of a violin
located in the soul of string and bow?
O HO OO HOO HW HOWW
(OO: located in the forward mouth cavity)
(H: located just behind the mouth cavity)
rhymes with the intake of breath
July 26, 2020
Bryan Lineberry and Gregg Miller (cover art by Anjali Grant)
after deferment
catch up on news
then get with the space
the birds and the going by goers going by
having a nice sit down in a park
to chat
July 28, 2020
Christian Pincock and John O'Brien
where am I?
here in this?
whose is my role here?
confirmation of in-ness?
improvisation done well
to a fault?
this music has discernible features like music does and cool cred
does music as an expert does music
what does it invite?
admiration?
every corner it turns leads to every other corner it could turn
a texture of music
like lighting
Recorded
July 25, 2020
Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI.es.3 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine
Schornsheim
The fortepiano recaptures and amplifies the weight and speed of the players
arms.
The protagonist of the last movement is always in a rush.
This family is loosely articulated, ramshackle.
Haydn (if this is Haydn) says "hey guys check out what I just got music to do!"
dampers up (off)
stock figures
play with the play of sequence
Symphony in G Major, K. 124(124) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of
Ancient Music, Jaap Schröder, Christopher Hogwood
plays a game with his repeating things
a repeating things game
like calling a square dance
even the learned fugal is lyricized
Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 8#2 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
beyond loud and soft
Modulations wait until the last note or two of the phrase before they
manifest. We don't have time to consider the modulation before we've already
moved up-key or down or out.
July 26, 2020
Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 7 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Wilhelm Kempff
pillars of accentuated sonorities
their patterns mark our place
our hold on overheard time
within the repeated part of the repeat taken (thank you for repeating)
first measure:
in being a thing repeated it is a different object to then consider
2nd movement hollows out underneath
is now hollowed out
empty
full here
empty there
3rd movement moves toward public
worry intrudes gently
4th movement a pleasant morning
all the neighbors greet you
in their way
(some drama is being stirred to rebellion in their coffee shop)
Symphony in C Major, D944 (D849) - Franz Schubert - San Francisco Symphony,
Herbert Blomstedt
imagine that you are the viola part
personified as the perceptor
has a way with finding the darkest possible path
but just as suddenly the brightest
up from above zero two three type
stops to check on everything
everything
even the trash collection
everything
hence its expanse
a message from the past
dire but instructive
sequences beyond reckoning
number is playing with the linguistic numeric limit
not playing with rhythm
playing with time
he intends us to lose count
that's his game
Has Hell ever been so openly exposed as here? Such anguish!
knowing we would need comfort: so accept it in the spirit offered
sense of humor
c'mon fella snap out of it
melody appears again
always there ready to seep up through
a call to arms!
Symphony in B minor (#10) - Felix Mendelssohn - English Bach Festival
Orchestra, William Boughton
This one is fun.
Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. posth. - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin
a bit of a Chico Marx thing going on here
Davidsbündlertänze - Robert Schumann - Wilhelm Kempff
The secret handshake
the high sign
brave enough to nearly lose himself
The figurations within the main melody that shift the harmony have their own
trajectory set.
such particular cadences
ever on to the new!
whatever it is will be completely drawn
we will not go on til it is done
but then we suddenly will be on
never look back
adult swim Carnaval
inside and outside
disporting themselves
July 30, 2020
Grande Messe de Morts - Hector Berlioz - London Symphony Orchestra, London
Philharmonic Choir, Colin Davis, Barry Banks
Where am I?
Here?
I am in a large room with a multitude
sight-lines are obscured
the connection between any particular sound-making person
and me
is severed
a gulf is opened between us
the vocal parts are not all in the same place
simultaneity has come unglued
slipped
disaligned
the same language is not spoken here
[this is a live recording, with sadly flattened dynamics, otherwise interesting]
In Session at the Tintinabulary
July 27, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 1006 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
We gathered as best we could, Karen and me on the porch, Aaron on a chair in
the yard. Aaron brought bells. Karen brought a dulcimer. I brought a pestle in
a tin.
Postscripts
holy spirit are in me so father
art in be the world sent by
communicating work the substantial
***
redwing blackbird on a bare tree top
deer at the end of the field
the pen is painfully blue
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