". . . so their hypotheses are essentially self-fulfilling prophecies, predicting what is already known, and perhaps capable of inducing generic uniformities of reception in persons subjected to such conditioning. Whatever the content of such receptions, they're not too likely to resemble your wildest expressive fantasies of what music might do to you. So it can't be a desire to maximize musical expressivity which motivates the drive to socialize music within the bounds of the reliable, verifiable, retrodictable, 'clean', self-knowing - and therefore regimentable - receiving space. From the perspective of music as expressive utterance, the drive for aesthetic, theoretical, pedagogical authority seems strangely self-annulling, repelled from penetration into music's depth by music's own deep opacity to extramusical specification."
Benjamin Boretz - "inside in, outside out" from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
February 5, 2022
Burning - Okkyung Lee [from Na-Reul]
serac creaks
imminent collapse
catastrophic spirits singing
Atlantic Shifts - Jessi Harvey - Unheard-of//Ensemble [from CCI//Sessions, Volume 3]
steady course
turns from happy friendly fun
to worry
to grim
struggle
damage assessed
mighty efforts
outcome in doubt
February 7, 2022
Bright Codes - Dai Fujikura - Jacob Greenberg [from Bright Codes]
nervous alert
near alarm
|| gradual working expansion into solid sleep
night scurries
quiet
brush
|| once an internal metaphor arises
experience falls into that metaphor
confirming and informing and forming coherence
self confirming
coherence
|| snow melt
runlets to rivers
Always in My Heart - Amy Denio
veni vidi baci?
so friendly!
Feels So Right - Janet Jackson [from All for You]
multiple simultaneous lyric strands intercontextualizing
more than one
monolog in the mind
knock knock knock knock
Intruder - Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin [from Big Brother & the Holding Company]
the blues is a mode of dialog
between a vocal
and an instrumental
foil
or double
The Dawntreader - Joni Mitchell [from Song to a Seagull]
that is a mouthful of syllables she is spilling there
her voice pings in
the front of her mouth
a head voice
and a yodel register too!
Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home - Judy Garland [from Judy]
Judy's ping is further back
she hams it up with no irony at all
a
showbiz whiz
Recorded
Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed - David Bowie [from Space Oddity]
new sections are gotten to with some effort
Bo Diddley beat
blues
as a tale told
about you
if you
are the song's you
Kick It Out - Heart [from Greatest Hits]
a dance call (vigorous!)
Car Jamming - The Clash [from Combat Rock]
short sharp stroke syllables
(not a soft cushion)
deconstructed
Diddley
I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord - Sister Fleeta Mitchell, Rev. Nathaniel Mitchell, Lucy Barnes [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
preaching and testimony are cooperative ventures
a social activity
alrighty then!
February 6, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 309 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Bill Meyer, Marilyn Meyer
some instruments are loud uncles
in this case
the acoustic guitar
at first
but between me and Aaron
the room is full of them
suddenly we are quiet
even the whistle
doesn't immediately shift
the mood
the plucks comment more constantly
like backups
sweeter than easy
that whistle is pretty shrill
wheezy above
being obo roi
intermittently channeling a clarinet
with a
cold
the plow bell intones the hour
dij droner
drones the
dij
that suits the use of fountain and quill
to avoid excessive blotting otherwise
printing as a form of handwriting
suits the ball point
avoiding excessive clotting
I use a combined script
|| Aaron shakes his medicine rattle
we being properly ceremonial
we speak in musical tongues
Pentecostal
afterwards games
will be played on the common floor
smaller children may nap in the
nursery
if they so wish
{from my journal entry of May 22, 1995:
with Bill & Marilyn
guitar and bells
spaces
percussion
autoharp
vocals
loose jointed
Elfin
gnomish
evening porch music}
I Love the Dough - The Notorious B.I.G [from Life After Death]
both a confession and advice
corporate recruitment
be all you can
be type
the verse structure of these cuts
invites study
Psalm 22:9-10 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, on February 23, 2002]
the problem
is that I was aiming at a certain density of contrapuntal
voices
but overplayed the rhythmic complexity of duration
which
confused the voices
consuming them
Buffalo Solo - Jarrad Powell - Jessika Kenney, Jarrad Powell [from Stonehouse Songs]
a theatrical presentation
sucks you right in
this
friends
is a THANG
to BEHOLD
every detail a revelation
a true
moment
a thin moment
a limn moment
Gradus 211 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 30, 2012]
but:
a composition might befuddle
confound frustrate deflect
astonish question satirize
imitate delight tempt
or
etc.
provisional metaphors
as they arise in grasping minds
so:
if coherence is mind's only experiential tool
does it
foreclose our question:
what is it
in our experiencing
that
we are cohering?
or,
as Ben has outlined:
Babbitt and Cage
each constructed elaborate philosophical frameworks
designed to forward
the question of coherence
as it may apply to our experience of music
the relative merits of their individual approaches
are not as
crucial to understand
as is the bleeding edge of the question:
is
there such a thing (anymore?)?
as music
bereft or innocent or
prior to our metaphorical relations to it?
that is
can one say of
music
that it is that
of which could be said
that it is that
of which it is
as though
it were not a metaphor?
such
as
language
sex
and violence
to list some other
examples:
sexish but not sex,
violentish but not violent
languageish but not language
as one might say
of language
that it is musicish but not music etc.
(but then we are treating
these modes as metaphors
as linquistic)
utterance without
reference
You - Ease [from Letters]
at least three vocal modes
at least two instrumental modes
hard
multiply underscored
illegible words
Banned Rehearsal 1043 - C, D, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
from Telepaths 80
approaching advertant sound carefully
Steve
jumps right in from Theremud
Outpost Lake City dials in
two input
tracks cued up
ad hoc
without any moment by moment regard
of
alignment
relative to each other
happenstance moments
for
discovery
life picture of the daily distributed family life
music
at its most precisely mundane
at its least artful
activity residue
not any product
Margott Laborez, Fvb 83 - Peter Philips - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
slipping through a crevice at the cadence
into more sunny galleries
Die Wohltemporierte Klavier, Prelude and Fugue in E minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Sviatoslav Richter
the figures describe three separate strands
until they ignite
the
fugue confounds counting voices
then stops
bump.
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 166 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
the back ends of his phrases rarely fail in quirkiness
they are attached
to the front ends by surprise
for some unknown reason I only have the first 3 movements of this
gets
enthusiastic over and over
but finds itself way out ahead of its army
double take
where are they
here they come
return
(false) of the middle section of movement two
doesn't quite manage to
escape
the first section's inexorable thudding drumbeat
in three
the ends of figures
echo off into the fly
Mazurka in A-flat Major, Op. 50 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy
so:
rubato in the sense of a flexible pulse
a means of expression
sure
but also a means of separating meter from pulse
the
metrical figuration remains clear
even though the clock-time
Maelzel-time
ratios are out of whack
expanding or
contracting
our sense
of the rate of time passing
Vladimir is especially fond
in this one
of lingering with the
starts of things
and at structural inflection episodes
"that trambone"
the figures are similar to ragtime keyboard writing
but heavier
Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
the aesthetic ideal of uniqueness
as a valorization
doesn't apply
to this
in any of the usual categories
his songs are unique in new
ways
Ko-Ko - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Tracks]
breaking free of word's hold on melody
lickety split
Little Legend - Berthold Goldschmidt - Kolja Lessing
open harmony
Satie block texture
Slippin' & Slidin' (Remix) - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
there are two vocalists
each singing the same tune
but the one
further front in the mix is sung more nearly straight
than the vocal low
in the mix
The Fool on the Hill - The Beatles [from Magical Mystery Tour]
harmony slips from solid to soft
then floats off
or seems to
but is yanked away
from behind the curtain
Cruisin' with Pedro de Pacas - Cheech & Chong [from Cheech & Chong]
my introduction to drug culture
was this album
owned by
a
junior-high-chess-hiking-Simon and Garfunkle fan-buddy
all of it went
right over my head
Less than Zero - Elvis Costello [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
still imitating an American-style accent
Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen [from Nebraska]
did he record the backing vocal track in the parking garage?
anchored to
the open strings
strive though it might
the added tracks are
nearly not there
which is about right
Chinese coffee
whole bean
fresh from the clatter
Anna comes
in at 8:49 tonight
thank you for the seed
polyrhythms 119/117
the Eulalie Session
and Aaron Keyt called in the middle of it
will visit
arranging for Banned Telepathy
reactionary
tendencies at work
format-wise
electric guitar improvisation
in a rut
call in a month
lots of slide whistles and
pre-recorded material
sandbox aesthetic
it is important to keep
track
more Chinese coffee
thank you I will
2 3-hour workshop
on relationships
a blurb in the newsletter
Christian spirituality
and experimental music techniques
Cage's silent piece
recorded on
the PZMs
with the levels turned all the way up
on the main drag
three hours without lesson plan
each microphone
records a
different note
how about some music
start with wind
blown
across a thing
that might be
a chamber's or a column's opening
had completed memorizing the first chapter of FW
first time around
walking helps
the tape walks inside its case
timing devices
get to a task
I hear a guitar being scribbled
communal
recording
the most tedious of the eighteen
non eliteness
February 9, 2022
Il Barbiero di Siviglia "Largo al factotum" - Gioachino Rossini - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]
nimble lips and tongues
Banned Rehearsal 464 Analog - Pete Comley, Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 6, 1997]
toward the extremity of our antisocial period
having something out
in your face
signal dense
instant day
and eases
but remains on edge
are we social?
{from my journal entry of August 29, 2005:
extreme roar
a jumble
most of the aspects of which would benefit
greatly
from a more transparent space
more arithmetically
juxtaposed
than geometrically massed
a small crowded room
there is
in the energy
something of the
fingernails-on-chalkboard effect
deeply grating
at its best toward
the end
there is an orchestral richness
about the slower moves and
harmonies}
fills in every blank
connects all the dots
Consider the Birds 7 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
a salutary aspect
of the keeping and listening to all the separate parts
individually:
it de-privileges the finished version in my own
headspace
summer.hot.slow - John Teske [from Wheel]
an airplane in the sky
bows a big bass
comes so
to earth
Assembly Rechoired 56 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [February 27,
2017]
bad traffic all around
Excelsior! (the accordion)
small
percussions
cans lids
other metallics
breath and hands
allowing or prodding
modest chaos
we don't control all
aspects of anything
so why pretend?
partial lack of control
doesn't preclude focused listening
though even that
is
subject to neurological limitations
since it is neurologically enabled
a steady presence
and a wandering poker
poking into stuff
Lemur Meets Panda - Jessi Harvey - Strange Interlude
narrated introduction
(and extroduction)
to a story
evoked
or ostensibly so
in music
harp and cello
a plausibly
narrative series of events
though internal
Fantasia, Fvb. 84 - Peter Philips - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the opening
is as much or more
a rhythmic seed
than a
pitch*-set
or a tune
a fantasia based on nothing
there are a
plenitude of paths
leading from nowhere
reverie on a grain of sand
*a twitch
twitch again
same pitch
again
but
sooner
Partita in A minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gunther Hasselmann
the entry is complete
upon our arrival
a long hall
and much to see
you will wait
in this chamber
with the teacups
then my secretary will
dispatch your business
a many handed minion
you will then wait
again
but in the room of somber portraits
the decision will be
imparted to you here
sign in duplicate
and here
and here
now scoot
we presume you were suitably impressed with court life
the motives are cobbled together
almost slapdash
false sequences
lead astray
watch the hole there
you will fall right in
Symphony in F Major, Op. 93 (#8) - Ludwig van Beethoven - [from an unlabeled in my mom's collection]
has a 50s sort of sound to it
or late 40s
mono
live
perhaps a radio broadcast
always headed in at least two directions
collapsing extremities
or playing echo games
a symphony for
the industrial age
full of clocks and pounding
Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 50 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy
falls on us like gentle snow
|| the scene changes
(intercard here)
... a woman of no appearance
the river tripped over her by and by
so silly to be flowing
an excise of my vaulty brains
he
ought to go away for a change of ideas
the irony of the stars
tea
and cabbage
with a door
soft (whispers)
regicide is too good
for you
looks as flop as a plancreek
the green mote in Ireland's
eye
a queen of beauty
and a jaw forever
we feel
we
must want
a female to focus
an earwig
on a fullbottom
their genre of portraiture
waters worse
till breath us
depart
be as young as your grandmother
the wrong words by the rote
order
12
Seamus
In Session at the Tintinabulary
February 9, 2022
Meadowbrook Park
I got to the park just at sunrise and recorded lots of birds making their noise
February 10, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 3 - Aaron Keyt
February 11, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook 3x3 (transpositional) A B C D - Keith Eisenbrey
I continue my recordings of these finger exercises
Joshua Tree Prelude 4 - Aaron Keyt
Prelude in G Major - Keith Eisenbrey
my 2011 composition
Cowen Park Whipper Snappers
I was taking an afternoon stroll and came upon the sound of two people cracking whips in a field.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
more doodles from 1987
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