"Taking a vow of clarity I didn't know it needn't pass the gate of
understanding.
Learning a poet's language speaks the mind other.
Direct
blows can strike from unknown angles."
George Quasha - Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole
Texts
Recorded
December 31, 2022
Assembly Rechoired 32 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Wally Shoup [August 20, 1987]
with an experienced guest we settle in quickly
even case snaps are
intent to join
we root around and pull out sound
the multitudes of posterity have no
business in these parts
fame firmly abeyed
this discussion is
private
several times this week we had as many as 20 robins in our yard at once
lifting leaves for bugs and worms
plus the usual assortment of
juncos and squirrels
important but not earthshaking
I'm guessing Wally on the fipple flute
neither Karen nor I can tongue that quickly
sounds like we're getting a parade together
Karen's drumset newly
ensconced in the living room of the Greenwood Big House
down to rock and
bone
the yard critters seem to have tucked themselves in for the night
friendly nursery sounds prevail
thumb piano bells kittens
the bells excite distortion in the recording mechanism
analog
the good kind of distortion
night rooters
raccoons and
possums
be alert for cats and coyotes
and the occasional owl
tambourine voltage zaps
Book of Dreams - Bruce Springsteen [from Lucky Town]
a valentine sentiment
does anybody use baby
as a spousal term of
endearment
outside songs and movie scripts?
as ingredients are added to the pot and stirred
they have interactions
with results in the final sauce
weirdling populace
The Remainder - Sleater-Kinney [from One Beat]
start a rhyme with math facts
we'll have a lesson
from the dark
underbelly of number theory night life
Preludes 5 - 8 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, March 17, 2007]
5
spirit is right but needs space
6
same
a slower tempo
could work just fine
7
two clowns do a mirror dance
8
this one is going to take some serious thought
I'm hurrying
through it here
January 1, 2023
A Much Married Woman, Chapter 2 - Nancy Cole Silverman - Adam Verner
first class ticket for a corpse
wealthy miners and gamblers
sack
of potatoes
two dead husbands
Banned Rehearsal 937 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [June 19, 2017]
adding acoustic spaces
can open up a space between them
it helps
if the spaces going in
are fully characterized
not scrubbed of
their placeness
it's a different effect
than of playing one signal
into the space of another
there
one signal shrinks
here
they both mix as in a solution
||
parading on the backs of turtles
moving but not quickly
nor even
as fast as leisurely
||
to recollect which sounds appear on which incoming Telepath
a solid attribution
of the where
that a sound comes from
is loosened
is it prior knowledge that does this?
prior knowledge
of how this sound was produced
which sounds heard which sounds?
unanswerable
||
among the side effects of electronically expressed music
is the
electro-mechanical manufacture of virtual acoustic spaces
be that as it
may
I think that that vociferous bird
made those vociferations
in Anchorage
||
that drum roll may have been accomplished with a ping pong ball
the veil
is lifted
then the other one
Rage & Reason - Robber's Roost [from Rage & Reason]
dynamite
how much will we need
his guitar playing has matured
O rosa bella - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe
as an instrumental
presumably two gambas
although we are led to a
new place at every note
we are never uncertain of our being
Worster Braules, Fvb. 207 - Thomas Tomkins - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
playful going up
playful going down
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 214 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
simple motions of intricate parts
Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 7 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda
1
all about that new fangled repeating action
some of the rooms he
peeks into shout back
go away!
2
the plainness is a ploy
an index point
from which to
strive
a baseline
3
if it won't balance on its own
he'll force it into compliance
and if it won't cadence nicely through the front door
he'll force
a window
4
such a pleasant day today
stop to chat with the grumpy fellow
with the cart
and go on with the pleasant walk one is having
memory of storm tossed trees
but today is right nice
smallest nudge
and destiny has changed
melody has become bent
and wanders into perilous lands
S.O.L. Blues (excerpt) - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
precipitous tumbles
January 3, 2023
Three Pieces for Choir: The People, Yes! - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey
a crack is opened
and motion slinks through
quiet
infiltration
to whom is the text of a choral motet addressed?
a crowd is telling us a thing
each individual of which has plausible
deniability
as to what was said
very like a firing squad
Having Myself a Time (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
a song
and a countersong
to give it body
Klaunstance - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
sweeps right in and gets to work
I presume this is the modern jazz
they try to play too darn fast
but which
otherwise
they got no kick against
it is a challenge and a direct one too
Always - Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine [from The Irving Berlin Songbook]
or at least until the curtain falls
the one you've come for
guitar struts its stuff
Call On Me - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
the backup track seems even louder than the solo line
but
it
sounds like Janis is also doing one of those harmony parts
Day Dreaming - Aretha Franklin [from Young, Gifted and Black]
weird introduction and coda
an oversized frame for the song proper
match the color of the color accents within
and off they drift
The Commercial - Wire [from Pink Flag]
a track made entirely of standard figures
I Shall Be Released - Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, The Band [from Before The Flood]
straight up gospel testimony
Who's That Tapping at the Window - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from American Folk Songs for Children]
question and answers
fill in as you please game
The Best Things In Life are Free - Morgana King [from This Is Always]
stylism
the use of music for social decoration
setting tones to
fit the intended clientele
décor
et cetera
music as a well
cooked dish
perfectly plated
Banned Rehearsal 642 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 6, 2002]
pushing back some at our first principals
I'm on piano
Neal on
cornet
and Karen on drums
all instruments at which we have some
degree of skill
can we still be what we are?
but also
at
some temporal remove
touching bases with our proto-selves
that is
what are we now
as
what we chose not be then?
we have developed a radio leak
nope
the outside world is still
nothing at all like ours
radio damage stains acoustics permanently
we recover
and revert to our combo
we spend some time
getting all spacy and thin
finding harmonies among the pot lid gongs
flute and cornet tones
held long and quiet
hard armor strut
Ask Your Question - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]
socially
a ticket to a kind of cachet
coolness
and in-ness
a bonding activity
Laser Beam - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]
these guys sound like they're having fun
the purpose of this music
anymore
is not to be new
nor to get anywhere new
but
to belong
January 4, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1058 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 29, 2022]
ear segregates sounds and layers
each having a presumptive provenance
flute
banjo
drum
bird
car jet
et
cetera
aesthetic ear seeks reconnections
and disregards provenance
to some extent
the transformation of sound A
by sound B
is a
reconnection relationship
transformative bundling
are engaged in composition/listening
at a primal level
and respond to everything
whether the response is made explicitly
in any way
including
especially including
imitation
the most obvious response
from the outside
but
transformation is a more exciting response
when it clicks or gels
it is due to transformative synthesis
the reconnections come alive
in collaboration ear space
the originary segregated sounds and layers vanish
pulled inside the synthesis
Fantasia, Fvb. 208 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a rising figure divided by an ornament at a specified point
points to
both a metrical place and a pitch-structure place
independently workable
Sugar - Blackbirds of Paradise [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
melody starts at a high
and descends slowly
differently
each
time
the steps are the same
but the dance is different
The Glory of Love - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]
party dance
made a tune
making the rounds
what the tune is
has more to do with the commercial popularity of the occasion
its
with-it-ness
than with the development of the music
they were
making
through it
this music is faced outward
addressed directly to us
without
obvious internal interaction
beyond making it project
music
without internal discussion
Sincere - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]
barbershop belted toward doowop
Hear My Call, Here - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]
a stage play
soloist as inquirer
chorus as the church door
parabolic
primitive stereo separation
I Wasted My Tears - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]
strident vocal production
each verse sung exactly the same
Kozmic Blues - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]
communique on the verge of desperation
the wild song incarnates from
within
and will be heard
body willing or not
social criticism
an essay
stereo production play
as
structural marker
some of a lick is over there
some is over here
and you can dance to it
Real Child of Hell - X - [from Under the Big Black Sun]
because of my listening procedure
each track is itself
and also a
token of music of its time
in a more or less chronological sequence
representing a time
within a history
this
is
a what the hell music
rather than
a music of
happy spirits
January 5, 2023
Assembly Rechoired 33 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [September 12, 1987]
just a young couple scraping by
on guiro and snares
the bass drum
is full of Amnehitabel
Karen crawls under the piano to answer the door
how Dickensian
Keith whistles off somewhere
but returns and
clangs the dinner triangle
apparently recorded
and played back
now at low speed
or
is this something else since forgotten
it does sound like that old Telepath X 16
with the coat hanger
suspended from the microphone
by a string
clearly
I'm
playing with the reel to reel
which was working back then
but what
I was doing
I have no idea
stressing the motor no doubt
full
to the brim with glorious cruddy sound
a din
he sat in the sun
and listened to the scent of the flowers and the trees
the river
was flowing ducks mostly
the willows dipped into it too
When The Circus Comes - Los Lobos [from Kiko]
the contrasting bit
that comes between the verses
to break up the
regularity
of verse verse verse
and
to allow it to end
has some nice guitar playing in it
David Watts - The Jam [from The Sound of the Jam]
fast
but nearly square
off beats
any swing
tightly bound
held in
Gradus 116 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 26, 2007]
a sequence of anything
can't sound random
only
relatively
unpredictable
generated algorithmically
or whimsically
both
have personalities and limits
for instance
we can predict
that within a certain amount of experienced time
a range of
notes will be heard
which range
is dynamically plastic
and
updated constantly
surprise
is not the point
nor novelty
but
consistency and inclusion within a class
an open class
is still a class
id est
not defined from
outside
our construction of it
by means of our apprehension of it
exploring the class
opening that class inside itself
extension inward
are such classes constructed designed or grown?
actual provenance is immaterial even if effective
I Ain't Crazy - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]
rhythm section
structure of the dance
guitar and vocal
sexual politics of the dance
behavior above the feet
Gradus 314 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 26, 2017]
many notes in this one
immersive class
exploring external limits
and discovering internal extension
at once
here
the
situation is more tense than it was
||
objects that make sound
are images within the sound
music is such
an object
it is an image of an object
within our experience of
sound
all the sounds are part of the music
rebuttal
no they're not
not to my experience
political position
I disallow anyone to tell me what the image-object I
am experiencing is
because they can't know what that is
they can't
make any distinctions for me
||
the explorer discoverer
reveals their person
in the manners of
their discovering explorations
we understand their thinking
because we're hearing it happen
which
is how thinking is
and can be
understood
Colors - Steve Layton [from Colors]
auroral, a venue
to the center
a journey with a bridge in it
anything might be music
In Session at the Tintinabulary
January 2, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1067 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
January 6, 2023
Prelude in F Major - Keith Eisenbrey
Prelude in D minor - Keith Eisenbrey
One more to go and I'll have a complete recording of my revised versions
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1991
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