"No matter how many books we read and write, we can at any moment be ambushed by the question: What is this strange thing I am doing, staring into a page as if my thinking will be done for me and Truth will make a stunning appearance?"
George Quasha - "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole"
Texts
Live
November 17, 2022
Seattle Composer Pianists
Gavin Borchert, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron
Keyt, Peter Nelson-King
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd
Center, Seattle
Gavin Borchert, Jennifer K. Chung, Keith Eisenbrey,
Peter Nelson-King
Gavin Borchert:
Prelude in F# major
Two-Part Invention in F minor
Text-piece
Two-Part
Invention in C major
Keith Eisenbrey:
Selections from Études d'exécution imminent:
15 and 16 Rounds for
Aaron
(a page to be chosen from) 17 Rungs for Neal
Entr'acte
(with Jennifer K. Chung)
Aaron Keyt:
Monsters (performed by Jennifer K. Chung and Keith Eisenbrey]
Peter Nelson-King:
The Magpie's Shadow
This was my first experience performing in public since February of 2020, and I must admit that the combined effect of all those listening ears and the over-sized consciousness of my note-errors was somewhat overwhelming on the night of. I didn't even try to keep notes. Listening back to the recording the next morning I tell myself "chill out, it was fine!" and it was. And it was a blast to play 4-hand music too. If we four composers have anything in common aesthetically I believe it may be our mutual obsession with music as a poetic art, whether it's Peter's explicit conversations with specific poems, or Gavin's deep dives into the lyrical masks of music, behind it all is an impulse like unto that of the concentrated expression of poetry.
Recorded
Hallelujah I Love Her So - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings, Volume 1]
enthusiastic play
irrepressed spirit of the young
crowded together
away from
the past
Angels We Have Heard On High - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
arranged in a straightforward hymnbook style
back when one could get away with
that
before every ensemble on the planet
had a Christmas Album
with a need
to
sell itself
to make budget for the year
Old Lone Wolf - Cisco Houston [from The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie]
without need to be complete as a piece
some verse scraps
and a tune
is enough
Karma Man - David Bowie [from Starting Point]
talking about his generation
Person to Person - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]
his voice is armor
for the earnest lyrics
and simple accompaniment
which
is
here
like a string of party lights
to gaudy things up
Entos 1 (side 2) - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer, David M, Marcia Z [June 27, 1987]
gaps further back
in the sonically charged landscape
tuning one's ears
to hear
small and distant sounds
when
we get a fact
we also get
an opinion
about the
fact
it's a package
the mind interrupts itself
edits itself on the fly
the
goal
is to arrive at the interesting
stand firm
the right answer
is that there
is no wrong answer
but
the answer
that
there is a right answer
is wrong
so
there are wrong answers
no right answers
and
the possibility
that
there are
answers
that are neither right
nor wrong
or both
all
in sliding measure
it is a simple thing
a word that refers to a relation
and a vector
holding within that relation
are we in the world
or is
the world around us
the Kingdom of God
is in and around us
our spiritual
environment
(as a fish's water)
not an act of man
acceptance
of our spirit
home
in which we have always been
we are in it
as it
is around us
the
microphone
as a synecdoche
for the whole recording and playback apparatus
edits speaking
to show
that
when we speak
with rhetorized emphasis
we not only
speak louder
we also tend to enunciate more clearly
as though
the microphone
hears it
when we want to be clear
can one not look at the clock
and
at the
same time
not fret
about the time
the state of baptism
the upper waters of
Genesis
music is dependent on sounds
session done
so folks chat
Last Tango In Bayreuth - P.D.Q. Bach [from Music For An Awful Lot of Brass and Percussion]
Tristan prelude sort
with a tango beat
for four bassoons
too bad
in a way
he
didn't keep
the oh so specific tonal ambiguities
of the original
I Get Lonely - Janet Jackson [from The Velvet Rope]
at last
a band that feels like humans
it would be interesting
to hear her do
an acoustic show
as unamplified as possible
minimal production value
but this style or genre or whatever it is
thrives on overproduction
the sheen of money
the protection it confers
Boy (I Need You) - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
the danger
is that the production
leaves so little of the song
left over
it may
be possible
to extract the song
in analysis
but not to hear that song clearly
a swank
apartment
crammed with curation
price tags left on
Gradus 115 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 12, 2007]
the first Gradus on the Chickering
A seven
there is no need
in this music for
figuring anything out
at the scale
of a single rung
a music is invented
on a
single note
or
we are hearing musical invention on the fly
there is no
reason to suspect
that the pianist-inventor
has any greater index
as to the
music's path
than the listener does
all the ideas
are right out there
buck
naked
because we have nothing
of the knowledge-kind
to conjure
or to imagine
might be conjured
out of the clues provided
by a writing-music-down type composer?
if there is
then of what kind of enjoyment
is it?
can enjoyment be compared
on a quantified scale?
can one enjoyment
be anything like another?
> or = or < another enjoyment
even if
they are not the same
as each other?
are we all lined up
in a vast
ordered
queue
of personal merit?
anything music might conjure
up arises from within us
perhaps
prodded by the music's stance
of conjuration
perhaps
confounded
by our own
such
conjuring stance
Your Old Clothes - Red Ribbon [from Time Is Running Out]
an early iteration of Red Ribbon
a short album consisting of the songs
in the
early set
that Emma was playing
back in 2012
or so
down-to-earth arrangement
well done
and sounds pro
but not
all bespeckled with expense
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (other way) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded September 19, 2019]
chords have attitudes
angles
expressions
a thing like a mouth shape
a gestalt
in a geometry they create
by sounding
Totem 41 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem IV]
as words do
and as these do
they speak
fibrillations
almost become tones
the
alarm has been sounded
it is cried in the streets
now it's a comedy dialog
Autre Venus estes sans faille - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe
picturesque lines
diverge
reverge
trace loving caresses
upon each
the other's
curves
Galiarda, Fvb 186 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a garden
terraced below
nooks to sit in
flowers to discover
stone steps
lead
to secluded vistas
Suite in D minor, BuxWV 234 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded November 10, 2022]
a draft recording
to see where it is
which is quite close
for a great deal of
it
the clavichord
could be in better tune by the end
but the ornamentation
is
largely strong
I am enamored
of how blithely Dieterich
will skip steps of
musical logic
relying on us
to follow
whithersoever
a bit rushed in spots
but
not wholly egregious
I made two takes of the Courante
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 207 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
each phrase
individually wrapped
interlocking
so much repeating
of wholes
and
parts
in variations
and sequences
proliferating
the possibilities
of memory
Potato Head Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
the blues
sit lightly here
16 bar variety
Pennies from Heaven - Count Basie [from the First Recordings He Ever Made]
the media mood
was upbeat
despite the times
escapist
or merely coping
or
do we
have an odd notion
of life then
one should take care
before accepting song lyrics
as musicological statements
that verify anything
rhythm has its seasons
Quasimodo - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
these tunes
dance better
than you do
never lose awareness
of where they might
land
Dear Old Stockholm - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]
cards played close to the chest
wide leaps are so outré
wide contours so
garish
New Day - Sun Ra [from The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra]
each entrance
calculated
precise
develops independently
transparently
Put It Off Until Tomorrow - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]
grievance and woe
The First Day In August - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]
dreamy wishes
with strings
and pointless piano pounding
First Week / Last Week - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads 77]
an instrumental singer
no crooner he
Nothing - Flipper [from Generic]
to accuse
not to please
scorched earth
There She Goes Again - REM [from Dead Letter Office]
the sound
has hollows in it
as though
it were weirdly compressed
Canon in D - Johann Pachelbel - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]
the popularity of this piece
completely bamboozles me
why this one??
so easy to
follow?
so essentially self-satisfied?
Fruits and Vegetables (Japanese) - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]
cultural mockery
imitation
being the sincerest form of contempt
(not my
original idea)
it doesn't quite come across that way
more like
an acceptance
of
a new common culture
a kind of colonization
Lamb of God (050517B) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded May 17, 2005]
what I was up to 20 years ago
becoming adept at composing
within a somewhat
perverse system of pitches
Ain't She Sweet - Back Burner [from Simmer On]
the song exists
outside the performance
as a memory
that persists
of it
and
its tune
its chords
its words
and
its time
clearly past
what arrives
at this
end
is playacting
What's Wanting For - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
some of my puzzlement at R&R
is due to the personal fact
that not only
could I never imagine myself
up there
doing it
I could never really imagine
a
reason
I would ever want to
so
a general puzzlement
as to its appeal
as a
thing to do
I suppose
sometimes
it has to do with
the particular poetics of song lyrics
of
an urge
to read words
in a particular way
in order to express them
more
precisely
a way
in which
a schematic background
keeps them grounded
i.e. a
poetic form
as much as a musical one
A Bag of the Blues for Funny Fitz (Part 1) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Lillia Federico, Jim Knodle, Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at Gallery 1412, July 16, 2022]
Neal recites Chapter 8 of Finnegans Wake
Lillia sings softly
and Jim
plays mutedly
backing up the text
but also
carrying it along
keeping it
company
commenting
composting
commandeering
commingling
being with
sharing time
vigilant
become the text's familiars
braided spirits
text
inter-confused
with music
mutually
Allemanda, Fvb 187 - John Marchant - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
really into spinning
long scalar decorative lines
for the repeat
must have
been all the rage
I'm Comin' Virginia - Bix Biederbecke, Frankie Trumbauer [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
lovely job engineering this
presumably
with a single microphone
guitar right
up to it
the band spread out away
also
a lesson in sinuous ensemble
lovely
Bell Clappin' Mama - Bill Carlisle [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
a complaint blues
finger picked guitar
weaving around
a tight center
one
presumes he was complaining to his pals
not a healthy way to do relationship
Relaxin' at Camrillo - Dizzy Gillespie [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
begins in the weeds
stays hot
the image
of a lively dance floor
lots of twirls
and lifts
and fancy hats
and swishing skirts
Losing Hand - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]
explanation (accusatory) blues
guitar is doing some fancy playing back there
no need to get all sheened up
Stairway to the Stars - Bill Evans, Jim Hall [from Undercurrent]
the sounds join
to be a single melody
made of different melodies
Brahmsian
and
emerge
as individuals
like eels
a marriage of musics
Light Is Faster Than Sound - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
a list of facts
with a personal message
embedded within
a truly 67ish sound
played by real people
Woody's Rag & 900 Miles - Weavers [from The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie]
the banjo is working harder than Woody is
not that he isn't keeping up of
course
Somethin's Goin' On - The Rumour [from Max]
too much studio separation
all the sound has been bleached out
and so the
rumour
fades away
Evening Prayer - Engelbert Humperdinck - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]
I presume the purpose of this album
was
to provide a soundtrack
for a certain
kind of home living
easy to ignore
classy
vaguely sacred
carefully made not to be heard
nor to intrude upon conversation
there goes the prayer
wafting up
and
out the skylight
Entos 2 (side 1) - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer, David M, Marcia Z
prayer
muttering
silence
tires squealing
revving engines
a power tool of some
sort
perhaps a screwdriver
more squealing
the vulnerability
of sharing
what one has done
exacerbated
or ameliorated
by
the inherent power imbalance
of the presence
of an instructor
giving permission
and/or
the presence
of the
fact
of recording the session
dogma:
any pitched sound is made up of a whole
series of pitches.
false.
they can be analyzed as such
but
the moment one
hears the separate pitches
that sound
is no longer singular
but
(perhaps)
a
synthesis
of several pitched sounds
a difficulty
that I surmise
about singing
lifting one's voice
if it has not been a common life practice
for someone
is that
one has not heard one's voice
in one's head
at pitches
other than those of one's speaking voice
so
when one's voice is lifted
in song
it is genuinely weird
otherselfly
an act of dissembling one's self
singing
with others
can help
not just for the confidence boost
and the relative
obscurity
of one's individual singing
but
because the other voices
can cover
or envelop
one's own voice
as heard
within one's own head
diminuendo utterance
pulling into one's self
pumpkin seed shaped leaf
Living Proof - Bruce Springsteen [from Lucky Town]
entry of a drum
actually reduces the energy
relaxes the whole
settles
into a
complacent beat
once the drums come in
it's hard to shut them up
Half Life - The Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]
this drummer
is lighter in the mix
keeps it lively
not so square
all the
players
interact
to produce the beat
they're making
nothing is inflicted
November 18, 2022
Nocturnes or Discourses (duet) - Keith Eisenbrey [assembled March 13, 2007]
so I layered them onto each other
because
why not
occupying the same room
at different times
play together
what is in common
besides
the room
and the procedure
(compositional)?
my ear
my continuities
and leaps
a common
flavor of thinking
my discontinuities
and constants
an enclosed(?) space
of
thinking
(circumscribed nowhere)
my misshapen thoughts
panoplied
my impatience
with straight lines
perhaps I go on too long
so what
the ear
will hocket
on
it's own volition
Improvisation - Ask The Ages [from Ask The Ages Live at the Chapel]
tuning an instrument
involves
tuning the space
the instrument is in
if
that
space
is an ensemble
then
the ensemble
tunes to itself
this
being a spacey
ensemble
they tune
to spacey
if it floats
tune
to float
||note to self:
tendency to compose from the universal to the particular
this
must
however
be a bad way
to explain the result||
In Session at the Tintinabulary
November 18, 2022
15 and 16 Rounds for Aaron - Keith Eisenbrey
Since I had it all worked up for the concert the night before I thought I would make a new recording at home
Suite in D minor, BuxWV 234 - Dieterich Buxtehude
this is getting very close indeed. take some time here and there don't rush past the structure points. milk the ornaments for all they are worth
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1991
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