Preface
"Rumor flew. Right away the same strong urge
to find new homes drove all
the raving mothers.
They left home wearing fawn-skins, their heads bared
to wind, or filled the air with warbling howls,
holding
vine-branches as spears."
Vergil - "The Aeneid" (translated by Shadi Bartsch)
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
April 16, 2022
Junkyard - Craig Pepples [from Open Space 51]
higgledy piggledy
thrown in a heap
glittered with light
dripping
critters that creep
April 17, 2022
SightLightning - David Hicks [from Open Space 51]
moves
at squirrel
or wren
quickness
full alert
stop
if hunger can't catch you
you won't be lunch
or
we can split
into two
might be a magic hocket
never being where it is we are at
at any
sample moment
that
that cat might bite
Just a Little While - Janet Jackson [from Damita Jo]
in one voice
a rhythmic breath is audible
in some of the voices
no breath is heard
Tin Angel - Joni Mitchell [from Clouds]
learned Anglofolkpop
within which strictures
she sings with
unmistakably skilled eloquence
Combination of the Two - Big Brother & The Holding Company, with Janis Joplin [from Cheap Thrills]
live somewhere
complete with entrance announcement
get the party
started song
a surf band
in the sense that
the singers
and whatever solo
guitar stuff
gets thrown in
are all surfing
in the rhythm
section's tubular wave
This Is It - Judy Garland [from Judy in Love]
this is dance routine music
in the sense that
the singer is
singing on stage
or soundstage
surrounded by a dance routine
supplied by the orchestra
Recorded
April 16, 2022
Fantasia, Fvb 108 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the solo melody that opens
is a careful composition of pitches
in
two different guises
those with
and those without
the
mordent
or inverted mordent
two separate compositions
within
the same melody
and the rhythm
with which they project
themselves
a composers' composition
Ave Gratia Plena - Peter Philips - The Tudor Consort, Peter Walls [from Cantiones Sacrae Quinis Vocubus]
a grandly beating heart
deep breaths
a living being
being
living
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 177 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
mazemaker
melodrama
jump cut
story teller
in purple prose
music
his melodies would sing real well
his voice leading is chaste
in
comparison to Beethoven's (say)
but it isn't without a lyric clarity of
note
the inner movements
there are six movements total
allow Carl to
indulge in phrase balance games
upset by sweeping melodies in minor
modes
and a fugue
would Busoni behave any differently?
opening figure
thumbs nose
dramatically
as the curtain falls
April 17, 2022
Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot [1943]
the rubato is an expressive stand-in
for the grace of a dancer
Klavierübung in 5 Parts, Part III - Feruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
be singing at all moments
Cannon Ball Blues (take 1) - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers [from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, Chicago Days]
they take turns strutting
you will be accepted
based on the
qualities of your strut
Moanin' Low - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
I love the piano flourish
to prelude in the tune proper
Billie
comes in
and takes over the entirety of all that had happened
that was in the beforetimes
as impossible to follow completely as Bach can be
but
where in
Bach
the essentially gridlike rigidity
of the times each voice is
in
provides
an illusion
of orderly sequence
here
there is no such notion
Jeru - Miles Davis [from Birth of the Cool]
his saxophone choir is a treat all on its own
April 18, 2022
You've Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
mixed message
among the lyrics
not exactly mirrored
in the
call & response
which rounds it bodily
Prelude in D minor - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 18, 2022]
weary with a heavy load
we succumb to submerge
Black Country Rock - David Bowie [from The Man Who Sold The World]
not among his strongest
doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on his
character
Disco Inferno - The Trammps [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
not the sort of party I was ever invited to
celebratory hedonism
Melismata - Milton Babbitt - Curtis Macomber
connective tissue
taut
sprung
anatomy of Berg's Violin
Concerto opening gambit
twisted
pulled
Banned Rehearsal 116 - Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 23, 1987]
until the piano groans in
big stick clack enters
to turn yet another corner
the temptation
to not cease
what just goes on
lost in continuous wandering
the space is so big
once filled with sound
letting go is hard work
the stick is the star
the only sound
that transforms the space of the sound
dreary
lets go
floats free in emptied space
organ returns
but as sound
not figure
much stronger
figuration
a deflection from sound toward pattern
pattern
is a delicate art
whose purpose is clarity
not simplicity
now
we are afraid to move
lest we be misunderstood of ourselves
runs afoul
of our internalized conception
of what music can be
Soldiers' Chorus from Faust - Charles Gounod [from Worlds' Greatest Choruses]
drinking song type
beer sloshes and all
Banned Rehearsal 473 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 15, 1997]
almost like tuning up
a limited quantity of delimited personae in play
most of them all the time
sound in room sound
on tape
not same
not always
not in conflict
recording quality
is pretty good
amplification is a temptation
best indulged
infrequently
and judiciously
rattles are less problematic
our distinct personae transmorph
intersociate
into a session specific persona
or sets of personae
freely venning
in newly discovered geometries
we enter our rattle room
shake steadily
into the ether
we
have expanded the size of our space
its walls
have dissipated
alarms
are raised
the corner
sounds
and the
piano
pounds tones
ring the jingly bells
regroup
{from my journal entry of September 28, 2005:
focus and transparency
in what do these consist
when all are on
their own kick
bellrattle
playing a steady drum
deep comment
piano
a background
like a careful waterfeature
guitar
making just between comment
between piano
back and sax talk
and sax talking
enough contrast
between the kicks
and
enough space
within the kick
so that
if something drops out
there is always something
deeper
quieter
behind and
thinning
a tiny
quiet
private music
begins
in an attractive space
and moves
into a well heard space
a layered composition
transparent and constant
at the same time
stagnant
and pushing
an exerted
constant pressure
what will give
built
on a spine
of midrange piano noodles
then
turns
inside out
with the guitar
providing the spine
and the piano
the forward speaking role}
April 19, 2022
Stripped Intro - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
no hype
no glam
no pretense
huh?
then
what was all that
coming on like Tony Stark?
Consider the Birds 2 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
groups of bursts
approach
recede
which puts us
in a
location
with respect to their movements
writerly
mythic references
and similes
68 Chevelle - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, March 27, 2017]
a stream of words goes by
of which
only
68 Chevelle
comes through
until
it calms down in the middle
at the
end of which middle
we hear
69 Chevelle
then
68
Chevelle
it's supposed to make sense
if I knew what the words were
but I can't make them out
so
I'm left
with a puzzling
juxtaposition
of a 69
and a 68
Controlled Burn - Kaley Lane Eaton [from Cedar]
1988 fire Yellowstone
I was there
interesting disjuncture
in my ears
between the prosody of her text
and the lyricism of her singing it
Felix namque, Fvb 109 - Thomas Tallis - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
such patience
this is not pre-tonal
this is fully formed
such thoroughness
a British Academic through and through
explained in full
every possibility gets full say
a lecture
in search of a conclusion
Honey in the Rock - Blind Mamie Forehand [from Goodbye, Babylon]
orchestration
tempo
ringy bell
ringy voice
perfection
awesome
whoever he was
he played some thing upside down
pling plang plung
Green Corn - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Lead Belly Legacy Volume 1]
saying a thing fast
for the factory manufacturing age
Little Girl Blue - Judy Garland [from Alone]
sit there
in character
in plot
a story
in a sung song
Talkin' New York - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
he has done
gots
his Woody duds on
Siebengesang - Heinz Holliger - Basler Sinfonie-Orchester, Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, Francis Travis, Heinz Holliger
oboe harp and percussion
so far
nope
there's some basses and
winds
violins now
drifting toward the high end
an oboe tours
the orchestra
making the rounds
what is the harp doing down in the
basement?
it sounds like some sort of electronic enhancement on his oboe
makes it a bit kazooish
in a not silly way
Punch voice
now you woke up the choral spirits
from the back stairwell
great
everybody wandered back stage
The Wold Shadow - Stan Brakhage
it is not clear that the camera moves
the light
penetrates both
ways here
the forest
and us
Airplane Tonight - The Rumour [from Max]
the situation
is too explicit
too poetic
too sincere
that is
too poetic
to be believably sincere
wants to
be a kind of blues
but forgot to write the song
The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
verse chorus structure
clearly underlying
just sounds better than
most
speech pitch
Toccata in D minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Jane Parker Smith [from 100 Greatest Classics]
but without the fugue
(that's not the famous greatest part)
April 20, 2022
Local Hero - Bruce Springsteen [from Lucky Town]
parade balloon for anyone
it clearly wasn't about the songs anymore
Messe de Saint Marcel - Ensemble Organum, Marcel Pérès [from Portrait]
prior to the tyranny of the barline
the text guided everything
composed church music
was composed
to amplify
and
clarify
the text
inadvertently aestheticizing it
:two tone figures:
learning outpaces process
person permeates
learning
process
a tool
learning:growth
learning:transformation
(personal)
Fiction of Light - Evan Chapman - Pathos Trio
augmentation of cyclicity transformations
double back
reinforce
so from a cyclicity norm
is what might be possible
outside
of more of same
is there an escape hatch
or do we loop forever
cycle A
replaced
by cycle B
and
into infinity
where
are the open ended repetitions
of the yesteryears
Sonata for Clarinet - John Cage - William O. Smith [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, May 25, 2012]
a theater piece conceited
as a set of single sides
of several
conversations
Tightwire - David Hicks [from Open Space 51]
a body's stances
circum
in
retro
proto
stability is negotiated
momentarily unforeseen expectations
now where are we
lights out
segments are events
episodes
uncontained within rationalizing balances
felt
with foot's
sole's
inner ears
announce and scribble
scribble with vigor
sounds have terroir
if it is not bleached out in studio
Steve
does not use
bleach
uniformity of apparent location
is so not this
sound set free
intent scribble continues
outcome immaterial
intent total
medium irrecoverable
film and destroy
side bar
I am now realizing why
it was never a good idea
for
me
to select outtakes
from Banned Rehearsal
Steve is so much
better at it
otherside bar
if that's what this is
it's all there
spirit and everything
fed back into itself
flipside bar
than I could ever have imagined
obsessive scribbling
oh the glorious noise
banshees howling for
the moon
go ahead kids
try this at home
time to turn it down now
Felix namque #2, Fvb 110 - Thomas Tallis - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
he gets hung up on figures he likes
loath to let them go
gives a
free breathing spaciousness to it
always ample time for a cup of tea
Oh Daddy - Jonny Dodds, Tiny Perham [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
having a good time
before industry standards
rigidified popular
expression
clarinet and piano
From Four Until Late - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
he sings this one lightly
not quite so high and pinched
but
relaxed
quite sweet
truth be told
I'm Confessin' - Louis Armstrong [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
studied lingering tempo
so many places to land
so many places to
be aloft
works the microphone
What's New - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]
when she's on top of her game
the phrasing she uses
makes absolute
musical sense
but
still sounds completely conversational
imagine if opera singers could do that
Wild Weekend - The Rockin' Rebels [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
fun with echo bass
they take it off when the sax comes in though
too much confusing
no doubt
they barely hold it together as
it is
focused on a single pitch
dead center
but not in a cadential way
all the other pitches
are other than it
including its
octaves
they
are other than it
too
So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh - The Weavers [from The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie]
the whole Seeger Dylan squabble
from the Seeger
side was about
whether the words could be heard or not
a question of what the point of
music is
subservient to the word
or equal partner
or enabler
or avenging angel
No Feelings - The Sex Pistols [from Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols]
the guitar's volume is reduced
when the vocal comes in
I wonder if
they did that live
so that the words could be heard
if not
understood
Seeger's revenge
has trouble dismounting
were there such things as record machines
in 1982
to be standing
beside
where?
for a dime?
even has a virtual record skip
rhythm built into it
In Session at the Tintinabulary
April 20, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 11 - Aaron Keyt
April 22, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 12 - Aaron Keyt
Anybody's Fingerbook 5x5 (transpositional) A B C D - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
more listening journal doodles from 1988
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