Now Music in New Albion: Playlist

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

Preface

"'Aye me! To the land of what mortals have I come?
Are they violent and savage and unjust?
Or do they love strangers with a mind that fears gods?
And where shall I stash my stuff?'"

Homer - from "The Odyssey" translated by Charles Stein

Texts

Recorded

July 30, 2023

Toccata, Op. 7 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

the offsets of figures from the ostensible meter
flit about recklessly
feet swept off of
borne along in the rush

Hexacaméron - Morceau de Concert KKIIb/2 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

the melody is provided with a dense accompaniment

Capriccio, Op. 81 #3 - Felix Mendelssohn - The Emerson Quartet

a prelude pensive
and a fugatto industrious

Song 11 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

an almost Scriabinesque sound to the first part
each stanza is a new music
silence is freeze

I'm Not Rough - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

impersonating a triplet effect
using acCENTuAtion

There's No You - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]

if there is
they're surely paying their rapts
to that ivory tickler

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

In Love In Vain - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]

the stillness of the pivot points
:swing:
playing with intimate reference to the beat
::other way::
play with the beat's referential intimacy with meter
::other way::
eschew eschew eschew

Why Must Your Love Well Be So Dry - Nina Simone [from Silk & Soul]

sound of the percussive hits
playing through a tin can

What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan with Michel LeGrand]

in front of a painted backdrop
melodic power

A Good Man Is Hard To Find (Pittsburgh) - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

I frown
at the use of
"bringing in the full band"
as a tool to turn up the emotional intensity stats
but
why frown?
feature not problem
problematic to me
because coercive

Running to Stand Still - U2 [from The Joshua Tree]

The Edge had been listening to some fine guitar players
I could have used more guitar and less Bono on this track

The Old Hen Cackles and the Rooster Laid An Egg - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs For Children]

having fun with nonsense

Underappreciated - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]

an ably moaned entrance
time to witness

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

July 31, 2023

Gradus 129 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 12, 2007]

first rung
3 As
two lowest
closer in register
than
the two highest are
(2nd, 4th, 7th)

second rung
is the inversion
(2nd, 5th, 7th)
(octave ordination)

interval content
is the same
(2 octaves, 3 octaves, 5 octaves)

the gap between the two rungs
is distinctly blatant
if you know it's there

what would Gradus be without its verbal explanation?
or
what would it be
if no explanation for it were sought?
could it be
other than
a creature of a theory?

it is often like a contemplation
or the residue in the sound
of the act of contemplating

what where when why and who it is
are answerable questions
though answers will vary
but are they relevant questions?
would answering each be exhaustive?
wring it dry?

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

Tidal Mud II - Chris Brokaw [from Tidal Mud]

thought breezes brush the bars with soft mallets
rain and unsettled boulders
running water

8 Pieces for Melodica - Aaron Keyt - Peter Nelson-King [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 22, 2023]

1
each line has a center of mass
which centers
trace a path

2
game play

3
drawing a disappearing line

4
nervous anxiety

5
lines of several words or fewer

6
we'll hold still now

7
our late song

8
epilogue

Sonata in F-sharp minor - Jeremiah Lawson - Jeremiah Lawson

a place to hang ones hats and coats
though you may need to move some stuff around
to find room

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

August 1, 2023

They Say It's Spring - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]

beguiled by a voice
light and breezy
that evil thing
for which September
the cure is

All You Need Is Love - The Beatles [from Magical Mystery Tour]

pop triumphalism
ushered in
by a nod to the guillotine

Beat It - Michael Jackson [from Thriller]

didactic
sweetened with a guitar solo
to fill in a stanza

Il contento L'Innamorata - Giacomo Gestoldi - Tielman/Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory Of The Krummhorn]

sprightly

Pretty and Shinyo - Guthrie Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]

animal drawn conveyance
steady

Boundaries 5 - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]

a turnstile
in the ultra clean future

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

Push On Through - Head For The Hills [from Robbers Roost]

suburban hillbilly musical cosplay

A Thousand Years - Ian Bell, John Teske [from Embers of Discontent (first mix)]

the sordid and ancient tale
of shorting workers

Plimsoll Punks - Alvvays [from Antisocialites]

a vocal tune
set in few specific tones

end of verses' lines jump above

we're getting them down
I guess per their report

Duo I - Sascia Pellegrini [from 7 Percussion Impossibilities]

test from the middle
where we stand
{'we'
because the music and I are in it together}

It Never Entered My Mind - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

starts almost stupid simple
trumpet slides in
at just the angle to
stifle the gigglers
they laugh
when they hear a tune they recognize

I Lived My Life - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]

escape to the city
and you'll regret it
you'll get loved
and left in the lurch

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

August 2, 2023

O Tannenbaum - London Symphony Orchestra [from Songs for the Holidays]

barely varied
to emerge in brassy triumph
with soary strings
close the picture book
go to sleep

Three for Composers' Ensemble - Tildy Bayar, Benjamin Boretz, Sebastian Collett, John Hopkins, Mary Lee Roberts, Catherine Schieve, Charles Stein, Paul Winkler

tones break loose from sounds
dissolve busily
into crowded corners
that's one

pages are adjusted
this must be two
project power
into angled deflectionary chambers
make it quiver violently
niceness tortured bodily
that's two

adjust pages
one more time
for three
and here we are

sit back
play from distant isolated chambers
as they
and we
merge
here in the middle
in long swells
of dense liquid
vining round ones ankles

{'one'
because
referring to each individual
or certain individuals
within the 'us'}

in it together
as a collective endeavor
root communications
we vanish past the hillside

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

The Butterfly Collector - The Jam [from The Sound Of The Jam]

telling another
who they are:
to whom
is this addressed?

Soon And Very Soon - Andraé Crouch - University Temple Chancel Choir, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, November 17, 2007]

this must have been the year
I was filling in as director of our choir
while David DiFiore was on sabbatical

a clear and plain reading
past me

Song 3 - The Tailenders [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]

a bemoaning of romantic fate
shouting at the moon

Music of Tond Part A - Steve Scribner - The Tond Band [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, September 22, 2017]

from a world of fiction
a dance
a reading
lore masters

composing a music
by first composing a language and culture
in which it arises
in order
to consider
how our musics
arise
within our cultures and languages

music
as it arises within
is sodden with its culture and language

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

so:
a kind of idealized
or meta-culture
is at play here
which arises within a culture
that takes it upon itself
to comment upon other cultures
as an authority

a concert of exhibits
as
a concert of exhibits
but
the study
of any other culture
is
ultimately
reflexive
and asks
what are we?
backwards

Sweat - Emily Stranger [from Labor of Love]

punk narrowness
with maximally produced sound
in lieu of a band

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

August 3, 2023

Lida Rose and Will I Ever Tell You - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man Original Cast Recording]

quod libet

Sunrise - The Who [from The Who Sell Out]

guitar plucking figures
with song tacked on

All I Wanted To Do Was Dance - Los Lobos [from By The Light Of The Moon]

two are the same
but for words
then a new one
then back
but no words
then another
with words
back to the new one again
a bit different
back to instrumental
twice
and fade
as we lose count

Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

verse stanza
is the door
to the chorus
a stanza
a box of several lids
to open and close
in turn

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

Everybody Loves You When You're Funky - The Humidiflyers [from The Humidiflyers 2002]

followed by a quick patter
recorded live somewhere

South Of The Border - Back Burner [from Simmer On]

it's always the Mexican
who gets betrayed
and we think it's so romantic

Floor Plan - Youth Rescue Mission [from recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]

this song gets swallowed by the room
unfinished arrangement a warm wallow

Breakers - Ephrata [from Ephrata]

long note harmonies
over a flat pounding beat

Karma Man - David Bowie [from Toy]

loaded with structural markers

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon

Love Is Here To Stay - Billie Holiday [from Songs For Distingué Lovers]

opens with a melodic gesture
that blooms immediately

I Need Love - Little Richard [from The Explosive Little Richard]

all that matters
is the hook
and getting there
the rest
is running start
but then it fades
flash in pan song

Strange - REM [from Document]

reference with open extension (application)
to what anyone might feel
paranoia observance

Wrapped in Grey - XTC [from Fossil Fuel]

disappointed life view
resigned to looking back
heavy

Prisstina - Sleater-Kinney [from One Beat]

what's punk about it
is the relative paucity of finesse
the lyrics
are perhaps the least punk thing about it
since it's somewhat more than just a few words
not many though

Through All The World Below - Keith Eisenbrey - University Temple Chancel Choir, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, November 17, 2007]

as a unison anthem
a hymn
what intrigues me
about hymn tune composition
is the necessity to get yourself out of the way
fussless

In Session at The Tintinabulary

July 23, 2023

Arnheim - Keith Eisenbrey