Saturday, July 22, 2023

Playlist

Seaside, Oregon
Preface

"'Now,' said Jack Hopkins, 'just to set us going again, Bob, I don't mind singing a song.' And Hopkins, incited thereto by tumultuous applause, plunged himself at once into 'The King, God bless him,' which he sang as loud as he could, to a novel air, compounded of the 'Bay of Biscay' and 'A Frog he would.' The chorus was the essence of the song; and as each gentleman sang it to the tune he knew best, the effect was very striking indeed."

Charles Dickens - from "the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"

Texts

Live

July 15, 2023

Finnegan's Wake, Chapter 7 - James Joyce
Neal Kosály-Meyer
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

two-fifths of two buttocks

when the angel of death kicks the bucket of life
all were wrong

the breeze blows the skirts of the table

he went without saying
some thousand rains ago
till he stank out of sight
but
would anyone short of a madhouse believe it

stamping room only
the bats in his belfry

how unwhisperably so

unused mill and stumbling stones
writing the mystery of his self in furniture
you ask in Sam Hill how

till I give you you're talking to
upon defenseless paper

snifter of carrion
premature gravedigger
to find out how his innards work

a thousand thumbs a year
it does marvels for your gripings

do you hear what I'm saying Hamlet

he lifts the lifewand
and the dumb speak

Seaside, Oregon
Recorded

July 15, 2023

Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

lightly flirty
soulful sentimental
back to lightly flirty

Tema con variazioni, Op. 81 #1 - Felix Mendelssohn - The Emerson String Quartet

tactical deployment
of offset voice leading
toward the final
of each 

heightened tension
released by recourse
to a single line
to figure us back to earth
carefully
a Mendelssohnian tic

Song 10 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

a fragment song

Got No Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

general parade
specialty acts
exit parade

Sloe Gin Fizz - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

registral separation
with functional differentiation

Don't You Know - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]

text is a pleading come-on

It Might As Well Be Spring - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]

each chord is a new place to arrive at
the melody moves from pointed harmonic pull
to floating free

Seaside, Oregon
July 16, 2023

Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd [from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn {digital}]

there are sounds in this
that aren't in the version included in "A Nice Pair"
which I had always thought 
was just this album
and the next
as a two-disc set
but this is a different version of the song entirely
(and sounds fab)

Heaven Belongs To You - Nina Simone [from Fodder On My Wings]

so
what is it
that
I wanted to be annoyed at this album
I got over it
praise the lord

"Soft Awakens My Heart" from Samson and Delilah - Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns [from 100 Greatest Classics]

the orchestra reminds you
of what she just sang
to mark the joints

the plot does not move along in this
nothing moves at all

our animation
has been suspended
for the time being

Real Man - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]

regarding insecurity
shout it out

Afraid - David Bowie [from Heathen]

late date psychedelia

Seaside, Oregon
Unfamiliar - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]

the arrangement has a string band twang to it
nicely done guys

A Pretty Short Ride - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Aint' Crazy]

when dive bars
were a place for guys to go
to complain to guys
about their women
which complaints
became an art form

Surfin' the Web - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]

punk at its best
is clear as day
no fuss
simple
but not

Aorta - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles - Mycologue Imprints]

a tone mood
late stage impressionism
New Age Messianic spiritualism

Seaside, Oregon
July 17, 2023

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo - Duke Ellington [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]

the heavy mass casts a pall
when visible

Body and Soul - Sarah Vaughan [from Swingin' Easy]

big old yawn to bring in the up-tempo with a small ensemble she draws us into every twist she puts the tune to

I'm Alright - Bob Dylan [from A Tree with Roots]

partial

Twine - Elaine Barkin, Benjamin Boretz [from Inter/Play]

noir confab
in a staircase

a tree
through a basement window 

when not occluded
by traffic 

dream state
fractured horizontally 

train whistle
through the partials 

comic
continental siren 

start over noir
slowly this time 

the tree
remains 

portal
to bliss state

the impossible experience
of suspended animation 

falls
through the jazz registers 

modulating
all the way 

al
niente 

joint solo
reconnoitering 

Seaside, Oregon
a new room
has been discovered 

serious siren
down here 

means
business 

hiding
engines 

down there
in the low tones 

big chorale tune
in block chords 

extending
past the horizon

back
to bliss state 

bitter
sweet 

back
up through the jazz chord registers 

down
the slope on the other side 

to the carnival

The Dante Quartet - Stan Brakhage

hand painted frames
6 years in the making
rhythms of rhythms

Little Seed - Woody Guthrie and Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]

gardening lesson

Clown - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]

lots of
I shoulda never
the vicissitudes of fame
a composition of overlain voices 

in bad taste
but who's caring?

July 18, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 727 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 22, 2007]

a plod
but forthright
intent on the steady going
persistence may be less a virtue
than a defeat or abdication of imagination
regimented image of time's passing
suppresses the possibility of eruption
fitting for industrialized humans
each in our perpetually renewed cage
an opacity
the moment it ceases
the sky opens
and fresh breezes cleanse
any event able now to create its own unindexed time

Seaside, Oregon
Rome - Bruce Hamilton, Paul Hertz, Benjamin Smith, Glenn Weyant, Peter Thörn [from Mash Hits Volume 1]

we are close to the machinery
keep your fingers close to your body
do not cross the yellow line while machinery is powered up
wear protective gear at all times

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge 170916 B - Keith Eisenbrey [September 16, 2017]

early in the morning and chilly
we took a walk hoping for bird sounds
we get our footsteps and an occasional bxzxzz
presumably originating in the recording device
some distant tweeters
a duck was quacking
and there were a few chirps and calls
an airplane passes over

Fruits Of My Labor - Denise Glover [from Dreams Of The Butterfly]

garden love song memory

Gene Norman and Miles Davis (live) - Miles Davis, Gene Norman [from 'Round About Midnight]

just the introduction
Gene has a practiced broadcast voice
Miles has his

Save Me - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You]

mixed with the band right up front
gives it a quasi-live vibe
more like a demo than a finished or polished product

Seaside, Oregon
The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney [from Thriller]

so whose is she?
Michael's?
Paul's?
her own?

Move The Crowd - Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid in Full]

post-song dance track

Old Lady Gone - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs For Children]

one of Ruth's piano arrangements
enjoying saying
goose goose goose goose goose goose goose

You Light Up My Life - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]

she likes to ornament the last syllable's note with fancy trills and turns
break into the blue sky for feel good pay-off
modified last high vowel
you light up my löööööf

Seaside, Oregon
July 19, 2023

Gradus 128 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 29, 2007]

again with the Lids film inclusion
I had forgotten that we tried it more than once

the pauses dawn upon the earmind
only after a certain time
what's happening in the silence
prior to earmind's realization of the pause? 

playing an instrument
is a neurological action
motor
sensory
cognitive
mnemonic
linguistic
conceptual
willful
imaginative
each of which
can be quasi-subject
to discipline of suppression or stimulation
(independently?)
(but memory operates without our input
(we have some degree of control over it
but it happens regardless))
much of practice as such
is a process of disciplining the motoric
to be in the control of the other faculties
to varying degrees

Army of Me - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

power anthem
power up

Sticky Note - Mud on My Bra [from Demo #2 (Manger Studio Mixes)]

personal
honest
not clever or coy
a perfect hit

Infrathin Condition 14 - Doug Haire [from Infrathin Conditions]

we are at an uncertain remove
from the source of the signal
propagated through a membrane
horizontally
as it stretches
across a broad landscape
we
however
are deep underground

Seaside, Oregon
July 20, 2023

Shipoopi - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man]

comic dance number

On The South Side of Chicago - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

the place where action first got its start
show-off high note to nail the end

Faith Medley - Total Experience Gospel Choir [from Bits and Pieces]

call and response
gospel singing
is in the model of participatory preaching
that is
one has not been preached to
unless one responds
a tradition
in which preaching
isn't discourse as such
but conversation

Seaside, Oregon
The Disappointed - XTC [from Fossil Fuel]

going for that Beach Boys
sun-washed
salt-sprayed
sound
in a got dumped bummer mood

Crow and Snail - Vi Hilbert [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]

statements made twice and three times
slightly different ways
slug became smashed 

{NB
The late Vi Hilbert was a valuable resource - the last fully fluent heritage speaker for the Lushootseed language, the language in which she tells much of this story and the language that was spoken here where I sit before Europeans arrived. It is what language sounded like here in the before times.}

Something For Audrey - The Hope [from In The Deep]

for dancing in the living room

Two Knives - Byron Au Yong [from Yiju]

in a whispered echo chamber

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge 170916 A - Keith Eisenbrey [September 16, 2017]

little chirps like juncos gleaning
an avian Geiger counter rhythm
a work song
a duck quacks
from right near distance
to left nearer nearness

Divagating - Amy Denio [from Chapel Sessions]

playing idly
with great care and attention
dig deep and discover

Seaside, Oregon
July 21, 2023

Toccata in C Major, Op. 7 - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage

plentiful stock of second winds
long sprint

Variations de Concert pour le Pianoforte, Op. 8 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann

dramatic gesture before the theme proper
which appears with comments in the margins
spacious
entering through the same knothole
but into different spaces

Moonlight In Vermont - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distingué Lovers]

her side instrumentalists
fill out the song's corners
and breathing places

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 16, 2023

Old Hundred - Keith Eisenbrey

Upon closer inspection of the 19th Century shape-note notation from which I transcribed this version of the tune I realized that it uses a non-standard key signature. Instead of having the lines and spaces representing letter-name notes (EGBDF: Every Good Boy Does Fine or Every Generalization Begets Damnable Falsehoods) they represent un-registered solfeggio (where "C" would be is "Do" regardless of the key). The key, or transposition, is indicated on the lowest space of the staff with words, exempli gratia: "Key of A". My first arrangement missed this trick and I wrote it in C. Once I realized my error I transposed it down a third into A.

Brewer - Keith Eisenbrey

This week's shape-note tune arrangement. I could find no solid citation of where the tune arose. A later book says "English" and has a somewhat more elaborate version of the tune. It does not appear in any hymn-book in my collection that was printed later than the late 19th Century (at least that I was able to find).

July 17, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 1080 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer

July 18, 2023

2-Part Invention in C Major - Gavin Borchert

July 19, 2023

2-Part Invention in C Major - Gavin Borchert

July 20, 2023

2-Part Invention in C Major - Gavin Borchert

July 21, 2023

2-Part Invention in C Major - Gavin Borchert

There are quite a few C Major inventions in this collection and each of the above is a unique piece. There may even be one or two more.

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2000




No comments:

Post a Comment