"'Oh, let them come,' exclaimed Mrs. Bardell frantically; 'I'll never leave you - dear, kind, good, soul;' and with these words Mrs. Bardell clung the tighter.
'Mercy upon me,' said Mr. Pickwick, struggling violently, 'I hear somebody coming up the stairs. Don't, don't, there's a good creature, don't.' But entreaty and remonstrance were alike unavailing: for Mrs. Bardell had fainted in Mr. Pickwick's arms; and before he could gain time to deposit her on a chair, Master Bardell entered the room, ushering in Mr. Tupman, Mr. Winkle, and Mr. Snodgrass.
Mr. Pickwick was struck motionless and speechless. He stood with his lovely burden in his arms, gazing vacantly on the countenances of his friends, without the slightest attempt at recognition or explanation. They, in their turn, stared at him; and Master Bardell, in his turn, stared at everybody."
Charles Dickens - "The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
November 5, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 935 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 22, 2017]
on the porch at the end of May
crows are not shy about their cawing
we fit our
little noises into the evening
no reason to raise a voice
above what the four
of us
listening
can hear
enjoying
what sound sounds like
out of doors
a phone
ringing sound
is ringing
but it is faux
probably
interpreted from a signal
rather than the result of a physical bell being rung
Neal may have found some
effects on a device
weightless as bush tits
Gather - Tom Baker - Cristina Valdés [from Deeply Lodged]
at the upper extreme of the keyboard
busy birds nesting
a fracture in the rock
lets water in
down to the lower keys
hangs at the end in finished time
Piper's Galliard, Fvb 182b - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
contour patterns can imply a cyclicity
at the interval of repetition
this
cyclicity
need not be in agreement with the ostensible meter
Sonata in E Major, Kk. 206 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
indulging in minor harmonies and fancy learned chromaticism
interrupts a
repetition with a new segment to repeat
Alligator Crawl - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
dance craze song
everybody do the X
goes way back
dance bands taught dances
here
the song itself seems to do the dance
low to the ground
lumbering and comic
Swingin' At The Daisy Chain - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]
underworld gangsters
flash duds
prewar giddiness
If Dreams Come True (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
indoors
private entertainment
a jazz number such as this
was as much a vehicle
for the instrumental soloists
as for the singing soloist
who only gets one
verse
just like the others
Drifting on a Reed - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
composers began to distance themselves from song as such
ascendency of
instrumental virtuosity as the centerpiece
though Charlie certainly plays
with a singer's sensibility
Blues for Pablo - Miles Davis [from Miles Ahead]
clear demarcations between segments
presumably the chords cycle through
but
attention is paid to the liveliness
and to the motions within each segment
Blue Holiday - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]
gospel singing
ecstatic regions
accessible at any moment
My Man's Gone Now - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]
long long delayed final S
carefully preserved
composed out pacing
total
control
Grassy Grass Grass - Woody Guthrie [from The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie]
music at a family level
V-2 Schneider - David Bowie [from Heroes]
builds itself up like early Pink Floyd
but focuses narrowly on a single point
which opens up into the song itself
which
is mostly instrumental anyway
the
vocals are a part of the synthesizer wash
economic ceiling made as palpable as explicit
Finlandia - Jean Sibelius [form 100 Greatest Classics]
greatness in music
has come to be associated with both bigness
and with
nationalistic representation
the days of the national hero composer
are done
Bad Girl - Madonna [from Erotica]
not much there anywhere
her persona seems to be
an image of the fallen ingenue
in need of a firm hand
hm
suburban trash
Wonder Wine (Japanese) - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]
playacted
innocence abroad
Lamb of God (050510B) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, May 10, 2005]
I messed up twice
decided we'd try again the next week
Hornet's Nest - Head for the Hills [from Robbers Roost]
this album came to me last week
by way of mistaken identity
but it sounded
interesting anyway
bluegrass adjacent
lively and colorful playing
spot on
Sound Check - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
quite a quick one too
I must have waited longer than usual to push the record
buttons
I Can't Grow a Beard - The Snubs [from Witness Protection Program]
give it time friend
petty troubles of youth
Banned Telepath 90 MV Spokane - Jennifer Chung [July 14, 2022]
a most excellent chugging on this ferry boat
slap drumming
where were they on the boat to
record this?
punk rock ferry boat
sound track to an awesome martial arts
battle
get this and my 312 bus chains together
and you've got a band
clears
the ear
scrubs the mind
Variatio Ejusdem, Fvb 183 - John Bull [Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
there exists its subject
perpetually reiterated
within a devious terrain
just
as
perpetually leading away
progressing both inward and outward
with equal
grace and ease
Jazz Me Blues - Bix Biederbecke and His Gang [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
blues
in the sense of what?
the chord changes?
soloists tell us all about it
lighthearted comic delivery mode
After You've Gone - Roy Eldridge [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
big bands were possible because labor was cheap?
hard times easier to handle
in a family or a band
fun arrangement
crazy trumpet playing
Sketches in Sepia - Florence Price - Lara Downes
crossroads
at the corner of jazz lounge
and upscale salon pieces
suitable for
the cultured elite
unlike Billie Holiday
there is never a question
but that she is singing this
and using the words as a vehicle
to make melodies sparkle with
Baby Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
the green pastures of Harvard University
doing his one-man band schtick
guitar
and voice and harmonica
all talking back at each other
Watch What Happens - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
cinematic sweep of strings
no pretense of any good taste
beyond doing it up
stylishly
Feeling Sad Tonight - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]
the arrangement follows the whim of her songwriting
yielding
doesn't fight it
or talk back
Through Hollow Lands - Brian Eno [from Before and After Science]
stays put
goes nowhere
remains rooted
the relations holding
between the star
and her backing
are impersonal
provided
but not sharing in the making
putting the power balance in high
relief
each
is merely a function
both star
and sky
Kosály-Meyer 4 - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 27, 1987]
somebody had access to a piano
I presume this is the same piano
upon which the
first ten Gradus sessions were made
and also the San Diego Sectionals with
Aaron(?)
boys just wanna make noise
two hands
two strands
aims Taylorward
some
other music is heard through a briefly opened door
a cornet is heard
pedal
down
the issue
is exactly how to do
whether to start from scratch
and reinvent
the whole
or
to start where the most adventurous had gotten to
and enjoy the
view
if you can
but now
I'm thinking they must have had a piano
in their
apartment
something about the sound vibe of the space
seems smaller than any
institution
such as a church space would be
Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor - Alexander Borodin [from World's Greatest Choruses]
what is a chorus anyway
a set piece within an opera or oratorio
sung by a
group that doesn't include a soloist
not really a genre as such
more of a
function
and one that would depend for its meaning
on its context within a
larger frame
this one
for instance
is essentially an orchestral set piece
that
uses the chorus as an instrumental
to display costumes on a stage
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 72, Romance - Henryk Wieniawski - Gil Shaham [from Masters of the Bow]
an operatic solo number
violinist is the singer
now I'm wondering
who will
write a violin concerto
in which the soloist is required to leap out a window
stage rear
at the end
all the while
holding a high harmonic
Nocturnes or Discourses (Chickering) - Keith Eisenbrey [March 11, 2007]
the first recording I made on the Chickering
I think
shortly after delivery
I
poke at it
perhaps it pokes back
fighting with it
dismantle and toss in a pile
inflict an idea into the ear
by main force
Stories - Chris Brokaw [from Stories]
comes on big
to push back
room for escape
for the personal voice
can say it
if
there's a gap between us
music as poetry's armor and shield
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (one way) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded September 12, 2019]
part of the purpose of these chorale settings
and certainly the prime
attraction of doing it
was to find a music that would center on itself
and its
make-up
facing inward
rather than outward to please
Aphrodisia - Sascia Pellegrini [from Epidemics]
rather reminiscent of MV Spokane
piano drumming forte
and roars that wash side
to side
an assault fills space
begins to precipitate
as in a beaker
leaving
beads to roll on the drum head
and steam to vent
Galiarda, Fvb 185 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
paths
from and to
back along
airy dances
if the weather is good
well I didn't know you had any children
(6)
add verses as desired
Milk Cow Blues - Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
unpretentious music played well and honest
or played without concern for its
lack of fine duds
Milky White Way - Trumpeteers [from Goodbye, Babylon]
some of these days
guitar
solo voice
and two or three harmony voices
two(?) high
one low
tireless march
to some of these days
Black Coffee - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]
piano and sax playing the exact same thing
with completely different notes
Ray's approach is often redolent of Monk
it
the coffee
must have kicked in
He's Not Just a Soldier - Little Richard [from The King of the Gospel Singers]
sentimental patriotism
just weird
with marching back up vocals
skittery
hurryup through
to stutter
to slow
skid time
sticks and slides
All Is Loneliness - Janis Joplin, with Big Brother and The Holding Company [from In Concert]
vocals enter
spilling over each other
baptismal immersions
held small
to drill
the force
Janie Jones - The Clash [from The Clash]
the vowel he sings
on you
is more like the German ü
dance beat
more
comprehensible than the words
Ménage à Deux - Walt Wagner [from The Evening Muse]
in tones of nostalgic sepia
unleashed and weepy
South Bronx - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]
shout the neighborhood brag
Batik - Craig Pepples [from Open Space 51]
clarification of figuration space
emergent voicings
street scene
Lamb of God (050717A) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, May 17, 2005]
so we picked it up again the next week
and pretty much nailed it
I shy away
from word-painting as such
preferring to give words a more neutral background
so that they can do what they do
allowing the music to do what it does
optimally
the music will try to work with the sense
of how the sense of the
words unfolds
and
allowing the scansion of the words
to illuminate the sense
of what the music is doing
if sense
is what music ever does
SF Variations - Chris DeLaurenti [from Famous Intermissions]
a mass of flutes and reeds glomulates the stage
a flautist is playing with a
banjo on their knee
Ask Your Question - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
how often do we question our answers?
Neal must have gotten himself a pedal
they're all the rage
Sorry - Ease [from Letters]
a wash of mood
through which
is squeezed
a thread of words
the louder the
words
the more obscurity
the wash
overwhelmed by all
Maple Leaf 220714 - Keith Eisenbrey [July 14, 2022]
junkos chirp while foraging
motors going by
flange roaringly
clink of ice in
our drinks
dragon rumbles
even the dogs' sounds are strangely affected
I
presume it's the device that does that
Praeludium, Fvb 184 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
such seeming simple means
but a few chords trap us
any bearings that can be
grasped
twist just past where we were
Cluck Old Hen - Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
agrarian America talks to its animals
using music magic
everyman's shaman
spells
the fiddlin' is great
but the rhythm section
played on pots and pans (?)
is
amazing
Who's To Blame - T. Texas Tyler [from Allen Lowes' That Devilin' Tune]
string together some generic advice or other
on a tune that's amenable
to
dance around
on the lap(?) guitar
Thou Swell - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]
tight lyrics (Rogers and Hart)
in the first part of the verse
busts loose and
runs over at the end
the tune works the wit of it
In Session at the Tintinabulary
November 7, 2022
Sinfonia 1 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
I completed some heavy revisions to this piece, cutting back the brush and propping up slender stems
Banned Rehearsal 1063 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer
November 10, 2022
Suite in D minor, BuxWV 234 - Dieterich Buxtehude
I've been working at this piece (on clavichord) for several months now. This recording is close to being satisfactory. Pacing needs some work here and there, and the instrument could be in better tune.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1990
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