"'My friend Mr. Snodgrass has a great taste for poetry,' replied Mr.
Pickwick.
'So has Mrs. Leo Hunter, sir. She dotes on poetry, sir. She
adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined
with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have
met with her "Ode to an expiring Frog," sir.'
'I don't think I have,'
said Mr. Pickwick.
'You astonish me, sir,' said Mr. Leo Hunter. 'It
created an immense sensation. It was signed with an "L" and eight stars, and
appeared originally in a Lady's Magazine. It commenced --
"Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
can
I unmoved see thee dying
On a log,
Expiring frog!"'
'Beautiful!' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Fine,' said Mr. Leo Hunter, 'so
simple.'
'Very,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'The next verse is still more
touching. Shall I repeat it?'
'If you please,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'It runs thus,' said the grave man, still more gravely.
"Say, have fiends in shape of boys
With wild halloo, and brutal noise,
Hunted
thee from marshy joys,
With a dog,
Expiring frog!"'"
Charles Dickens - The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
Texts
Recorded
Freight Train Blues - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
face pressed tight to the surface of the song
tight pressed into every
pore
Backlash Blues - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]
singing from within
rather than desperate to enter
Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby) - Aretha Franklin [from Young Gifted and Black]
breaks into the blue sky
only to fade
commercial song as single
motion vector
a part to place within a set or album
rather than a
rounded off completion
The Secret Life of Arabia - David Bowie [from Heroes]
the fascination with the 1001 Nights
fantasizing the fantastic
into the fantasy realms
of an imagined fantasy
Hymn of Christian Joy - Gordon Young - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]
religious branding
inflicted upon baroque fan-fiction
doesn't
improve the experience
All That Heaven Will Allow - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]
a plea
to the powers that be
seems curtailed as a song though
half a thought
Snake Baked a Hoecake - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
uses a piano counterpoint
that I suspect was at least based on Ruth
Crawford's arrangement
got stuck on the fourth A up
our cues of completion
of restart
of continuing
are all inscribed
on the signal
by the
ear
in an image of an agent
that produces the signal
which
image
includes
a template
for thoughts
such as we might
expect
such an agent
to be projecting thereupon
so
what it comes down to
is our desire
as to what
inscriptions we wish to make
upon the experienced signal
and
the amount of control
any of us may have
in that regard
or
the worth of the experience
might be the content
of
what listening
to through or against it
is able to reveal of
ourselves
of otherwise unavailable aspects of ourselves
do we have it within ourselves
to listen innocent to our past
inscriptions
would there be a reason to do so
or to attempt it
or
would we be necessarily hijacked unawares
better perhaps
to take our past as a given
but
to question it on all points
The Big One - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]
locally
a reference to the prognosticated major earthquake along the
Seattle fault
it's happened before
so there is no reason to
suppose it won't repeat someday
tomorrow or in many hundreds of years
proximity within temporal flow
sequence within temporal flow
both
strong determinants of grouping
but
which can group differently
thus eliciting multiplex times
and floating plastic geometries
to accommodate them
why is it forward
that we say time goes?
the metaphor is based on
our personal mode of going
to the extent time goes
exactly
at all
surely it goes in a
strictly timewise manner
if time continues to go
why is it still here?
has it ever been
here?
did we miss it ?
music as a tool we grasp to seize a common time
Track 2 - Arbor Towers [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
wheels in wheels
cyclic alignment and flux
counting within
counting
Banned Rehearsal 1057 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 15, 2022]
sound produced by an object existing physically within an environment
is
inevitably permeated
by the acoustic properties of its location within
that environment
sound produced by a signal through a speaker
also
but
the
signal producing that sound
as such
is not the signal of the sound
it is impervious to
or opaque to
that acoustic environment
in which the sound we hear is heard
verbalization within such a
signal
is even worse
the verbal content is opaque to
transformation
personal fact
I would rather hear a drum or flute
than a speaker
producing a recording of a drum or flute
the drum is a different sound
than a flute
in a way that the sounds of them produced on a speaker
are the same
the transparence of layers of production
is crucial
the fewer
layers the better
the more present to the present occasion
it isn't just the loss of information and addition of noise
Mort, tu es navré - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe
a song set on top of another
lines spill over their ends
fill the
reservoir
and spill over the stanzas
separated by ample space
no reason
dramatically
to move on
no reason
dramatically
not to go on
we go on
without reason
Corranto, Fvb. 203 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
momentum spills over
into accompaniment
at phrase ends
Sonata in D minor, Kk. 213 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
austere
paired with ornate
partake
a moment
spun
together
Sonata in F Major, Op. 10 #2 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda
1
the big structural cadences
are a place to get to
through
thick and thin
opens by interrupting polite conversation
plays the am-I-repeating-or-not game
will we ever adventure to a
conclusive cadence?
2
the upsurging
rounds into melody
as it emerges into a new
timbre
3
builds until it can hold no more
then bursts
again again
again and again
fluids hemmed by outbursts
carefully diverted
led to partly
shadowed lands
bends past the hill
into pleasantness
but
finish in shadow
S.O.L. Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
clarinet brakes the tempo
romantic/economic partnership
in it for
the bucks
taunt
kiss off
Three Pieces for Choir: The Composers Forum Laboratory - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey
comic
sort of
were it not
so wicked
If I Were You - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia ]
without apparent fancy singing
relies on the expression of saying
Bluebird - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
wordplay
a bebop hiphop connection
A Fool For You - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]
overtelling it like it is
Sweet Little Sixteen - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings Volume 1]
presumably the original took a while to get to England
so that The
Beatles could imitate it
make it big
and feed it back to us
Sunny - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
nightclub orchestration
for the more sophisticated crowd
such as
might be hanging out in Vegas
and other such watering holes
Half Moon - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]
fill me like the sea
takes it at quite a clip
so that the
drift-off at the end spreads out over the flats
Musical Activity in Mexico - Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Amirkhanian [from Conlon Nancarrow Speaks with Charles Amirkhanian]
getting rid of the performer
an idea of this generation's time
long before midi made it accessible to the masses
Let X=X - Laurie Anderson [from Big Science]
a series of flat-toned empty-ish stray statements
who is this for?
the too cool for school?
the aspirationally hip?
Banned Telepath 12 D.C. - Aaron Keyt [August 9, 1987]
stubborn doors shouldered open
stay open dammit
find a location
make its noise
wander away
repeat
its obsession
its return
one part static
another mobile as
accompaniment
and tune
sweep it away
chase the bats out
fill the glass with happy bubbles
fill the sink
the tub
the whole pool
static states
vamping patter
a bell in the distance
chimes
patterns can change into a new pattern
or as complexity increases
can reveal forms from within their workings
extruding noodles
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Ralph Vaughan-Williams - English String Orchestra, William Boughton [from Meditations for a Quiet Night]
exoticism of the pious past
lush it up
keep the fire going
effuse at intervals
more legato than my tummy can hold
These Are My Insides - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]
open door to a magic room
but then spoken word
with chorus
self glorification
cut short
Liebeslied Amended - Benjamin Boretz, Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]
the opening is the best part of what I amended
though I play it too fast
here
far too slavish to the explicit rational values of the notated
rhythm
not breathing with the phrase
Dama v rychliku - Stanislav Surin
somewhere between pop and art-song
European art-pop-song
centered on text elucidation
these words clearly mean specific things
and are sung to make that clear
should one happen to speak Slovak
drumming privately on the porch
and guitars for crows
the
porch is an interesting acoustic
partly inside partly outside
sounding just like a room with a wall and a half missing
texture is persistent
unsettled
constant
disresolving
dabbing paint dots
music as a quiet but busy place
present as the weather on a nice evening
a roll trills away
under the pressure
of a stick
on a drum
head
I'm That Girl - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]
constructed of parts
not clearly a song in song form
though that
might be there behind it all
or not
assemblage
through-line
not clear
production value maximized
Corranto, Fvb. 205 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
well formed and fully
but what manner of thing is it
that it
should be so well formed
and so fully formed
is there a model of
something else behind it
does that model arise from within music itself
or from something else
dance
poetry
song
all and
more?
You'd Better Mind - Pace Jubilee Singers [from Goodbye, Babylon]
also well and fully formed
here we are clearly being preached at
instructed
but also
an image of being instructed
by an
individual and by a society
in the guise of soloist and chorus
a
theater
Caravan - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra [from Ken Burns Jazz]
more exoticism of the East
a land far from Europe's
hang-ups
a film score
atmosphere cue
Half Step Down - Coleman Hawkings [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
turns around on its own practice
detail of doing
become structural
basis
for a new doing
Medley - Elvis Presley [from Elvis' Christmas Album]
but is it just Silent Night
yup
a medley of one song
from when such a thing was shiny and new
so hopeful and stylish
more concerned with being going
than with being formed fully or
well
packed into a tube
pringled
Turn Out The Stars - Bill Evans [from California Here I Come]
forms itself around a song and its continuity
but
within a
cultural model
of how an activity
can form itself around a song
and its continuity
even when
the song may never have existed
outside that culture
Ferguson Road - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]
anybody's cool sister
reports on her adventures
New York - The Sex Pistols [from Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols]
attitude meet and greet
London trashes the Big Apple
The Call Of The Wreckin' Ball - The Knitters [from Poor Little Critter On The Road]
comedy routine
bad ol' boy brag
My Melody - Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid In Full]
studio production swallows song whole
persona as commodity
music
structure follows text structure
advertisement and competition
selling selling
commodified commodification
droids making
droids
how perverse
in the notes
a reference is made to a clocklike cadence
which is
interesting to me
in the use of the word cadence
what is being
referenced
is more in the nature
of what I would call
a
figure
or motive
a cyclic tick tock pattern that pervades
a
bit like Beethoven's 8th Symphony
but here
we're waiting on time
rather than being pushed along by it
Gradus 25 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 3, 2002]
the accent is on graw
the rebound is on doose
is this that I am hearing well or fully formed?
ordealism
submitting to a regime
by self or other
and here I
am listening
that's my ordealist role
an artifact that arises by means of struggle
artifact
token of
skill
evidence
trace result
scratch
inscription
mark
what does the struggle impart to the mark?
any score is such a regime
any score is an ordeal in waiting
the
question is
to what extent the ordeal stimulates a stimulating response
reverberant stimulation
a stimulus need not be well formed
to be genuine or reverberant
the praxis of music
is to maximize reverberance to stimuli
to
become an instrument
an open tool
respond aloud
response allowed
Gradus
in this
is a reverberant response
to the infinite's
yawp into the void
we yawp
and listen for response
is the
void anechoic?
are we yawping clearly and loudly enough?
are we
competent to hear the response?
The Diagnosis - Peter Fedofsky [from The City Of Good Neighbors]
viscous
confined
beset
heavy
Sound Check - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Blue Moon, October 4, 2012]
does it still persist?
can we hear what we are doing?
the stage
being the most difficult place in the whole joint
from
which to hear oneself
over the din one is making
A Walk In The Dark - Anxious Arms [from Never Was]
step out the door
the city bursts through you
into your face
pounding your chest
beating your head
slamming your hips
invading your groin
Humbuggy - Keith Eisenbrey [August 19, 2022]
we had just purchased an electric vehicle
which as all do
by
Federal regulation
makes noise at low speeds
inside it
one
can't really hear it
so
I made a recording of Karen backing out of
our driveway
it goes by right to left
into the general noise of
day
humming
Daunce, Fvb. 206 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the horizontal lines come loose
from within the blocky texture
Sweet Story of Old - Bela Lam and His Greene County Singers [from Goodbye, Babylon]
singing in three parts
strictly consonant
mostly open
none
of that fancy
old world
dissonant stuff for us
no sirree
Blue Rhythm Fancy - Teddy Hill [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
parts add to other parts
jump from attachment to attachment
So Easy - Dexter Gordon [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
blues changes
that accelerate harmonic rhythm
to roll around
to the start of the next verse
and apply the brakes
I'm The Guilty One - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']
in country mode
big scoops on world
more
door
piano tremolo stands in for a yodel
Bam - Stevie Wonder [from The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie]
all the combo sounds
crammed together
in a booth
We Three Kings - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
by the book brass arranging
Git It Up Or Let Me Go - Bonnie Raitt [from Give It Up]
scolding blues
behave yourself you clod
hootenanny tempo
California Sun - Ramones [from Leave Home]
if you ain' got that do re mi
but the streets are paved with gold
and the girls are the most
D.M.S.R. - Prince [from 1999]
composition by assembly
leaning into the clean 80s engineering
to
push an image of virtual music
twisting around
to engage with its
artificiality
now all you ladies scream
so the scream track is
spun
a virtual response
In Session at the Tintinabulary
December 2, 2022
Sinfonia 5 - Keith Eisenbrey
I finished this piece earlier this month, but wanted to read through it a few times to check the score for errors before making this midi realization.
December 29, 2022
Prelude in B-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson
I finally got this one to bubble along satisfactorily. Lockrem's centenary is coming up in a few years and there is some exciting news coming on that front soon. I had a long conversation this week with Lockrem's cousin, the guitarist Doug Rice. Plans are afoot and things are happening.
Prelude in G minor - Keith Eisenbrey
I have three more of these to record: F Major, D minor, and that pesky G-sharp minor. That latter is close to being ready. I've been working on it for months.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1991
