Hablot K. Browne "Phiz" - "The Break-Down" from "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
September 24, 2022
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 200 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
its repeating figures
and their count
a carny mirror house
the exit will find
you
not intended to be viewed
from above
but
from within
Black Swan Blues - King Oliver [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
winds share their woes
strummers hear them out
conversation at the bummer bar
Born to Love - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
sung slowly over a quick beat
forwards
the
in no hurry
of it
Bird Feathers - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
follow the track of a butterfly through a flower garden
the squirrels seem
downright chill
Baby - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
fancy phrase ends
50s rococo
Miles Ahead - Miles Davis [from Miles Ahead]
for dancing close
the band got a few measures behind
playing so slow
so
they
had to rush ahead for a bit
to find where they should have been
by then
the vowel George rhymes on "said" and "ahead"
wanders off at the end
the
please don't be long hook
plays with an ambiguity
be long
or
belong
the sort
of thing that Broadway songwriters loved
The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie [from The Man Who Sold The World]
an encounter in the spirit world
or
discovering we have been in the afterlife
all along
trapped in the world our pasts have made
Face to Face - The Rumour [from Max]
polite big band rock sound
aimed at
but why
nobody needs polite party music
clearly recorded in isolation booths
which scrubs what ought not be scrubbed
Dangerous - The Who [from It's Hard]
opens with an introduction
so that they can prance
without singing getting in
the way
September 25, 2022
Assembly Rechoired 27 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [June 2, 1987]
how did Sarah get in here
we pluck and poke
after Sarah's disc is ejected
Karen strums dulcimer tunes
I pretend the funmaker is a wheezebox
and test
buttons
I think I'm playing Retrato de Euchababilla really slow
an ice
cream truck went by in the past
RofE is a 12-tone work
in a blatantly obvious way
I proceed through the row
note by note
repeating segments freely
composing it out melodically
I doubt I used any oddball row forms
nor do I recall having matrixed it out
in any but the 12-Tone Music 101 way
no Babbittian shenanigans here.
12-tone of the lowest kind
describes it pretty well
abuse of method
I still like the piece
|
I move to the fishwhistle
Karen picks up the thumb piano
playing old favorites
such as Hyfrydol and
Amazing Grace
bugle blown low
and a shaker
Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin - Richard Wagner [from World's Greatest Choruses]
composed as a set piece
that is
within the story
it is a composition
performed
as though it were a composition
being performed
Buddha's Face - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]
a heavy handed arrangement
but it works remarkably well
not hook based
as are
many of the other songs on this album
this one is about a sound
kind of a fun slow rhythm they get going
supporting the passing of a space
sound
with heavily filtered vocal
Sputnik Love 03 Stretched - Keith Eisenbrey [February 20, 2007]
the process:
first give it a good pounding
let settle
repeat two more times
|||
second
cut it into evenly sized tiny bits
spread those tiny bits out
to
thrice their original total span
divide in thirds
and layer those thirds atop
each other
so that the tiny bits interleave
each to the others
repeat this
second process twice more
|||
tenderized and shuffled and stacked
the metrical
mind postulates groupings spontaneously
though
given the process
they are
extremely unlikely to be identifiable artifacts of the signal
they are
hallucinations of a sort
a perception of a pattern
attributed to an incoming
signal
but incompletely derived from it
hearing a thing
as a thing it ain't
or
probably ain't
but then
that's generally true
meter
as perceived
is always an
hallucination
what is that
that we call meter
out here in word world
as
that
that it is
in its world?
September 26, 2022
Sound Check - The Hunting Club [recorded live at the Sound Effects Cafe, Seattle, October 26, 2012]
it was a large space
with no remaining staff that I ever saw
this was the last
show there ever
or so rumor has it
the building being demolished shortly thereafter
the Hunting
Club was a fun little band
that survived long enough to make an album
Aus meines Herzens Grunde - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded August 30, 2019]
within a pitch-set theory field
two distinct systems can be cross-interpreted
on paper at least
but if one of those
lines up with the acoustic facts
such as
mod-12 does
more or less
and
the artifact of that system's strand
is
interpretable in a familiar subsystem
such as
here
a Lutheran Chorale tonal
melody
it is nigh impossible
to also interpret the alternate subsystem's
artifacts
as though they were not derived
by a more similar path
than the paper
facts would prove
Animal - Emily Stranger [from Labor of Love]
internal voices to oneself
and a louder explanation to oneself
Pavana Galiarda, Fvb. 167 and 168 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
every part must be beautified
because our lives are beautiful
the beauty of a
cadence
can overlap the beautification preparations
for the next thing
the
times are not confused
clearly
I'm Comin' Virginia - Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
the intro has two parts
one to establish the tonality
the second to bring in
the rhythm
the arrangement
as it goes along
is a delight
every verse
is that
Bing and Paul singing a horn duet?
When The Work's All Done This Fall - Vernon Dalhart [from Evans 78s]
apparently some cowboys couldn't wait to get back home to Dixie and Mother
this dude doesn't think he'll make it
ends with his epitaph
Blue Brew - Brew Moore [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
has a nice ride
Lover Man - Sarah Vaughan [from Swingin' Easy]
she conjures the whole story
sets lighting
weather
the works
it's all there
did they have the same microphones Harry Partch did?
high detail
hi fi
heavy
on the stereo separation
this soup's hot
Soul Serenade - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You]
invocation and prayer
The Pope Live at the Vatican - Cheech and Chong [from Cheech and Chong]
tits joke
Seventeen - The Sex Pistols [from Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols]
I'm a lazy sod
self parody
irony up to eleven
Forever Yours - Janet Jackson [from Janet Jackson]
virginal teeny pop
single line vocal track
image of purity and simplicity
daddy swaddled
You - X [from See How We Are]
a story from the time of land lines and phone booths
and cross-continental
romance
as funny music goes
the Loony Tunes folks have him beat
You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You) - The Notorious B.I.G. [from Life After Death]
American street dystopia
Gradus 19 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 25, 2002]
again the bottom three As
in a universe of As alone
the notion of pitch class
as such
is empty of meaning
the metaphor of verticality
also fades into a wisp
the more pertinent quality
is
perhaps
inclusion or non-inclusion
within their
respective sets of overtones
like nesting dolls
but that relies on an analysis
of those overtones
which is possible
but not required
so
by what other
metaphor
might we describe their distinction
do they even exist within a
common geometry
are acoustic facts
just another metaphor
albeit a useful one
for certain strands of thought
composition is the tool we use to explode
metaphors
Day's Getting Longer - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from Kitchen Recordings]
plays hillbilly blues guitar
with a one-man-band-contrapted drum section
Rocks and Glass - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet Tavern, Seattle, July 29, 2012]
Neal was really hoarse at this show
Pine Tar on a Pebble - Nat Evans [from Coyoteways]
a sound image
of the sparsely populated western crossways
at night
Banned Rehearsal 1052 - Jennifer Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
 |
| Banned Rehearsal 1052 |
September 28, 2022
Pavana, Fvb 169 - Thomas Morley - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
imitation
or repetition
emerges
from within a conversation
Jack of Diamonds - Ben Jarrell [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
blame the cards
if it isn't the Queen of Spades
it's that darn Jack O'D
banjo
and fiddle
now he's blaming the booze
it's always something
Roseland Shuffle - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]
moves along from gut down
arms to keep balance
head held steady
And That's For Sure - Allan Eager [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
the title is a segment of offhand speech
a stock phrase
the sort of thing that
Cole Porter or Ira Gershwin
would turn somersaults over
point taken
Music, Music, Music - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]
just Ray and a drummer and a
bass inventing a new form of popular jazz star
Skating in Central Park - Bill Evans, Jim Hall [from Undercurrent]
inventing a new instrument
out of two
by making a music
that is neither
just
the one
nor the other
but
a thing made of both
trying things out in private
to see how they fit
here's an old ballad to have
done
Love Is Here And Now You're Gone - Michael Jackson [from Got To Be There]
look at me
look at my face
rather poignant in the end
Brazil - Wire [from Pink Flag]
there is a kind of physical commitment to this
but it's difficult to locate
behind the ironic screen
heavily armored
The Cowpoke Jumped Over The Moon - Walt Wagner [from The Evening Muse]
innocuousity maximized
anthemized
September 29, 2022
Assembly Rechoired 28 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [June 9, 1987]
for the Pioneer Picnic and Pie Rodeo
we took a walk out Cemetery Road
and left the tape recorder in a secluded spot one evening
hoping for general cricketeering
we almost immediately got a soloist that parked their cricketness next to the microphone
hoping for immortality
an interesting artifact
there is a noticeable hiss (soft)
that is suppressed
in complementary time
to the chirps of the cricket
the cricket chirps to suppress tape hiss
what a noble cricket
there are other mysteriously origined sounds
some are wind
but some might be aliens
something moves nearby
quite nearby
a distant horse whinnies past
the birds
surprisingly active for a cemetery's environs
a bird's wings whirr
the cricket stops
Karen and I had no idea all this was going on
we had gone walking out of earshot
our cricket hero returns
or is replaced
at last the hiss
is once again suppressed
so complementary
so valiant
he chirrups in a morse of twos and threes and fours
careful lines of cricket verse
some other critter raspberried from the cheap seats
is this us returning near
or some squabble among critter kind
either way the cricket has gone quiet
sounds squabbly
oh yes quite
how strange
helmicrons no doubt
this
though
is us
we speak
the squabble continues
we vacate the arena
or we sit and wait it out
The Well-Tampered Bach - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]
jazzing it up doesn't so much wreck it
as it emphasizes what was obvious
about it anyway
swing here
comes across as a heavy handed
notes inégales
where finesse might reveal subtler secrets
Messe du jour Noël - Kirie Eleïson (plain-chant perisien) - Ensemble Organum, Marcel Pérès [from Portrait]
what is the purpose of inspiring awe
in terms of Christian worship
|to assist
in our practice of humility
|to remind us that we are not gods after all
|that
we are not the be all and end all of all humankind even
|it is an antidote to
pride or intended so
the danger
is that it will inspire awe at the grandeur of
the Church
when the Church is
after all
just us again
but do I
as a Christian
need my desire for awe
because I recognize exactly that pride in myself
that arrogant pride which needs humbling
simply in order for my self
to be it's honest self?
The Modern World - The Jam [from The Sound of The Jam]
the age of scorn
this is the modern world
this is the name of the song
we'll
repeat it so's you remember
Sputnik Love 2 Stretched - Keith Eisenbrey [February 20, 2007]
there are regularities of pulse that persist
filled by
whatever signal was
there to be there
one can hear them
echoing through different sounds
connecting otherwise separately sourced signals
field of pitch-focus qualities
the percussive sounds
those for which a plausible complete sound occurs
entirely within the space of a pulse sample
don't
as obviously
partake
in the
slicing and dicing
as the more sustained sounds do
this results
in an image of
continuity
nearly as though
they are on separate layers
that don't pulse
their corporate continuity
is less virtual
within the image
Muchos Dracula - Tea Cozies [from Bang Up]
bouncing vocals for pinball dance
An Wasserflüssen Babylon - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded September 11, 2019]
the chorales were chosen
based on
having a variety of phrase length patterns
which I treated variously
as containers
into which
to compose patterns of
intervals beneath the melody
which patterns of intervals
were segments of the
row form I was using
Controlled Folly - Entropic Advance [from Chaos Out of Order]
the steady pulse controls the field wherethrough the waves of sound scan
In Session at The Tintinabulary
September 26, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 1060 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
It was still warm
so we did our thing
in the dark
out in Anarcadia
September 30, 2022
Prelude in F Major - Lockrem Johnson
I finally got a recording of this that I like
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1990
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