Preface
"Full sail, I voyage
Over the boundless ocean, and I tell you
Nothing
is permanent in all the world.
All things are fluent; every image
forms,
Wandering through change. Time is itself a river
In constant
movement, and the hours flow by
Like water, wave on wave, pursued,
pursuing,
forever fugitive, forever new."
- Ovid "Metamorphoses" (translated by Rolfe Humphries)
Texts
Recorded
August 28, 2021
Pulcinella Ballet Suite - Igor Stravinsky - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky
introducing the whole happy family
slow and heavy
grumpy uncle
passels of youthful cousins
making daisy chains
playing tag
cheerful hosts
the grand march of burgers to the grill
gramma and grampa
holding court
on the porch
ponderous
old dotters
fishing at the dock
spinning old tales
M.
Pompous
formerly of the dragoons
benignified avunculars
entered the church
fireworks at the end
after campfire
skits on the beach
thems with nice clothes
can dance inside
I'm In the Mood for Love - Doris Day [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
a voice similar to Peggy Lee's
but with an interesting
almost
nasal resonance in the mouth shape at low volume
the barest hint of a
Billie Holiday altoish ping
I'm Lookin' For Someone to Love - Buddy Holly and The Crickets
the disjuncture in singing style
between the
oh so deferential
Crickets
and the no apologies charisma of Buddy
has a disarming
charm to it
how bad a boy can he be
if he has such nice young men
in his band
sound of an amp
an excuse to trade licks
Memories of You - Thelonius Monk [from Standards]
what is the blues note thing he does
a grace note ornament
falling
in the cracks
between played ahead of the beat
and played exactly
on the beat
struck with a much lighter weight behind it
than the
main note
as though he could selectively relax an individual finger's
muscles
with extreme differentiation and quickness
also or "or"
a something between an accent and an ornament
a pitched accent
I love how we can hear the clunks his piano makes when releasing the
dampers
Many Rivers to Cross - Jimmy Cliff [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
sung straight and pure
a thing of beauty is a joy for now or ever
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [October 11, 2000]
My tempo here is still slightly on the slow side
(from what is marked in
the Lingua Press edition)
but the care shows the distinct intent of each
dyad
analytical insight:
the gradual addition of pitch classes
joins
the gradual increase in interval content
among both the simultaneous
dyads
and the adjacent dyads of the outer voices' lines
and the
cross-voice lines
and of the same
as delineators of segments
and sizes of sets between those said interval set structure
markers
one presumes coming to maximal content
in the first part of the Chopin
section
before the left hand alternating dyads
while the right
hand descends to join it
an excellent recording were it not for some unfortunate misfires here and there
I surmise that the interval mix
in the last few pages would be an
interesting comparison
to that of the first few
the singular
unpaired
final dyad
to match
the first
dyad
before the second dyad's
entrance
unique
in their
singularity
Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
overlapping
simultaneous
rhythmic speech
polyvoice persona
sci-fying you
machined music
like mechanical orchestras of the ragtime era
each sound is made by a different mechanism,
the plethora of which mechanisms
is an image in its own right
August 29, 2021
My Dinner with Wallace - Aaron Keyt, Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey
immovable
rooted
buffeted but steady
these musics are not
about the flow of time
they are concerned with the image of now
ponderous boulders
Aaron's especially
occupies its now
rocks
trees
sky
and water
wind
Gradus 2 (San Diego Series) - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 1987]
a desert can seem desolate and featureless
this one sports some
artifacts of the mechanism of its recording and storage and transfer
but
even so
deserts are not without detail and particulars
it is not
exactly flat
nor is the footing uniformly secure
there may be
ghosts
certainly shadows
shades
who comment
with
mechanical memory
on
mechanical memory
there is a common concern
that a pianist hearing themself play
is
privy to certain details of the sound
that are not audible to another
listener
this is a type of alienation (#1)
this is true to some
range of extents
depending on circumstances
but the pianist is
also
and more pertinently
privy to a whole hive of thoughts and
assorted neural activities
specific to
and physical maneuvers
attendant upon
that pianist's unique role in the activity
another alienation (#2)
the first alienation
can be mitigated by physical proximity
the second
is
I think
insurmountable
except
partially
by means of identity association
empathy
by which
part of the listener's experience of listening
is the imaginative
identification
with the activity of playing
this may be why some
like to watch musicians while they play
amplification
and recording also
so alter the experience
that empathic identification may simply be out of reach
overwhelmed
by either sheer amplitude and attendant loss of
presence
or by confusion of the instrument's sound
with the
loudspeaker's reproduction of it
neither do amplification
or
recording
help with the raw sound
since all they do is replace the
actual sound
with an ersatz
it still isn't the same sound the
pianist heard
it can't be
Excerpt from String Symphony #4 2nd Movement - Felix Mendelssohn [from Meditations for a Quiet Night]
at least I presume Mendelssohn
recorded to glow
Banned Rehearsal 449 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 29, 1997]
lots of noise in this one
a real roar
it turns itself up
quite
I yells
when is desire at odds with image
finds
a space in the last 10 minutes
after calming down some
our later
cassette tape sound isn't easy to hang with
{{from my journal entry of November 24, 2004}} ::
Gentle opening. piano, clarinet, drums - Isaacsquak, guitar - focusing into a single pitch A-flat (flute) sharp sounds spark off that quiet A-flat. Sparks cause a minor conflagration. Is this a bit too easy? conventional? fill the sound hole all the way up. Piano player tries a Cecil Taylor imitation. What makes the Beethoven late-sonata figurational insanity so powerful is that we are forced to hear the whole distance covered, how the crazy is just [a] logical extension of the perfectly palatable material [material behind it]. Just going for the crazy up-front doesn't have the same impact. It is too easily classified as steady-state norm. We keep focusing on single pitches (me on piano? I'm not so sure, perhaps Neal) And we keep trying, and failing, to get some energy going. When trombone begins, and Isaac squalls, the sound is better, but still kind of stuck, marking time. but then . . . improving? Will it hold? trombone as the key. piano is left behind- we have a drum, trombone, guitar, & organ (sustained chords - funmaker chords) we articulate a slowly roiling discord. And thins into a focus. really becomes quite fine- in spite of Isaac's protest. Isaac has a genuine fuss. Which may, unless something really great comes up, be as good a closing spot as any. The sound deconstruction - redisconfigures. Aaron goes vocal off in a corner.
Imposition - Tom Swafford - Ryan Hare [from Intrada]
a discussion is negotiated with stubborn vehemence
Consider the Birds 27 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
a pulse with fluctuating content
it is weird to occasionally hear an
actual wood click attack envelope
recognizable as such
within the
pulses
which otherwise sound unplaceable
Elementorna basen - Stanislav Surin [from 10 Songs]
anthemic Slovak art-pop?
a strange thing indeed.
on first blush I
have trouble figuring out how or where to place this
a film?
heartfeltedly sincere
in a way that just doesn't wash on these
shores
Chorales - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded during the summer of 2020]
These are the versions included in My Dinner with Wallace.
Aaron
mentioned voice-leading in his notes,
and indeed that is one way I
considered these to be performable
- any set of voices could be played
'alone',
i.e., just alto and bass, or just alto and tenor, or STB, etc.
or more arcane paths could be plotted, hopping among voice sets.
The chorale tunes were chosen (from the Bach-Reimenschneider collection) for their internal and infra-nal variety of syllabic phrase lengths. I am pleased and amused at how my perverse harmonizations and the tonal implications of the melody seem to fit together just fine.
Assertion makes its own sense,
which is,
it expresses the image of
sense having been made.
I only transposed one tune from its Reimenschneider key
so that my
interval scheme would fit on the keyboard
Pavana, Fvb 39 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
amazing how a single pitch can completely flip the ongoing sense of something
Symphoniae Sacrae II, Op. 10 #17 "Wie ein Rubin in feinem Golde leuchtet" - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
an apropos simile for the way he sets texts
also the assumption
that the trappings of wealth
are similar to inner worth
in
some manner
(wealth, being assertion, makes its own sense)
Auf meinem lieben Gott in E minor, BuxWV 179 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
and variations upon
his sense of proportionality is unique
nothing lasts longer than it
ought
and we are often left wondering what just happened
Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp Major (Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band 1) - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
He does not hurry
he takes every step
even when there is a lot of
material to cover
he proceeds logically
he goes out of his way
over and over
to demonstrate
just how good he is at this
September 2, 2021
Sonata in A-flat Major, Kk. 130 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
sizes of shapes
measured as phrases
L'Auguste, Wq. 117/22 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi
six beats
divided 2 2 2
each 2
distinctly figured
is
enough to allow
certainly enough
so we forget
who might be so august,
or
that it's September already
Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob. XVI:45 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim
performed on clavichord
tempi at which elaboration accretes
the
clearing enough of the slate to continue
the elaborations add themselves
a motor to keep it moving along
lacework tableau
sometimes
he lifts the lid
so we can see what just happened
all those tiny
stitches
Rondo in D Major, K. 382 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, Malcolm Bilson
an exact repeat
what of it
several in fact
pay attention
back again
after a short break
but this time
with the
soloist picking up where the repeat would go
the minore entrance
certainly changes the lighting
and now a lovely evening on the
veranda
and now in 3
for your dancing pleasure
with cadenza
back once again to our music box
then tutti
so we all can
applaud
1
taDA interruptus
it seethes headlong
the Allegro con brio
is a continuation
not an arrival
it must have been confusing for the first listeners
in terms of how the
focus moves from instrument group to instrument group
without a by your
leave
apotheosis of exhilaration
2
grace without the slo mo underlines
worry intrudes
we're
in over our heads
3
pillow fight!
4
various beatnik-nerves in colored lights
he orchestrated the way
we have to imagine he played piano
something new every moment
a
bit hyper honestly
circus crazy
Etude in G-flat Major, Op. 10 #7 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [recorded 1942]
Queen Mab
it's in that key
if he says so
I guess
or
rather
it's in that key
because it just is,
not because he
ever so much as establishes it
Selection 9 from Selections from The Nutcracker - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
those flutes duetting over pizzicatto strings
novelty at any cost
we are an empire after all
In The Alley - The Gregg Smith Singers [from The Great Sentimental Age]
the sorrows of unrequitednessitude
Poor Mourner - The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet [from Allen Lowe's Really the Blues]
there's that
I thought I heard that chicken sneeze
line
again
did the Dinwiddies throw that in every song?
more
tempos than there are meters in Schütz.
Sonata #7 "The White Mass" - Alexander Scriabin - Michal Ponti
everything comes apart here
including you
whoosh!
September 3, 2021
St. Louis Blues - Ciro's ____ Club Orchestra [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
lively,
singer only just audible
lots of banjo
no chorus in
grind tempo
as in other versions
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 1 (side 2) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 26, 1988]
kippers on a griddle
finn is a fish?
does Finn have fins?
outside in echoland
two white moths flutterdance together in
confusion
as to which might be which at any moment,
momentarily
speaking
after deluge
please stoop
miscegenations
on
miscegenations
old head in clouds
meander tall tale
infra rational senses
the day of dread
a bone
a pebble
String Quartet #3 - Arnold Schoenberg - The New Vienna String Quartet
1
figures flap vigorously among the boxes and stings
big yawning
chatter incessant
we'll remember how reasonable we were
2
we pleasure at following paths of footfalls
graceful they once
were
sadly fallen now
studied the rhythmic canon
in all its
strettofications
3
disapproving asides
cast as persians
we
donotapproveofthings
we decry
4
set to
they's work to do
we'll sing to pass the time
figuration canon
In Session at the Tintinabulary
August 30, 2021
Banned Rehearsal 1033 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Neal and I share free reed mouth harp space while Aaron waxes eloquent on portable toy piano and Karen plays viola and rock and bone.
Probably our last porch session for the year, unless the weather in a couple of weeks is particularly fine. It was getting a bit chilly, and will be even darker by mid September
September 1, 2021
Lament for Sarah - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey
I've had the score for this 1990 composition of Ben's on my piano desk for several months and finally felt ready to see where my reading of it has gotten to. I am quite pleased, though I'll probably give it another few attempts, why not? I love how it, as a piece, is immovable, though it is clear that something implacable is passing through it.
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
a heavy-footed dance and always a
table always drunker I'll take you home
all right but even her she stays still
Reality Check::
drifting away on a seaweed covered surfboard
through his left hand as orange
the cat sleeping on my ankles
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