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| Lake Louise - Mt. Rainier National Park |
"If I am irrevocably immured in some mindset, be it historical cultural or genetic, what use is the consciousness that this is so to me? Since - if it is indeed the case - the supposed self-awareness consequent on this consciousness must also be irrevocably, indiscernibly - and hence unsusceptibly to sentient self-reconstruction - so psychically imprisoned. So my freedom and my unfreedom are experientially indistinguishable, both experienceable purely as freedom and reality.
Such consciousness must itself be similarly immured and therefore disqualified as an external perspective."
- Benjamin Boretz - "3: (A Train of Thoughts)"
from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
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| Tatoosh Range - Mt. Rainier National Park |
November 19, 2021
Booty in da Pants - Dawn Angeliqué (Dawn Richard) [from Been A While]
a novelty song
along the lines of Party Lights
but with wholly
salacious lyrical content
quite clever and amusing.
Symphony in C minor (#3) - Florence Price - The Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séquin
first blush
bouncing between Wagner and early Ives
fragmented like
Sibelius
so
I suppose
in the Post-Romantic National Prestige
school of symphonists
veers off into Americana
though a different one
than Ives' or
Copland's
full of strange disjunctures
the American-Music-is-what-Dvorak-dictated-it-should-be camp
a dead end
but it was something
for those who indulged
and a good bit of Gershwin
in how it goes together
from tune to
tune
(not a happily chosen model, honestly)
one imagines
that any kind of prestige
for a black woman
in
this field
was a delicate accommodation
Composition No. 6F - Anthony Braxton - Anthony Braxton, George Lewis
trombone and baritone sax
have a lively tussle
vocabularies of performance practices
detail level
ground up
not
structure level
filled in
AB switches to clarinet
Stu and Bill?
then to soprano
(I
think)
sax
I suppose
if you put a trombone on stage
there will be clowning
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| Tatoosh Range - Mt. Rainier National Park |
November 19, 2021
The Seattle Modern Orchestra - Dissociation
Julia Tai, conductor and co-artistic director; Jérémy Jolley, co-artistic director
WANG LU - Ryan and Dan (2017)
MARISOL JIMÉNEZ - Yiríya aiteiya (2017)
KALEY LANE EATON - Dissociation, or Self-Portrait (2020)
MARISOL JIMÉNEZ - Bestiario Onírico III – Ciudadela – (2009)
FAUSTO ROMITELLI - Professor Bad Trip, Lesson I (1998)
make your hair grow backwards
it is lit
but it is low
so
cool
so low
so hip
across the pond
from scratch
relation theater
between
the conductor pattern beat
and the
beat
that one hears
seven lights visible
at top of image screen
have performers
ever
felt so vulnerable
music is not the universal language,
rather,
like language,
it has sects
we are in the midst
of a music-linguistic insurrection
I find
myself
on the old side
willy nilly
this music went around
the long way
there is a new music
a new language
I speak old
the old
beast sounds
the stage floor is purple
Great job folks! Another Seattle win.
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| Castle Peak and Pinnacle Peak - Mt. Rainier National Park |
November 13, 2021
Spagnioletta, Fvb 54 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
counterpoint the cantus firmus
with elegance and style
also
play pattern games
with the figurations
with those
counterpoints
Die Wohltemperierte Clavier, Prelude and Fugue in F Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
the fat piano sound
doesn't do the Prelude any great favors
we'll
do the fugue
for a bit
with this face
then with this face
nope
just kidding
Sonata in F-sharp minor, Kk. 142 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
a quirky place to live
dark and winding
but with a lovely garden
out back
with sunshine
good luck
finding it again
Kurze und Leichte Klavierstücke, Presto in C minor, Wq. 114/3 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
a water feature
flows across
varied rockscape textures
makes
ripple rhythms
Sonata in C minor, Op. 10 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Stephen Kovacevich
1
the drama on stage moves along quickly
after the impatient part
that opens each segment
the mood shifts
suddenly peaceful
(never lasts)
but the difference
between the keys
feels different
each time
2
echoing
that sudden peacefulness
we are now in the land of
calm
oh WHY!???
(the music cries)
will it not last?
(in jazz a soloist
might drift free of the beat
of the swing
but will suddenly find themselves
back to it
like-wise
here
but metrical)
3
here the meter is a major character
in what happens
and
now
starring as
The Meter
is that ever playful star
of stage and screen:
Cut Time
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
makes a clear distinction
between the fancy part
right hand mostly
and the workaday support part
it's a policy
mischiefless
a melody to remember in your heart
Etude in A-flat Major, Op. 10 #10 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [1933]
the motion
between the quick alternation
high and low
in the
figuration
makes an effect
like an old peepshow animation
as
though one can glimpse
a rounded image
within it
November 14, 2021
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister - Cotton Pickers [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
the melody sits in parts
on each of its chords
the motion
from chord to chord
is clear and square
occasionally
negotiated
with what would be formulaic cadential figures
if these
were cadences
which they aren't
Honey in the Rock - Blind Mamie Forehand - [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
the changes are understood
at depth
it can be flexible
and
still clear
the melody and lyrics
are tethered with an elastic
leash
Down in Arkansas - Pickard Family [from Evans 78s]
chord-change construction
useful for oral transmission of songs
and for establishing
a shareable culture of music
plain to
both performers
and audience
this track has some awesome noise to
it
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
the sense of the song
is negotiated
between the lyrical rhetoric
and
the chord change/melodic rhetoric
here
song
is a different mode of saying
and the poetry
is designed
with singing
as an essential part
of what it is
I'll Always Love You Just the Same - Charlie Parker (Charlie Parker (as); Clyde Hart (p); Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes (g & vocal); Jimmy Butts (b); Harold "Doc" West (d)) [from The complete Savoy and Dial Masters]
who's the singer?
{NB I found out, see above}
the pianist and Mr.
Parker
are conversing with each other
and commenting on the song
in progress
Mozartean
Please Say You Want Me - The Schoolboys [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the backups
finish the singer's thoughts
slow dance
at the
sock hop
Party Lights - Claudine Clark [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
teen life drama
incandescing
mashed potato
too
I wanna
go
Road Runner - The Ventures [from Walk Don't Run]
professional industrial musicians
making a valiant stand
for
guitar playing prowess
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]
and of course
it cuts
out
right after
Billy
Shears
little joke there
Space Oddity - David Bowie [from Space Oddity]
scifi
becomes rock and roll
very much
a post-Beatles
composition
and production
London
comes to visit
comes
unwound
Glad to See You Go - The Ramones [from Leave Home]
stripping down
spitting back
a rootwardseeking
retrenchment
The New World - X [from More Fun in the New World]
country punk
or semi-urban punk
different roots
than the
Ramones sought
November 15, 2021
Assembly Rechoired 13 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [January 17, 1987]
artificial legs kalimba
reading from some Beat thing or other
timid on the highway
at smalltown
from the lunchcart
with a frayed rope
home through America
the kalimba
continues
text:
only partially intelligible
not
declaimed
nor lifted
into public expression mode
no stage
just the tape
kalimba ritornell
sounds like Ginsberg
free space for causeless bliss
little bell
not sure how I
was getting the reverb
on the kalimba
some amplified resonator
or other
lost to memory
perhaps
played through the
Speaker of the House
Capriccio - Berthold Goldschmidt - Kolja Lessing
a duet for solo violin?
quite lovely
November 16, 2021
Banned Rehearsal 456 - Pete Comley, Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 14, 1997]
Pete came over
probably with Fritz the Binaural Microphone
to
record us
on DAT
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
it may have been about this time
that we considered the possibility
of making a CD
the first step
was to switch
to digital
recording
these early tests
whetted my appetite
for a DAT of
my own
with the transparence of their sound
twiddling radio dials
an early source
of fragmented electronica
also needed
a computer
with an optical ready sound card
which was a
whole other adventure
and probably not worth the trouble
for our
modest purposes
{from my journal entry of February 24, 2005:
as it settles down
a sense of delicate
almost magical
faerie
interplay among sounds
from different universes
an intimate
gathering
of inter-galactic comrades
one can't help but wish
that the balance were better
too much piano
probably too
much guitar
the topic has become a disturbance
requiring action
a night street scene
not unfriendly
just quite a different
population
sound in here
has a luscious warm richness about it
after serious action
the fog rolls in
and we descend
to the harbor
with its quiet tide
end
Ainu 2 - Benjamin Boretz - Benjamin Boretz [from Open Space 47]
we are here
| now |
with this
and
this is here
|
now |
with us
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
the smallest moments of sound files
fragmented past the point of
recognition
of source device
for all
but a few sounds
the xylophone attacks
get through
it doesn't take much for
them
Saints - St. Paul de Vence [from St. Paul de Vence]
concerning war
as a moral disaster
that falls upon us
agency-less
Distracted Driver - Your Mother Should Know (St. Rage) [Demo of February 23, 2017]
running a zoom meeting . . . ?
For Two Virginals, Fvb 55 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo
I'm not sure who plays the other virginal
there is little sense of
needing to round things off
phrases end with the cadence
it's a
point of organization
the piece is over
so it stops
what you
are left with
is what it was
Die Wohltemperierte Clavier, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
the Prelude is itself
of course
an abstract
of the Prelude
and Fugue project
as a whole:
a flourish
followed by a
contrapuntal web
and then
the two combined
to show how free
the preludes are
they can contain anything
including fuguey bits
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 143 - Domenico Scarlatti - Jan-Pieter Belder
obsessed
with how the pieces fit together
more than
with
what
they might fit together
as:
a true inventor
Kurze und Leichte Klavierstücke, Minuet in G Major, Wq. 114/4 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
balance and taste
and elegantly hosieried calves
Sonata in D Major, Op. 28 (Pastorale) - Ludwig van Beethoven - HJ Lim
where thoughts have room to breathe
last movement is quite Scarlattic
Etude in F minor, Op. 10 #9 - Frédéric Chopin - Cecile Licad
discusses itself
with itself
full of admonishments
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
My Soul Is A Witness - Florida Normal and Industrial Institute Quartet [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
word witness
and song
evidence of a root
of many branches
blues
I presume
included
Muddy Water - Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
money went into this
amazing sound for 1927
After You've Gone - Art Tatum [from Classic Early Solos]
glittered with crystal and light
Mound Bayou - Helen Humes, P. Brown [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
waitin' for the tide to take it home
once more
she pronounces
bayou
near to bah'oo
Keep Me In Mind- Peggy Lee [from The Complete Recordings 1941 - 1947]
Peggy Lee was presumably hired to give Benny Goodman a break
now and
then
love the little uptempo
phone ringing
in the orchestra
non-literal
could also be
Berlioz's beating heart motif
thubba thubba
Holsten Valley Breakdown - Ronnie Knittel and the Holsten Valley Ramblers [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
clarity of the chord changes
in tight control
anybody can sit in
banjo and fiddle
with rhythm strings
Violin Concerto - Benjamin Boretz - The Eastman Composers' Orchestra, Geoff Pope, Charles Castleman [from Open Space 27]
1
negotiating a dark world
un-prefiguring
violin exists
orchestra
as such
probably not
unlikely
every
corner alien-odd
the orchestra
is not a character
it is a
devious world
the violin
is confronted
by a noir-shadow
house
of costumed chamber ensembles
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| Mt. Rainier National Park |
now it is night
||
solo is a thread within
not a character
any more than
the orchestra is
||
no special status
is afforded the solo
within
any particular stretch
||
it isn't an equal
of the orchestra
it is an equal
of each instrument
in the orchestra
which
itself
is never a whole
but always
a corporate endeavor
||
that is not a hero
||
certainly not the singer
||
the Mink Snopes role?
||
i.e. structurally not poetically
3
it is
possibly
now
morning
un-personifiable
beyond the moment
the "actor"
in
Holy Motors
chameleonic?
crucially
there is not plot
only event
and repurcussion
November 18, 2021
Koolan Du - The Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [April 10, 1962]
something from South Pacific
or like provenance?
Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles [from Magical Mystery Tour]
self-advertisement
a clever play
television theme song
putters off
Crocodile Rock - Elton John [from the single b/w Elderberry Wine]
this one stuck with me
from when I first started listening
to top
hundred AM radio
at the age of 13 or 14
already being inculcated
with the notion
that the music
had some sort of history
pre-60s
pre-me
Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 1977]
clean
bright
unvaryingly so
both hiply cognizant of history
and pushing out of the common tropes
on the common tropes
I
been to college
smartest man around
the non-stick decade
 |
| Mt. Rainier National Park |
a Christmas gift
from the proto-band
in Seattle
to me
at Bard
though
it may have been sent to find me
in
Malabar, Florida,
where I was
visiting AW for the holidays
and January.
raw material
we were all
before we had a project of focus
we
tended to noodle
and then decide
to rock and roll
which
fizzles
several times
Aaron is the first to read
from
Finnegans Wake
sort of
folded into
language ,as a music
and other texts
Eliot for one
and Campion
(Tom , Tom)
a jumble
Where The Streets Have No Name - U2 [from Joshua Tree]
but
where first tracks
on self-important albums
sound like
they were designed
by the book
running roughshod
over
any hope
the song might
actually
get to grow
to be a
real song
his insufferableness
basking in his own sincerity
Psalm 23 takes - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer
I was working on a setting of Psalm 23
in which the Psalm
would be
read simply
and somehow
be mixed
with some clavichord
variations/bits
the plainer the better
between takes
a bit
of A Cat's Life snuck in
I was under the mistaken impression
that the microphones
were picking up conversation
from the
next room
Sonata in D Major - Johann Christian Bach - Philharmonia Virtuosi [from Musical Evenings with The Captain]
fashion was the thing
style and taste
above all
music
to be successful
then
was required to reflect well
upon its patrons
any novelty
must be
in good taste
or risk
dismissal
flattery
is the be all
and end
all
of patron music
Do The Weedy Weedy at the Bop - Keith Eisenbrey
a drollery I made up in the late 90s
to amuse the kids in the car
now in glorious midi
worth the whole 30 seconds it takes.
the words were
Do the Weedy Weedy at the Bop /
Bop! /
Do the Weedy Weedy at the
Bop /
Bop! /
Do the Weedy Weedy at the Bop /
Bop! /
Do
the Weedy Weedy at the Bop /
Bop! /
Do the Weedy Weedy /
Do
the Weedy Weedy /
Do the Weedy Weedy at the Bop /
Bop!
you can sing along
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| Ravenna Park, Seattle |
now that
there
is how to open an album
make a song
a
song
and sing it
as a song
You Don't Miss Your Water - Your Mother Should Know [live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
the cover
starts with a lecture
No Sense in a Slow Death - The Maldives [from Mad Lives]
metrical differentiation
down strum
up strum
weary defeat
tempo
at least
it doesn't try to make it
an #album #opener
In Session at the Tintinabulary
November 15, 2021
Gradus 375 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
registers and realms
orbital paths
packetwaves of gravitatronal
pitch speak
change of rung
change of lens
change of filter
we look here
we peer there
we observe
the pitch scape
as though frozen
prior to music's appearance
November 17, 2021
Ravenna Park - Keith Eisenbrey
I took a walk in the park
to record the stream.
I also caught a
Parks Department vehicle going by and,
under the 20th Avenue foot
bridge,
a young man with long hair
and a blonde ukulele
singing a song
to the birds
and to me
quite nicely too
a friendly baritone voice
that reminded me of Ian Grunfeld's
of The Humidiflyers
one of those Seattle magic moments
November 19, 2021
Two-Part Invention in B-flat - Gavin Borchert
Another one.
Hope to post these last two soon.
Special Mention
Much of my musical energy during the first year of the Pandemic went into producing this virtual recital of recent solo piano music by my long-time collaborator, Aaron Keyt, and by me. There are 9 reels total in the playlist, ranging from 10 to 20 minutes or so each, the whole stretching for just under 2 hours. I am quite pleased with the results, especially with how well I manage to illuminate the extraordinary "in-your-presence-alone" intimacy of Aaron's compositional voice.
Postscripts
::Consult the Oracle
conductor that after I suppose well
don't know which by the bye what I naturally
inquired but if perhaps nor yet but
Reality Check::
(today is not it)
no rules apply
just sit there
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