"THE IVY GREEN
Oh, a dainty plant is the Ivy green,
That creepeth o'er ruins old!
Of
right choice food are his meals, I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
The
wall must be crumbled, the stone decayed,
To pleasure his dainty whim:
And
the mouldering dust that years have made,
Is a merry meal for him.
Creeping where no life is seen
A rare
old plant is the Ivy green.
Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,
And a staunch old heart
has he.
How closely he twineth, how tight he clings,
To his friend
the huge Oak Tree!
And slily he traileth along the ground,
And his
leaves he gently waves,
As he joyously hugs and crawleth round
The
rich mould of dead men's graves.
Creeping where grim death
has been,
A rare old plan is the Ivy green.
Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,
And nations have scattered
been;
But the stout old Ivy shall never fade,
From its hale and
hearty green.
The brave old plant in its lonely days,
Shall fatten
upon the past:
For stateliest building man can raise,
Is the Ivy's
food at last.
Creeping on, where time has been,
A rare old plant is the Ivy green."
Charles Dickens - "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
To Love Somebody - Nina Simone [from To Love Somebody]
a singing voice is not of a binary gender
even if the singer
as a
person
is comfortable
in one of the more populous regions
Poise - Ornette Coleman [form This Is Our Music]
pins in a pinboard
to start
the professor points here
here
and here
and
we review
Sometimes - Peggy Lee [from Let's Love]
a greeting card sentiment
Jack U Off - Prince - [from Controversy]
this one is on another rack entirely
so cheerful
Feelin' Sad - Ray Charles [from The Genius Sings The Blues]
everything has gone wrong
for poor old me
personally
I think the vocal is too big in the mix
it doesn't need
that much help
and it wrecks the conversation it is having with the
guitar
Recorded
The Duke of Brunswick's Alman, Fvb 142 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the tune descends
then spills off the end
in another voice
Sonata in D minor, Kk. 191 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
within a figure
with phraseological vector A
a new figure
with phraseological vector B
twines
Don Carlos, Appendix 5: Finale: "mon fils, reprenez votre épée. Qui me rendra ce mort?" - Giuseppe Verdi - Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Claudio Abbado, Placido Domingo, Katia Ricciarelli, Lucia Valentini Terani, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondo, Nicolai Giaurov
tenor and a bass
astonish each other
time is taken to sing a song
apparently an agreement is reached
Though Your Sins Be Scarlet - Williams & Williams [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
really getting into the redness of those sins
poster image
of
square harmonies
sung straight
blood harmony?
The Last Flight of Wiley Post - Ken Card [from Evans 78s]
journalism in song
how events are remembered
across a population
I Can't Get Started (live) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
urban sophistication
gets in everything
broadcast ready
even
Basie had me to tea
Leaving Blues - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Lead Belly Legacy, Volume 1]
he makes a little high "woo"
in just the sort of place
where
Robert Johnson
would make a falsetto interjection
Dawn Ray - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]
uses those chords to say stuff
quite the entertaining talk he gives
Fixin' to Die - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
treating the Blues as a literature
to be emulated
is a short
distance
from treating the Blues
as a way to say certain things
I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) - Aretha Franklin [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
in the form of a prayer
the kind where one complains to God
but
reaffirms one's faith
Janine - David Bowie [from Space Oddity]
manages an accent in this one
that isn't quite from the USA exactly
but isn't quite anything else either
the rootsy North American
sound of the band
does help skew it more toward
what he's clearly
aiming at
1999 - Prince [from 1999]
every line is in a different voice
or voice-set
a very Bowie type
manner
everybody's at the party
Bop 'Til You Drop - Ramones [from Halfway to Sanity]
not as upbeat a lyric
as one might have surmised
it's an order
Mr. Anthony's Last - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]
surf beat with a hang line
that relaxes
into a distinct timeworld
Annunciation: Lauda VI: Dal cielle venne messo novello - Ensemble Organum, Marcel Pérès [from Portrait]
sequential solo voices
in a reverberant chamber
the melody
proceeds
in breath length phrases
and phrases
of a pair or
so
of breaths
strung along
in groups
found
by
following the trail
of cadence points
groups
as in
the
ordered set of phrases
between articulation points
articulation
points
as might
most broadly
be defined
articulation points proliferate
a multidimensional framework
of
articulations points
negotiating duality
links
points to discover
out of the past
a roundness
within duality
questions are asked
to discover
out of the future
a path
within duality
to
elsewhere
there are two notes involved
they face each other
from many angles
the notes
nor any iteration
of a note
is not
an articulation point
notes
are not points
a note
includes the sound
within its remit
what kind
of a thing
is the remit
of a note
can the effect
of a
note
escape its remit
Escape From The Planet of The Note's Remit
When My Ride Comes Along - Curtains for You [from Heaven's Waiting]
engineered so that
the recording
and not your playback device
is playing the
song
the recording
plays the speakers
Greek Nickel #1 - J. K. Randall - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, June 23, 2012]
for this piece
I needed to devise for myself
a spare knuckle
out of a playing die
in order
to negotiate an awkward chord
the notation
is all about the gaps
between things
the piece
as an experience
is about connections
among things
Holiday Road - Three Fingers [from Stocking Stuffers]
the words are there
so that
a melisma can be made
on Road
Assembly Rechoired 61 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [May 9, 2022]
it was a lovely evening
so Karen and I took a walk
up through
Maple Leaf Playground and Reservoir Park
hoping
for the sounds of
baseball
in the wild
at first though
just our footsteps
some birds
and air
traffic
a busy street approaches
and goes away
shouts of
ball game attendees
and participants
in the distance
the
path's surface has become crunchy
and the clink of the bat is
heard
a kid speeds right by us
on a coasting toy
which is a glorious
sudden rush
another busy street goes by
the device picks up my footfalls unevenly
since I was holding it at my side
yielding an interesting rhythm
more crunch path
I fail to trip
some airplanes
have a
whine in their sound
traffic bids us pause
down the hill and we'll
be home
going downhill
our feet slap more percussively
home again
Rosasolis, Fvb 143 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
notes dance up the hill
twining happy hands
all proceed at their
own pace
Lord I Can't Stay Away - Violet Harmony Singers [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
robust human harmony
at what point
in taking this in
do I
separate
the amazement
at the technologies
that allowed this
to be here
the dismay
at the loss of fidelity
in the
immediacy of the makers
occasioned
by the noisiness of those media
and
one's musical experience itself
that is
the
imaginatively reconstructed original performance
Stop Breakin' Down Blues (DAL 399-2) - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
his guitar intro includes
a scale
some chords
and a chunk
chunk pulse
each of which
is fodder for play
in what follows
these cuts go by quickly
Conception - Bill Evans [from New Jazz Conceptions]
entering the lists of thought
fists flying
sneaks I Got Rhythm in
there
on the sly
Long Tall Sally - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings, Volume 2]
they played as loud as the equipment would allow
and as fast as they
could
uptempoed favorites from the past
I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) - Thelonious Monk [from Standards]
the chords are by the book
but the way his right hand sings
lifts
it above any text
Dave - Cheech and Chong [from Cheech and Chong]
the knock at the door
the door is the barrier to communication
the
situation of their comedy
Here He Comes - Brian Eno [from Before and After Science]
the latter portion of each long line
distinguishes one line from the
next
repetition is packaging
segmentation
inventing invented
sounds
Under the Big Black Sun - X [from Under the Big Black Sun]
a reimagining of the past's sounds
Cantus - Keith Eisenbrey - The Fehrwood Ensemble [recorded live, May 1, 1987]
the live performance
I clarified
for some reason
that my clicking sticks
were not
a reed organ
I don't remember what the venue was
some church no doubt
but I
think the sponsoring organization
was some sort of local recorder
umbrella outfit
or society
as I recall they styled themselves
by using the clicking sticks
the conducting becomes a proper part of the
music
Lot's of Lovin' - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth [from Mecca and the Soul Brother]
friendly
Fruits & Vegetables - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]
the four chord
steady pulse
introduction
one chord per pulse
count to four
makes it simple
to con the structural
parameters
Search - Paul Des Marais - Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Peter Rutenberg [from Open Space 28]
diverges from homophony
to regroup the sense of the choral text
Consider the Birds Mix with Cave - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
subterranean bird hoots
reconstituted xylophone strikes
strangely
the sound modeled on the herebelow
is quite wide and specific
as to each sound's
point of apparent origin
perhaps there
are some seals
barking back in there
also
the underlying
choppiness of the signal
is smoothed over
DIY recorded cheap sound
the vocal goes by in the midground
obscured by drums and guitar
but its rhythm cuts through
Don't Black Out - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Sunset Tavern, Seattle, April 18, 2017]
good advice says Neal
part 002 - Claire Lodge [from Seconds]
held to the land
by cyclic chord structure
with jagged edges
of vast western sky extent
stony desert
grit
watch for
snakes
Psalme, Fvb 144 - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
such clear figuration
two parts
one slow and plain
the other
ornate and lively
then three parts
prepared
by doubling the
ornate part in thirds
then splitting that
the old proportional
notation is also in play
Rocking Chair Blues - Original Louisville Jug Band [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
was the yodel born in the blues
great sound
on what I presume is a
washtub bass
or what?
tuba?
jug?
banjo and sax?
Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Benny Goodman [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
strong beats
on a cross-rhythm
celebratory and quick
Alexander's Ragtime Band - Bing Crosby, Al Jolson [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
Al's voice has a remarkably focused ping
Bing is warm and round
but right on target
however
getting all sentimental about
minstrel shows
harsh times
Venus de Milo - Miles Davis [from Birth of the Cool]
narrow melodic pitch field
thoroughly packed
there is a friction
between the desire to express devotion in public
and the cult of charisma and technical professionalism
they don't
mix easily
Hiring Fair - The Irish Rovers [from The Unicorn]
getting snookered by the boss
goes back
this guy
ends up as
fertilizer
grim Irish humor
Rockin' Robin - Michael Jackson [from Got To Be There]
20 year old beat
predating the singer
so far
this song is
less weirdly icky
than the other songs on the album
he sounds like
he's having genuine fun
(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash [from The Clash]
this was
no doubt
the first song by The Clash that I heard
since it was on Nancy's Mix
wherein
I was introduced to many
bands
popular among my peers
but entirely unknown to me
this
goes smart
Unlike Clockwork - Orbaneja [from Orbaneja]
an image of bare competence
holding it together
seems to be the
whole point
Mycenae alpha - Iannis Xenakis
if sirens became sentient
or voracious electronica
yes
you
are for dinner
Butter - A Tribe Called Quest [from Low End Theory]
guy culture
among itself
is natively misogynistic
a pose
by guys
for the guys
Interlude: Fasten Your Seatbelts - Janet Jackson [from The Velvet Rope]
does the favor
of making the little studio chatter bits
separate
tracks
so that
they're not part of the song
almost as good
as leaving them out
In Session at The Tintinabulary
July 27, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook 7x7 (augmentational) B C D - Keith Eisenbrey
July 28, 2022
Joshua Tree Prelude 12 (two takes) - Aaron Keyt
Aaron sent me comments on my earlier recordings of these tiny pieces, prompting a few re-tries.
July 29, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook 7x7 (augmentational) C D A - Keith Eisenbrey
two more to go!
Prelude in D-flat Major - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1989
