Preface
"Language has better things to do than say what I mean."
George Quasha - from "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole"
Texts
Live
Neal Kosály-Meyer recites Finnegans Wake, Part 2 Chapter 1 (Ninth
Chapter)
- James Joyce
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
the show must go on
shadows by the film folk
waking the weary of
the world
before waking mid book
mother of misery
because it
is the month of prunes
cease your fumings kindle bushes
the
curtain drops by deep request
February 3, 2023
Therefore I Was - Seattle Modern Orchestra
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet - Giacinto Scelsi - Sarah Pyle, Rachel Yoder
heat haze
illusion
of instability
of planes
refracted
oases
between pitch
and filter
The Crown of Ariadne - R. Murray Shafer - Sophie Baird-Daniel
tale of no words
(contro-)clessidra III for cello and percussion - Jeremy Jolley - Ha-Yang Kim, Bonnie Whiting
edge of moment
traced to the width of a point
(contro-)clessidra IV for piano and electronics - Jeremy Jolley - Cristina Valdés, Jeremy Jolley, Greg Dixon
(not sure who was actually doing the electronics, there were two people at workstations one of whom was Jeremy)
prying into the long un-opened
uncalled complications gather
therefore I was - Ash Fure - Ha-Yang Kim, Bonnie Whiting, Cristina Valdés
mechanics of making
how we sound
how we sound
Recorded
Se vostre cuer eslangne - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe
a sequence of articulated spans
time and pitch spans
molded to fit
curve for curve
we are moved around it
from inside
Pavana, Fvb 220 - William Tisdall - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
phrases begin melodically
to end in elaborate cadential figures
which step nimbly to the side
or back into line
L'Euridice, Scene IV - Giuilio Caccini - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Matteo Bellotto, Anna Simboli, Marco Scavazza, Monica Piccinini, Raffaele Giordani, Silvia Frigato, Mauro Borgioni
statements are made in turns
always complete
rounded off at the
end of each breath
this bass must carry his reed accompaniment with him
characters are indicated both by which voice is singing
and by the
character of the accompaniment
the reed bass must be one of those
underworld guardians
lives in the leading edge of each phrase sung
Sonata in A minor, Kk. 218 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
the thingness of a figure
is bounded by its repetition
it isn't a
brick
until there are two together
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 50 #2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
interrupted and deflected repetitions
come back to it from the rear of
the large form
is what it is
because of the deviousness of the
smaller tactical formal units
the times are changing more quickly than
one might imagine
interrupting
halts in the progress
point
us toward the size of events that matter as events
Sonata in G minor, Op. 49. #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda
1
the art of delaying the cadence
that would balance
count
corners carefully
here's where we started
is this where we went
then I guess we'll never get back
2
a comic melodrama
for Herr Meister Haydn
Polonaise in G-sharp minor, KKIVA/3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
the key of the first phrase is narrow and taut
that of the next several
is wide and lyrical
we get the latter type phrase
as it might try
to imitate the manner of the first
they trade places
the phrases
and manners confuse their selves with themselves
Prelude in E minor - Fanny Hensel - Beatrice Rauchs
dissecting methodically
inversion by inversion
step by step
all the steps
all the inversions
it will take the time it
takes
Darling Cora - BF Shelton [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
working out banjo picking patterns
a skill like woodcarving
homely
but
only because of the medium
orchestration
sculpture
same diff
a song to drum up business
the going to hear bands business
I Can't Get Started (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
this song has a conceit in common with Don McLean's
Everybody Loves Me, Baby
"I'm great why don't you love me?"
Yesterdays - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
hesitation syncopations
somehow though
ahead of the beat
sounds a hair after
where it might have been
Slowly With Feeling - Sarah Vaughan [from In a Romantic Mood]
sung with not a jot
of the whiz bang watch this boys scat storm
she is capable of
but
she's singing it straight ahead pop
with absolute perfection
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]
this song is about a Mysterious Mister In Between
with whom one ought to
not mess
I Am The Walrus - The Beatles [from Magical Mystery Tour]
John is jester
who for a moment
caught the attention of a
multitude
to the point of self-identification
that is a multitude
thought he spoke to them exactly
Ball and Chain - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]
holds our attention
investment
the voice needn't be omnipresent to
command the song
especially in the blues of this era
where the
dialogue between voice and guitar
has become competitive for verse
time
this is a stunning performance
a very strange song
the story of a person
told from the dialog of
a scold
always telling what that person did
to their face
Endless Highway - The Band [from Before The Flood]
gospel preachin'
endless highway to the lonely valley
January 30, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 120 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 26, 1987]
sounds made together in the same room at the same time
can seem
impervious to each other
but not in the same way
that sounds made
in different rooms
or at different times
are necessarily
factually so
the apparent perviousness among all of which mixed
together
is alike independent of their apparent relative perviousnesses
when not mixed together
when the San Diego input cuts out briefly
the artifice of mixing is
revealed
without damage to the effect upon continuation
independent sessions mixed together
can illumine each other
they can smooth each other's rougher edges
provide foils to the
other's obsessions
we have the punishment of the nations in clear view
floodgates open
Valerie, Explain Pollock - Bobby Previte - the New York Composers Orchestra [from First Progam in Standard Time]
stepwise approaching
walking back
Places to Go - 50 Cent [from 8 Mile]
narrowness
obsession
paranoia
January 31, 2023
Gradus 119 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 14, 2007]
sound as itself
is innocent of any and all qualities we might ascribe to
tame it
wrest it
into verbal consciousness
even silence
comes laden
with a truckload of philosophical instruction
Hands First Flower - Low Hums [from Low Hums LP]
groovy does as groovy is
heavy drone
from which none attached
may stray
is a question anxious to be a statement
statements point straight
questions point curvy
they both point at a dot
or
is a
statement anxious to be a question
statements answer questions
questions open statement
dotlessly true
exclamation's point
meets question's mark
Part 2 - noisepoetnobody [from Potential vs. Eventual]
patient application
makes its way
they are still coming through
release the ions
strip away the layers
the obtuse will yield
Coranto, Fvb 221 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
Traditional found a poignant simultaneity there
in the first period
When That Great Ship Went Down - William and Versey Smith [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
deeply strange rhythm
activated by the strident treble voice that comes
in on its own whim
rhythm section with washboard and spoons?
John's Idea - Count Basie [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
successive up transpositions
to fall back to original key
just
kidding
moment to moment non stop fun
Constellation - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
layered rates of speed
Hallelujah, I Love Her So - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]
braggin' on a woman
at his beck and call
and calls him daddy
I'm Willin' - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]
a performed prayer
for an example to the congregation
split in two
presumably sides of a 45?
Heroin - The Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground and Nico]
viola I presume
playing a single long tone throughout
each bowing
quite clear
but also articulated
by the shifting tone below it
right up to the final
smack beginning to flow
when
everything wipes out
except the shifting tone
and Moe
Banquet - Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
some turn to heroin
the hippie diasporation
poems of observation
Garageland - The Clash [from The Clash]
garage
pronounced as a pun
on garish
we're a garage band
we come from garage land
One At A Time - The Who [from It's Hard]
yet another machismo jealous asshole song
trope of the dispensable woman
La Spagna - Josequin de Pres - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of the Krummhorn]
an amateur group having fun
Things We Did Last Summer - Morgana King [from This Is Always]
atmosphere for a nightclub
conducive to conversation
lounge rather
than stage show
she has the most amazing vowels and diphthongs
if Gradus is not a tool for the dissection of my listening praxis
then
what is it?
a focus of meditation
is that different?
an object of consideration or thought
is that?
an ordeal for its own sake
what is that to me?
my ear habitually examines itself
is Gradus to blame?
no I was
always like that
do I treat Gradus
thus
as a habit
but
to make an
attempt to listen
inhabitually
would require an acknowledgment of
the habit
which is a dissection of listening praxis
and thus
experimental listening
and thus
still
dissection
sensual enjoyment
OK
but it seems pretty spartan
I make an attempt to not choose how I regard it
if possible
then
what does it become for me?
if I regard it as a sound
to move to
or with
or among
does that movement necessarily
for me
constitute an
analysis?
an ambience
not in the sense of ambient music
but more like
in the sense of background radiation
or the temperature
or
the paint color
a given of our environment
hm
it would be
difficult to do while sitting here and listening to it
so it is asking me why I am listening
what am I hoping for?
information
insight
not instruction
too many questions for it to be a lecture
perhaps that's it
if Gradus is not for me a tool
or behind
or prior
to what it is for me
as a tool
is
that it is a question
so now
what was the question?
My Song - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]
there's the first chord
and then there are the others
circulation
in an order
that forms the color of the verse
some others
circulate for the chorus
though they might include some of the
same
it doesn't matter
Banned Rehearsal 822 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [October 8, 2012]
if Banned Rehearsal is not a tool I use to dissect my own listening
then
what might it be?
a counter-example to other musics
OK
a laboratory
all the
tools
a group image of an episode of thinking
listening
composing
together
in a room
description is the equivalent of analysis
there is not one without the
other
if they are different at all
an artifact of an activity
evidence of consciousness
in that
there are a greater variety of sounds
and locations
the room it images is more ample
less monkish
more obtuse to analysis than Gradus
because
it so seldom holds still it's whatness
always shifting
it thinks about music
as much as about listening
as such
music's rhetoric
its social assumptions
and presumptions
or
is it just because I do
or do
I because of it
who's asking these questions
me or it?
February 2, 2023
I'm Done - Bad Cop / Bad Cop [from Warriors]
direct
frontal
quick
Banned Rehearsal 1061 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Marta K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 10, 2022]
a filtered conversation
with song
set among an unfiltered cosmos
it occurs to me now
from listening to what Neal is positing
from Outpost Howth
that I have no idea what we sound like on his
end
the missing side of Banned Rehearsal
it had been a dry Summer
indeed
how difficult is it
to both speak words in spontaneity of
exchange
and to simultaneously listen intently to the sound world
and be shaped by it
would such an activity leave a trace in the
words as spoken
if it doesn't
then it may as well be a neutrino
passing through the cosmos
unimpeded and unaffected
Alman, Fvb 222 - Edmund Hooper - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
slips out of its tonal space
wants to forget the slip
Train on the Island - J.P. Nestor [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
fiddle and banjo
small instruments
easy to transport and store
out in the American outlands
the American continuo ensemble
radio stations
locuses of good equipment and expertise and audience
but also a separation of performer and listeners
there may be more
of them
but they aren't there
Who's To Blame - T. Texas Tyler [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
remember to look at your own self dude
digs in on "one" to blame
porky (play it porky)
plays a sweet guitar
It Hurt Me so (Take 4) - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']
presumptions
what the girl hopes the boy feels
upon being jilted
at least
from what the boy imagines
the girl hopes
upon being jilted feels
who's to blame?
Make The Night A Little Longer - The Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology]
drum sound to die for
the whole vibe is close to DIY
certainly
non-Spector
I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl - Nina Simone [from Sings the Blues]
seamless command of the long line
Love Me Like a Man - Bonnie Raitt [from Give It Up]
we presume to know to whom the singer sings
but who is the guitar
and who is they talking to
they're both sayin'
I have never understood what is meant in this context by "acoustic"
everybody sounds amplified to me
is it that they're all playing in
the same room at the same time
if they are
believable
more
than most of their tracks
Reason to Believe - Bruce Springsteen [from Nebraska]
a strong song well sung
pretty-well engineered
personally I regret
the reverb
and the extra guitar sounds
as tiny as they are
they are unnecessary enlushments
February 3, 2023
Assembly Rechoired 35 - Tildy Bayar, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia
while visiting at Bard College
fish whistle
thumb piano
drum
in one of the class rooms
at the music building
a thin tape
we're all shy
voice and piano and some zither relative being
plucked
have replaced drum
or dulcimer
it gets more lively
as we get to know each other
In Session at the Tintinabulary
January 30, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1069 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1992
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