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| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
". . . They laid the young man out, high on
his rustic litter. He was
like a flower
plucked by a girl's hand, a fragile violet
or
drooping hyacinth, whose bloom and beauty
had not started to fade,
though Mother Earth
no longer offered nourishment or strength."
Vergil - "The Aeneid" (translated by Shadi Bartsch)
Texts
Recorded
August 1, 2022
Gradus 13 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 6, 2022]
the beginnings of time
being allowed
for dust to settle
before moving on to other thoughts
drop the dampers gently
leaving no more than a half a string
left
to vibrate
longitudinally
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| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
Before Petrushka - Christopher DeLaurenti [from Favorite Intermissions]
an event of music
is preceded
by an event
every bit as
social
the recompression
after visits to the lobby
or the
rearrangements
following entry
or the decompression
following prior applause
a social event
whose formality is
absent from
for instance
a dive bar show
where the
performance of the music is embedded within an ongoing bar scene
a
dinner theater show steers between
in each case
two distinct
social milieus are present
that of the attendees
and that of the
musicians
we shall not mention the backstage and the greenroom
folderolleries
here the parts of that social activity
that is
of the production of the music
wander loose on stage
Seven Cues Without Film - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, June 23, 2012]
I struggled with the name of this set of pieces for decades before arriving at this one, with which I am content. I should also acknowledge the students in the beginning piano class that I led back at Bard, for illuminating for me a possibility, especially in the first three pieces, and Ben Boretz, for suggesting that the set needed a few more than just those three. It is surely the most Expressionist thing I ever wrote.
Virginia Jade - Antonioni [from Lullablaze]
broad outlines are essential
to be understood in a crowded room
enveloping matrix
for
(in which)
a vocal
can
(to)
intrude
(into)
Lift Every Voice - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at the Tintinabulary, May 16, 2022]
In treating Mr. Johnson's melody as a given, and aspects of his harmonic frame as touchstones, I did my own thing with the details of the bass line and I added as few other notes as I thought I could get away with, so as to sing (with piano) the song as straight and respectfully as I could, and in my own voice.
Alman, Fvb 145 - Robert Johnson - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
even back then, in binary form
Sonata in E-flat Major, Kk. 192 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
water feature
spilling pools
tiny waterwheels
model of
industry
power harnessed
marvel of the age
 |
| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
I guess everybody is upset
the orchestra is only there
to heighten
the vocals
which carry everything
She's In The Graveyard Now - Earl McDonald's Original Jug Band [from Allen Lowe's Really the Blues]
stories
of those who didn't take advice
or ran afoul of the system
or of the singer
Foolin' Myself - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
a melody can be ornamented by graces
or can be commented upon with
interjections
or can be amended creatively
Half Nelson - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
a wrestling pin if I am not mistaken
what might have been a later
elaboration of something else
becomes a starting point
the
differences then between the originals
and their further elaborations
are subtle
the pianist and bass conspire
to bring out just
the bones
Among My Souvenirs - Judy Garland [from Alone]
melody carried seamlessly from beginning to end
 |
| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
the futuristicality of it escapes me
mind you I dig the sounds
but
futuristic isn't the word I would pick to describe it
dense
knotted
cinched down
Flaming - Pink Floyd [from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]
giddy psychedelia
the song that goes in some several directions all at
once
Saviour Machine - David Bowie [from The Man Who Sold The World]
working out what might be a connection
between science fiction and rock
and roll
still wallowing in moral messaging
 |
| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
Terraced Dynamics (from Conlon Nancarrow speaks with Charles Amirkhanian) - [from Conlon Nancarrow Lost Works, Last Works]
Nancarrow seems to have accepted an out-of-date sense of what Bach era dynamics were probably like. I was fed the same line. It is based on the notion that orchestral music of the time imitated the keyboard music of the time, which is entirely backwards.
Red Angel Dragnet - The Clash [from Combat Rock]
message heavy
topples any hope of a music
going for street
authority or credibility
Sonatina - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, November 6, 2004]
This is another piece (from 1987) that was renamed years after the fact. The first subject involves a figure full of 5ths and 4ths (unordered interval type 5) and minor seconds (unordered interval type 1). I took advantage of the M7-transform for a quasi-tonal double in a later recapitulatory segment.
I wrote it for clavichord originally, though it works well on piano, as here.
If there is a compositional flaw in it it was in thinking that it needed an imposed shapeliness, however cleverly and tastefully I managed it, outside the logic of the figurations.
Deeper and Deeper - Madonna [from Erotica]
antiseptic electronic sounds
music and persona as commodities
 |
| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
stay safe out there
counting rhythm
fun and games
Remote - Christopher DeLaurenti [from Perforate Silence]
signal fragments
presumed from the airwaves
or channel surfing
spin and release
musical chairs
expert level
whim
rhythm
narrow bandwidth
media is message
information jamming
Consider the Birds 29 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
horse gallop tempo
but tiny
scenes of battle
deafened by
shelling
and so it gallops away
for all of this time
August 4, 2022
Sound Check - Peterman [recorded live at the Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]
ten years ago I was going to shows in bars
and recording sound checks
Banned Rehearsal 933 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy [April 24, 2017]
the sounds are located where they are
unpackaged
fit together as
they do
ideas
as they occur in the flow
not organized
globally
our thoughts join when they do
unbidden
discommoditied
some sounds float about
like motes
others stay put
in such a context
a chord struck on piano
can be a real sound
tipping but not over the edge into syntax
music without imputed syntax
might be an ideal
not an
achievement
so much as a release
gently done
 |
| Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
the light undims from dark
heaviness settles in the shadows
Alman, Fvb 146 - Robert Johnson - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
distinctly baroque in outline
presumably one of the more
(back
then)
recent pieces in the collection
Mistreatin' Mama - Rabbit's Foot Williams [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
a specimen
harmonica train whistle blues
with a vocal
providing occasional context
The Lightning Express - Vernon Dalhart [from Evans 78s]
clearly this will not end well
a plea for pity
a weeper
What Is This Thing Called Love - Buddy Rich [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
the bass and drum take us on a tour of sights
animatronical
cruise
ship montage
Chansons Innocentes - Salvatore Martirano - Jacqueline Bobak, Vicki Ray
playful setting
of alliteratively playful texts
clear lines
discretion in each thing made
 |
| White River, Federation Forest State Park, Greenwater, Washington |
lovely piece
too bad about the slur in the title
more than a hint
of the Hungarian Rhapsodies in there
Words - The Monkees [a Rescued Record]
psychedelic
from the day
pretty great
in fact
The Luck of the Irish - John Lennon and Yoko Ono [from Some Time in New York City]
more political posturing for the pious
Diversion Two - Anthony Braxton, Woody Shaw [from The Iron Men]
a song nearly as casual sounding as just noodling around
before getting
down to it properly
In Session at The Tintinabulary
July 30, 2022
Roosevelt Station - Keith Eisenbrey
Karen and I were taking the light rail to the University and recorded the singing of the escalators in the Roosevelt Station.
July 31, 2022
Banned Telepath 91 Tucson - Steve Kennedy
August 1, 2022
Banned Telepath 91 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Banned Rehearsal 1056 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1989
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