"'Beg your pardon, sir,' said Mr. Weller senior, taking off his hat; 'I hope
you've no fault to find with Sammy, sir.'
'None whatever,' said Mr.
Pickwick.
'Wery glad to hear it sir,' replied the old man; 'I took a good
deal o' pains with his eddication, sir; let him run in the streets when he was
wery young, and shift for his-self. It's the only way to make a boy sharp,
sir.'
'Rather a dangerous process, I should imagine,' said Mr. Pickwick,
with a smile.
'And not a wery sure one, neither,' added Mr. Weller; 'I
got regularly done the other day.'
'No!' said the father.
'I did,'
said the son; and he proceeded to relate in as few words as possible, how he
had fallen a ready dupe to the stratagems of Job Trotter.
Mr. Weller,
senior, listened to the tale with the most profound attention, and, at its
termination, said, --
'Worn't one o' these chaps slim and tall with long
hair, and the gift o' the gab wery gallopin'?'"
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Live
March 21, 2023
Slingshot and guests
The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd
Center, Seattle
Slingshot (Heather Bentley, Jessica Lurie), Greg
Campbell, Jonti Simon
we enter pitchworld
through a modestly amplified egg slicer
playful cookery
toys with unquiet spirits
up in the attic
determined searchers
lovely evening
distant highway
lively discussion
topic changes
circling back indoors
a lively agreement
a tone
in emerging out of its inner negotiations
rolling nearer
a parade
with clowns and jugglers
acrobats
a circus on
the move
conjures a bell
shaped like a taco
many kettles are cooking
wafts of warm aromas
Gabriel calls across the land
bass
hordes thunder ominously
large winged creatures circle above
time
to dance
spring rite
molecular drum gastronomy
March 18, 2023
O-Mega - Iannis Xenakis - International Contemporary Ensemble, Steven Schick
blocks of sound
fierce drama
Track 5 - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]
warm glow
of living life
as it goes
Halloween Leaves - Rachel Harrington [from The Bootlegger's Daughter]
cowboy waltz tempo
abide in place
Welcome to my planet. I come in peace. - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, May 4, 2013]
progeny of my Intermezzi
sonata-sized
widens its scope
while keeping its focus
narrowly
on the immediate
spirals inward
each move
plausible
a distant orbit
fluid polyphony
each moment
to move
maximally free
of its prior
implied
voice position
dis-sorting the
sorted
Never Been Wrong - Waxahatchee [from Out In The Storm]
to be heroic on a small stage
take charge
never let up
Magpie's Shadow - Peter Nelson-King - Peter Nelson-King [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, November 17, 2022]
prior stray thought:
modernity was deeply concerned with the ownership
of the origins
of the new
be the first on the block
to
do X
why copyrights are a modern invention
||
each idea sharply etched
tuned in to the drama
of playing piano
a melody of pieces
or a Sonata
of mostly short movements
through which
pitch sticks
a poem
of ways to play piano
lovely strong pieces
beautifully played
metamodern
Nowel's Galliard, Fvb. 244 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a four note descending figure
answered by the same
with a single
twist at the end
a near echo
is a type of not echo
Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
a straight
(for Chopin)
figure
then its answer
all
gussied up
from a promontory of which
we would stray
were
the gussying up
not so entrancing
someone gets stormy
and
does not want to be calmed
but is anyway
such gussies
and
gussies of gussies
Mamlish Blues - Ed Bell [from Really The Blues]
the guitar figures are clear
distinct to each line
colorful
too bad that the track cuts off before he was done playing
Somebody Loves Me - Eddie South, Django Reinhardt [from That Devilin' Tune]
fiddle player imitates a mannered singer
doesn't stray far
from
what such a fancy singer might do
treating the vocal line
as a
vocal line
Cool Blues - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
Mr. Garner loves extensive passages of hemiolas
and of their adjacent
rhythmic schemes
a high class arrangement
in which
she alternately sings blues
inflections
and doesn't
as though putting a brave Broadway belter
face
on what may be a closely guarded internal condition
Operation Heartbreak - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]
someone done his woman wrong
retribution by record sales
or
a hurt is a state to be sung out about
You're Gonna Hear From Me - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]
the harmony's particular chords and voicing
composed to be sure the
melody is clear
in its relation
to that harmony
they
strengthen each other
his chords are a part of his melodic thinking
Electricity - Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
the range of production she has vocally
is not narrow
but it all
feels enclosed
embraced within a human sized human
she is very
smart
in how she uses it
composes her melodies to exploit it
I Remember You (Live at the Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]
the vocalist's extra beats on some syllables
especially finals
is
an imitation of a delay effect
that rides the chugging rhythm
Death Is a Star - The Clash [from Combat Rock]
playing a David Bowie card
tell a story up close to a microphone
with stage-y persona
in alternate stanzas
finished up in a
piano bar
Banned Rehearsal 122 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer, Marilyn Meyer, Yvonne Meyer [November 26, 1987]
it is a strange magic
that these telepath mixes should work so well
conversing occurs aside
but near
the Bickleton sound is more transparent somehow
humless
possible
to distinguish the two telepath spaces
to an extent
so that
they each form the image of an enclosure object
hear the room in
the signal
I don't remember how I determined the balance of the tracks in the mix
or whether I could
or
were I able
and would
I
have
my current practice
is to mix the telepaths digitally
setting the balance
so that the totality
sounds
as
much as possible
to have arisen
in a mutually coherent space
this may or may not be the best practice
the bodies creating the sounds within each room
exist at separate scales
one is a scale-model of another
this becomes a unique arrangement
of the Hungarian songs Anna sings
you caught us in the middle of a tape
I guess this is a Banned Rehearsal
then
or
of these hymn tunes
for recorder and kazoo
Cromwell, Marlborough, and Nelson
attorneys at law
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - Martin Luther [from World's Greatest Choruses]
performed with the modern rhythm
in English
in unison
with
organ harmonization
then just high voices
with light organ
a
theatrical choir anthem arrangement
not what Luther wrote at all
pick up the tempo for an organ-only verse
Telling Lies (Paradox Mix) - David Bowie [from Earthling]
treating the sung part
as a background color
for an episode of drumming
heavily machined
if there is an intention that it be listened to closely
it is
on the track of sound quality
rather than on how it goes along
or becomes what
it is
essentially
it is what it is
from the beginning
and remains so
throughout
come in any time
leave anywhere
Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam [from The Sound of The Jam]
the lines accumulate length
as the stanzas move along toward the chorus
where
the mugging went down
the short line stanzas are left behind
Lids Film Bits Centered - Keith Eisenbrey [June 24, 2007]
33 of them
strung on a line
to be encountered one right after the other
in some
concocted order
a brief moment of signal silence
between each
a naked list
Stop, Drop, & Roll Doesn't Work In Hell - Operation ID [from Trapped]
starts with some interesting
sound based
conversational
improvisational
sounding stuff
used
or abused
as an introduction
to a beat based music
which
lets go after a while
though it seems to remain in some agents
drums resolve into another beat
and the other agents fall in line
arcade game music coda
we are provided the status of the Ms game
bases loaded winning run on third
we
go to the tenth
the evening has a texture and a pitch realm feel
while
in some
distant ballpark
the Ms get back to back home runs
top of the inning
the game
fades away
the color of the evening's sound
ripens out doors
our collective
showiness drifts off
Ms win
and we continue to float at harbor
bobbing quietly
over the barnacled world
some queen of the night
is harping on her high notes
on a tiny speaker
turned down low
unattached
to her orchestra
free floating queen of the night
half heartedly mocked
by ocarina or slide whistle
Part 3 - Claire Lodge [from Seconds]
a picking pattern with the fingers
what feels like the second time through
is
elaborated in a neo-Fitzwilliam way
that is
it seems not to budge
but bud
and
bloom
reach out into other
Tower Hill, Fvb. 245 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
we stay put
and reach out
is brief
Ory's Creole Trombone - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
occupies middle ground of necessary attention
rewards close listening
in the
prodigious imagination
of line and rhythm
but
was it ever intended as high
culture
that is
whatever that is
should the question even arise
why
Texas Chatter - Harry James [from That Devilin' Tune]
one could plausibly analyze a performance such as this
with a
quasi-Schenkerian procedure
gradually reducing the surface noise
of the
jazz-mannered phrasings
and bends
to get a more basic
or background diagram
of
the tonal architecture
but
at what point
if any
might the procedure account
for further abstractions
by means of functions
not found at each level of
abstraction
dunno
a quixotic endeavor
would it be
the wrong tree
to bark up
Koko - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie [from That Devilin' Tune]
synchronized swallows' flights
Something I Dreamed Last Night - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]
song got lost in the arrangement
R.P.D.D. - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette!]
the finer blade cuts the curves exactly
finds the narrowest width
and enters
small ensemble transparence
O Sanctissima - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from A Festival of Carols in Brass]
the entire album designed to be background
I abuse it
by listening closely
all
correct
It's Hard To Be a Saint in the City - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
masculine bad boy aspiration portrait
Feeling Called Love - Wire [from Frenzy]
in close imitation of Lou Reed
mercifully short
If You Are But A Dream - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]
any engaged performance can turn a corny song into a journey
Get Outta My Cave - The Young Fresh Fellows [from The Men Who Loved Music]
character portrait type
self-incriminating subset
La Virgen de la Macarena - Traditional - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]
some instrumentalists like to play in instrument family ensembles
instrumentalists of the same family
often like to hear their fellows play
together
the core market for arrangers of such showcases as this?
Light Rail Coyote - Sleater Kinney [from One Beat]
neighborhood description
I can only make out a word or so now and then
all
power on a constantly returned-to pitch
I Don't Care Who You Are - The Tripwires [from Makes You Look Around]
marketable sound
consistent set
of tempo
instruments
amplification
rhythm
scheme
melodic scheme
no surprises
Welcome to my planet. I come in peace. - Keith Eisenbrey [November 20, 2012]
my home recording
shortly after completion
methodical adjustments along
expanding path sets
a polyphonic matrix
choose any path
mote float
a kindred
soul to my Hockets
Cat Eyes - Steve Layton [from No Answer]
above shifting waves
a punctuated
cyclic
percussion rhythm
after a time
they
slit open
Banned Telepath 94 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [November 21, 2022]
nowhere
feathered into
here
somewhere
quiet brushes on drums
and guitars
acoustic and subdued electric
none of a mind
to speak over another
gets into
the corners
impossible
in a louder construction
Praeludium, Fvb. 246 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a prelude is an artful means of establishing a tonal game field
Soliloquy - Don Voorhees [from That Devilin' Tune]
for dance-club or stage orchestra
the jazz of Gershwin and Broadway and
fellows
fully rehearsed and arranged to the least note
One More River - Sons of the Pioneers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
harmony singing
guitar says a thing
tenor says a thing
bass says a thing
steel
guitar tells a thing
professional sound
Rip It Up - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
the worth of a musician such as Little Richard
is a mix
of charisma
technical
prowess
and lyric sensibility
(how they control the flow of the song)
and
composition
(to the extent,
here,
that he may have been involved in the
arrangement)
Love Me Do - The Beatles [from Anthology, Volume 1]
lots of harmonica
not much melodic guitar
bare minimum of song
Women is Losers - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
angry blues
Science Friction - XTC [from Fossil Fuel]
to be ironic
and young
and a comic
to puncture pretense
All Creatures of Our God and King - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]
fingering featured nuances
Banned Sectional 9 AK NM - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 27, 1987]
they snuck into the church again
to play the organ and the big piano
low tones
game up top
game below
the challenge with piano and organ
is convincing the
ear that the instruments are in the same universe
their respective presences
persist in mutually incoherent categories
piano is nothing except location
pinned
and organ can't be pinned at all
in this case
the miking is as close to
piano in one channel
and organ in the other
as could be got with primitive
means
which exacerbates the problem
their sounds are each incapable of
transforming the other
mutual opacity
they are their own anechoic chamber
any
communication relies on the more abstract planes of pitch and time
The Long Time Now - T. Bone Burnett [from The Criminal Under My Own Hat]
I suppose that was a bridge stanza
used to provide the author's message
bridge:
a stanza of a different music than the other stanzas
used often to
punctuate a structural point in the song
Now I Gotta Wet 'Cha - Ice Cube [from The Predator]
waste brag threat
fluency
rhythm
rhyme
posture
Banned Rehearsal 722 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 25, 2007]
the process of rhythm creation on the R4
an industrial primer loose in a
wilderness
small percussion and a drum machine
the drum machine makes
consistent sounds
the wilderness is unable
bleat like a sheep
volume knobs are
an attractive nuisance
adjustments treated compositionally
rarely make a good
difference
it can change volume
or
it can change tempo
but
it can't change
itself
as
it will always be
just itself
consistent
the critters say things in conversation with each
other
one can follow right along
to where the hoot owl calls
a visitation from
drum machine land
we shake at it
Beatdown - Specyphi [from Nine Songs]
start with distinctive
turns quickly and sharply ordinary
a stomp brag threat
graceless
machined
heavy
fully armed
Banned Telepath 58 Coal Creek - Aaron Keyt [July 17, 2017]
a wide band hiss
some moving about
some muttering
sent from a distant land in the
northwest
a large sounding mosquito roams nearby
evasive
hovering
with intent
to suck blood
Remember - Jessica McCann, Benton Roark - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]
playing with sound files
to pass them by our ears
like a vision of kings
the
last will hold a mirror
In Session at The Tintinabulary
Gradus 378 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
playing from a mnemonic score
an 11 inch by 14 inch page
placed on the music rack
so that
the 14 inch side is horizontal
and the 11 inch vertical
along the bottom
are listed the A-naturals to be used
in a row above
that the
E-naturals
then the C-sharps
the G-naturals
the B-naturals
and the
D-naturals on the top row
all arranged horizontally
so that
from left to right
we interpret
left end of the keyboard
to right end of the keyboard
a note is
its name
each rung
a new page
which (the pages)
are recycled when done
the closest I can
get
to reading Neal's mind
is to hear the sounds he makes
my surmises as to
his thought processes
those that get from any sound to the next
are surmises
only
not facts
a subsequent note can have effects
upon our image of
pre-sequent notes
in several areas of experience
it can place that first
occurring note
in an immediate pitch and pitch-class relation with
respect to itself
and also
have a concrete effect
on the sound of that first
note's reverberation matrix
features of Neal's system of Gradus score
it
flows naturally
from the role of each rung
in the structure of the whole project
it avoids any rhythmic connotation
that standard notation
in staves
with
noteheads
would surely elicit
or suggest
and yet
preserves note proximity
pretty well
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1993
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