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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
"'I take a great interest in her, Mr. Weller,' said Mr. Pickwick.
Mr.
Weller coughed.
'I mean an interest in her doing well,' resumed Mr.
Pickwick; 'a desire that she may be comfortable and prosperous. You
understand?'
'Wery clearly,' replied Mr. Weller, who understood nothing
yet.
'That young person,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'is attached to your
son.'
'To Samivel Veller!' exclaimed the parent.
'Yes,' said Mr.
Pickwick.
'It's nat'ral,'said Mr. Weller, after some consideration,
'nat'ral but rayther alarmin'. Sammy must be careful.'
'How do you mean?'
inquired Mr. Pickwick.
'Wery careful that he don't say nothin' to her,'
responded Mr. Weller. 'Wery careful that he ain't led avay, in a innocent
moment, to say anythin' as may lead to a conwiction for breach. You're never
safe vith 'em, Mr. Pickwick, ven they vunce has designs on you; there's
no knowin' vere to have 'em; and vile you're a considering of it, they have
you. I wos married furst, that vay myself, sir, and Sammy was the consekens o'
the manoover.'"
Charles Dickens - The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club
Texts
Recorded
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
Symphony in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique" (#6) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Yevgeny Mravinsky
1
B minor or loneliness
the open
is about how these notes move together
about the
accumulation of tiny differences
first segment
scales descending
second segment
scales
ascending
first segment
begins off the beat
and falls
second segment
begins firmly
and ascends
emotive whammy?
absolutely
but the whammy ought not to deafen us
to crucial stuff behind the scenes
how it accomplishes said whammy
by a ritualized
highly structured
acting out
of
emoting
2
first segment
the waltz in five
second segment
the
solemn procession
also in five
3
a scherzoid march
cheering multitudes
streamers and
gleaming buttons
bayonets and epaulettes
4
garret or basement
humble quarters
apotheosis of emotive
acting out
Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 4, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (After J. S. Bach's BWV 734) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
so
is Busoni transcribing Bach
any different
than a ritualized
highly structured
acting out
of emotiveness?
and
certainly
to be asked of the Bach directly as well
is the piece
that is the acting out
a different piece
than that which is
ritualized
or that which is highly structured?
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
fashions
among appropriate emotions to act out
anguish
cool
reasoning
or liquid languish
or violent passion
I Ain't Had No Lovin' In a Long Time - Bob Roberts [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
adult entertainment
in the old days
5 Pieces for Orchestra - Anton Webern - London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
speculated emotives
aphoristicules
June 24, 2024
3 Etudes - Béla Bartók - Paul Jacobs
1
something nefarious emerges from a full rolling boil
piano is a
percussion instrument school of thought
2
heavy and slithery
obscured by dense growth
3
massive stone
playful sprites
New Orleans Joys - Jelly Roll Morton [from Really The Blues]
motion
quivers up
from hip to shoulder
shivers strum the
ribs
Clarinet Concerto - Carl Nielsen - New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, Stanley Drucker
considered placement
of clarinet sound within the orchestra sound
always clear
never perfunctory
in slow portion
horns and bassoons
composed
to sound like
horns and bassoons
rather than
like all horns
excellent snare drum part
A Deserted Plantation - William Grant Still - Mark Boozer
a music based on a music
wears music on its sleeve
a vastly
different vibe
than when Ives pastes musics in
slowly
dotted rhythms
never had it so good
location evoked
through song
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
introducing the band and its soloists
every song a showcase
Nesta Rua - Heitor Villa-Lobos - New York Chamber Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz, Robert Bonfiglio
pretty tune to rend hearts with
Wrong Road Blues - Tommy Duncan and his Western All Stars [from That Devilin' Tune]
string band
with a bit of snare drum
hanging out with the double
bass
Klavierstück 2 - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Aloys Kontarsky
drawing lines through dots
violently
Scherzo - Berthold Goldschmidt - Kolja Lessing
witty and slight
Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
lets rhyme stuff
Barstow - Eight Hitchhiker Transcriptions - Harry Partch - The Harry Partch Ensemble
lost in Massachusetts
go to 530 East on Heron Avenue
gentlemen
easy hand out
object matrimony
every person on stage
is a character
I'm mystified
as to why it's Partch's tunings
that get all
the attention
for me
it's all bout theater
the tuning
is just one of the particularities of it
Sixty Minute Man - Clarence Carter [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
drop the needle
heh heh heh heh heh heh
I Believe - Buzzcocks [from Nancy's Mix]
credo in my machine nature
as programmed
to program your credo
by repetition of slogans
Modern Love - David Bowie [from Let's Dance]
I am programmed
and oiled
to fit in
80s
upfront
uptight
drum sound
like a clenched scrotum
I Can Shout All I Want - Banned Rehearsal [from Purple Stripe]
Neals' version of Aaron's sudden song
a few quasi chords and can
drumming
they're all for sure
going straight to Hell
but better them
than me
unless I ring that little bell
this bus won't stop for me
back up
she bop de boo wop
String Quartet 6 - Milton Babbitt - The Fred Sherry Quartet
the axioms of hexachordal combinatoriality
are their own homogeneity
a machine
that deals with incoming messages
a polyreceptive
reference
and dispatcher
this music knows what it is
where does this music take us
through what are we pulled
an exquisite ecstasy
find a pitch
and hang on for dear life
catch the next one if you fall off
Banned Rehearsal 478 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 3, 1998]
we open our cases and begin to squeak and squawk
bringing a low string
up to a tuning
each part distinct
no part front and center
the seed need not appear within the tree
behind it all
a
distant simian chatter
in small voice
through small speaker
Taps
begins drunken brass drinking song
crowded moorage
the
beef boats bellow
rocking swells
a wandering mind passes through
Taps
on The Aaronsbundler
excitement building among the
pilings
this sound has a reflective surface
but the angles matter
dragon hoard
mulling horns and bells
glance off each other
a three sneeze night
this music is a consistent re-morph
but slow at it
reluctant
hold on...
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
a fussy dense middle
sticks
and non-intra-extractable brass
blatting on top
like drunken sovereigns
on decaying thrones
drift off into slumber
while the court connives a dunking
too feebly inebriated
to resist the force -march into the moat
takes its time
about all getting on the same soundpage
timepage
big Wurlitzer sounds
help glue
then open
new spots
vistas
like a quick spin through the FM spectra
lots of taps played
a moment here
late
and we are
outside at night
piercing stars with drone tones
glowing
growing
gelatinous
expansion
of shrill burning
light}
 |
| Karen at Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
Firecrackers in Metal - Christopher DeLaurenti
some musics are virtual worlds
some are wall mounted objects
Track 3 - Aaron Keyt [from 7(7)]
some are virtual worlds
of wall mounted objects
being virtual
it can't be like anything else
except
by virtue
of the virtualizing mind
yet
it often
seems
to seek
to be
communication
of a type not fully understood
by anybody
Marry The Night - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]
dance hall
nightlife propaganda
tip your bartender
Banned Rehearsal 950 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 15, 2018]
some are virtual worlds
of virtual worlds
of hand wielded
sounds
public facing musics
use devices to attract attention
playing in
tune
and in time
for instance
Totem 21 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]
some music
is a virtual world
made of wind
and water
and earth
and fire
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
lifted up
floated down
Non Mirar, No Mirare - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini
some virtual worlds
seem to intend
to speak eloquently
Alma redemptoris Mater a 8 - Peter Philips - The Choir of Royal Holiday, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Robert Gough
space translates music
music enables space
to stage virtual worlds
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 374, Volume 1: VI. Unser keiner lebet ihm selber - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
early baroque rejuvenation of meter
as a field for workmanship of
intricate design
Jesu, meine Freude, BuxWV 60 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet, Suzie LeBlanc, Dame Emma Kirby, Clare Solomon
the sonata that opens this cantata
has some weird shit in the
middle part
in Lutheran circles
without the Mass to work off of
they zeroed in
on the hymns
as backbone
then proceeded to construct a body of
liturgical music
as impressive in its scope
as what the Catholics
had
(for a time at least)
Quatrieme Ordre (fa): La Marche des Gris-vetus - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
voices moving in accord with each other
Invention in E minor, BWV 778 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht Axenfeld
left hand acts as a yes man
to the right hand
but backwards
in heels
Sonata in C minor, Kk. 230 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
juggling duet
Scarlatti is not about repetition
he is about play
he often plays with repetition
Sonata in F minor, Wq. 63/6 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
baring the melodic
of extraneous showy prolongations
by building
the prolongations
into how it goes along
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
enlightenment and elegance
a mask of reason
civilization
is
screaming itself hoarse
to convince itself
it is in charge
Allegro Molto in D Major, Hob. XVII.D2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim
a game
to make the party laugh
Sonata in A minor, K. 310 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Lili Kraus
in the middle of what they were saying
they notice a motion off to the
side
best take the message
but
if prolongations are built
into how it goes along
then vanity itself
will demand decoration
Sonata in G Major, Op. 37 #2 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
pieces of music
began to become things one did
in order to have
them published
and sold
independently of the original occasion
if there was one
instructions in refinement
and cultural etiquette
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 47 "Kreutzer" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Nathan Milstein, Georges Plademacher [from Nathan Milstein: The Last Recital]
trading off the tune
sequential translation
in negotiation
embodied in the persons playing
but not contained by them
variations
sets of
also sequential translations
but
displayed serially
or generational
each begets the next
Caprice in E-flat Major, Op. 1 #8 - Niccolò Paganini- Salvatore Accardo
thinking about strings as tuned
in relation to the key in play
Music for 'Rosamunde' D. 797 - Franz Schubert - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Bohm
the notion of first and second subject
as among the sines qua non of
Sonata Allegro form
must have arisen
from its uses in operatic
overtures
but
the form appears in far more varied a population of
musics
than operatic overtures
lyrical rather than epic
drama
fantasy
poem
music
this music caricatures characters
melodramatic
melofantastic
melopoetic
melomusical
B Movie
B for Brilliant
this music folds us into a warm blanket
so comfy
our guide and friend
in this music
it's better
to not know
where you are within it
it is complete
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
story weaver
change scene
weave another
be quick
variations as literary device
as in
on a theme of
Beethoven's |
treating the source as a literature
hands like spiders
Lisztian Reminiscences de Septieme Symphony
Waltz in F Major, Op. 34 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
dances gracefully in all things
Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
song writing
is the art of revealing the voice of the poem
Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 - Johannes Brahms - Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir, Charlotte Margiono, Rodney Gilfry
edification carved into every brick and board
finds himself struggling
to punch through the fugal mass he has brought forth
a plea for
knowledge
of what we know
will knowing what we know
provide
comfort
free of weight and weightlessness
free of mass
cushioned on the
contours of smoothly crafted lines
the soloists don't stand in star power spotlights
Via Crucis: Station II - Jesus trägt sein Kreuz - Franz Liszt - Nederlands Kamerkoor, Reinbert De Leeuw
an illustration with inscribed lesson
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
Symphony in E Major (#7) - Anton Bruckner - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
1
a promise unfurls
undescribed
into
within
every interior
root tips
and buds
in the dark
in
the light
seed of promise
of the Holy Spirit
is without a doubt
Anton being devout
what it is all about
2
at home
in one's being
healing immense kindness
3
valiant and brave
in struggles untiring
4
as though we awake from dream
but for now
live!
impelled
Psyche - César Franck - Orchestre Philharmonique De Liege, Paul Strauss
another big piece about spirits
my favorite of Franck's symphonies
especially with the choral bits included
glorious
floating bliss
eternity
effortless motion
no
need for symphonical processes
to bog it down
as tune birds go
this one is resplendent
the hot housiest
of hot house flowers
voluptuous in all its parts
Sea Pieces: A.D. MDCXX - Edward MacDowell - Fred Karpoff
this music sounds like how roman numerals look
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
the essential story
only relies on the power-differential
between
Butterfly and Pinkerton
(Donna Elvira and Don Giovanni?)
(and
between Butterfly and her keeper)
(and between her keeper and
Pinkerton)
the particular nationalities
are immaterial
power is power
lost in the voluptuous folds of exoticism
the exotic
signifies
innocence
true-heartedness
trustingness
simplicity
Americans
as much a novelty
as Japanese
(to Puccini)
the big tune
lets us down gently
the Americanness of Pinkerton
is signified
by a European-derived
Patriotic Tune
Oh Say Can You See
public/private faces
||"ooohhh. . . Marta!"
(John & Marsha?)||
this music
depicts the projected feelings
of the audients
(instruction)
this must be the famous humming chorus
Fig Leaf Rag - Scott Joplin - William Albright
a mechanically marvelous element
contraptional
this music is about
notes
in a unique way
as
the result
of a mechanical
action
that it is programmed to perform
Preludes, Book 2: Brouillard - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking
intimating touch
Sirfelirat, Rubato, Op. 11 #4 - Zoltan Kodály - Jenö Jandó
picking up on Debussy's clarity of expression
a miniature drama for solo
piano
Serenade, Op. 24 - Arnold Schoenberg - London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
treating notes
as sound
made by prescribed gestures
of arm
lip
and hands
and breath
and mouth
axiomatic gestures
coy and clever
it B A C Hs us
a little song persists
while being pelted by note stones
cramped molecular space
what meaning does it have
to our experience of a music
to have it
demonstrated
that
some aspect of it
is consistent
to
certain axioms?
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 23, 2204
Hamburg - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 19: 2021
Études d'exécution imminent - Acknowledgments
Rounds for Aaron (2021)
Rungs for Neal (2021)
The Acknowledgements form the last segment of my large-scale project "Études d'exécution imminent", which might be subtitled "studies in compositional listening".
Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2023
