Preface
"Had we been on the West Coast (I speak only for myself) it would probably have been John Cage; because Milton [Babbitt] and Cage were the two composers of the previous generation who totally and organically embodied a total revolution in musical expression - as against the 'modernism' of incremental radicalization and subversion of musical surfaces overlying a fundamental continuity with tradition. Their new music was not a new way of doing music, not a way of being 'modern'; it was an entirely new sense of what music was, what it was doing, what it was for, why you did it."
- Benjamin Boretz - "A Quasi-Personal Reflection on Milton Babbitt's Centenary and its Celebrations" from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
Streaming
September 18, 2021
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 5 - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer
a head
in a dark space
a thousand and one voices
misremembered
specifically that they said
what they said
a polyhedron of scripture
one stable somebody
yes less
punctuation as specialty
the improbable
the inevitable
and the words have been jumbled into the rhythm of sense
this will
never do
that ideal reader
suffering from an ideal insomnia
the fretful fidget
the third person
is the person darkly
spoken of
these paper wounds
 |
| Star Anna and her guitar |
Star Anna
And there she was
channeling the blues
from a green room
in
what I presume
is her home
blessed us
with an awesome cover
of Space Oddity
as well as a strong selection of original songs
From Recent Arrivals
September 19, 2021
Rocker - Miles Davis [from Birth of the Cool]
holding fast to singability
This Is Always - Morgana King [from This Is Always]
fascinating ping high in the mouth cavity
with a luscious deepness to it
extraordinary suppleness and precision
slow dance tempo
I
like her drummer
Save Me - Nina Simone [from Silk & Soul]
right in the funk
whole
projecting an image of careless relaxation
tells a rather elaborate story
I Love to Love - Peggy Lee [from I Like Men! (Remastered)]
50s version of I Like 'Em Big and Stupid
Recorded
September 18, 2021
Feeling My Way - Eddie Lang, Carl Kress [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
shaped partly like a Broadway show tune
lots of parts worked out fully
fancy guitar playing
Ramblin' On My Mind - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
throws the train whistle in there
with announcement
There Won't Be a Shortage of Love - Peggy Lee [from The Complete Recordings 1941 - 1947]
music for social relaxation
classy
comforting
without rough
edges
settles for competence
which it has in spades
Irene - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night? - Lead Belly Legacy Volume 1]
the chorus with which it opens
has no particular relatedness to the
verses
nor they to each other
Octet for Wind Instruments - Igor Stravinsky - Columbia Chamber Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky
the second trumpet note
provides the nudge
in how it looks back
at
both
the first trumpet note
and
the fiddly
bit
between them
basic research
into how repetitions
and groupings
in all sorts of parameters
can bounce around
an ensemble
a model for group communication
and information
sharing
understated audience friendly ending
in the sense
that he's not begging for an ovation
ta da!
just pausing
so that we can begin to converse
Love Is Strange - Micky & Sylvia [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
confession: I have this track in several different collections
including
a 7 inch 33 1/3 rock and roll hits from the 50s platter
can't go
wrong with all those cowbells
Piano Concerto - Samuel Barber - Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, John Browning
1
opens with solo passage:
the piano acting the orchestra's
role
since Beethoven, the piano solo has attempted to be a second
orchestra,
battle armor on,
equal
rather than a selected
part of it
this goes that route
contrast Mozart concerti
where the soloist emerges
from within the orchestra
|| the
sound of this reminds me of Zemlinsky and Roussel, both.
has the
American habit of grinding his tune in repetitiously
more so we hear that
he's doing it
than in order to make each one a progression from the last
|| the piano is trying to put the orchestra back in the original
packaging
has to chase parts of it
all over the room
2
this is a lovely garden
if it's real
it has the charisma of something long vanished
what is it nostalgic
about
there's the rub
3
back into the battle
I like the xylophone entrance
sounds
like the piano is hiding inside it
this movement is fun
the piano
and orchestra playing hide and seek
more duel with swords
than
battle with artillery
the piano writing is quite good
uh oh
get
ready to applaud
Treatise (Excerpt) - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
thunder added by the outside world
fits right in
this is really
pretty
with cymbal screech
If You Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
half singing
half declaiming
a pleading
with the
repetitiousness of a simmering dispute
September 21, 2021
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 25, 2002]
it is possible that I am not in a right head space
for this performance
but the opening pages
seem confused
as though I'm reciting
something
phonetically
without the flow that understanding brings
feeling my way into it
playing rather than inhabiting
Born In the USA - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
reflexive indicting time
we leave traces
Gradus 4 (San Diego Series) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 14, 1987]
factoid concerning this San Diego Series of Gradus:
they were made on 10
consecutive days,
January 11 through 20, 1987.
even so
if he had kept that going
he would not be close
to
how "far along"
he has gotten
by "skipping ahead"
and would
not get there
in many lifetimes.
I heard there is a piano manufacturer pushing for a 108 key piano.
found rhythm
between the original signal
encoded magnetically
upon the ghost imprints
of that signal
on what I presume are
the blanker portions of tape
that lay atop
or underneath it
on the cassette reel
Gamelange - Elaine Barkin - UCLA Gamelaners [from Open Space 34]
for harp and Balinese/Javanese gamelan band
reversing a common trope
the exotic imported
here
the import
is the Western
instrument
as stand-in
for the Western trained and wide open
earmind
imported into a different sound world
no pretense being
made
that this is anything but that
a creative earmind reporting
what it heard
(it isn't making traditional western music either)
September 22, 2021
Banned Rehearsal 451 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 12, 1997]
clarinet guitar piano and various percussions in chamber symphony mode
(it was Elaine Barkin who called us (correctly) on that)
my desire
is to not be coerced
into a single track
a singular meaning
a monolithical narrative
I desire release
from coercion
(in this context)
(I'm more OK with being charmed or beguiled or invited or delighted)
but I desire a looser polyamory of voices
free to float
this session is largely affirming of that stance
a righteous rumble
as
I believe
the Mighty Wurlitzer enters the mix
a solid inhabitable mass
dense with intonation
I'm pretty sure that's me playing piano
which is a cheat I suppose
I do refrain from fancy fingerwork
stick to fancy thinking
at a spacious pace
{{from my journal entry of November 30, 2004}}:
clarinet starts off more solo-like in this one
we are orchestrating
again
a danger is in playing as though pretending we know what we are
doing
clarinet is problematic why?
because it is so blasted
difficult to make it sound good
and most of its bad sounds
aren't
very malleable
piano being noisy spiky
some of the agendas here
are aggressively pushing toward
what?
toward a high tight in
your face sound
drumming calms us down
several factions here are
not gelling
guitar and clarinet and piano playing
a music
drum playing another music
bitsy percussion playing a lot
as
though that might keep up with all this sound
piano plays a big chorale
things seem to [be] straightening themselves out
after snare drums
goes away
bass drum begins
the ungelling forces gather again
but the ungelling becomes an active image of itself
fragmented
the gelled faction
more unhinged from its music
metal
rolling against itself
falling into a moment of warm butter
from the session before
but not settling right in the groove
kick drum centers
grounds the ensemble
always settling back
into something
very like music but not quite
some faction or other
is always subversive of regular music
settling down
and thus it
remains lively
because whatever we are constructing
we must always
be re-designing the foundation of it
to account for the eternal nibbling
of the percussion rodents
the piano chorale insists
though all
spiritual possibility
for it has vanished
foundations
chewed
away
we are here
even Isaac
in the upper bell pitch region
and re-surmise our fundament
drone tone
the vocal weakens
[the whole] somewhat
[NB: I disagree now]
but may not kill the
session
this last big is OK
but lacks the energy of that opening
stuff
[NB possibly, but I doubt it]
we decidedly calm down bide
our time
grandma grab the bourbon - The Weapon [a Rescued Record]
music minus one?
song without song?
a demo for the bass player
starts nowhere in particular
and stays put trapped
Consider the Birds 41 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
melody exists
because we seek it out
melody and
our desire
for melody
are one and same
Catfish - Waxahatchee [from American Weekend]
isolated memory unresolvable
no more than absolute
We had tickets to hear Waxahatchee at the Neptune for shortly after the 2020 shutdown. The concert was delayed until this month at the Moore, but we were not yet ready to spend that much time indoors with that many people, precautions or not. I'm sorry though we didn't get to hear her again.
Banned Rehearsal 929 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [assembled from Banned Telepaths 54, February 13 & 15, 2017]
given that speech is coercive on its face
and declaimed speech doubly so
my feeling is that I mixed this well
lots of double reed to
compete
the sound as a whole is grand
each strike glows
from
whereverwhence it hath come upon us
In the doing of Banned Rehearsal
I find myself concerned (overly?)
that every sound I touch is cliché
every movement a habit
listening back
this is not an issue
pretty much ever
It can be so easy to be elsewhere
anxiety forces us out of our present
Praeludium, Fvb 43 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
in which: a multitude of ways are discovered to send internal voices in opposite directions
Symphoniae Sacrae II, Op. 10 #21 "Herr, neige deine Himmel und fahr herab" - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
duet for basso and basso profundo
energy can spill over into ensuing
moments
internal picardian cadences
Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
finding some of John Bull's opposite directions
but with intent to go
somewhere
clear from the start
the picard at the end feels right
a resolution not a jarring surprise happy ending
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 133 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
glitters erupt
his figures point at locations within the motor
each pointed location
tilts the torso
Sonata in E Major, Wq. 62.17 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklos Spanyi
a thoughtful Allegro gives it time to be very clear in all its moments
a
quiet mind in a quiet mood
balance games interrupted by disbalance games
will we find our way out?
ever?
Fantasia in C Major, Hob. XVII:4 - Franz Joseph Hayden - Christine Schornsheim
the nonseqs go by so fast you almost don't hear what just happened
they
sneak in under cover of motoric propulsion
FJH feeling his oats
Symphony in D Major, K. 385(385) with March K. 408 #2 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Japp Schroder, Christopher Hogwood
the march opens with a great drum roll
I want one
and prefigures
the big octave leaps
that open the traditional first movement
dynamic contrasts can also sound like force reductions
concertante
it is my understanding that it was customary at that time
to play
other pieces
vocal solos, etc.
between the movements
that
the symphony was a filler
for the real show
was there a standard
sort of piece that would be played
after the first movement?
after
an andante?
after a menuet?
the concept of symphony arose out of another practice
Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 31 #3 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Artur Schnabel
out of virtually nothing
so jolly
except the moments when it's
terrifying
some parts get back to the key
before others do
some overshoot
keep getting slapped back into line
Artur
sure is in a hurry for this one
September 24, 2021
Etude in F minor, Op. 10 #9 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [recorded 1942]
tune on offbeats
that lean over a precipice
we teeter
shift
weight
drunk clumsy
Selection 13 from Selections from The Nutcracker - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
pretty nice sounding celeste
I wonder how many takes it took before they
got all the notes to speak?
That Lovin' Traumeri - Al Jolson [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
love the cymbal hit
nothing subtle about it
whap!
I'm trying not to imagine that he must be in blackface
but then is this
an aural/linguistic/music-rhetorical equivalent?
he does have an interesting voice
Sam - Husk O'Hare [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
jazz as weaponized racial caricature
are we black
we'll be black
right up in your face
and teach you to like it
pump organ and spoons!
on washboard?
Lafayette - Bennie Moten - [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
opening piano chords are in a different character from the piece proper
like as in a cantor's gloria in excelsis deo in traditional
masses
the dance floor spins and careers
Cumberland Mountains - Carson Robison Trio [from Evans 78s]
sentimentalize the home turf while on the road
having left a home
was
and is
a common trope
and reality
whistling!! in harmony!!
The Way You Look Tonight - Peggy Lee [from The Complete Recordings 1941 - 1947]
bell kit?
with soft mallets,
but might be a celeste or the upper
reaches of a vibraphone
text (we presume)
written from the 'male' point of view
she sells
it
and thus it could be read as some other point of view entirely
humming harmony with the horns
Music for Orchestra - Irving Fine - Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Joel Spiegelman
wonderfully pleasant music
smarter than he seems to be at first
the parts all fit and move
to join the other parts
but in a
mix of size
each just exactly the size it needs
no more
the
Stravinksy influence is clear
but doesn't intrude
the sun shines
here
and the evenings are soft and open
Even Wild Horses - Harry Partch - Gate5 Ensemble
it seems almost simplistically gimcrack
but that's a synthetic illusion
these sounds
are the sounds of things
solid things
you can feel their weight and texture
in the sound they make
the things they are
were made exactly for that purpose
French?
how did that language find its way to these sounds?
myth in the real
Toccata - Paul Creston - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz
this piece is designed to show off the orchestra
like a costume they can
parade around in
made to order
first piece on a symphony concert
where the Rossini overture goes
before the concerto
but a
mini-symphony all on its own
new material arrives
rather than
arising from the present
the condensed Concerto for Orchestra
(oh
its baleful influence!)
In Session at the Tintinabulary
September 20, 2021
Gradus 371 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
given --> a complex sonority:
(harmonically) (registrally):
Is the default scheme for comprehension hierarchical,
or is there
are there
(an)other path(s)?
do we (if we do)
construct the hierarchy from something more basic?
(we must)
(which means)
we could invent and choose.
A movable center
(now, as it is)
includes all that has passed
exactly
to the extent it matters
to the now that is
Neal plays "A" then plays "B"
both hang in there in resonant space
so that we hear the decays of both at once
During that time
when we are hearing both decays at once
do we continue to order them?
why?
for how long?
Listening experiment:
(start anywhere)
pick a note
focus on its decay
and on how its decay hangs in there
as
other notes and decays accumulate upon it
When it has gone
utterly
then
do the same with the first sound following
that is melody
repetitions of sounds
and alterations of sound-pairs
make this a
very interesting compositional activity
melody is a structure
composed by listeners
on the spot
extemporary
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
kind of shutters down for yesterday the
golden pestles and mortars fixed as signs
upon the sun-blind frames outside them
Reality Check::
the corridor
in tinted eyes
one day the osprey
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