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| Paradise Inn, Mt. Rainier National Park |
"'There is a certain island known as Syria --
you may have heard of it
--
north of Ortygiê, at the turning points of the sun,
not
particularly populous, but a good place --
good for herds, good for
flocks;
plenty of vineyards, plenty of wheat.
Famine never comes to
that country
nor does any hateful malady
that ordinarily befalls
wretched mortals.
But when a generation of persons grows old,
Apollo
comes along with his silver bow,
and Artemis comes with her kindly
arrows,
and they set upon them all and slay them all.'"
Homer - from "The Odyssey", translated by Charles Stein
Texts
Live
September 29, 2023
Rice Blood Sugar - Leanna Li Keith
Chapel Performance Space, Good
Shepherd Center Seattle
Leanna Li Keith, Jenne Hsien Patrick, Kaley
Lane Eaton, Alino To, Heather Bentley, Omar Willey
words by Omar Willey
against language
a diatribe or tribunal
music by Leanna Li Keith
after words by Jenne Hsien Patrick
concerning
the personal loss of a language
and its eclipse
or occultation
or effacement
or supersedure
by a
louder lingo
swimming fish
skimming bugs
scattered sky
glide from shadow
a bridge
a path
stop to listen
narrow passage
blocked
lost
enclosed
draw the music as a stone path
explain confounding barriers
cross-lingual melody levitation
spell dance
fly away
{the little fold-out program notes are awesome!}
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| Paradise Inn. Mt. Rainier National Park |
September 23, 2023
Mazurka in B-flat Major, KKIVb/1 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
schematic
Fantasiestück in D-flat Major, Op. 12 #3 "Warum?" - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage
it doesn't just begin in media res
it never moves from there
we
leave it
as it remains
Rock of Ages - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich
nicely transformed
by simple means
Fourth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson - Lockrem Johnson
1
a wiggle that wanders
and the garden it buzzes about
attempting escape
but bound firm
2
night hymns
restless attention
3
small stakes music
no ramparts stormed
no daring feats
accretion of lightings
Humph - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
Thelonious playing mostly as part of the rhythm section
but gets a short
solo
Don't Let Me Love You - Sarah Vaughan [from In A Romantic Mood]
the arrangement gives her lots of room
which she fills without fail
Touch Me - Willie Nelson [from ...And Then I Wrote]
the world's bluest man
Well - Little Richard [from The Explosive Little Richard]
cranking the volume
on a completely typical song
it's about how he
puts it across
while it itself
disappears
behind the
delivery
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
weaves the rhythmic oddities of the original hymn
(in the hymnbook
version)
into a new garment
do not try to sing along with Ray kids
you'll hurt yourself
Time Alone - Carole King [from Simple Things]
the chords hold still at the beginnings of the stanzas
lift themselves
to fall back to the opening
sometimes where we started
has been
shifted up a step
They Took My Hand - Nina Simone [from Fodder on My Wings]
a tag song at the end of the album
By The Side - Israel Philharmonic, Dov Seltzer, Itzhak Perlman [from Tradition]
what remains
of a sentimentally stylized song
if one has no
attachment to the tune in question
a tune and a stylization
The Little Black Bull - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs For Children]
the legend of what happened then
when it came down the meadow
with
lots of pawing at dirt
Satin Summer Nights - Paul Simon [from Songs from the Capeman]
an old sound
communal singing
sleeping on the roof
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| Paradise Inn, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin) - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]
late entry
in the gather ye rosebuds while ye may tradition
Herrick lives on
Listen - Jarrad Powell - Jessica Kenney [from Stonehouse Songs]
a low voice speaking
and a high voice singing
same words
same rhythm of start time points
low voice
hangs on the sss
of lisssten
high voice
hangs on the iii of liiisten
Song 4 - The Tailenders [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
melody
up down up -
up down down -
the stanza accounting for
itself
Neon Blur - Steve Layton & Sound-In [from Further Journey]
outside the windows
as we slither through the lit up streets
one
like another
like another
like one
like any other one
a twisted grid
sharpened
for the slow skeletonization of the
unarmored
Piano 4 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Five Piano Fantasies]
transpires in three pitch regions
Caprice en forme de Valse in A-flat Major, Op. 2 # 7 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann
that this music
is in the voice of a young woman
is a biographical
factoid
at the time
it was dogmatic
that no young woman's voice was worth
considering
therefore
this music was less worthy
than it
would be
but for the said biographical factoid
it had nothing to do with the music itself
nor in how transparently it
sang in that voice
Hound Dog - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']
the ears you need
are in the motions of your center of gravity
around your center of depravity
(tarzan make little joke there)
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
a band is partly the pleasure of playing together
which pleasure
is independent of the pleasure of playing for others
or for their
entertainment
Three Time Loser - Bonnie Raitt [from Sweet Forgiveness]
see Jerry Lee above
this one has a more vertical vibration
any
thing
that is on an off beat
must also
be off an on beat
What Is the Name of That Song - Ornette Coleman [from Of Human Feelings]
this one is up around the shoulders
perhaps in the angle of set of jaw
as well
Hungarian Rhapsody #2 - Franz Liszt [from 100 Greatest Classics]
perhaps not his deepest composition
but it makes me think about them
and it's a more interesting work
than I think it is often given
credit for
a magician with a new trick every few bars
5:15 The Angels Have Gone - David Bowie [from Heathen]
this one has a presence below the floor
I'm changing tracks
I'm
changing time
fancy singing back there David
Until I Die - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]
the production is faultless and effective
Song 4 - Youth Rescue Mission [recorded live at The High Dive, April 6, 2012]
some nice blood harmony in this one
what a view of the mountain
The Shed - The Deadrones [from We Are Watching]
this one's at midriff
but is unmoving
self heroifying
zoned
out
I've Got That Feeling - Robin Holcomb [from One Way or Another]
colorful harmony
plainly laid out
chosen with great care
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| Paradise Inn, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]
chopinesquely winding
a right hand chromatic descent
into a
twisted figuration
trading breaks
with the drummer
It - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]
distanced
subdued
Soar - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
a life-style commercial
for being a success
just like me
I Wonder Where You Are - Back Burner [from Simmer On]
a country music trope
lonely
left behind
dressed up
with an educated accent
and an acoustic string band
Song 3 - Curtains for You [recorded live at The High Dive, April 6, 2012]
shiny cabaret rock
Limbo's Daughter - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
the lines stay within the chord colors
polite
Snow On The Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey) - Taylor Swift [from Midnights]
opens like a cut on a Christmas album
crowding words
into whatever
space is left after the non legato verse
locution
each word on its
own snowflake
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Good Christian Men, Rejoice - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
homophonic part-writing
with clever references to linearity
Ave Maria - Franz Schubert [from 100 Greatest Classics]
any segment of a melody
moves from A to B
via ornamented steps
A
can be the same ptich as B
but some transformation occurs
to
provide a motion
often by means of where that pitch sits
within
the underlying harmonic sonority
as it moves along
transforming
pitch
as it moves along
Check Yo Self - Ice Cube [from The Predator]
thick sticky beat
with a 60s vibe to it
loves to say
you
could have had a V-8
rhythmic texture of speaking
as crucial an
element as the rhymes
Heroin and Honey - Robin Jackson and the Caravan [from Dust Diaries]
suburban sentimental singer
sings as the I of the song's text
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
arty
in the way
arty movie music
is arty
friendly
the way
small town friendly sees itself
none of which negates the skilled musicianship in play
though it
compromises
much hope of transcendence
Seven Months - Red Ribbon [from Freaks Only]
sounds like it was recorded in Sound Lab at EMP
not a bad thing
that small room
best we can do balance
glorious DIY
Johnny Law - Robber's Roost [from Rage & Reason]
pulls back
to an ironic remove from the song's text's protagonist
I had a friend
an act of solidarity
creation of a "we".
Early Morning Cold Taxi - The Who [from The Who Sell Out]
self conscious relation to its own poeticisms
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
the relative segregation of tracks in the recording
(not egregious)
allows analysis
of how the individuals fit
within the
prevailing homogeneity
Somewhere In Time - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]
this music is typical of its demographic
an empty statement
since
what is typical
is defined by the parameters of the demographic in
question
how accurate could our preconceptions possibly be?
strictly on a
gamblers' odds?
Tulane - The Tripwires [from Makes You Look Around]
the intro merges into city traffic
will we re-emerge
and does it
again
song writing
inventing a language
that can only be spoken within
that song
Com A Água no Pescoço - Camarones Orquestra Guitaristica [from Live in Natal]
the music recording industry's hegemony
does have the benefit of
enabling a free transference of musicianship across national borders
drawback
American music is so loud one must be even louder than
that to be noticed
Problems - Alone In Dead Bars [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
the very picture of punk dedication
Kevin's Song - Mikey and Matty [from And It Came to Pass/Not To Stay]
songs across the hegemony
could be sorted
in terms of their
textual person
(first third omniscient et cetera)
I songs
Us
songs
You songs
Them songs
mixed songs
of various
measurable
nominal
complexity of persons
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
we will now have a reading from scripture
all change is constant
and cyclical
but
how many stages of cyclical cycles
and
is there a whimsy at work
in its arrangement
Symphony 8 "Unfinished", 1st Movement - Franz Schubert [from 100 Greatest Classics]
spookiest opening ever
the entirety
is floating over the abyss
footing free
unattached
not a drama about conquering the
abyss
but
a still photograph
of abiding it
a region of everywhere
(Samish) Lullaby - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]
melody hangs
on certain pitch platforms
Up On the Desktop - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
shopping in the new world
You Should Feel Ashamed - Tyrannosaurus Grace [from Much More Than A Story]
a polemic in a strange argument to still be having
tries to convince by
accusation
Song 4 - Arbor Towers [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
a humble
honest
act
a softened high baritone
almost a
tenor
sometimes
another bar band curated talent show
6-------~--~~-~-~~-~--~~~~~~~--(Rojahn Remix) - Lost Chocolate Lab [from (Previously) Clean]
can a thought think about its own thought
without translation services
provided by a dis-interested third party?
Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite! (takes 1 and 2) - The Beatles [from Anthology]
abortive starts
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun - Claude Debussy [from 100 Greatest Classics]
were we to emerge fully formed
out of our own imaginations
innocent of all but carnal lust
a pitch world
saturated with tonal homogeneities
and
voluptuousness
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| Paradise, Mt. Rainier National Park |
they turn on their own fast-forward
without benefit of loops
or
tape speed limitations
Muted Terrorism - Goat [from Live at Sonarchy]
finding a mode of speaking
in the language of squeaky electronic honks
oboid
doubly reeded
Straight Line - Karin Blaine [from Modern Day Living]
war stories
sharing scars in the diner booth
lines jammed into
poem shape
Somehow, They'll Know - Anxious Arms [from Never Was]
an EP
is the length of a short dive-bar set
and can be designed
with that in mind
how best to say it all
in five or six songs
more would be too much
serving size
Song 5 "Tiger Teeth" - Star Anna [streamed from The Fiddler's Inn, March 7, 2022]
greetings to Forest the Dog
who is jingly jangly when he is dancing
whom does the dive-bar circuit serve?
what is its social purpose?
to birth national stars?
to break into a business?
to get
past gatekeepers?
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| Ptarmigan tracks, et cetera Mt. Rainier National Park |
Death of Me - Ramones [from Halfway to Sanity]
composed in squares
Subtle Invitation - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
makes her introductions in the introduction
warms up the sexy voice
chorus
re-arrival
modalities of delivery
Decibel Festival - Seattle Phonographer's Union
assembly of sound collectors sharing sounds
recognizable for what they
were
collectively
with the faith
that their mixing together
will be co-effective
and inter-effective
Fallen - Specyphi
their quiet cool down number
trying to sound seasoned
clumsy
movements from segment to segment
Ellen - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]
vocals are an adhesion
on the big guitar sound
plaque
Part V - Alex Anthony Faide [from Particles of the Infinite]
a still pattern
being pushed off its balance
adds parts to restack
itself
spacy coda of pretty synth chords
In Session at The Tintinabulary
September 24, 2023
Missionary Chant - Keith Eisenbrey
This weeks arrangement of a tune from an 1846 shape-note song book. The book is arranged by meter (in the hymn-book sense). The first bunch (and it's a big bunch) is "LM" or "Long Meter" or "8+8+8+8" id est each line of the text being set has eight syllables. For the most part any text of that structure could be sung to any tune in LM. An hour's compositional pleasure can be got by setting such tunes with accompanying lines that help them along with lyrical flow, or that inflict whatever else might suit ones fancy.
September 25, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1084 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
We're back in the studio for the long dark. All the toys at our service.
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 3: 1982-1983
I have started sharing collections of my compositions in albums on Bandcamp. This set of pieces was written in Red Hook, NY, and Malabar, FL, as I was beginning to think about thinking about music.
Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982
These are what occupied my time toward at the end of my undergrad days and in the year before I went east for a while.
Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981
These are the keyboard works I composed while an undergrad at the UW.
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2009
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