"So how does storyfree attitude or affect transfer (metaphorically or affectively) onto a particular music? Just by conditioning the attitude and affect of the reader within the psychic atmosphere of listening - implanting the image of the attitude and affect of the commentator as an incorrigible authority, an unimpeded transference from one psyche to another with a music-text juxtaposition as its symbolic vehicle? Even where there's real, even deep, musical thinking underneath, it remains exclusively in the possession and to the benefit of the perpetrator. Something you might call 'political' ahead of calling it 'musical'? Isn't the presence or at least the implication of 'we', the authoritative universalizing 'we' (even when it's inscribed as 'I') rather than the confessional self-circumscribing literal 'I' an infallible symptom of the political - lurking somewhere in the mix at least?"
- Benjamin Boretz - "inside in, outside out"
from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
January 8, 2022
Ansâri "Tu es tout et c'est tout" - Giles Tremblay - Aventa Ensemble [from Chants Convergents]
soprano vocal
set among atolls of percussion sounds
including
piano
as one among them
suddenly
a clarinet steps
from out of nowhere
outcome
uncertain
Shiroi Ishi - Ken Ueno - the Hilliard Ensemble
why is it
that choral music
in particular
conjures
for
me
architectural spaces?
::
out in the wild
when we
went out in the wild
such music is most commonly heard
in large
cathedral-like spaces
and is often composed with such a venue in mind
and
it would seem
here
to be recorded in such a
space
but these are facts
not to be trusted
in aesthetic matters
individual voices
conjoined in a sonorous whole
we want
and
construct
a room to hold them
that's part of it
when the song is ended
the space it created lingers on
January 10, 2022
Great Northern, 34428 - Olivia Block [from Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea]
steamtrain chugchug rhythm
as the hills
and trees
and houses
and fences
and lakes
and clouds
shift
in silken
parallax
their relative sizes
doppler
as they pass
from
in front
to
in back
the steel shines
Swell - Steve Layton [from Liminal (Pandemic 7)]
successive impacts excite an undulatory medium
absorbing all
at
near critical mass
it nearly stabilizes
into self-perpetuating
undules
happy sparks glimmer within it
releasing energy
it fades
Sweet Dreams - Beyoncé [from I Am . . . Sasha Fierce]
all hooks
all the way down
Witchcraft - Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian [from Portrait in Jazz]
he floats
a deft touch
they float together
Teach Me Tonight - Blossom Dearie [from Once Upon a Summertime]
right down to the X Y Z of it
the bass player has a lagging swing in
this solo
Closer To You - Brandi Carlile [from Brandi Carlile]
epistolary song
verses aim at the title hook
a commercial
maneuver
interesting take on the diphthong of "ground" at the ends of the choruses.
Recorded
January 8, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 461 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 9, 1997]
if this music evokes an architectural interior space
it isn't that of a
cathedral
imposing and suppressive
but perhaps a grown-up version
of a preschool classroom
certainly
the social interactions
among the voices and individual
are not overtly cooperative
but more cooperational
(distinction? hm)
we are allowing each other space
not striving together toward a common
known goal
yet it does build up slowly
brakes on
unsure of
hazardous corners ahead
this music
also
is not on a stage
directed at us
the
audience
it may not even be directed at its coparticipants
its
sounds are directed at its sounds
themselves
for the passing
earbrains
to consider
Isaac fusses
the heat has been lessened
might be nap time
its interior
is that
of a collective
or assembled earbrain
set
it invents its experience
thus inventing itself
or
it is an experience
inventing itself
with itself
nap time done
bang bang bang bang bang bang bang
very like a small
child
the mighty W has been awakened
back in the box
guitar has been put
away
piano works things out in the corner
{from my journal entry of March 30, 2005:
gently gathering. focused non-alienating thick with sound but quite transparent lovely lovely moments long and spacious Isaac has lots to say.}
distortion free synthetic comfort sounds
pretty
like harp sounds
or classical guitar sounds
are
January 9, 2022
Consider the Birds Mix 5 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
one takes on faith
that a determinable sequence exists
one event
following another
allowing for the possibility of simultaneous events
to within agreeable tolerances
but that isn't how we experience
it
on one level
it proceeds as one might imagine
the fluttering of
leaves
or the twinkling of stars
or another
as a sequence of
or flow of
immediately near groups of sound bursts
of particular interest
is that we can process 'simultaneous' unfoldings
of discrete timbre sets
i.e. a sequence of bursts of one timbre
going on in proximity
to sequences of bursts of other
timbres
[NB: when I first finished it Karen thought it sounded like birds hence the title "Consider The Birds" (How They Bicker)]
that the sequences
of bursts
of various timbres
overlap
is clear
but how they interlock
within their overlapping
is neither clear
nor
apparently
a crucial part of our
perception of them
sequence
events are aligned and crossed
and it would be a fairly
simple matter
to accurately transcribe that sequence of the whole
but that isn't how we experience what's happening
the timbres each
have their own sequence of events first
before they fit themselves into
the more global sequence of events
Fish Distributor - Your Mother Should Know [from demos recorded on February 23, 2017]
the demo format allows the song to shine
without obscuring it with
showboating
Tirsi. di Luca Marenziosa, Freno, Così morirò, Fvb 70-72 - Peter Philips - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
here
all sequence is made crystal clear
each successive
subdivision in its place
there is no confusion
all is right with
the world
so as
to provide a polished surface
for intricate
and subtle pitch play
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band 1, Prelude and Fugue in A minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
phrases answer each other
(balance)
phrases echo down the halls
('sequences' as a technical term)
as subjects chase each other
in the fugue
the same time
goes by
several times
from other points of view
sequences (the term) can clear the air
to start over in a new place
sequences built from fragments of the
subject
somehow
do both at once
balance and sequences
(the term, as above)
and disbalance
or
balance and sequences
play within each other's spheres
Concerto in C Major, Wq. 43.2 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Melante Amsterdam, Bob Van Asperen
a quasi-chamber concerto
in that the instruments are playing against
each other's sound
as much for their amusement
as for ours
orchestration:
OK, Berlioz revolutionized how orchestration is
considered
by systematically ignoring how the orchestra came to be
(which is:
a body of strings
to which additional instruments
are added
as budget allows)
and working only
with how the
instruments sound
but the old way had its masters too
Symphony in F Major, Op. 93 (#8) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, William Furtwängler
insurgent figures push things around
explosive energy
and the
proper time for their accomplishments
tick tick tick tick
note how the metrical insistence of the melodic
parts
order
the tick tick tick tick
variously
in the 2nd movement
group one plays even quarters on 2 and 1
then
rests
for the next 2 and 1
another group alternates
each's
quarter note 1 is a 2
and each quarter note 2 is a 1
so
where are we anyway?
disrupting balance is the game
the means:
starting over on top of
what was going on
using 2 as 1
contradicting the balance of one
strand with an alternative balance on another strand
which is why
the over-the-top-goes-on-too-long ending cadence
works for me
it is a summation of all the games
Mazurka in G Major, Op. 50 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy
close in spirit
compositionally
to Scarlatti
The Chant (Take 3) - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers [from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers Volume 1 - Chicago Days]
establishes home base
steps out
checks back
now and then
but mostly
stepped out
brings the party home
Hallelujah, I'm A Bum - Frank Wallace [from Evans 78s]
this song is entirely focused on telling us about the singer persona
the
guitar accompaniment is as plain as it could be
and the tune
matches
the music portion is entirely subservient
to the display of the words
Joe Turner Blues - Son Simms 4 (Muddy Water) [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
one could almost say the same about this
except that the vocal delivery
is showy
but the band essentially keeps time
until they get to do
a chorus alone
which breaks the rhythm
and sets up the last verse
as being the end
dance derived
the framework keeps your steps straight
call
response
intro
blues changes
the solos persist into
the next verse
the next soloist picks it up
near
but not at
the beginning
Catfish Blues - Bobo Thomas, Sunny Boy Williamson [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
call and response
a concretion of the necessity for another voice
in any conversation
it is
the us
in what he says
to us
language as a social interaction
the surface of response
Hey Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo's Milieu]
train chug chug rhythm
Undated Selections - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon
from among my Mom's tapes
some tracks were not labeled
this is a
group of them
starts with a rather solemn Hallelujah
Baroqueish
with answering choirs
2 what wondrous love is this
3 is a
homophonic part song
harmony points to late 19th Century or later
4 has impressionistic leanings as does
5 Holst or that era?
6 is a setting of a folkish tune
British Isles or environs
as is
7 and
8
I don't know
but I suspect
these were copied from the original
reel to reel tapes
by playing them into a space
and recording with
a microphone
the sound quality is phenomenally bad
the band is a bass and a guitar
the details are just additional color
and accentuation
thou shalt not play any note longer than James sings
his longest note
and if you get close you
should clear it first
Rock & Roll Lullaby - B. J. Thomas [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
a country song if ever there was one
nice backup singers!
Breaking Glass - David Bowie [from Low]
fades out before it becomes a song
proto-80s sound
Room in a Music - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from A Cassette Player]
words listed aloud
and piano sounds
Finest Worksong - REM [from Document]
words and pitches chosen to
pop!
within the 80s engineered sound
what the drill bit hears
Banned Rehearsal 305 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [September 18, 1992]
blatantly discrete sounds
drum rattle harmonica flute
harmonica
exteriorizes the diaphragm rhythm
long pressurization
sounds
change
but the blatant discretion remains
John says Mama
Mommy's sleepy
how many vacuum cleaners
and how many don't?
there is no dirt
in a vacuum
toe knee Bennett!
knee
toe keen
we are without a phone bone
oh dear
sleepy boy fuss
Yuppies raise brie
underarm cheese genetics
some big yawns
a kind of a knotty room
Toad Hall perhaps?
knotty tuba room
we poke at Stimming
||:Huey Dewey Louie:|| DONALD DUCK!
Micky Mouse Mackey Messer
Mickey Mouser
Ronald Reagan Donald
Duck
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee
who was Michael Dukakis's running
mate anyway?
catch the running toilet
wake up foot!
no more
night night
{from my journal entry of April 13, 1995:
in Aaron's Woodchamber. How many vacuum cleaners? How many don't? naughty room nightly Knot}
January 11, 2022
I suppose this is punk
or at least the opening is
followed by a
quieter stretch
then another
I have no idea what the vocalist is
shouting
but it doesn't sound nice
stripped down arrangement
capable of being played while impaired
nothing fancy that would be
likely to fall apart
Preludes 1 through 8 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, on February 23, 2002]
from my recital Continuity in Small Things
20 years ago
golly
it has often recurred
in my career as a pianist
that I will
struggle with a piece
uncertain how to play it
so that it 'makes
sense'
the A minor Prelude of this set is an example
usually upon
listening back
I find that I did just fine
lovely clear little compositions
waiting room - Tom Baker Quartet [from look what I found]
poking and prodding
an inert substance
Always Be You - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, on April 6, 2012]
verses move to the chorus
and choruses move to the hook
Track 1 - Mud on My Bra [recorded live at The Sunset Tavern on April 18, 2017]
power through two quick songs
why waste time
a feel-good punk band
such fun
such care!
Pressure - Leanna Keith - Keith Eisenbrey
I wanted, as I worked on it, to interpret Leanna's graphic score minutely, line by line, mark by mark. Clavichord (her highest written note is the highest note on the instrument) and the dynamics in the first line include a PPPP (very clavichordian). The video developed because I can't get good sound (on video) of the clavichord, or haven't yet, but I wanted something. I like that it turned into what appears to be a badly run, stuttering, slide show that, ne'ertheless, interprets the score as well, but from within its own time world.
Fece de voi à 6, Fvb 73 - Peter Philips - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
trying on different sets of jewels
alternate costumery
1
counterpointed activity streams cooperate
holding each other by
the hand
2
the fugue defies meter at any larger grain
than 2 successive
eighth notes
Sonata in C minor, Kk. 158 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
secret:
it's all development section
but development is not the right word
extrapolation section
figuring out section
riffing section
try something similar
section
Keyboard Fantasia in E-flat Major, Wq. Deest. H. 348 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
on fortepiano
pedal to the floor
in the guise of a dramatic
declamation
with ornate continuo support
Symphony in A Major, Op. 92 (#7) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
if a tonal space is filled up
a leak will eventually develop
flutes and oboes found it
on the high dominant
second
movement begins on the low strings of the low strings
as higher
frequencies are added
the nearness of the ensemble is made apparent
it passes by
for its second appearance
it approaches by
gathering around us
arising then at full power
leaving us with our
thoughts
and broadsides scattering in the wind
Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [1933]
recklessly propelled
energy in abundance
but smarter than it
sounds
I'm Proud of a Baby Like You - Jean Goldkette [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
a professional orchestra for dance clubs
complete with a single verse
for vocal ensemble
was it a legal requirement
or a social
expectation
that there be vocalists
or that an orchestra must
include a group that sings and/or dances?
I Would Do Anything for You - Art Tatum [from Classic Early Solos]
opens with a group of figures
the first of which returns
just
before he takes off
lickety split
Mean Old World - T. Bone Walker [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
blues with a piano,
drummer (brushes),
and bass
as well as
guitar and vocal
some blues songs go for specificity of lyrics
this one tries for a more
generic, universal, statement
a resigned weary method of getting by
the specificity is in the relations among the instruments
and
their commentary upon the vocal
Cotton Fields - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night, The Lead Belly Legacy Volume 1]
the tempo responds to his urgency
softpedal on the downbeat when he
wants to push forward
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Rosalie Allen [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
instrumental verse
to allow some respite from a strong vocal
allows her two entrances
for four orchestras if I remember correctly
L F R B
reduced to two
channels
the effect on this end
is not of multiple orchestras
so much as of a single widely spread-out orchestra
with pointed
intent as to where each instrument is placed
there is no countable
number of directions from which sound emanates
but perhaps as many as
there are
instrumentsXnotes
interestingly
Up and Down
(U D)
weren't exploited as far as I know
the horizontal
plane remains inviolate
in contradistinction to the orchestra used later in Donnerstag and Sirius era
Stockhausen
these folks are playing with each other not
in spite of each other
because they play in groups?
is this a "12-tone" composition (control?)
of social intercourse?
Having A Party - Sam Cooke [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I don't know if this is really possible so much anymore
DJs and radio
not being what they were
the ubiquitous mashed potato
Don't Blame Me - Thelonious Monk [from Standards]
time waits for him
as it waits
for none else
manifest destiny accomplished
New Feeling - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 77]
cleanliness lessons
from James Brown
industrialized music
Someone Like You - The Knitters [from Poor Little Critter on the Road]
epistolary song
Retrato de Euchababilla - Keith Eisenbrey - Paul Eisenbrey [recorded February 21, 1987]
I wrote this piece in April of 1986, in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, of all places. The score calls for oboe but my brother Paul plays clarinet so he kindly recorded it for me. We may have had the piano pedal down. My recollection is that it is 12-tone, after a fashion, one of my few. I was treating the row as an ordered list of tones to be explored slowly, with plenty of lingering and repetitions. I was not concerned with aggregate completion on any but the largest scale. Some years later I used this piece as a strand in my Toccata for solo piano, commenting upon the tone as it goes by with mod-17 counterpoints. The cassette tape ghost sounds occupy a similar dynamic area to the piano harp's reverb.
Erotica - Madonna [from Erotica]
coyly just evading the F bomb
an old old trick
but instead of
filling it in with a non-rhyming replacement word
filling it in with some
moaning
eroticizing the word erotica
or working at it
I think Blossom Dearie actually taught it more erotically, even though from
metaphorical distance
Madonna attempts to tempt
Blossom Dearie
seduces
Banned Rehearsal 462 (digital) - Pete Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
in a dark wood
a beast roars out
grumbles
smaller critters
scatter
Pete may have brought his Theremin over
most everything is
low in the mix
especially in comparison
to how I was setting the
tape recorder levels back then
putting as much signal on the tape as I
could get away with
often more
Neal I think is tuning up the
Silvertone guitar
from way down low
Pete may have brought his
guitar over as well
clearly a synthesizer is involved
several
amplifiers
which might explain the low recording levels
sounds
have a difficult time rising out of the equidistant murk
of course it may
simply have been a weary session
lots of scribbling at a distance
that is the mighty Wurlitzer
which may have been the synthy sounds
and Theremin sounds
or some of them
The First Day of School (intro) - Ice Cube [from The Predator]
institutional orderings about
Consider the Birds 11 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
a series of sounds
not trying to be a piece of music per se
rhetoric of course can't be avoided
but pretense can be
isolating sounds to a certain extent
the mechanism of chopping
leaves aspects of the original continuity intact
so that the
sounds we hear
group themselves timbrally
and also in a
non-metrical*
but completely rhythmic way
*nonmetrical in the
sense that
though there are repeating patterns of short and long time
spans
they don't obviously sort themselves out along a steady pulse
Merce and Baby - George Lewis - Ensemble Dal Niente
birds are singing with the wind and hail
pitch fields relax downward
violin plays a song here
a party is starting
but not here
where songs and pitch fields weave
but here
the party beat
reappears
insisting
but not on partying
march of sorts
before temple doings
exit stage out
Jerseyville, Illinois - Your Mother Should Know [from demos recorded February 23, 2017]
quite nice in spite of the odd balance and some minor textual fumbles
so patient
so that there is time within the meter
to go all Art
Tatum every now and then
first figures repeat beneath
as though always present
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band 1, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
the prelude
is a mini prelude and fugue
(in affect if not in fact)
archaic
with elaborations very like those of the 16th Century
virginalists
updated into tonality
the fugue subject's rhythmic
profile gets into everything
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 159 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
crazy-ass trumpet fanfare
here come clowns!
Fantasia in F Major, Wq. 59.5 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
I suppose F major is in there somewhere
eventually
Let's have a
fantasy about it
fortepiano
nice sounding one too!
I was thinking about F Major the whole time, I swear!
Found it at last!
1
more F Major
he always starts there
but goes off the rails
as he does with the meter
2
the smaller meter is always clear
Maelzel and all
but
where the phrase might land
is up for grabs
3
let's play the same game
but now in three
the music
offsets
repeats itself
in the background
as it moves
along
in the trio
the horns answer themselves
beneath the clarinets
4
bits of what comes later are heard in fragments
the whole
Symphony and certainly this movement of it
is about how phrases coalesce
into a cadence
which is why the ending is just right
it takes
exactly that many iterations
of a big F major triad
in exactly those
voicings
to get to
exactly
the end
Ballade in F minor, Op. 52 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot (1933)
something like what might be a key falls from the heights
Cortot plays as though every note was the notion of beat reinvented
other tonalities lurk beneath this one
keep afloat if you can
they're hungry down there
blizzards of tonal implication
In Session at the Tintinabulary
January 12, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook 2x2 (augmentational) B A - Keith Eisenbrey
This has become, for me, an exercise in both reading and keeping things steady
without rushing
success on occasion
January 14, 2022
2-Part Invention in G minor - Gavin Borchert
These pieces are dynamite clavichord etudes
they live in their exact
touch
Anybody's Fingerbook 2x2 (augmentational) A (A) B - Keith Eisenbrey
that takes care of the 2x2s
onward to the ten 3x3s
Prelude in C Major - Keith Eisenbrey
I recently revised my 2011 set of 24 Preludes. In most cases the revisions consisted of removing the metronome marking and pedaling, which are aspects of playing piano that I prefer to work out separately each time. I may give this one another go.
Joshua Tree Prelude 1 - Aaron Keyt
A couple of weeks ago Aaron sent me a set of Preludes. I may give this one another go as well, but it's close.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
From my journal of 1987:
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