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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
"We feel that in this place we lay ourself open to the inquiry whether Mr. Winkle was whispering, during this brief conversation, to Arabella Allen, and if so, what he said; and furthermore, whether Mr. Snodgrass was conversing apart with Emily Wardle, and if so, what he said. To this we reply that whatever they might have said to the ladies, they said nothing at all to Mr. Pickwick or Mr. Tupman for eight-and-twenty miles, and that they sighed very often, refused ale and brandy, and looked gloomy. If our observant lady readers can deduce any satisfactory inferences from these facts, we beg them by all means to do so."
Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Recorded
June 24, 2023
Fantasia, Fvb. 296 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a composer's piece
it explains itself carefully
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| Ecola State Park, Oregon |
for young and old
Slow March - Charles Ives - William Sharp, Steven Blier
Schubertian simplicity
Chicago Stomp Down - Duke Ellington [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
vocal imitation of a brass solo
lots of knocking about on wood
Loose Nut - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
three measures of the same
then the fourth is different
A A A B
A A A | B
or A A | A B
or the third A
just starts that way
If I Knew Now (What I Know Now) - Sarah Vaughan [from Swingin' Easy]
takes her own solo
Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way) - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]
horns on either side
the same stanzas go round and round
I'd Stay With You - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
romantic politics in the 60s
still mired in the man calls the shots
at least
in the high-end joints
she wraps her voice around you
and makes you believe
in your power
over her
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| Ecola State Park, Oregon |
it's an inspiring comfort song
and everybody plays
in inspiring comfort song mode
they put on sincerity face
Le peuple en Suisse - Nina Simone [from Fodder on My Wings]
a song to tell things expressively
followed by another song
to sing things inventively
Three Poems for Violin and Piano - Donald Erb - James Stern, Audrey Andrist
1
taking long strides
boulder to boulder
each transfer
judged with care
some passages require quick precise flow
2
middle of some night
shy critters scurry
gnaw timidly
piano
prepared in the upper octave
or perhaps
a muting agent is applied
sounds like yet another kind of touch
believably pianistic in gesture
the pianist is allowed to keep their mode of being
stay in character
the critters
somewhat bolder
more numerous
3
watching over an upper place
and a lower place
swiftly risen to
and fallen from
observe any place
and it drops away
this one looks back
winds up
gestures of registral travel
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Hallelujah - George Frideric Handel [from World's Greatest Choruses]
let's flatter the king shall we
through the back door
by deifying kinginess
Front Porch - The Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]
play it here
play it there
jump back and forth
shift from haunch to haunch
the third place
stepped away to
so that
jump back
to haunch to haunch
groove dance
Intermezzo IV - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]
inventing a diagonal motion with dyads
River Rats and Pipelines - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from River Rats and Pipelines]
talking trash about somebody
not sure who
lovely thicket of plucked and strummed strings going on in there
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| Ecola State Park, Oregon |
I am convinced
that earbrain increases the psychic gain of incoming spoken language sound
is there also a boost
a different boost
provided to music
over and above the traffic birds and audience hush
is there a pre-conscious
and hence unavoidable
even if learned
experiential status
given to music sound
like that
given to spoken sound
but
not the same
if
this special experiential status
is learned
how deep is that learning
deep enough to be unlearned?
to what end?
Cagean enlightenment of some kind?
is the Ego unlearnable?
for whose benefit?
however
if there is indeed
a pre-conscious distinction made
a border
or shore
or limn
might it not be interesting
to explore that
find its hills and valleys
its thin spots
an internal psychic skin
Vancouver - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
this is what this is
a melody of bowed string tones
a through-composed melody
made of bowed string tones
magic
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Hanskin - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
the squareness of a thing
does not preclude the ability of other squarenesses
to skew it
and we thus bid a fond
s'long!
to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
well worth the deep dive
Jesus Is Getting Us Ready for The Great Day - Luther Magby [from Goodbye, Babylon]
pump organ and spoons!
I hope the spoonist
is spooning something other than their knee
or there will be bruises
on the great day
Walkin' (Live) - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]
each soloist twists around the bass line
in a different minding of time's flow
even the bass
I Fall In Love Too Easily - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]
the delicate science
of fingery chords
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Good King Wenceslas - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
arranged and played without clever fuss
Duo 9 - Benjamin Boretz, J. K. Randall [from Open Space 55]
in characters
piano oracular ponderous
Crumar full of inquiry
nervous
commenting
the Crumar has split its being
into timbral/registral regions
a loud animal holds forth
a struggle of sorts
not a battle
but a wrestling
with a strenuous and emphatic consideration
of a recalcitrant substance
staring at it now
uncertain of its nature
startle it
bathe it in flames
no apparent change
it's a puzzle
all the way down
and up
and out
and in
Weasel Face - Ramones [from Halfway to Sanity]
telling stories at a shout
in a loud space
to display how rock and roll they are
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
an epic
: a song
then a vamp that comes and goes
on slidily tuned guitar
: then another song
none of it profound
half-assed pride
then a comic artifact type song
to put it together
and what does it add up to
does it matter
Monica's Blues - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]
banjo and trumpet
a drone seems to have switched sides midway
Unter - An Auf [from An Auf]
as perhaps one might relate spatially
to a bridge deck or several
enter the electric troll beings
an incitement is splintered into the filter chamber
overwhelming oneself with ones echo land
Psalm X - Ask The Ages [from Ask The Ages Live at The Chapel]
drums and bass converse in bursts
a slow melody hovers over the tingling bells
eloquent and passionate
the discussion continues in the quiet room
or
we have stepped outside to breathe
take the air
Laurent's Tomb - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
piano pounding
or I suppose
forte pounding
this style of playing only plays one dynamic
Living With It - Jostaberry [from Hello Turbine]
somewhere between early Pink Floyd
and late 70s Charles Dodge
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Hesitation Blues - Al Bernard, C. Quealey, Bobby Davis, Al Duffy [from Really The Blues]
blues
the word
used as
any personal situation
publicized
within the prescribed poetical/musical (song) form
It's You - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man Original Cast Recording]
dramatic punctuation
by the barbershop clown corps
Caterpillar - Big Brother & The Holding Company [from Big Brother and The Holding Company]
late issue novelty song
The Blue Danube - Richard Strauss [from 100 Greatest Classics]
space ships
ball gowns
large orchestras
displays of wealth and power
Skins - Pete Rock and C. L. Smooth [from Mecca and the Soul Brother]
beat
then verse
then beat
then verse
then beat
then verse
then verse
(another sex brag)
then verse
then beat
Impossible - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
faux informality
a plaint with underscoring
courtesy of the auxiliary singers
a fade (also faux)
Songs in the Wind - Lockrem Johnson - Lorri Froggét, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]
the first dissipates
some hold fast
nicely done Lorri
and past me
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
bright and shiny sound
everybody sings
nothing essential ever changes
mood song
Gradus 318 (end) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, August 19, 2017]
so
why
after all these years
do I listen to music
have I been beguiled by some magic
because it provides me access to others
it remains essentially unaccountable to me
as a phenomenon among us
we focus so much attention on what it is
and how it is
that why it might be at all
is swept under the rug
|| there's a new note ||
and some more ||
we might couch the why question
in evolutionary terms
it seems to be biological
but
no evolutionary explanation is certain
even limited to scientific certainty
since control groups cannot be had
but
then
even if we could ascertain
that it is because it provided an evolutionary advantage
that is
within the population as it propagated
a propensity for musical interaction
was advantageous
or at least not in-advantageous
where does that leave me
a statistical outlier
reasonably
I've been called worse
but as to what
a propensity for a musical mode of social intercourse
coupled with a desire and need
to engage in such
does anybody else wonder about this
or is it just me
I may be an outlier
but I'm surely not that far out there
|| Neal perorates ||
Ben might turn the question to:
well
why is language
it seems to be a tool of psychic interaction
language is there
so that
we can communicate what language communicates among us
it is
literally
a psychic power
like language
music might also
simply
be a psychic power
just one that can't be adequately described
or understood
by use of the psychic power of language
but
for which we seem to have a species-wide potential propensity
June 30, 2023
Spring Storms - Steve Layton [from Moving Bodies]
incoming aliens
at the incoming alien port
on a busy day
arrivals can be sudden
scans required
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Fantasia in C minor, K. 396 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kristian Bezuidenhout
strength in slow motions
delicacy to tie the ribbons and bows
big passions
the stage expands
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 (#2) - Felix Mendelssohn - The Emerson Quartet
1
introduction reduces itself to a unison tone
through a needle's iridescent eye
stagey drama and dialogue
2
happy and calm
the proper bourgeoisie homelife
not without its proper drama
though oh so proper it is too
calm restored
all are fed
3
the village at night
beneath the sleep
the pacing watch
their duties keep
playful wags
wisps of the street
keep
their games
under cover
titter behind their hands
4
UPROAR!
ALARM!
ANXIETY!
fret and worry
what to do
the stagey drama
has come to a crisis
Father's
hymnish calm
will set all to rights
little ones
knot your knickers not
In Session at The Tintinabulary
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Gradus 384 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
a new mod-12 pitch class
"6" or F-sharp (or G-flat)
and a new pitch
the lowest
of thems as was formerly known
as "6" alias Fis
cloak drawn about face
that sort of low note
I'm guessing from the sound
that it is one of the double-strung notes
among the first if not the very first
at supper just now
Karen said that she had come through the listening room
and I was seated on the floor
listening to no sound at all
she thought
"he must be listening to Gradus"
was she right
overtones have overtones
the D-natural comes in
at an acutely odd dissonance
the D is
of course
the corde
{NB: Huh?}
I remain
after some study
firmly undecided
as to whether I feel said odd dissonance
feels like it wants to resolve in or out
to resolve inward
is vaguely archaic
resolving outward
more open-ended
lightened
NlightNd
what if
we could resolve one tone inward
and one tone outward
similar motion
being in a state of dissonance with
is a persistent issue
I'm wondering what the answers were
June 30, 2023
Two Part Invention in A-flat Major - Gavin Borchert
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
the complete listening journal doodles from 1997 and 1998
{NB: There were no doodles in 1996. My listening journal is meager during the decade of chaos, when our children were small.}
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