Playlist

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Preface

"Magical operations are time-span forms: like musical performances or poetic texts, they compose the very time of their enactment - a time that encloses not only their composition but also their reception. But receptivity is an inalienable part of the act of composition: the internal feedback that simultaneously accompanies each gesture of making. The artist's (or magician's or alchemist's) management of the degree to which this is so is an essential ingredient of his or her art. Too much self-consciousness derails the performance. Inattention utterly wrecks it."

Charles Stein - "The Light of Hermes Trismegistus"

Texts

Live

May 25, 2023

Ann DuHamel, Prayers for a Feverish Planet
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Ann plays quite well
but
throughout this concert I was frustrated
by the way in which
what each piece was
or might have managed to be
was occulted
nearly entirely
by its "subject matter"
and by the "theme" of the night 

I'm sure I'm an outlier on this issue
but I simply don't understand
how a music can be about anything
outside of itself
except
by verbal assertion
which assertion
among other things
unfailingly leaches all possible internal musical ambition
out of the piece in play 

but the attitude that music must be about something else
has become
in our culture
a dogma and is not to be challenged

Solipsismo - Erick Tapia

local
at least
texture-register invariance
concert hall dramatic

Forgive Them Not, For They Know What They Do - Karen Lemon

figuration texture
expands from the top down
exhausted
it wafts from the middle
into Scriabinland

Heat Island - Frank Horvat

plangent sonority building
dissipates into the upper octaves

Air - Laura Schwendinger

figures compounding concentrate
then wash away

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Trees of India, II. Jacaranda - Chris Williams

old school evocative
balanced phrases are still balanced
even if smudged a bit

Stop Deforestation! - Darío Duarte

big sonority blocks
within which
figuration nearly vanishes

White Parasol - Ian Dicke

tri-figured
tri-registered
a fourth register-figure
breaks the ice

Perforation - Alex Burtzos

simultaneity figures
a rhythmic motto

What We Can Say - Robert Adámy Duisberg

prelude
fugue
interlude
and double fugue
wistful nostalgifications

Landscape of Shadow and Light - David Evan Thomas

fulsome
sonorous
late 19th Century sentimental

Our World So Freely Given - Vanessa Cornett

hymnal homophony

Recorded

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 20, 2023

Pavana "Delight", Fvb. 277 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

modal
in the sense
that every move
is part of a negotiation among modes
or
perhaps
that diatonicism
had come unstuck from its modal origins
to float freely
within a newly configured pitch world

Mazurka in E Major, Op. 6 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

each phrase
the expression on a face
enjoying the dance
in its own way

Lied ohne Worte in E Major, Op. 38 #3 - Felix Mendelssohn - Edmund Battersby

when it gets in trouble
it flaps emptily
to light on more solid footing

Song 4 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

its about the weather
impressionist moody

Over in Glory Land - Sam Morgan's Jazz Band [from Goodbye, Babylon]

stanzaic musical rhetoric
the first part of each line
is the subject
the answer part of each line
predicates it
(fact, attitude)
or places it
colors it
gives it a vector

Love Is The Strangest Game (take B) - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

it's a balance among its three functional parts
the boom chick bass
the melody and its figurations
and the glitter and other effusionary fills

My White Knight - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]

what she's looking for
or so she says
must be the end of the act

You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]

the studio chorus is so smooth
match the violins

Good Times - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You]

celebrating the pleasure of musical sociality

Judy Is a Punk (Live at the Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]

the onslaught thrill ride rush

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

I Was Just a Stupid Dog to Them - Nina Simone [from Fodder on My Wings]

a busy Caribbean style groove

Playground - The Outfield [a Rescued Record]

the stray long notes that introduce
are there so that
when the song proper begins
it's not a cold open
but fills in
to an already present sound world
going for that big venue sound

The Long Goodbye - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]

drums open the door
good enough tune
good enough groove
good enough changes

Dear John Letter - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]

multiple voices
interleaved
or underlining
words carefully arranged rhythmically within the groove

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 21, 2023

Gradus 124 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 6, 2007]

so let's listen to some notes
that we needn't valorize as music
the flip-side of the Cagean assertion
that noise is music
is the question
of whether and why
we might need it to be
we call an experience music
if we presume
that "as music"
is the highest and best way to understand it
or to accept it
the experience of listening to Neal play these three A-naturals
doesn't need us to take it in as music
the need
if there is one
is within us
but
what is it we need
when we need an experience
to be an experience of music
one might make the same observations and queries
regarding language
what is it we need
when we need an experience
to be an experience of language
possibly
as a mode of access to our fellows
in both cases
music and language
different modes of access
possibly for different aspects of our fellows
"our fellows" here
being regarded as expansive enough
to include at least our own personal selves
as many have discovered
we write or speak or compose
in order
to know
what we think in those particular modes of thinking
that we can bring our writing speaking and composing
to uncover or elucidate

Jesus Christ - Ian Bell, John Teske [from Embers of Discontent]

every movement
in these states
feels it necessary
to abscond with Jesus
for their punching dummy

Banned Rehearsal 940 - Pete Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 31, 2017]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 940 170731

respiration flows amongst us
and the sound of traffic
we take the evening air
we give the evening air
session characterized
by
the mix of instruments in play
rather than
in how well or potently we are playing them
how the sounds mix
is what they are
the mix of us
as we go about our sounding business
with the rest of the audible arena
as it
goes about
its

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 22, 2023

Galiarda, Fvb. 278 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

scales
reptilian
overlap voices
allow fluid motion

My Heart Keeps Singing - Elder J. E. Burch [from Goodbye, Babylon]

rough and ready harmony singing
robust cast iron
whop to the head

I Wished On The Moon - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distingué Lovers]

pattern of instrumental inclusion
stanza to stanza
keeps it lively

Enfant - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette on Tenor]

surface of the road
as we whiz along on it
path through the world
in a tunnel now
back in the open
we have arrived

The Black Angels Death Song - The Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground & Nico]

2nd generation beat(nik) rap

Bullet The Blue Sky - U2 [from The Joshua Tree]

a machine is activated
it will do its thing
while Bono presumes to say something about America

What? - A Tribe Called Quest [from The Low End Theory]

nada nada nada not a thing
a series of Jeopardy responses

Basket Weaver Song from the Wanapum People of Eastern Washington - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]

healing by snake pit

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 23, 2023

Keep This For Me - The Hope [from In The Deep]

the figure and the harmonies it expresses
the melody
and the words that ride the figure
accumulate strings and a drummer
the words accumulate specificity of application
while expanding possible extensions
into us
it all fits

321 North - Cowgirls, The [from Compilation]

the right kind of crackle
intent on particularity of the sound
of particular sounds joined
in a plainness of beat
that's so heavy

I Met Krist Novaselic - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live in The Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

subject matter of text
report of a life event
and its immediate fantasy
dirt level aesthetics

Sonata in G Major, Op. 2 #1 - Cecilia Maria Barthélemon - Seattle Baroque Orchestra [streamed October 2, 2022]

galant era and style
gracious manners for an ordered world
or
a world in an older order
much missed
or soon to be much missed
chaste wit for social delight

Miserere, Fvb. 279 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a twig on a stream progresses irresistibly
chaotic
inexorated downstream

Can't Put A Bridle On That Mule This Morning - Julius Daniles [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

the eternal struggle between man and mule

Then You've Never Been Blue - Judy Garland [from Alone]

deflected cadence
it doesn't deceive
it just misses
with style

Softly Say Goodbye - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

transformation of an event into a movie moment
to jerk the tears

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

All Along the Watchtower - Bob Dylan [from Before The Flood]

sneaking into the song via the scribble door

Kassandra - Iannis Xenakis - Philip Larson, Steven Schick

comes on like a beat
an announcement or pronouncement in pitched tongues
theater percussives
ceremonial

May 24, 2023

Did You Do It? - Madonna, Andre Betts, Shep Pettibone [from Erotica]

banking on provocative

Hilary Billary - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]

a rough patch
gimcrack bridge
just holds
whew

Banned Rehearsal 724 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 13, 2007]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 724 070813

make a sound
let it go 

strike a light
let it fade

extend duration
let it go 

tintinnululate
placidating 

type up the report
enter the sparkly grotto 

keep typing
shake the rattle pans 

bong
the bong 

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

we may have reached a place in which a chorale can be played upon the piano
let it go 

the moan tubes
moan their moans

each sound transforms
without obscuring

Song 1 - Peterman [recorded live at The Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

shake the cobwebs off
you hear it all baby

Steam Train Mix - Keith Eisenbrey [August 6, 2017]

Karen's recording looped
and mixed with mine
just for fun
renders the chatter largely incomprehensible
all to the good

Worms - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]

wiggly squirmy

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 25, 2023

Tell Mee, Daphne, Fvb. 280 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a motion answered at a new speed jostles

The Church and The Kingdom - Elder J. E. Burch [from Goodbye, Babylon]

preaching on a raised tone
answered by a hymn
as might be applause

So Blue - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]

it is not necessary
for purposes of bringing off a song
to match the mood of the music
to the apparent mood of the lyrics
matching the ironic slant of the word play will do it

G Waltz (Live at The Village Vanguard) - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]

tempos within tempos
riding the tops of tempos
sneaking about tempos
slapping around tempos

Their Equinoctal Habits - Benjamin Boretz, Anna Dembska, Linda Smukler [from Inter/Play]

made just a few months before I arrived at Bard myself

we beasts
move about
bellowing into the wind 

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

the ear
is where we are
the beasts wander where they go 

the goal
as it developed
was not a music/performative one
so much as
a hands-on workshop in social organization
how might music be made
together
without competition
or other murderous intent 

not about making it go
or do
but hanging in there
with the activity of being in its space
by
being a full part of the being of that space

a voice
briefly
up to the microphone
like a curious wild critter
nose to the camera lens 

the wind is left to itself among the parting bells

Alec nade mna Wenus - Mikolaj of Krakow - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of the Krummhorn]

motet shaped

Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore - Giuseppe Verdi [from World's Greatest Choruses]

well hammered in

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 26, 2023

Loves Embrace Interlude/Loving Me - Christina Aguilara [from Stripped]

vocal over vocal
to provide multiple readings of any moment
non-vocal music is the stage and the shiny lights

Walk To You - Rachel Harrington [from The Bootlegger's Daughter]

first time to the hook
to help make the ambiguities clear
lap steel guitar?! 

effective use of vocal dissonance against the harmony

Well I Swear I Heard That Train Whistle Blow - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at The Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

a strum and a song
no more needed

Do The Snub - The Snubs [from Witness Protection Program]

a song is a personal statement
for collaborative invention
do the funky snub

Cozy - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

competitive sexiness 

imaginative play of the textual delivery rhythm

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 22, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 1076 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1076 230522

we gathered on the patio and thus joined the evening sounds

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1994

Playlist

Preface

"Job Trotter encounters Sam"
Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"

Texts

Recorded

May 14, 2023

Mandala Side 2 - Steve Layton [from Mandala]

a broad plane
across which
and looming from beneath
and far beyond
vast numens bellow among their kind
undulous forms pass through undulous forms
old echoes resonate in eddies of old echoes
long slow soup simmer
drone worlds muse in tongues
the eternal theory
of being
becoming
the rattle bang roarer
roars rattles and bangs
doubled reed
desperate containment

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Allemande, Fvb. 274 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

that traditional person
was a mighty sophisticated composer

Mazurka in C Major, Op. 7 #5 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

a nice short one 
interrupted by supper call

Lied ohne Worte in C minor, Op. 38 #2 - Felix Mendelssohn - Edmund Battersby

bird in a cage
hopping perch to perch

From the Street - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

Fight That Thing - Reb Spikes [from Really The Blues]

jazz
a contraption music
not invented
but contrapted together
out of scraps

May 15, 2023

Love Is The Strangest Game - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

this song has several characters that speak
the melody proper
and the interlinear comment among them

Fabulous Character - Sarah Vaughan [from In A Romantic Mood]

produced pop sound
little room allowed for personhood

Bye Bye Love - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]

pretty chipper for heartbreak

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Some Say - Nina Simone [from Silk & Soul]

more stage orchestra type arrangement
Las Vegas ready

The Long and Winding Road - Aretha Franklin [from Young Gifted and Black]

smaller stage fewer spotlights
bass drums organ piano backup singers soloist
fitting a more intimate song

California Sun (Live at the Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]

stripping away all intimations of fancy
to get at something simpler

The Weight - The Band [from Before The Flood]

stanza trajectory
in that the melodic/harmonic development follows the rhetoric of the words
winding up toward the chorus
reset
around around around

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 16, 2023

Spare Parts - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]

convolutions of story fragments
in a generic flow
goes away without making any attempt at saying anything

Can't Front On Me - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth [from Mecca and the Soul Brother]

music with a presumed social terroir
ones origin is ones audience
(true of much including Bruce)

Slip Away - David Bowie [from Heathen]

added bits change our sense of prior bits
at the beginning
feels complete
a fully formed song
framed by space-age psychedelics

Each and Everyone - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]

song as an excuse to party within it

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Gradus 218 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 10, 2012]

can a pitch class exist
in a universe
where all pitches are related
by chains of 2:1?
does our conviction
that these are all A-naturals
rely on the gamut for context?
or
is pitch-class not really the same thing
as octave equivalence?
OR
is it the identity of intervals
among these pitches
that in their cyclic partitioning
of the space in which these pitches appear
lock the pitches into a class?
although the common first partitioning interval
is
acoustically
1:2
more or less
we can't hear it that way
but only as a particular flavor of interval
nobody
I hope
is counting vibrations
and doing the math
a pitch class
being
those pitches related to each other
by a common partitioning interval
any interval will do

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

if the difference between two rungs
is such that 
in listening
without knowing in advance
what that difference was
one would probably not catch it
as it went by
in this case
A-naturals 1 2 3 4 6 8 and 1 2 5 6 7 8
is it even a difference
that is
a difference prior to analysis
if I didn't hear it go by
did it go by?

Who Wants To Go Surfing - Mud On My Bra [recorded live at The Sunset Tavern, Seattle, April 18, 2017]

an instrumental
like a Ventures tribute
that's nothing like The Ventures

Deeply Lodged II: Hold - Tom Baker - Cristina Valdés [from Deeply Lodged]

solo piano
a position that changes underneath itself
investigations surround it
accreting commentary
the evening is lovely
still time to put all this away

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 17, 2023

Pavana. Canon, Fvb 275 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

refined pleasure
for the pleasure
of refinement
and pleasure

Bob Lee Junior Blues - Memphis Jug Band [from The Anthology of American Folk Music]

kazoo or comb harp
doubling down on the homespun

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']

dance call

Mapa - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette on Tenor]

a quartet of tempos joined
urgency to keep it going
motorized travel
the road
the scenery
the vehicle
the attentions
what everyone sees of it
going by
as it keeps going

The First Love In Life - The Irish Rovers [from The Unicorn]

cultural diplomacy
from the land of troubles

May 18, 2023

In Which - Benjamin Boretz, J.K. Randall [from Inter/Play]

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

we poke it
prod it
push it
it reverts to shape
approximately
poke it hard
it snaps back
holds forth at length
unfurling its thousand arms
its vining way
tendrilly twining
luscious malintonation
harangue the heavens
it tires of being poked

shuts down
but for a few stray winks and fidgets

A Squirrel Is a Pretty Thing - Mike, Penny, and Peggy Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

I suspect this piano arrangement is one of Ruth Crawford's
somebody has been studying their Stravinksy

Monkey Say - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]

jumps right in fully formed
dive bar attitude spill

Piano Trio Movement - Franz Schubert [from Eisenbrey 2002]

starts with chunk chunk piano and cello solo

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Old Bangum - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]

dialog
between a music and a song
or
a thorn-filled wood
in which
a song transpires
or
into which
a song draws us
the lines tighten around each other
we are left in the midst

Slug Queen - The Ancients [recorded live at Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]

there is an element of self-parody to this band
that's not unappealing

Footprints - Aaron Keyt - Katie Cox, Mara Mayer, Andie Springer, Charly Akert, Joe Bergen

its sense of self develops continuously throughout
activity and stillness
observe each of themselves

Hypnoi - Sascia Pellegrini [from Epidemics]

the channels chatter
as tones overlay
a calming in the chattering
as tones accumulate
brightly glaring
they converse
my boys complained about the high end
one of the blessing of old age I guess

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Pescodd Time - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

each set of three
builds from the others
raising itself
step by step
as it pulls the rest of itself behind
each step takes more steps

Vol Stevens' Blues - Vol Stevens [from Turn Me Loose, White Man]

banjo and guitar
though the banjo has a ukulele like sound to it
no clear indication that there are any resonating strings 
and plays a smaller tighter resonator
{NB: not banjo but mandolin} 

Mary Ann - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]

a piano rhythm figuration
whose melodic aspect
helps to shape the feel of the accents
in the groove

The Scarecrow - Pink Floyd [from The Piper At The Gates of Dawn]

all the resources of 1967 studio production
brought to the service of an actual compositional idea

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 19, 2023

at the piano - Elaine Barkin - Dan Poynton [from Open Space 12]

then from then
looking back looking back
disruption inherent in action
erasures
scrubouts

Strati in Angelaka Daumasche - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir, Philip Koutev [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Volume 1]

each segment of text
individually sculpted
of homophony
and a single decorated line
to push the end

Pick It Up - Guthrie Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]

instructive
for categories of dropped items
start and end with silly 
dropped my thumb dropped my head

(interlude) - The Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]

a vocal texture that comes and then goes

Apollo - Antique Scream  [from Sink The Sun]

vocal
as instrument
what he says
isn't part of the song
as such
its just one of the solo instruments
that gets out front
and struts

Here to Hear - Swearin' [from Swearin']

occluding an epistolary
behind a rough carapace

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Always a Flower Girl - Sun Dummy [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

an epistolary
not hiding behind anything
aside from
the anonymity
afforded
by being on stage
such as it
the stage
was
at the Victory Lounge

Samādhikāya - James Falzone - James Falzone [from So Far So Still]

that pitch and the others
that pitch
of which
the others are others
never moves to another
among the others
it is never other

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 13, 2023

Oregon 230512-13 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Oregon 230512 - 13

a quickie collage of sounds I recorded while we were in Oregon

May 15, 2023

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Gradus 381 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

notes in pairs
or groups of notes in pairs
and groups of pairs interlaced
pairs of pairs
repeated out of register
deregistered
inversions skew symmetry
softly subtending
::||::
professionalism:
the art of making every sound
sound like you meant to make that sound
and no other
the illusion
of transparent intention

if a simultaneity of multiple notes
is the simultaneity first
in experience
prior to any possible resolution
into single notes
is it properly part of Gradus? 

combos of notes
but also
combos of notes with sonorities
only analyzable as notes
rather than notes
as such
or:
is a note within a melody
still
properly
a note?

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1994

Playlist

Preface

We have been out of town all week, and I took no notes regarding music that came up. Rather than skip a week of blog I proffer this essay I wrote last year as part of an ongoing and probably never ending conversation with my long-time collaborator Neal Kosály-Meyer about John Cage. - kee

Text

OBJECT ALOUD

The object consists of four sheets of paper, two staples, a small sticker, and some black ink. The sheets each measure 18 inches by 12 inches. They are stacked, folded, and creased at the midpoints of their respective long sides, forming a booklet of sixteen pages, 9 inches by 12 inches. The staples are inserted along the line of the crease so that the points of each staple are folded together on the inside. The midpoints of each staple are about 2 and 7/8 inches from their respective paper edges, and thus approximately 6 and 1/4 inches apart from each other.

The paper sheets are of neither the same stock nor color. The sheet that forms the outside of the booklet is of heavier stock than the other three, and is a different color of cream, possessing a slight greenish tinge. The three inner sheets are of lighter stock and color.

The first of the sixteen pages, being formed of one side of one half of the heavier, greenish-tinged cream sheet, has printing on it. Three rectangles are drawn thereon, one inside the other. The outside rectangle is drawn with a thicker line than the two inside rectangles and its dimensions are 6 and 7/8 inches by 9 1/2 inches, almost centered upon the page, matching short sides to short sides and long sides to long sides, but skewed ever so slightly toward the stapled edge and also, if the stapled edge is on the left, toward the top. The two inner rectangles are drawn with thinner lines, the middle rectangle’s lines paralleling those of the outer by about 1/32 of an inch, and the innermost’s paralleling those of the middle by about 1/16 of an inch.

With the booklet in view, staples on the left, an ornate emblem is seen, 3 and 3/8 inches from left to right at its center and 7/8 inches from top to bottom at its center, positioned about 2 and 1/8 inches from the top of the page and 4 and 7/16 inches from the left side. Within this emblem is printed an enclosure of solid black ink, within which solid black enclosure the letters EDITION PETERS appear as though stenciled. Immediately below the emblem No. 6777a is printed.

About 1 and 3/4 inches below the emblem, in capital letters 1 and 9/16 inches tall, occupying nearly the entire width inside the innermost rectangle, JOHN CAGE is printed in ornate letters, outlined on their right sides by thin lines so that they appear to stand out from the page. Centered horizontally 1 and 5/16 inches below these letters 4' 33" is printed in numerals 9/16 of an inch tall, and an inch and a half below these numerals, in a smaller font, (Original Version in Proportional Notation).

The inside page of the cover is blank. Opposite this, on the first page of the lighter-stocked paper, two paragraphs are presented concerning the history of the object, and of its various published versions. The paragraphs are attributed to Irwin Kremen of Durham, North Carolina. Below that, 1 and 3/8 inches from the bottom edge, is a copyright notice.

On the next page, toward the bottom, at about the position of the lower staple, and aligned on the left 1 and 7/8 inches from the edge of the page, there are three lines of text in a hand-inked type font, the last being in the style of a signature: 

4'33"

FOR ANY INSTRUMENT OR COMBINATION OF INSTRUMENTS

JohnCage

On the next page, in a similar vertical position to those three lines but only 1 and 1/8 inches from the staple fold is printed FOR IRWIN KREMEN in the hand-inked type font.

On the left side of the next page, were the page turned as the pages of a book are turned, is printed 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56", while on the right page are two straight, vertical lines, parallel with the long edge of the page, each 10 inches long. The two lines are 1 inch and 4 and 3/4 inches, respectively, from the crease. The top of each line is 5/8 inches from the top of the page. Above the left line appears 60” (the underline is in the original). The left edge of the number is aligned with the left line. At the bottom of the right line, printed so as to be properly up-side up were the page rotated 90 degrees clockwise, is 30", aligned on the left (as so rotated) with the end of the right line.

On the next page another vertical line appears, very like the leftmost line described above, but 1 and 5/8 inches from the left edge of the page, complete with its own 60” in hand-inked type font. The next page is blank. This is the middle of the booklet, and here the folded over points of the two staples can be seen.

On the next page another vertical line is found, similar this time to the first right-most line referenced above. It is 5 and 1/2 inches from the left side of the page. At its bottom, rather than 30”, appears 2'33". On the right page, 7/8 inches to the right of the staple fold, appears a line identical otherwise to the first left-most line, complete with 60” in hand-inked type font.

Another vertical line is printed on the left of the next page, like unto the first right-most line, complete with its own unique inscription, 1'40", at the bottom. However, at the top of the line, ending about 1/4 of an inch from the top end of that line, appears additional printing in hand-inked type font: 8-52; N.Y.C. The right page is blank.

Two rectangles are printed on the next page, corresponding to the outer and middle rectangles that appear on the cover. Toward the top of the inside of these rectangles is another emblem, essentially identical to the emblem on the cover. Immediately below this new emblem appears JOHN CAGE, in a significantly smaller and less ornate font than on the cover. Below this, still within the two rectangles, appear two columns of left-aligned type, in a smaller font yet. At the top of the left-most column is seen (continued) followed by, each on its own line, lists of words and phrases, in alphabetical order, starting with MUSIC FOR PIANO 69-84 and ending with WORKS FOR PIANO, PREPARED PIANO AND TOY PIANO. At the bottom right, just outside the outermost rectangle, and almost touching it, 11/06. The right page, being once again of the greenish-tinged heavier stock, is blank.

Two more columns of listed words and phrases are found on the back cover, topped with the same emblem as hereinbefore noted, and JOHN CAGE as on the previous page. However, unlike on the front cover, there are no rectangles. The first column begins 101 and the last column ends (continued inside). To the right of the last column, aligned with the bottom of the last line of text, is a printed bar-code. On the bottom left of the page the afore-mentioned small sticker is affixed. Another bar-code is printed on the sticker.

Now we know, or we presume to know, or we simply presume, several things about the object. First, it is intended to be a musical score. That's what Peters is in the business of. We regard John Cage as, among other things, a composer of music. The object is referred to as a score in the paragraphs attributed to Irwin Kremen and by general repute among those possessed of even a cursory acquaintance with John Cage's compositions. In fact, this may be his most widely known musical composition, having become as good as epithetic: "John Cage, who wrote the silent piece." Although the object itself is inexplicit on this point, there is no useful reason to dispute or comment further upon the fact, hereinafter regarded as stipulated between us, that the object is a musical score.

The bulk of musical scores, whether published by Peters or by other music publishers, are, to a significant level of detail, self-explanatory to those who happen to read music, at least as to those European works written during the last several centuries and as to those works culturally adjacent thereto. This one, clearly, is not. We find in it no discernable hint of any aspect of traditional Western music notation at a granularity finer than "page". We accept, reluctantly, that in such explanations as proportional notation, 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56”, and 1’40", etc., the various single and double hash marks are understood to refer to minutes and seconds of clock time, rather than to minutes and seconds of arc, or feet and inches, or any other such specialized notations.

Among those with some knowledge of John Cage's practice in regard to the use of proportional notation it is understood that the “proportions” in question are proportions of measured clock time as scaled to measured distances on pages, and that the vertical lines indicate start and stop times of those durations. In this case the six vertical lines are understood to represent three durations - the first, third, and fifth such lines, all labeled 60", counted as they are encountered in the usual Western order of left-to-right reading, represent start times (60" being equivalent to 00"), while the second, fourth, and sixth such lines, each with its unique clock time indication, are the stop times. The measured linear distance between each sequential pair of lines is proportional to the duration of clock time indicated, as scaled by the explanation 1 PAGE =7 INCHES =56", i.e. each page is considered to have so many pertinent inches of linear distance, and so many inches of linear distance left to right is equal to so many seconds of clock time. However, the complications arising from reading such precise distances by eye, not to mention the impertinent page margins, make this problematic, so we’ll take his word for it.

That's it really. All other aspects of how we might interpret this musical score are left to us and/or, heaven forfend, tradition.

The score presents three durations of time. Those durations are all the explicit content it has. I am free to treat them in whatever way I wish. I can treat them as ordeals, geometrical expanses, sample sizes, flavors, empty containers, or zones of peril. If I consider them to be empty containers, for example, I might fill them, upend them, or fill and then upend them. I might use them as a mendicant would their hat. I might wear them as hats. I could bang on them. I could deposit them in the municipal recycle bins.

I might seek help and ask what others have done or thought. There has been no shortage of explanations, but here are some of the loudest.

First, “silence” is what it is about.

OK fine, I get it. But any proper Cage enthusiast will promptly follow this up with the story about Cage in an anechoic chamber realizing that there is no such thing as silence. Great.

Second, “Zen” is what it is about.

Now, as Zen has been propounded informally to me, to really “get it” in any meaningful sense would require a wholesale personal spiritual re-configuration. I, in my current, unwashed, spiritual state, am incapable, unworthy. I must jettison my old self and remake it utterly in the guise of another me that isn't me. I can't experience it, properly, as me, now, but I might be able to, someday, if I weren't me. Fuck that.

Third, “environmental and audience sounds” are what it is about.

Now this works for me fine as a description of someone else's experience of a performance. But, as a performer, I abjure any desire to persuade another person toward pre-articulable inner experiences, be it this or another, and more to the point, this solution treats the score as little more than a friendly suggestion to take a moment and listen to the pretty birds. I’m sorry, but the score doesn’t seem friendly to me at all.

For me, the most salient residue of the musical score object at hand is its thunderclap emptiness, loud and clear. It is an emptiness of such immanence as would wither upon explanation, become a wisp more ephemeral than a debunked rumor of a “’-jum!” in a breeze that may have blown by.

 To be honest. I want nothing. I desire no correct solution, no authoritative explanation. The utterness of this score object’s emptiness demands that I accept it as unmediated emptiness itself, naked and raw.

In February of 2016 Karen Eisenbrey posted in her band-name blog “Square Pig in a Round Hole” her comments upon Nothing Sounds Good in the following terms: “. . . 2) even absence is music; 3) everything on the menu is what I don't want; 4) I prefer the void.” I’ll buy that.

There is no silence here.

There is no ambient sound here.

There is no Zen here.

Here emptiness is emptiness alone with me. I and it and nothing less.

Keith Eisenbrey, July 17, 2022, Seattle

Playlist

Preface

"Expecting the mind to perform like a trained seal is counterpoetic.
A curved spine self-obsesses.
Sequence is not, not really."

George Quasha - from "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole" 

Texts

Recorded

April 29, 2023

The Blue Danube - Johann Strauss [from 100 Greatest Classics]

multi-part introduction before the dance proper
means and ends perfectly suited
perhaps it goes on longer than it needs to for concert purposes
but for a ball room dance number about right

In This Life - Madonna [from Erotica]

keyboard figures
lifted from one of Gershwin's Preludes
goes all moral

Pallas Athena - David Bowie [from Earthling]

over the beat machine
a sequence of other machines
getting in line
falling in
reporting for duty

8 Miles and Runnin' - Jay-Z & Freeway [from 8 Mile]

keep the beat
full of words saying fluidly

Gradus 122 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 2, 2007]

if two A-natural keys are pressed with sufficient synchronized onsets and releases
and absent any context from which they could be conceived of as separate
then
they are a single object
analyzable as two
but perceived as a singularity

waiting for the next note to occur
in its meteor shower sparsity and scatter

April 30, 2023

For Our Future - Tyrannosauras Grace [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]

what counts as rock and roll
in relation to what counts as country
can seem
to those growing up in rural and rural adajacent America
to signify rebellion and independence
a musical move toward the urban 

this band was from Ellensburg
a small city in central Washington farm country
that also harbors a state university

Dirtmombs (Hey Myla) - Mud On My Bra [from Demo #1]

this crew was easy to like
nothing fancy
nothing pretentious
good feelings through and through

Town Stoner - Doug Haire [from Western Stoner]

street sounds
some screaming
engine roars
fade toward frogs or crickets
highway constant
humans are the noisiest of critters

A Toye, Fvb, 270 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

modes of rocking gently
with pipe
and a nice warm fire

Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

the harmony may have a tendency to subside
so tread softly
keyboard singing a poignant dance
something more than decorative

Lied ohne Worte, Op. 38 #1 - Felix Mendelssohn - Edmund Battersby

so prim and correct
the pirouette
to obfuscate the muddle
we were headed for
back to the garden path

O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, Op. 122 #1/B. 50 #6 - Johannes Brahms/Ferruccio Busoni

the famous repeated last phrases
thrice
more quietly each time
also adjust the voice leading
each time

We're Sitting In The Opera House - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

Gilbert and Sullivan meets an upstart

Light In The Valley - Mrs. L. Reed and Mrs. T. A. Duncans [from Goodbye, Babylon]

but before the song we have to sit through the lesson
strident forthright projection
not about decoration at all

Play Piano Play - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

over a rock steady boom chick bass
a music that plays with all shapes of beats
even square ones
but not much

Joy Ride - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]

cookin'
the mode of syncopation doesn't come across exactly as though the accents were ahead or behind of anything
but
they bend our sense of the beat
activate it
swing is a way of rocking a beat
get up and dance

Cross Breeding - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette on Tenor]

May 1, 2023

no nonsense
this is radically other than business as usual
it is what they need it to be
and only that

Within You Without You - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]

the wordplay in the title/hook
is right out of Irving Berlin's playbook
enlightenment through cleverisms
enlightenment as a career enhancer

First Snow in Kokomo - Aretha Franklin [from Young, Gifted and Black]

a poem made of stray memories associated with a moment
so that we can all partake of remembering vicariously

Listen To My Heart (live at The Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]

one stanza works with a few notes
another with fewer

Alone Again Naturally - Nina Simone [from Fodder On My Wings]

the little chinoiserie lick that opens is odd
but the whole thing is
even less convinced by the big produced sound that underlines some moments

All My Exes Live In Texas - George Straight [a Rescued Record]

why do we buy records
to keep touch with a moment
this song will remind me of now
or
this is an object worth considering at length
or
this is us and we had best mind ourselves
lest we get up to something
or lie to ourselves about ourselves

Humming Chorus (Madama Butterfly) - Giacomo Puccini [from World's Greatest Choruses]

a breath control challenge
the melody goes back and tries again
then floats into dreamy gauze land

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28 - Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns - Itzhak Perlman [from Masters Of the Bow]

from the alternate virtuosic culture
stemming from Paganini
the rondo layout persisted as a form
that was not reputed to require as much intellectual consideration
as a sonata-allegro binary derived form
Couperin would be apalled
in practice it didn't inflate as gracefully into the Romantic space as the binaries did

Innocent Love - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from Kitchen Recordings]

music designed to stand out while busking
one-man band contraption
energetic guitar
committed vocal
form a recognizable street style

Hey Yesterday (unnamed) - Your Mother Should Know [December 2, 2012]

as though an orchestra were crammed into the Tintinabulary

Crossing The River In an Elk - Nat Evans [from Coyoteways]

wide horizon
presence
expanse permeates awareness
the river sings with its frogs

Improbable Ensemble 2 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Improbable Ensembles]

instances of notes in profusion
certain pitches hang in the mix across instruments for a time
others for other times
piano xylophone
struck vibraphone
some brass
and bowed vibraphone (I think)

May 2, 2023

The Primerose, Fvb. 271 - Martin Peerson - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

polychoral answerings across like figurations

Hide Away - Oscar Ford [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

now there's a regional accent that we don't hear much around here
he's telling a story full of words
many of which are lost to me
tag ending

It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) - Elvis Presley [from Elvis' Christmas Album]

oozy sincerity

Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea - Thelonious Monk [from Standards]

a demonstration
with illustrations
of what this song consists of
I had not heard this when I wrote my Sonata 1980
but
there are aspects of the hesitations in that piece
that are fully formed here
after the demonstration of the workshop
a song is an instrument or vehicle
a standard song
is an opportunity to dig deep into an instrument

Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

an older guy
in celebration of the sexualization of young women 

When You Awake - The Band [from Before The Flood]

advice across generations
a whole list of them
adding up to very little

Thresholds - Ann McLellan

patient by dead reckoning
a probe pulse
venturing out
checking back
its quiet life

Tuba Tiger Rag - Traditional - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]

in the business of imitating other ensembles
in multiple styles
a stage act

Banned Rehearsal 723 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 9, 2007]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 723 070709

scurrying and digging critters
light on their feet
gentle evening song
out of doors
it takes us longer to listen to our doing
it doesn't come back to us so immediately
strangely
the sounds we make
sound more private
more contained within themselves

Tower of Song - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]

reasons someone might sing someone else's song
to pretend to be them
to treat the song as a vehicle or conduit
with which to sing one's own song
both mostly
always

Remlinger Farms Steam Train Ride - Keith Eisenbrey [July 23, 2017]

at a company picnic
on a narrow gauge steam train ride
the rattle and rumble of the train
and the conversation of the riders
and the sounds of the aural environments through which it passes

Pluto Woodpecker - Tom Varner [from Sound Vespers]

May 3, 2023

these sounds work on their affinities and dispersal patterns
the party has entered a stiller space and peers around
bells are better than incense

The Fall of the Leafe, Fvb. 272 - Martin Peerson - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

square and plain of outline
bold figures

My Mammy's Blues - Reb Spikes [from That Devilin' Tune]

old timey sounds in a brand new package

I Hear Music - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]

music gets made to satisfy itches both personal and social
music finds us on the receiving end
as a result of needs and influences both personal and social
music forms itself as it does
as both a personal and a social act at once
as social needs change the forms of music change
and the forms of its propagation change also
::(freefloating conjecture)

The Commandments of Love - Little Richard [from The Explosive Little Richard]

the ultrasmooth regularity of the band's sound
gives room for the star to go all over the place
one imagines that these songs went on longer when they were staged
the album ends up sounding like an incipit catalogue

Seven Strays - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 10 and 11, 2010]

Keith Eisenbrey · Seven Strays (100210 & 11) 1983

these were piano studies I made after graduation from the University of Washington
and before I headed off to Bard
part of the itch was to reassure myself that
after all that education
I knew how to write music straight
the first three or four fall comfortably into the neo-Romantic
almost neo-Mendelssohnian camp
I played some of them for Ken at the time
who expressed some bemused astonishment that I could be so poetic
the fifth and sixth are barely finished
the seventh is a transcription of an improvisation 

I Know You Got Soul - Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid In Full]

hip hop as insurrectionary procedure
attempting a revolution upon the recording industry
using its own tools and product against it
without that industry
it would be nearly pointless
or at least defanged
::(proposition for further scrutiny)

Oh, Blue - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

preservation and propagation of a music long since vanished as a living force

Track 6 - The Humidiflyers [from Late Fall Unfinished Sketches]

vocal ensemble figure

Futurebright - Peter Fedofsky [from The City of Good Neighbors]

suburban pop
good vibes only

Banned Rehearsal 826 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 3, 2012]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 826 121203

a crowd is gathered around the radio
which summarily dismisses itself
to reemerge before fading out
percussion
piano
and brass of some ilk
a cluttered march in tough terrain
our viewpoint moves to a distance

Song 3 - Sarah Pasillas [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

singing to herself and whoever happens to be listening
comfortable with being background 
coffee shop vibe

Hölluþula - Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir - Halla Lovísa Loftsdóttir [from Strengur]

our ears are right up to everything
allows or demands detailed listening
but leaves little space for reflection

May 4, 2023

Farnabye's Conceit, Fvb. 273 - Giles Farnaaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

take a step
stop to consider the consequences of the achievement
very short
but could be an interesting close study
of what might be meant by thematic development

Ommie Wise - G. B. Grayson [from The Anthology of American Folk Music]

a tale to warn young women
about the wiles of attractively palavering scoundrels

'Round Midnight (live) - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

the harmonies slip sideways
peek through doors
feint at twists

Don't You Try Me Now - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]

workshop document
aiming at familiarity with each other
rather than projection of anything in particular about a song

No Thugs In Our House - XTC [from Fossilfuel]

1980s camp irony
industry goes to college

Dreamed of a City Called Heaven - Total Experience Gospel Choir, Pat Wright [from Bits and Pieces]

di-archic music

soloist (preacher)
::
choir (response/support/congregation)

Whiskey Trail - Los Lobos [from Kiko]

bands play in bars
bars sell booze

The Way We Were - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]

lounge pianists play in piano lounges
piano lounges sell nostalgia with their booze

Gradus 123 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 16, 2007]

get situated
apply force to each
brush them lightly
the seventh A in this recording travels to the left as it is struck more strongly
check in
still here
this music doesn't go like music
this music doesn't go at all

Variations on "La Folio" for violin duet - Matthew Weiss

not far removed from galant style
if at all
until this one
which nevertheless sticks pretty close to the phraseology of the source
wandering Paganini-ward
then a set for violins set at different distances
one near one far
and echo-ey-er
or
is it the same set
but offset
curious
3rd set
with the other violin away
and the far away one near
yep
there's the weirdish one

May 5, 2023

Remlinger Farms Steam Train Ride - Karen Eisenbrey

Karen recorded a bit of this also
got the toot toot on it

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 1, 2023

Gradus 380 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

filtration after assertion
it is as though each assertion posits a different part of what that note potentiates
striking its acoustic at a new angle and velocity

in the 1850s
when the United States Government sent surveyors out west to lay the township grid across the western states
they would number the 36 Sections
each a square mile
within a Township
starting in the Northwest corner with Section 1
then proceed east to Section 6
they would then drop south one mile and proceed west from 7 to 12
then east from 13 to 18 etc.
until they had platted all 36 

Neal began counting A-naturals from the bottom of the keyboard
then the E-naturals from the top
C-sharps from the bottom
G-naturals from the top
B-naturals from the bottom
and finally D-naturals from the top  

today we have the last and lowest D-natural
(in the second rung of the evening even just now beginning
it is paired with the highest A-natural)
marking
in some sense
the half-way point
all instances of the first six pitch classes are now in play
the high note carries an aural whisper with it
especially if the dampers have been lifted
but there regardless
this sound is where the harmonics would be
if you cold perceive them as such

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1993