Preface
"But can there actually be discourse outside the core ontological space of music, but still in a vibrant metaphorical dance with it? And can music actually be present in the ontological space of discourse, as transmuted perception, speculation, imagination? Were they possible, might not such incarnations be promising candidates for participants in an expansive, and expanding, world of thought and experience - in which music has its unique centricity, uniquely personified, expressly intellectual, holistically aesthetic, where music is any kind of work or play you actually need it to be, as only music can be?"
- 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 24, 2021
Gavin Borchert
19 Two-Part Inventions
start plain as day
keep it clear
latter day Scarlatti thoughts
(let us consider once again
the
distinct pleasure
of technical pitch composition)
post Bach
post Satie
(post Escher)
music as it might be
aware of itself
in building
what it
ever was
wanders far
into the tetrachordal latticework
placidly proceeding
no reason to get ahead of oneself
mind each step
do not
connect
the dots
collect nor
correct not
April 25, 2021
10 sound things
that start
and are
and stop
|
their stopping
and are-ing
and starting
occur in the
normative ordering
but that isn't the point
of any of them
|
question of and for my ear:
is there an ordering underlying
historical-repertoire metaphor
for how I put these together?
that
is
do I approach these
as being more like solo, chamber,
orchestral,
or something else?
rock band
jazz combo
or
somewhere situated between these
perhaps something like
chamber/rockband/jazzcombo
with each member metaphor
being
in determinate relative weightinesses
if this is what I do
why?
|
this one though
has a retro-Musique concrète appeal to it
(well, choral for sure)
|
DIY prog
a pretenseless tale
garblecast
sunny day evening glory land
Recorded
April 24, 2021
Hanna Won't You Open the Door - Sam McGee and Kirk McGee [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
melody and its elaborations
echo the text pattern
and its
elaborations
Na Pua - George Ku Trio [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
in addition to
and aside from
some fine guitar playing
those
falsetto harmonies
are crazy wild
Liza - Benny Goodman [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
upbeat intricacy
for happy club time
show offs
who else is
in the band?
(drums vibes & keys)
Gene Krupa
Lionel
Hampton
Teddy Wilson
Concerto, Op. 42 - Arnold Schoenberg - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini
the orchestra enters gradually as needed
its relationship to the piano
is personal
character driven
on the same stage
a domestic opera
how Mozartean in concept
eschews sparkle
1942 not having been a year with sparkles
existentialist Buster Keaton
playing Petrushka
in a narrow
globe
||
pitch sets constructed carefully
to be easily relatable
on the fly
to congrue
in action
how they congrue
can shape the greater shapes
Don't Blame Me - Lenny Tristano [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
a dancer on the fantastic trip light
April 25, 2021
Satisfied - Blue Ridge Quartet [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
Paul Simon did something based on a bit of this "gone at last"
crooner after the Sinatra pattern
or theme song to a fantasy romance
movie?
the backing vocals should have been Theremin
he missed a good trick
there
to beat The Beachboys to the punch
Searchin' - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology Volume 1]
creativity starting out as imitation
something like dues
overdoing
the overdone
for fun and profit
24 Preludes, 21 through 24 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [December 2020]
1 still too machine-y
2 opening motive needs more dynamic shape
3
a little shape wouldn't hurt this one either altogether too piously to the
score
4 this one's getting somewhere but could even be slower
Oh Girl - The Chi-Lites [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
instantly old-fashioned
strings and reverb heavy band
smooth
throughout
and through
puppy dog eyes
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [October 2000]
the faster tempi
as marked in the original published score
give a
higher
or more distant
viewpoint
its riverrun
more
ample
of a shape
this take has some note errors but otherwise is reasonable
work on
simultaneities
to make all of them exact
last part from the Chopin
section is good
missed the last dyad
curses on PPP dyads beastly
Aphrodisiac - Bow Wow Wow
wants its video and dance
Banned Rehearsal 110 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [January 1987]
opens with ominous hum
the cat remains
Neal graces amazement
surreal for real
so real
fur real
so far
sew fir
a Tpath combined
[NB: no, but with Neal's Amazing Grace tape on
the speakers]
nice guiro-ing
guitar scraping not a telepath more
like a playalong
clearly we are hearing this as it goes
thus does
the past
enter the present as commentary
FMaker
TeleFun
alternate tune-ing
tune shipping
tonal shipping
hymnody in its resplendent blatancy
all an album is = could be a
multimovement work
a solution exists
they is life in that old boy
arter awe
we play two hymns at once
how promiscuous
Distortionfarbenmelodien
improvisation can be composition
or
it might sometimes be analysis
Aaron and I discuss
hymnody as a
commentary
on Neal's hymnodic text
amazingly graceless remix
for production value
now with commentary
fine recorder
marginals
quodlibet by incarcerationally induced togetherness
take
a moment
think a moment
take a think a moment
think a take a
moment
apre(s) reap pare
guiro is winning
long distance
hymnodic wrestling
glorious bad sound
derived in the cruddy way
the true way
hymnody has breaths
clear points at which
bodily requirements
intrude
modulation between tunes
on a
pun of function
carp whistle
fipple flute
downright
amazin'
under the hood
the whole nest of metaphor
between
voice and wire
what exactly is it they have in common
a
subservience
to the arithmetics of the physical universe
flute
alone remains
and guitar string
||||
[from my journal entry of May 7, 1988]
a wall of grace
in self defense
an oboe
I hear a purple trout
April 26, 2021
Over Me - T-Bone Burnett [from The Criminal Under My Own Hat]
serviceable enough songwriting
not overborne by the arrangement
nothing remarkable about it musically
relies on words and delivery
Banned Rehearsal 444 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 1997]
we make attempts to reed
there are bells
no doubt one of our last
analog sessions
using Banned Rehearsal's
unpatented
direct
to cassette mastering
we plugged
we played
bodies move around the room
find sounds to play
cases open snap
closed
the boundary between advertent sounds and inadvertent
is
crossed freely
a beast bellows
fellow beasts bellow back
overdrive everything
a high din is strident in the land
not
for tender ears
30 minutes in it calms down
a little
he has
eaten the tuba
|||
digital recording would soon give us an option
for much greater transparency
the sound would be less crammed
we clang a suspended plow wheel blade
a truly lovely opening moment
a big sneeze
continues with ample
air around everything
wailing amplified saxophone
really beautiful
joined by trombone or cornet
what this is
is a grand piece
of orchestration
every sound in its place
each distinct
each
coloring the whole
to something quite other
building hugely
ala Shostakovich #7
to a big grand chorale march
then
reducing to toys
the little piano and organ
loosening up
say
scribbles
organ chords tentative
not moving forward against inner
resistance
if drumming continues it could be ruinous
but it appears to have been
momentary
not-moving-forwardness is continuing to wind us down
while finding new places to be
surrounding and re-clothing us
organ and toy piano
taking lead
great guitar entrance
flatfootedly oblique
almost Mozartean
and brings us back to
ourselves
could signal end of session
oh no
he has eaten the
tuba
beginning of new activity
we begin to play down to the baby
clearly the session has lost energy
too much rudimental rumpus
bells and cymbals stuff is pretty nice
once the drumming has
stopped
could pull a nice session out of this
something to monkey
with
[NB: I was beginning to transfer these to CD at the time and
briefly considered editing them down]
April 27, 2021
The Sound of Music - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]
from the songbook
with modestly flamboyant
extemporaneous
ornamentation
[NB: Glenn was a co-worker of mine for a couple of years.
My recollection is that he left Seattle in 2002 or so to work at a lounge on
the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A really nice guy, enthusiastic about the
music he was making.]
Consider the Birds Mix 08 - Keith Eisenbrey [2007]
I was constructing a piece
out of layers of chopped samples
in
doing so
I found
that each layer
and the various mixes of
layers
were fun to hear
so I kept them all
the improvisatory irregularity of the original sample* persists
even
through the mechanical regularity of the process
*recent Banned
Rehearsal sounds
burst speech
ambient in the sense
that any place is good to begin
at
and to end at
sound as a still picture
transparent depth
State of Grace - Taylor Swift [from Red]
calibrated vocal production
the lowest pitch she sings
is her go-to
for pulling us
into intimacy
Banned Rehearsal 928 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
a test upon interactivity
a self contained text spigot
addressed
to the monotonous imaginary future
impervious to interaction
(ahem)
text as such
is too loud to be musical
April 28, 2021
Galiarda, Fvb 17 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
if the perceived complexity of a moment
affects our perception of the
duration of that moment
however
and if
that perceived effect
is at odds
with the perceived durations
as any elsewise
perceived
a roundness
in duration space
arises
Symphony sacrae II "Der Herr ist meine Stärke", Op. 10 #5 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
an old use of the term symphony
vernacular sacred text
solo voice
with small ensemble
organ continuo
clear short highly individuated
bits of sung melody
Suite in G minor, BuxWV 242 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
roundnesses packed and nested
only now and again
does the meter
surface
best pay attention
Fughetta super "Nun Komm, der Heiden Hieland", BWV 699 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Michael Chapuis
short
for interstitial use
more open-faced than Buxtehude
more social gathering
than private
contemplation
it runs and frolics
graces and embroiders
it
earnestly edifies
it constructs upon itself
reaching and
stretching
it bides nervously
it gets some fresh air
Sonata in D Major, Kk 118 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
objects in hand
examined
upended into alternate modes
carefully replaced
April 29, 2021
Arioso with 20 Variations - Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi
on fortepiano
variations are a form of compositional thinking laid bare
in these CPEB shows a fondness for checking in with the original
at the cadence points
and the point
is partly to see how
crazy one can get
and still
clearly
not veer far
||
each generation* invents anew
while engaged in a quest to figure
out
what the prior generation was up to
*loosely defined
Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI:6 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim
on harpsichord
tiny dramas
on the harpsichord figuration and register composition
work their own
dynamic shapes
dynamic articulation figuration phrases
an urgent
need to amuse
Sonata in C Major, K. 309 (#7) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida
full of side comments
moves around the stage
one of those truly
hairy bears
of a slow movement
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
case in a large hotel and slight
exactly built cards careful not to draw
as we passed and trembled workman come out
Reality Check::
or specific rational value
heap deep jam rut
sob brain solo stride
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