"'A prettier foot, a gayer heart, a more dimpled face, or smarter form, never bounded so lightly over the earth they graced, as did those of Maria Lobbs, the old saddler's daughter. There was a roguish twinkle in her sparkling eyes that would have made its way to far less susceptible bosoms than that of Nathaniel Pipkin; and there was such a joyous sound in her merry laugh that the sternest misanthrope must have smiled to hear it. Even old Lobbs himself, in the very height of his ferocity, couldn't resist the coaxing of his pretty daughter; and when she and her cousin Kate - an arch, impudent-looking, bewitching little person - made a dead set upon the old man together, as, to say the truth, they very often did, he could have refused them nothing, even had they asked for a portion of the countless and inexhaustible treasures which were hidden from the light in the iron safe.'"
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
February 5, 2023
Souls of the Departed -Bruce Springsteen [from Lucky Town]
lazy production
pile it on
be sure no aspect is allowed out of the
mass
replicating the stadium space
to demonstrate he's a big
stadium selling-out caliber of dude-star
Dead Man Walking (Moby Mix 1) - David Bowie [from Earthling]
this replicates nothing outside of the recorded sound sound
is a dance
mix meant for dancing?
yes we presume
but what to make of the
spacy drumless bits
Sonata in G minor, Op. 1 "The Devil's Trill" - Giuseppe Tartini - Gil Shahan [from Masters of the Bow]
prayer aria
pious humble
carefree
enjoying every bit of a pleasant stroll
back to humble prayer
but only for a moment
the sun is shining
sly adventures await
can't decide where it
wants to be at the end
Banned Rehearsal 720 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 21, 2007]
drum bass and guitar
one amp each
not drum
one of the amps
has a scratchy throat
dully muted sound
without presence or
authority
rendering all moments any
no moment unlike all
stuck
paralyzed
it suddenly gels though
finds strange
feedback tongues
selective harmonic extractions
a lake in the
mountains in the evening
no one there to hear it breathe
bass has
transformed itself into a feedback piper
shushes down into pianissimo
with scribbles
scratchy throat acts up again
connection
issues
clipped off guitar comments
sounds like an otamatone
have he we had it so long?
Tidal Mud - Chris Brokaw [from Tidal Mud]
the angry roar of acres of grumpy clams
grumbling of crabs
from
the heart of the muck
herd of giant geoduck raging at their luck
Gradus 315 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 10, 2017]
"the original score was a thought that came into my head"
dependent on
the kinds of sounds
proceeding selectively
using regular American
pennies
3 Rungs for Kent Karnofski
(who witnessed)
explanation to begin it
and now to begin:
once a harmonic emerges in conscious experience
can it be put
back?
timbre
a clump of harmonics
still in the box
packed at the
factory
but only after they're out
quiet clumps stay packed longer
melodic complications bundle them more
tightly also
is it possible to hear notes as they might have been heard
prior to its
having been demonstrated that timbre is a synthesis?
does making sense of music make sense?
isn't it perverse?
we can make sense of the words we apply to music
because they're words
and not the music to which they have been applied.
timbre is how it sounds as an object
the sense of a sound being the
sound of an object
made by an object
emanating from an object
what it is
is not the sound
but our identification
in
the raw
of the object making that sound
piano
bird
train
speaker
Fallen Victories - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
an image of open strings bowed
just that no more
ropes of rope self entwining
Corrente, Fvb. 223 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the binary outline is on the modern end of the Fitzwilliam collection
somewhat removed from the vocal polyphonic model of Byrd and Company
(or it is just one of the early forms found therein
that happened
to persist into later centuries)
L'Euridice, Scene V - Giulio Caccini - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Matteo Bellotto, Anna Simboli, Marco Scavazza, Monica Piccinini, Raffaele Giordani, Silvia Frigato, Mauro Borgioni
two voices trading lines
moving with regularity in ample measures
Sonata in A Major, Kk. 219 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
move stop
turn stop
split
continue
dance repeat
lift
set down
group
stop
regroup
let's take that again shall we
String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 50 #3 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
1
figures will get loose and run amok
always a step ahead
2
the meal will proceed according to custom
your lines are at your
place
transgression unthinkable
a weary sadness
mood
descends
mood improves
by drollery and wit
3
slinks at the end of the period
otherwise vigorous and
forthright
4
a game of glances across conversation
Sonata in G Major, Op. 31 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda
1
the opening figure of quick rhythmic offsets
instantiates sound
in the upper register
before that sound's register would speak as
harmonics
from the low note
like eating one's cake and then having
it
2
the strength of the banal
is that it removes any need to attend
to the larger shape
allowing attention to shift toward other matters
of a more ominous complexion
or of delight
the tune can be
ignored
in favor of the details
of how the tune behaves in new
company
3
no idea is left behind
we're in for the whole ride
Funeral March in C minor, Op. 72 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
sharp edges
voice leading cuts at a slant
both parts deal with how
music sits in its registers
Goodbye, I've Left the World Behind - Rev. T. T. Rose [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
self-contained
our participation as listeners
is beside the point
of anything this music is doing
Smarty (You Know It All) - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]
brass and reeds comment on each other
under and upon
trumpet solo
then sax solo
piano does a little dance
I've Got a Date With a Dream - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
pianist is bubbling away in the back
butterfly tummy
only in the
mix
when Billie sings
how like the baroque
Erroll's Bounce - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
holding sounds above the flow
Easter Parade - Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine [from The Irving Berlin Song Book]
all in technicolor and movie lights
See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]
fierce clenched
She's Leaving Home - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]
harp used as specialty guitar
bye bye
a personal letter
if this is how you feel
this is what you say
an example for study
and a model for imitation
Mr. Suit - Wire [from Pink Flag]
not shaped like a single
doesn't hang around long enough to have a hook
refreshing
Ghetto Defendent - The Clash [from Combat Rock]
with Allen Ginsberg no less
short cycle harmonies
start anywhere
no plot to need catching up with
moral outrage is the new serious
The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]
orchestrated and recorded with due care
no expense spared but it is
still people playing
clearly flesh and blood
Anger In The Nation - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth [from Mecca and the Soul Brother]
goes by fast
distracted by sudden rhymes
melodic pitch intervals
are entirely conceptual
leaving no
acoustic residue
harmonic pitch intervals
are an aspect of the
sound
of two pitches
heard at the same time
a quality
of the sound
they make together
melodic
a quality of the gap
between pitches heard in sequence
relating the pitch we heard
with a pitch that occurred
prior
but
that we no longer hear
mapped in our throats
(the interval
is what it would feel like to
sing those pitches in sequence)
wherein we experience pitch
from
within
acoustic residue
what the activity of music making produces
as a
signal
or physical trace
writing vibrations into the medium
inscribed upon the entire volume of heard space
February 8, 2023
Juggle Bills - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
relies on its humor
Roller Big - Keith Eisenbrey [October 9, 2012]
and had rented a roller that made a great sound in action
I recorded an improvisation on it
then slowed it down for fun
dropping the pitch
Attention - Low Hums [from Night Magic Wine]
entrance music
here comes the road movie opening credits
Banned Telepath 93 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 24, 2022]
busy squirrels poking everywhere
constant diligence
scribbly
energy
calmer now
gong and orb rolling in a pan
surfaces of
substances
wood metal
time is marked in several registers
busy again
but with softer surfaces
Corrente, Fvb. 224 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
balancing phrases
in balancing periods
or
an ordered world
On the Banks of the Old Tennessee - Mr. & Mrs. J. W. Baker [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
music for themselves and their neighbors
songs shared much as among
native communities
the greater the travel among which communities
the further the songs spread
they don't concern themselves with letting on where one is
it's there
but they have crazier things to do
not just some folks gathered to
sing
this has been arranged with some serious chops
Parker's Mood - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
a book with front and back covers
and pages of lonely evenings
The Sadder But Wiser Girl For Me - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]
comic show tune
Do You Know Him? - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]
electric guitar reverb
sounds like a gymnasium
Walk On By - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
ascendance of the new standards
Broadway left behind
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire - Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
centered on the way the text goes along
articulated by the chorus
which changes as it moves along
some money was spent on musicians
and production
You Should Have Never Opened That Door - Ramones [from Leave Home]
a mosh band plays for the pit
and its happy communal memories
Blues in the Morning - Walt Wagner [from The Evening Muse]
too much to drink
or someone up and left
Assembly Rechoired 36 - Hillary Butler, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [October 14, 1987]
can't make my legs do that
outside on the grass
with the crickets or whatever they are
former knowledge of cones
we make pitches with our voices
and with a whistle
and with a thumb piano
wind noise
the kind produced by some high pitched noise on analog tape
might be from the kind of microphone used being overtaxed
but any recording is a distortion of its original
somebody is singing loudly in the distance
now immortalized
wedge head people of Bard
the Iliad is not what they think it is
we discuss Guinea Pigs and Matthew
fish heads instead of wedges
Robin the Squirrel
mushroom heads
hay swamps
before the temple
wedge heads shrink
at the mouth of the temple
is this primitive art
just like pine cones
moving easily from music to conversation
without a thought to posterity and its posteriors
we're not interesting to cats
we don't smell like tuna
the sunshine has moved
let's move into the sun
we move into it
and could plant wheat on it
we look small next to the tall weeds
the proper hayseed attitude
how carpenters sit
when they eat their hot dogs
in the Winter
nirvana
or a good crop
it's a wild onion
not a cool field to be in
the frog fell over
Davy and Goliath put together
snazz jazz
Howdy Do - Guthrie Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]
a song for everybody he met
The One - Mariah Carey - from [Charmbracelet]
winding a ball of yarn
separate briefly
back to the whole ball
the purpose of the brief separateness
is back to the yarn ball
Gradus 120 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 28, 2007]
features two As
far enough apart registrally
(4th and 7th up)
that the higher's pitch
is not easily
independently
discernible
among the lower's harmonics
but
now and
then
played together
in a balance
such that
the higher
is soft enough
to masquerade among them
a synthetic
quasi
timbre
hands on exercise
to strengthen mind's focus on small details of sound
ear-mind training
great excitement
a denser series of the low As
played mezzo forte
pedal down
still
not all alike
notes are coming thick and quick now
the
stately motions of clouds
no scudding here
Jesus Christ - Ian Bell, John Teske [from Embers of Discontent (first mix)]
only marginally about its namesake
Soundcheck - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 15, 2017]
fan talk
breaks string in the introduction
B12 Dreams (22 EDO) - Jostaberry [from Hello Turbine]
22 equal intervals per octave I think
tonal range as narrow as many
cyclic chord songs
thick rhythmic aural texture
how the track is
composed has more impact on the image
than the bespoke pitch collection
Corrente, Fvb. 225 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
quick up
slow down
slower down
:||:
down
down from high
down in several steps
:||
slow up arpeggio
The Moore Girl - Andrew and Jim Baxter [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
fiddle holds while guitar chords turn around it
then they both hold
still
then back to it
fiddle finds another place for a moment
first high
then low
back to it
Stardust on the Moon - Tommy Dorsey [from That Devilin' Tune]
clear when it comes back around again
short verses
orchestrated
new each time
New York City Blues - Duke Ellington [from That Devilin' Tune]
really into legato
smooth reeds
a little sass at Gershwin there
parts of chords trade places
final chord
a crowd gathered
around the key
no reason to move
until there is a reason so to do
stay within
bounds
until all is heard
Putty - Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology]
putty putty putty
uh huh
hunk of clay
what the guys wanted
to hear
or what the girls thought the guys wanted to hear
passive
feminine
with DIY punk attitude
Stella By Starlight - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]
persists in disappearing
until all that is left
is
everything
now let's move over here
then
in a puff of stardust
gone
I Know - Bonnie Raitt [from Give It Up]
in imitation of Aretha
with excellent crew
I Feel It In My Heart - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 77]
the backing singers
as imitated by the solo vocal
one lengthy
episode
Temptation - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]
pity me
to continue
never be
in chromatic descent and
the crowd gathers round the body
The Holly and the Ivy - London Symphony Orchestra [from Songs For The Holidays]
vile noxious weeds both
over-arranged
Check the Rhime - A Tribe Called Quest [from Low End Theory]
tight
Gradus 31 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 26, 2002]
pitches sharing screenspace
regimented
attention direction
Song for Ludmilla - Tom Baker Quartet [from Look What I Found]
birds are in the yard
stop look listen forage
Roller - Keith Eisenbrey [October 9, 2012]
see above
this is the original recording
at pitch
trigger
warning
metal squeals
Romadame - Amy Denio [from The Big Embrace]
calling card lyric
vivid graphic shifts of color
and massed voices
of Amy
Banned Telepath 93 South - Steve Kennedy [October 24, 2022]
no clue
metals clang
incoming signals broadcast
strings
pluck
in regard to overlays:
if track A
is designed for maximal
intercomprehension
then
if track B is overlain upon track A
the result
will tend to gray out the maximal intercomprehension
of both track A and of track B
unless
track B is designed
to mesh with track A
and reinforce it or transform it
if
neither
track A
nor track B
is designed for such maximal
intercomprehension
then
the overlay of one upon the other
stands less chance of such graying out occurring
they interact
freely
why two Banned Rehearsal type tracks
overlain
make a more
interesting experience
than that of two Bach cantatas
so
overlain
or
maximal intercomprehensible composition
seen as a defense against
transformation
radio chatter poetics
hip hop
a most entertaining solo session
In Session at the Tintinabulary
Gradus 376 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
1
volume spatial
a place in which notes roll like otters
there is a moment within each note's span
before the higher
partials emerge
proto-timbral
2
stubborn insistence
February 8, 2023
Minute Etudes (Book 1), Furtive, Lively, Playful - Emily Doolittle
I finally managed to get reasonably accurate recordings of the first, third, and fifth of this little set of piano pieces by Emily.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1992
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