Preface
"Take physics. The science. What is theoretical discourse in physics? Is it 'the theory of physics'? Does physics actually have a theory? Of course it does. but does it? You might think physics doesn't have a theory because physics is a theory - that's what it is, a theory. And what it's a theory of is not physics; it's the physical universe. A theory about physics is not the theory which is physics. Same for sociologies, histories, psychologies, semiologies, musicologies: What they are are theories. So what about music: is music itself, as composed, as performed, as internally or externally heard, a theory, something ontologically theoretical?"
- Benjamin Boretz "Text: (for the Graduate Music forum at UCSD, 1/28/2003) Is Music Necessary?" from "Being About Music Textworks 1960-2003 J. K. Randall Benjamin Boretz Volume 2: 1978-2003"
Texts
Streaming
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/.
April 3, 2021
Dave Abramson
stable pulse baseline with other-measured gaps
clear even while twisting
around the pulse that doesn't budge
lightning in a jar
an attractive force
that increases
with distance
at least
at the allowed
scale
tunes the pace of
the rolls
each drum or cymbal having a unique voice
composing with sets of
voices in relation to each other
each voice further composed so as to be a clear
function within any particular set of voices
April 4, 2021
Slingshot - Jessica Lurie, Heather Bentley
conversational in structure
the participants retain integrity individually
its
argument proceeds methodically
without hurry but with full urgency
baseline
quivering
a background to all
its presence
Ur-hum
from which even the vertical
must come
vertical horizontal
graphic metaphor
can we hear
around its ubiquity
how clearly
the effect
that music notation on the page
(the fact of it)
has
upon how we understand
the experience of music
another scrim
grownup music intelligently played
April 3, 2021
From The Psalter - Milton Babbitt - Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, Lucy Shelton
transparent to the expression of its text
as thorny as it is
Consider the Birds 44 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 2007]
a layer
later assembled
with 43 other layers
to be a first study
in my Music
as Film project
thinking about fragments of sound
as though they were frames
of a film
show work
keep work
parts are pieces too
I was thinking and continue
to ponder on
the atomization of music
into notes
can one construct from atoms
that aren't notes?
October Rain - Robin Jackson and the Caravan [from dust diaries]
lines descend in the verses
chorus sets itself in multi directional lines
Banned Rehearsal 927 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 2017]
we find parts of a left bank cabaret tune
broken on the floor
the door is
operated
must be Neal
yes
and me on piano
probably
Aaron on the free reeds
yes
Karen and Steve operate the percussion and pluckers
five ways to articulate
and how they chatter
Joyce, James
edges in
but that left bank cabaret tune
is
still broken
the accompanimental agendi
are plotting amongst themselves
under
the radar
behind the curtain
here comes thunder
April 4, 2021
Robin, Fvb 15 - John Mundy - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the two short phrases
end solid
balancing a longer phrase
longer than the two short phrases together
but still balanced, whole
Mass for 4 Voices - William Byrd - Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summers
the text
Latin as it is
had meaning
the setting is centered on the perceiver
of the text
it is us
taking it in
as it speaks
to us
in its words
this music is a model of an ideal perception of a more perfect understanding
Symphony sacrae II "Herr unser Herrscher, wie herrlisch ist dein Name", Op. 10 #3 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
the fancy singing (ornate) somehow doesn't break the spell that binds the
singer and listener
nor our thoughts of wonder
Suite in D minor, BWV 233 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
the text is to be read carefully
mind the commentary
lines stop
separate
themselves
as articulated groups
polyserial
(orders matter)
April 6, 2021
Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Albert Schweitzer
there is some discussion in the current wind
concerning digital vs vinyl
measurable fact opinion: digital wins
||
gut reaction opinion: vinyl is
clearly superior
||
but ask: digital recording of vinyl playback?
perhaps the
vinyl champions choose so
because the image of the signal is actually
less clear
being obscured
forcing the mind's ear to fill in
what gets left
behind the medium's scrim
digital leaves nothing
(or less)
to the imagination
it is not necessary for the mind's ear to complete the sound received
because
that completion is never volitional
that and of course
each and every device
between signal and output
is unique
and distinguishing
on the fly
which
parts
of what one is hearing
are due to signal
and which parts to the devices
is best left for those with more money to spend on devices than I
the instrument parts enter first
in imitation
followed by the baritone vocal
also in imitation
as their equal
another created being
::
since these guys
weren't writing for posterity
they never worried
whether the ensemble they
wrote for
would ever exist again
the continuo was designed
to be realizable by
any of several commonly available possibilities
and even the obbligato
instruments could be interchanged to some extent
an ad hoc culture
What role
did the ascendancy of the fortepiano
as specialist
play
in ossifying the
concept of the orchestra
as a specifically populated ensemble
as it became through the 19th
Century?
Suite in E-flat Major - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi
helpfully he harps on the head of his harmonic elaboration
if this were a
sonata it would be a sonatina
Sonata in C minor, Kk. 116 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
baroque: one piece one affect
||
"classical": one piece multiple affects amplifying, or over articulating, a tonal schema
||
Scarlatti: where road and
rubber meet
Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:10 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim
as harpsichord lifted itself into a surrogate orchestra
demanding the
development of fortepiano
and hammerklavier
to handle what was rapidly
and clearly
becoming imaginable
Sonata in C Major, K. 309 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Lili Kraus
prodigal figurational imagination
each part of each phrase unique
to keep it
straight
as it reappears
in new tonal guise
nicely turned fake recapitulation
or was it
recap as part of the developmental elaboration
taking the repeat
would have worked well in this
would add a further
sleeve's
ace
up his
got an
to the mix
in 3rd movement
hearing the upbeat echoed in the heavy cadential
appoggiatura
Sonatina in F Major, Op. 36 #4 - Muzio Clementi
a sonatina asks
how much is necessary
to announce piecehood
image of a child
as a miniature adult
Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 30 #3 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy
begin with metrical obfuscation
pretend to clarify
repeat
so that we can
imagine
we have our proper bearings
2 opens with piano in the melodic lead
violin tracing an inner part
that outs an alternative harmonic implication
in
addition to the straight up harmonic whole in progress
April 7, 2021
Sonata in D Major, Op. 46 - Friedrich Kuhlau - Loredana Brigandi
polite, comfort food
Die Winterreise - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
for the pleasure of the tiny details
how the piano's voicing comments and
illuminates
exploiting its subtle potential
each song sufficient unto itself
contributing to
but not reliant upon all the others
nor on its place within a
sequence
music attempts a response to Romantic poetry
follows into the
dragon's twisted lair
though they remain complete
they seem less so
the
further in we are pulled
April 8, 2021
Sonata in C Major (#9) - Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Constance Keene
1
halting ascent
then in perfect control
a clown act
clown peril
2
refined
sorrow
see Balzac for a backstory
no reason to go into it
not here
none at all
everybody wants to be young
and Werther
and in despair
3
there's the clown car
at last
||
Shakespeare's clowns loosed the inappropriate into the Romantic
imagination?
dancing lightly
out the myriad corners
of some old ditty
Boris Godunov, Act IV, Scene 3 - Modest Mussorgsky - Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy, Semkow, Martti Talvela, Leonard Mroz, Nicolai Gedda, Bozena Kinasz, Andrzej Hiolski, Aage Haugland, Halina Lukomska, Polish Radio Chorus of Krakow, Boys Chorus from the Krakow Philharmonic Chorus
the wider world is about to intrude and it won't be pretty
rumor arrives
through the ecclesiastical news service
Latin? hm. geopolitics at work here
it
won't end well for anybody
Parsifal, Good Friday Spell - Richard Wagner - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz
wafts of sanctity spoiled
weary of resurrection
mired
sunk
Double Concerto, Op. 102 - Johannes Brahms - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma
echoes of those bi-manual variations in the Goldberg
how the soloists interact
often it is cello that leads and supports
pas de deux
fluid modality
first
step to the hard drugs of fluid tonality
odd episodes of unanswering responses
Nutcracker Excerpts, Track 1 - Piotr Ilyich Tchakovsky - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
orchestration study
Down Yonder In The Cornfield - The Diamond Four [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
vocal ensemble rhythm and tempo play with train whistle and bell
from 1897 no less
Pelleas et Melisande, Act III - Claude Debussy - Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, Charles Dutoit, Colette Alliot-Lugaz, Didier Henry, Gilles Cachemaille, Pierre Thau, Claudine Carlson, Francoise Golfier, Phillip Ens, Choeurs de l'OSM, Iwan Edward, Denise Masse
the playwrite seduces them with their own language
Debussy assists
in order to
make the music sensible
they must succumb
to think only 10 years separates this from the Nutcracker
ripples never tire
their baleful effect will be known
soon enough
April 9, 2021
3 Pieces, Op. 52 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
pitch set colors in
and creating
register sets
so that as the pitch set colors
shift they bring their registers with them
fluidly
see hard drugs above
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 - Arnold Schoenberg - Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg, Jan DeGaetani
woozy walzy
?: Sprechstimme is more like talking or reciting than straight up
singing is
but not so near to reciting as Neals' Finnegans Wake performances are
that it lines up with the music
sometimes clearly part of the music
other
times not so clearly part of the music
puts the two
reciting and singing
at
new odds with each other
as though the instrumental parts
were literally the
strings being manipulated by the puppet master
||
the ensemble
now eponymous
composed ad hocery
not so interchangeable as the baroque ad hoc ensembles
||
so back to the Sprechstimme
as being not completely embedded in the "music"
does it make it more difficult to hear the "music" of it
as it would be were it
straight up sung?
but the sense in which it isn't singing is subtle
it isn't
singing always
but mostly it is
and even when it isn't
it mostly is
confession: this is the first time I've listened to this
music on a slippery surface
A Civil War Memory - They Are There - Gregg Smith Singers [from The Great Sentimental Age]
gung ho for the soldier boys off to war what fun
Symphony in E minor, "Nordic" (#1) - Howard Hanson - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
springs from the womb fully fraught
with tender heart
there are alas no fjords
in the heartlands
how sad
nostalgic expatriotism
its a bit of a jumble though
a believer in themes
another poor soul
misled by Wagner
a series of unearned
moments
suitably charged for symphonic use
or burdened
look ma I'm a Symphony
now
even a bit of the old gung ho
as we vanquish the new land
ah the ancient
sadness of our ancestral home
really wants to do the Sibelius trick of tying
it all up in the end
but we're really just back where we started and still
haven't earned it
In Session at the Tintinabulary
April 5, 2021
Banned Telepath 74 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey
April 6, 2021
Banned Telepath 74 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt
Banned Telepath 74 Archives - from Banned Rehearsal 51 850901: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer; from Banned Rehearsal 204 900127: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt; from Banned Rehearsal 289 920327: John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt; from Banned Rehearsal 427 960622: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, John Hunter, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer; from Banned Rehearsal 454 970531: Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer; from Banned Rehearsal 1012 201019: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Banned Rehearsal 1023 - from Archives: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, John E, John Hunter, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer; from Tintinabulary: Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey; from Toad Hall: Aaron Keyt
I had asked the banned members to each provide a whole number between 1 and 1022. I then applied a formula (multiply by 17 then subtract 1022 as necessary to get a number between 1 and 1022) to those numbers and I then assembled a sound file from each of the Banned Rehearsals that were so numbered, which sound file I labeled Banned Telepath 74 Archives. Together with the sounds that Karen and I made on the 5th (Neal's phone ran out of charge at the inopportune moment) and the sounds that Aaron made on the 6th, this has become part of Banned Rehearsal 1023.
April 7, 2021
Work Architecture Unity And The - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey
I gave my 2002 piano piece another go.
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
thing is going to happen it is dark my
lord and I hear in rubber shoes twice
flashlight over I keep eyes awake a
Reality Check::
marionette being shaken
a cube stretch, dark
in the oblique sun
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