"'At it they went, tooth and nail. Such a precious loud hymn, Sammy, while the tea was a brewing; such a grace, such eatin' and drinkin'! I wish you would ha' seen the shepherd walking into the ham and muffins. I never see such a chap to eat and drink -- never. The red-nosed man warn't by no means the sort o' person you'd like to grub by contract, but he was nothin' to the shepherd. Well, arter the tea was over, they sang another hymn, and then the shepherd began to preach: and wery well he did it, considerin' how heavy them muffins must have lied on his chest. Presently he pulls up all of a sudden, and hollers out, "Where is the sinner; where is the mis'rable sinner?" upon which, all the women looked at me, and began to groan as if they was dying. I thought it was rather sing'ler, but hows'ever I says nothing. Presently he pulls up again, and looking wery hard at me, says "Where is the sinner; where is the mis'rable sinner?" and all the women groans again, ten times louder than afore. I got rather wild at this, so I takes a step or two for'ard and says, "My friend," says I, "did you apply that 'ere obserwation to me?" 'Stead of begging my pardon as any gen'lm'n would ha' done, he got more abusive than ever: called me a wessel, Sammy -- a wessel of wrath -- and all sorts o' names. So my blood being reg'larly up, I first gave him two or three for himself, and then two or three more to hand over to the man with the red nose, and walked off. I wish you could ha' heard how the women screamed, Sammy, ven they picked up the shepherd from under the table.'"
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
Fantasia, Fvb. 261 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a leap in the melody starts a new voice
modulations to a new pitch set by
former means and their implications
diatonic degree functions overlap like
scales
Médée, Act III - Luigi Cherubini - Opera Quotannis, Bart Folse, Phyllis Treigle, Carl Halvorson, D'Anna Fortunato, David Arnold, Thaïs St. Julien, Jayne West, Andrea Matthews, John Ostendorf, Brewer Chamber Orchestra, Chorus Quotannis
chorus with haranguer
baritone and soprano almost have a moment
but the haranguer bursts in
a dramatic music under the harangue
chorus returns all chipper and refreshed
gets harangued out
now it's dark
shadows take the stage
timpani is an important
character
a melody can do nearly anything
so long as it comes to a
cadence eventually
Mazurka in A-flat Major, Op. 7 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
a comic tale told in dance
Herzlich tut mich verlangen, Op. 122 #9/B. 50 #4 - Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
melodies clash like beasts in battle
Deep Elm - Willard Robison [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
radio-ready voice
witty piano playing
nice touch on the keys
Trio - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
only those notes that make it happen
no others
this is a live
version
almost unhinged
Now It Can Be Told - Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan [from The Irving Berlin Songbook]
they each vibrato differently
Billy's is either on or off
Sarah
feathers it in
when she likes
Kissin' By The Mistletoe - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]
hey Karen! it's our song!
hilarious back up singers
kiss! kiss!
kiss! kiss! kiss!
Since I Fell For You - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]
a tale of woe in twisted lines
Judgment of the Moon and Stars - Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
her long lines turn corners
yikes
where did the band come from?
was that a synth?
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (Live at The Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]
this song is very nearly a bare structure
a schematic
Deep Purple - Screamin' Jay Hawkins [from Frenzy]
in command of his voice and the song
throughout
Horn Concerto #4, 3rd Movement, Rondo - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [from 100 Greatest Classics]
for
if Schikeneder-Papageno played horn
I Wish I Were Blind - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]
his melody wanders around some
could use some tightening up
V-2 Schneider (TAO Jones Index) - David Bowie [from Earthling]
carefully insinuating the beat into the mix
as though it was not
predetermined and pre-existing
I'm guessing he was working with others
on re-imagined version of his catalogue
Cubist Zirconium - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]
pointed
a single focus then
||break||
release pressure
adjust switches
add parts
fasten securely enough
whistle while working
almost there
file this bit down
release pressure
apply heat
put away the tools
ratchet
in the thingum
do the dance
chant the chant there
Anton and Louis - Tom Baker Quartet [from Look What I Found]
gets hot in the first mid stretch (Jesse)
peaces out in the next (Tom
and Brian)
(Greg's always there)
(in several persons)
begins
exploring
book end block
Flourish for Jim - Keith Eisenbrey [November 24, 2011]
Uncle Jim played horn
so I wrote a horn flourish in his memory
Always Bet on Clark - Dead Bars [from Dream Gig]
dreaming about how life
might
could
go
if it did
but
it only might have
did
Banned Telepath 95 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt [December 20, 2022]
an electronically enhanced plunker
brilliantly synthesized
compositionally
right on the money
for its social purpose
of
being a telepath
to be combined with its fellow(s)
but
to
also
always
still be its only self as well
playful
patient
goofy ma non troppo
each eruption wakes the gulls
who exit en masse stage deep
follow your thoughts
if you
don't
no one else will
notes thrown out at the time drum
they scatter as they may
disciplined oversight
The Duchesse of Brunswicke's Toye, Fvb. 262 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a period can be extended
from within
by any voice
Train 45 - Grayson and Whitter [from Really The Blues]
from Atlanta Georgie
wee hoo
she blows
she'll never blow no
more
Out of Nowhere - Charlie Parker [from That Devilin' Tune]
in a slow meter
room to breathe all over the place
Rouge - Miles Davis [from Birth of the Cool]
tooling down the street
feeling good
First of all . . .I didn't do a thing here - The Beatles [from Anthology Volume 1]
seven seconds of Paul saying something about Tony Sheridan
Once I Loved (O Amor en Paz) - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
melody shapes underline the text's rhetorical structure
make it possible
to sing it and say it
finishes with her high register floating around in
the fade out
Key to the Highway - Neal Patman, Bill Giles [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
blues adjacent
blowing town (maybe)
not rounded off for commercial
use
International Lover - Prince [from 1999]
start high
descend slowly by step
sweep back up by leap
a
few stray turbulents
(one turbulent, many turbulents)
along the way
Banned Rehearsal 126 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 26, 1987]
improvisation is a means of composing what could be transcribed
but
of which the prior contrivance seems unlikely or unnecessary
a
strict method of getting it right the first time
rehearsal is nugatory
discovery essential
a field
in which second guessing is
dis-optioned
we have rigged up some sort of amplification
giant
jaw harp
a monster has arisen from the deep tape world
attempting
to back mask on the fly
succeeding only in awaking the monster
back when the reel to reel
had not been relegated to nightstand
I aver
out loud
that I will attempt to construct a tape loop
Aaron repeats
tape loop
we'll see how this might work
but might not
this loops back
tay ploo
ptay ploo
no sound is heard
once again I have managed to vanquish sound by technological means
no seating once it starts
there is now some sound
but will it loop
our very first
you're hearing it now
isn't this amazing
no back masking for Banned Rehearsal
we'll try the Möbius tape loop strip
does anybody really want to see Möbius strip
Aaron is out of breath in the excitement of the moment
wrapping tape
about his head
he jams up the tape machine
we have a margin of
success
Keith's rule:
the more splices the more fun
Aaron provides play by play commentary
are we twisted
yes we are
twisted
intersplicing
recombinant audio tape generation
the
accordion unfolds
to make a flag of Switzerland
choppy little
teeth
from the new bag of toys
the cat is thought to be in a bad
place
racing against the clock
Keith attempts to master 1950s
technology
yes folks
that's incredible
ably assisted by
Amnehitabel
OK
it's a loop again
is it terminally twisted
multiply Möbiusized
for every tape loop
there is another
side
the joys of a physical medium
Little Brown Dog - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
a series of nonsense lies
sing tad-low-day
Primer Amor Interlude/Infatuation - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
post interlude we have achieved title
there it is again
ornate
vocalisms
building its taut waves
up to the title
for the
third time
interesting finish
like somebody pulled her plug
Lids Film Layer 5 - Keith Eisenbrey [July 1, 2007]
the pulses trip along too quickly to count
and even more
they move
too quickly to organize into simultaneities
too fast to count the
telephone poles
or hops rows
this music doesn't surveil like
Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians"
it is a surface across which we travel
rattling our back teeth
a woody tapping sound has arisen out of
the process
like a fretless xylophone
waves of bursts pass through
a constant texture that varies like snowflakes
the whopping of
broken bus tire chains
this has
is rattling right along
Wir waren das flammenden Rad um ihn - Steve Layton, Roger Sundström, Günter Gläser, Peter Thörn [from Summer Mirages]
singing table saw tone
shop class choir
there may be elder spirits
involved
approach carefully
'68 Chevelle - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 21, 2017]
pick this up
and live in someone else's vicarious past
I still
don't figure how that '69 Chevelle got in there
Solo 2 - Sascia Pellegrini [from 7 Percussion Impossibilities]
marimba
and perhaps a more metallic sounding set of pitched bars
A Toye, Fvb. 263 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
is a simple enough device to amuse us
Leather Breeches - Earl Johnson & His Clodhoppers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
it seems like I would have pronounced and spelled it britches
hard to
tell what the vocalist sings
it goes by so fast
certainly not a
long E
but second time around
more clearly
britches
fiddle banjo guitar
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distingué Lovers]
linguistic usage as social marker
who's who where
better call the
calling off off
Lost Indian - Dallas Henderson [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
banjo picking figure
gentle and sweet on the high partials
In A Sentimental Mood - Bill Evans [from California Here I Come]
keeping the beat by playing everything but
It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bob Dylan [from Before The Flood]
lines full of quick words
the end of each is accented
in the same
rhythm
in the same descending
neener taunt interval
just everybody's favorite coral tune
at least they're singing auf
Deutsch
how do the little critters hold their bows?
Sospiri - Edward Elgar - English Symphony Orchestra, Brian Boughton [from Meditations for a Quiet Night]
peaceful in a secluded place
Boundaries 2 - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]
believable as the sound of an object
electric vehicles should sound so
good
but the suits would never go for it
über - An Auf [from An Auf]
a room of active but unchanging impulses
Hey Yesterday (Rough Mix) - Your Mother Should Know [December 2, 2012]
with added tam tam track
because there it hangs
On Comes The Night - The Maldives [from Mad Lives]
sound-track vibe to it
Banned Rehearsal 1066 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 20, 2022}
we do our Christmas Tree
while Aaron marks our time
so that
we sound like we are getting game items
do virtual trees drop
their needles?
the synth sounds occupy a similar space
in relation
to the tree activity
as
the occasional guitar and tambourine
sounds
but
not the same space as each other
quite
Corranto, Fvb. 264 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
ends with a rolled chord
that follows
what tracks
as the end
of the piece
this may be
in the printed score
a calligraphic
flourish
not so much intended to be played out loud
but
it
does
effectively
if played
say
the end
I'm done
A Good Man Is Hard To Find - Eddie Green [from Really The Blues]
a statement is made
it is elaborated
then followed by a kicker
line
to rinse repeat
do a hurry up when the man isn't looking
Happy New Year - Judy Garland [from Alone]
in the days of the studio choir and orchestra
sip a glass of lonely wine
One Saturday Night When I Come Home - Dr. David Rosenbaum [from The Art of Field Recording]
learned that in 1920 or '22 in Patterson, New Jersey
O Tannenbaum - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
or O Tom The Toad
as middle school brass players know it
The Little Fish Devours The Big Fish - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]
the beat poet takes on a beat of a different kind
it might make what he
is doing marginally more audible
to a larger public
unaccustomed
to listening to naked words
Banned Rehearsal 127 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [December 28, 1987]
pan pipe play
ocarina
recorder
to finish out the year past
momentous
we blow et al
enjoy straight tone interference
(Hindemith promulgated it among others)
that straight tones (sin waves)
are not musical
this is a base falsehood
one could counter
that all sound
and hence all musical sound
arguing from Fourier
is straight sin tones
but
this is also false
in that
it does not necessarily imply
that all musical sounds
as musical sounds
are so generated
the more (stronger) proper counter-argument
is that music is not actually necessarily based on sounds
but
on the social use of the experience under consideration
such as:
my assertion
that the indigenous visual art of Australia
that once hung on the walls of the Seattle Art Museum
was the loudest music I had heard
in this city
to that date
straight tones are simply blatant
but not not musical
we finish the year with a blow out
across and through
we divvy our
blowing across our fipples
side question
are synthesizers deficient
in that
there are
no extended techniques that could be applied
or
only
in that
those techniques would not engage
the same sounding object (the
electronic innards)
that standard techniques do
the sound
for example of a burning synthesizer
would be underwhelming
I presume
and smashing the synthesizer
like a Who Guitar
is just more amplified sound
the instrument
in this case
being
not really the synthesizer
as such
but the
speaker it activates
and so we fipple out the last few days of 1987
for all and sundry
dissembled
behind all of which
a gritty cassette tape hum substrate
the sound
of our gloriously imperfect medium
("noise reduction? who wants noise
reduction?")
we had discipline back then
to stick with our chosen
fipples
or pans
all of which are subtly echoed
by that ghost
sound effect
that magnetic tape acquires
from long adjacency on
the reel
from the imprinting of signal
made by one layer of rolled
tape
upon its adjacent layers
a rich lode
happy is the music
that brings to mind all music else
production trope
weirdness morphing into a beat
wherein the song
is the song
what is a song
in the current cultural environs
a poem
sung/spoken/rapped
over a rhythm and pitch structure
that
tracks
or amplifies
the rhetoric of the poem
To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time) - The Jam [from The Sound of The Jam]
production trope
first establish or assert a rhythm/pitch structure
over which the poem is to extend
as sung/spoken/rapped
we
hear
accents
vocabulary
locutions
obsessions
Lids Film Layers 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1 - Keith Eisenbrey [July 1, 2007]
starts with a clang!!
chugs through the underground stations passed by
we don't stop
the through track is ours
we own it
there went Yonkers
up there in the daylight somewhere
the
long bell is measured
in multiply pulsed frames
conjointly
un-interpretable pulse sequences
the ideal of simultaneity
or
sequentiality
beggared beyond repair
ecstasy is not an emotion
it is a mode of being
grasp the
immediate
where are we gotten to be
now what passes overhead
pretending stillness
Europe of marching feet
alarums
dissipate to the rear
Tibet of troubled calm
we go by so fast
that the flow of time decouples into rational portions
it will
fritter away
into the calculational noise remainder
a whimper
"June 16 2007 just me playing some bells"
Hear My - Song Sparrow Research [from Song Sparrow Research]
opening vocal figure
in regular pulse
of single tones
in
descending leaps
takes its time climbing back up
guitar figure
high notes on every off beat
I'll See You At The Next Show - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 21, 2017]
there may even have been one more show after this one
to see him at
Devil In Me - Emily Stranger [from Labor of Love]
controlled suppression
contrasted with
controlled dis-suppression
bad girl bragging
Corranto "Lady Riche", Fvb. 265 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
3 + 1 + 2 rhythm
any segment or item of which can be ornamented or
repeated or cycled
so that
it resolves into a sum of 6 or a
multiple
eventually
in any voice
independently
Mr. Johnson Turn Me Loose - The South Georgia Highballers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
singing saw
theremin-ifying
behind fiddle and guitar
whoop
it on down
Last Night When We Were Young - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]
did ever song descend so slowly
with such control
when Peggy owns
a song
it stays owned
Brickyard Joe - John W. Summers [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
fiddle figures
reckless on the open strings
Blindman - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
folk song
short type
one line is all that came down to us
inflated out
to fit its amplified performance practice
goes
away before it comes to anything
Ball and Chain - XTC [from Fossil Fuel]
referring to demolition tools
rather than
implements of control
over people
or Addamsian erotic toys
with synthesizers
one could make such scrubbed up sound
in a broad meter that revels
to spread out over the countryside
redolent in the product of the soil
It's Like That - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth [from Mecca and The Soul Brother]
no time to savor any single rhyme item
moving on
long strings of
lines in each stanza
aiming at the stanzaic end-rhyme
it's like
that
Track 6 - The Humidiflyers [from The Humidiflyers 2002]
a vocal harmony thingum moves up a step
Mississippi Sock Eater - Ghidra [from The Sound of Speed]
it's going to be a rough landing folks
buckle up
secure your
belongings
time has slowed
as eternity approaches
back now
to our regularly scheduled emergency ditching
In Session at The Tintinabulary
April 16, 2023
Sinfonia 1 230329 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey
I made another recording on clavichord, but on top of not keeping the tempo as plausibly regular as I would like I made a few changes to the score a few days later.
April 20, 2023
Sinfonia 1 230420 - Keith Eisenbrey
Here is the midi realization of the current version.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1993
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