Preface
"Academe has two equal and opposite problems, both life-threatening, and together virtually terminal: academe cannot survive into the contemporary world and its contemporary predicaments without coming up with genuinely new ways of thinking; equally, academe (at least in its liberal-arts/humanities aspects) is structurally incapable of either engendering or supporting or even tolerating truly new ways of thinking."
- Benjamin Boretz "The Responsibility of the Arts in the Dialogue About Educational Reform" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
Streaming
October 23, 2020
Seattle Modern Orchestra - Julia Tai and Jérémy Jolley, Co-Artistic Directors
Clarinet Sonata - Edison Denisov - Deanna Briggs, clarinet
Air in G minor - Lou Harrison - Paul Taub, flute
The Moon and Sun Are Eternal Powers - Jarrad Powell - Paul Taub, flute
Simultaneously Solitary (Shendos No. 14) - Tom Baker - James Falzone, clarinet; Raymond Larsen, trumpet; Maria Ritzenthaler, viola; Abbey Blackwell, bass; Bonnie Whiting, percussion
In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams for Violin and Glockenspiel - Tyshawn Sorey - Eric Rynes, violin; Bonnie Whiting, percussion
Julia and Jérémy assembled a handful of Seattle's finest performers and presented an hour of flawless magic both in spite of and in recognition of these horrid times, secluded as we are from the simplest pleasures of playing music together. As always, the local composers, represented here by Tom Baker and Jarrad Powell, held their own just fine with their peers from elsewhere.
These are strange times indeed, when many of us, myself included, find ourselves suffering from emotional stresses of which we are often only dimly aware. Even in the past these can find sudden and unwitting outlet - music might move us to tears or leave us flabbergast and waste in a heap. One never really knows the whens or the hows nor the whats nor the whys. Last night I was moved - and I hesitate, here, to admit it, because I'll need to qualify it immediately - to unremitting fits of joyful and giddy hilarity. Was something about the concert funny? I suppose from a certain point of view I could point out aspects I could analyze that way - and some (by now ubiquitous) connection issues during the after gig chat certainly fed into it - Tom (and you know I love you dearly): you could get a side-gig going - think "Tom Headroom", just sayin' - but in the end my reaction was just that, mine, and its specifics had little to do with the specifics of what I was hearing or seeing. My best guess is that I was so happy at how well it was going and in how "all in" everybody was, that hilarity overcame me.
Be all that as it may, and on top of the spectacular performances all around, the show itself was put together with obvious love and care. SMO wears its institutional and professional aspirations proudly. When they do something they do it right, sharing it for us with joy and fervor. I loved the way the whole thing flowed, sound and video both - and I would like to extend my personal congratulations to the production team. Seeing and hearing five performers in five locations, hearing with each other in real time, arranged so beautifully on the screen, was deeply moving. Thank you all, you are part of what makes Seattle a blessed place.
Recorded
Creole Bells - Metropolitan Orchestra [from Allan Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
bandstand band
gets that piccolo calliope sound
that Stravinsky picked up a
few years later in Petrushka
Sonata, Op. 1 - Alban Berg - Alfred Brendel
some pushing and shoving going on between and among the various musics crowded into this counterpoint
one of them went sulking off
an opera scene
a brawl
some if it
in graceful slo mo
October 18, 2020
Jeux - Claude Debussy - Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg, Louis De Froment
cells that repeat
spans that don't
attention isn't drawn
obviously
to a larger
framework
but is held
within a few moments to either side
the sense of now is
narrow and mercurial
the repeating of a cell
is what defines
the cell
a
mesmeric trick
The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan - Charles Tomlinson Griffes - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
twice or thrice exotic:
francophilic treatment
of an English opium dream
of
the east
in the past
the purpose of this music is
to portray
to be about
something
to evoke images
and lead one through those images
as a docent might
Variations on a Noel - Marcel Dupre - David Di Fiore
in its close ties to architecture
building and instrument
are one and same
and because those buildings are for the most part liturgical spaces
organ music has been more closely related and tied to that music appropriate to Western Christian hymnody et al
this has limited the range of its repertoire
if the
medium is the message
then a large part of the message of organ music
has been
tied to the uses of sacred space
but darn it he plays well
youwza!
and no
other instrument
no ensemble
has the same capability of dissociating
meter
figuration
and voice
into regions of the room
Five Sacred Songs for voice and small ensemble - Anton Webern - Halina Lukomska
syllable to note correspondence keeps it atomic
if it's not a note it isn't a
part of music
Home Sweet Home - Frank Jenkins [from Allan Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
variations on a theme
in a pattern
marked by figuration
Just a Closer Walk With Thee - Stuart Hine - Prospect Choir
each beat
an accent
brings
out
the barbershop
Kind Hearted Woman Blues - Robert Johnson
casual consideration of the downbeat
held together by structural lyrics and
timbral echoes between guitar and voice
Four Norwegian Moods - Igor Stravinsky - New York Philharmonic, Igor Stravinsky
in which direction do these exotic pictures query?
east to west or west to east?
who commissioned this?
Violin Concerto in D - Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Willy Mattes, Ulf Hoelscher
come see the view from here
isn't it lovely
lifts itself to see
or steps up
then sinks back
into warm fine happy home
plays between scrubby scrubby violin
playing and singing singing violin playing
throw some sparkly dust around to make it
swoony
slow movement
I hear now how he echoes the sound of a violin within similar sounds in
the orchestra ties colors together
halo
scrubby finale ends 7 times over in quick succession
Night Train - Jimmy Forest [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the sax pitches lift into brightness
!honk! in your ear
train's air horn I
suppose
happy party sultry blues
Farther Up The Road - Bobby Bland [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
nearly a duplication of the ensemble in Night Train above if voice and sax could be counted as
Four French Songs - [unknown composer(s)] - Betty Eisenbrey, Ronnie Martin
from a private tape
I must presume she was practicing these at home when I was
little
so I've heard them before
but it has been some time since then
Everybody Loves a Winner - William Bell [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
arranged to perfection
back up singers are brilliant
Breakers Off Baranquilla - Lake Washington Singers
from a private tape
the layers of its (that prior tape's) former medial states as they push stop and go
off air in sequence
"...such words as it were vain to close..." - J. K. Randall - Lana Anikina Suran [from Open Space 40]
the logical and lyrical extremes of Debussyan clarity
Pastorale: The Color of Water - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded October 4, 2010]
we discuss slowed down prepping for the next major performance in Snohomish
we
talk about Gradus
I was using "my 'drothers"
Ain't Got You - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]
wooing the other
channel love
the subdued orchestration
probably didn't even
need
as much as he used
October 20, 2020
Banned Rehearsal 283 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Marilyn Meyer, William Meyer
we are in a small room together
a busy infant is making busy infant sounds
while
we strum bang pluck and blow
conversations cross intersect
and rebound in the
room
from in and from out of the room
volitional? and not so much?
resplendently
cruddy
when musicality is not a favored thing
neither input nor output
patience is required
musicality in some new form
may emerge someday
we finish
with Stein
a reading
October 21, 2020
Explosion! - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]
by the book maximum generic in your generic face corporate fabricated for genericness
F r AgMe Nt(s) - Marcus Oldham - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 11, 2007]
this was the last recording I made on the Yamaha 6' my folks bought for me in high school
Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]
his vocal is buried deeper in the mix than is his usual custom
as best I can
tell he's advertising the songishness of the song - not his best and only half finished at that
October 22, 2020
Sonata - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded April 12, 2014]
removing tonal function and leaving only what?
common tone relations?
or not
even that?
at least strong motivic gestural cross relations
the things that
are going on together
may have difficult relations between themselves
but they
are each
clearly
things going on
and it is together
that they are going on
I dropped a lot of notes
Ranjana Phillauri - Diljit Diosanjh [from Bollygood Volume 2]
reverse exoticism
or succumbing -
(I want a portmanteau for succumbing and subsumption)
- to the powers that pay?
evidence that the
sheer sound of pop is meaningless, empty.
the flavor of meaning only
#sincere
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 19, 2020
Banned Telepath 64 Lake City Messages - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Banned Telepath 64 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Banned Telepath 64 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt
Banned Rehearsal 1012 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Aaron played drum at Toad Hall, Anna and Neal phoned from Lake City while Karen and I were playing in the Tintinabulary. Anna and Neal had also left some long messages so we added those in also
Postscripts
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