Preface
REFERENCE
IS THE ONE
IMPOSSIBLE
THING
To name it
makes it
what in it
is it
George Quasha - from "Being = Space X Action; Io, #41, edited by Charles Stein"
Texts
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
May 26, 2024
Sonata in A Major, Wq. 63/3 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
performance is not a primary source
but a realization of a score
which is
more-or-less
historical documentation
actually
a good reason that music
historians
in pursuit of scholarly discipline
should be
studying the scores
rather than listening to modern performances
no matter how historically informed those performances may be
but there are many ways to study a score
and much can be revealed
by rolling up ones sleeves
and getting ones hands into it
the study of music
is not just a scholarly discipline after all
Virginia Woolf valued the past's literature
for the images it awakened
of a past
that lived and breathed
A la venue de Noel - Claude Balbastre - Marie-Claire Alain
tracing continuities
of style
concept
or praxis
in
general
extends our past
past our experience
Symphony in F minor, "La Passione", Hob. I:49 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields, Neville Marriner
Haydn studies his own material
and lets us watch over his shoulder
as he does
scale-degree function
and harmonic function
are different
but related listening modes
they reflect each other {?}
or
each is modified
or predicated
by the inclusion within
itself of
or participation in
the other symbiotes
neither
really exists without the other
that is
from a time
when the whole idea of a Symphony
had not been
freighted with Beethovenian significance
Haydn
here
didn't
care about the importance of his composing
he just wanted to do it
really well
Symphony in G Major, K.161b(199) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christopher Hogwood
so they could make a living at it
the pursuit of excellence
as a survival tactic
a genteel entertainment
with dark and dubious corners
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven - HJ Lim
impetuous tempo
strains at its harness
rushing forward
pulling back
lingering pick ups
Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 41 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
phrases end
with a bow and a curtsy
impeccably dressed
Caprice in A minor, Op. 1 #5 - Niccolò Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
figurational persistence of polyphony
on a single line
Sonata in A minor, D. 784 - Franz Schubert - Paul Badura-Skoda
opening salvo
extends beyond the mere establishment of its key
moody lines
that jump registers
or registers
that swing
around a line
ominous biding
in the rear shadows of tonal ambiguity
Polonaise in B-flat Major, Op. 71 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin
a key
is a platform
for daydreaming fancies
Symphony in G minor "Zwickau (fragment)", WoO 29 - Robert Schumann - Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
fabulously economical slow intro
fervently strenuous
deadly
serious
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
the argument before the curtain
followed by a symphonic overture
followed by a symphonic chorus
we all speak
proper
counterpoint here
when we have a thing to say
we give it a full time to say it in
if
it's worth saying
it's worth saying
with the full polyphonic
treatments available
to your budget
each piece
rounded-off
for easy separation and
re-arrangement
Felix
the most well-behaved
of the early German Romantics
very old-fashioned recitatives
with newly appassionato choruses
so
Protestant
no scripture without commentary
unremittingly focused on its singular moment
no future
no past
anxiety all around
we'll sing a hymn
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Sonata in G minor - Fanny Hensel - Beatrice Rauchs
solidly edificial
bricks of well-formed periods
mortar of
modulations
a perfectly acceptable sonata
a busy figurational presentation
to make the piano
as big and
orchestral a sound
as it could be made
3 Etudes de Concert: Un sospiro - Franz Liszt - Claudio Arrau
the keyboard's lack of sustain
began to be seen
as a problem
to be solved
by two-fisted torrents of notes
at all times
6 Lieder aus Jucunde: An Einem Lichten Morgen, Op. 23 #2 - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
any music for piano
must allow the pianist
to exhibit
their
sheer pianistic abilities
Wiegenleid, Op. 49 #4 - Johannes Brahms - Renee Grant-Williams, Dorothy Barnhouse, Alden Gilchrist
a theme
ready for variationing
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
a bass line
plucked out of the night air
from which emerges
a
vision
of eternal bliss
at no point
can we guess
where
we might be going
our view
is clouded
and dark
the night air
bass line
appears in flutes
to light our way
a bass line
extracted
from a cavern dark and deep
leads us
further down
our better angels for our guide
soul, long dark night of the
glorious visions
heavenly things
divinely patient
swept willy nilly
onto the busy streets
the panic erupts
courage plucked from anxiety
a bass line
plucked in our innermost core
the morning calisthenics
we'll do a fugue
it forgot we were
listening
titanic struggle
triumphal majesty
Khovantchina, Act II - Modeste Mussorgsky - Sofia National Opera, Atanas Margaritov, Dimiter Petkov, Todor Kostov, Lyoubomir Bodourov, Stoyan Popov, Nikola Gyuzelev, Alexandrina Milcheva-Nonova, Milen Paounov, Maria Dimchevska, Dimiter Dimitrov, Nadya Dobriyanova, Verter Vrachovsky
a power pushing match
fueled by the crowd outside
bellowing
bears
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
some noise
then the curtain opens on a magic land
Mozart
cast him as a figure in a morality play
Byron
as a charmed life of endless pleasures and adventure
morally oblivious at best
wouldn't life be great if . . .
eternal youth
eternal gratification
on to the next possibility
fair winds
and clear sky
Karelia Suite, Op. 11 - Jean Sibelius - London Symphony Orchestra, Robert Kajanus
historical epics
legendary figures
national sagas
the age of
the international stage has arrived
in full martial regalia
{journal entry of January 5, 1998:
some portamento to hang on to in 2}
Te Deum - Giuseppe Verdi - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Shaw
when a theater composer
late in life
turns to sacred choral music
as Rossini and Verdi did
(Liszt???)
is it like a King
abdicating into a monastery
so the church can absolve their sinful
past?
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5 - Arnold Schoenberg - Czech Philharmonic Orchesta, Hans Swarowsky
at some point
between 1900
and my earliest memories of symphony
concerts (1975?)
there ceased to be a market
for big
new
complex works
that could fill
the meat-and-potatoes
post-intermission slot
this music
is muttering to itself
continual self-predication
Caresse dansée, Op. 57 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo
gentle
offhand
casual
A la Maniere de Chabrier - Maurice Ravel - Vlado Perlemuter
winningly slight
Symphony in D, Op. 25 "Classical" (#1) - Serge Prokoviev - Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi
the neo-classical impulse
100 years ago
was a response
to
depictic music
except
that it ends up depicting other musics
eschews pictorial grandeur
and self-absorbed emotives
a
healthy dollop of ironic remove
we can have fun being music
when
not burdened by meaning
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
every sound
created by a committee of instruments
adhocking itself
as it goes
but now there's this guy
and he's singing
now
dere's a dame too
wazzup
's 'is an opera?
or what?
Mahler's progeny
symphonicizing song
and songifying symphonies
phrase
a moment within a breath
(might fill that breath)
the "atonal" epiphany:
if a key doesn't need to be established to be
then
they are all free to abdicate tonicization
indefinitely
to release ones hold on the tonic
is to float weightlessly
solo voices
accompanied by a throng
of ever shifting
committees of instruments
Six Pieces for Large Orchestra - Anton Webern - London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
the committees
have dispersed
into the dark
floating freely
in pitchspace
some snipe at each other visciously
Piano Concerto No. 1 - Dmitri Shostakovich - Moscow Virtuosi, Vladimir Spivakov, Evgeny Kissin, Vassili Kan
sit down lads and
I'll tell you a tale
to put the curl in your
toes
bureaucracy speed run
and now we wait
the winter out
out
caper the miniature clowns
speed run
part two
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
this polyphony
is a fierce headwind
full of fragments of flying
phantoms
through which
we struggle forward
we do not observe
this polyphony
flowing past
it is coming right at us
inexorably
Symphony No. 4 "Requiem", Op. 34 - Howard Hanson - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz
the crowd's got to have something to hang on to
something they can be
taught on the fly
or have drummed into them
this music
hints broadly
at where we are headed
and now
a wordless of comfort
from the heavens above
Little Orgg - Tony Fruscella [from That Devilin' Tune]
not casual sophistication
(nothing casual about it)
but not stuffy
either
relaxed-urbane sophistication
classy
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
I Want A Hippopotomas for Christmas - Gayla Peevey
post-war radio culture
pre-rock&roll novelties
Go-Go Pogo - Norman Monath [from Songs of the Pogo]
more of same
The Son of the Ox-Driver - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross-Country Concert]
riding the mighty wind
of commercial folk
Judge G.T.O. Breakaway - Paul Revere and the Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
literal commercial music
spec sheet
Elegeia - Tadeusz Baird - Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jacek Kasprzyk
strong gestures
pointedly not about their intervals
they are
impervious objects
Three Record Set (part 2) - Anthony Braxton - Oberlin College Orchestra, Kenneth Moore
a stage set
without a play
activities pass around
weave through the instruments
pop-up
game
fading slowly
like the cat
with the grin
broad expanses on every side
Lonesome Tonight - Bow Wow Wow
glitzerrrrrific
Banned Rehearsal 129 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [January 1, 1988]
a rare appearance by the Yamaha
(the piano my folks bought for me in
1976)
the Aaronsbundler
is our signature chord-change
we invent music
with only what we bring to the table
nice effect
how the piano noodles
suddenly find themselves on tape
at another speed
and not
at the same time
sudden temporal disjointure
and now some readings
from Lear, Edward
there was an . . .
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
five pieces of various lengths
I'm playing with tapes
on tape
we'll get some sound on here yet
(I struggle
to pile means
atop means
of making noise
until
I have achieved
perfect
silence)
one splice spliced arghhh!
Lear
as a vocabulary exercise
glue it together at both ends
OK
it's a loop
at last
sound!!
we may have found a way to improve Air Supply
hello?!?
I had forgotten how many times we played with tape loops in the early 100s
I'm disappointed
it's dull
Aaron
in the face of them
recites comic quatrains
and
couplets
a rehearsal
of remarkable passages
it's a bran new year
right at the end
Aaron rhymes Purcell
with Banned Rehearsal
Fanfare for All - Milton Babbitt [from Eric Carlson's Ever Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]
breaks into subcommittees
after formalities
Minute Etudes: Lively - Emily Doolittle - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 8, 2023]
exact focus
Organism 3 - Christian Asplund - Tom Baker [from Sounding the Curve]
it grows in a day
tall to the sky
Jesus, My Saviour - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded May 24, 2015]
hymn writing:
let the bones be strong
finesse can fall away
High School Girls - The Blue Ribbon Boys
I was buying albums hand over fist a few years ago
I don't remember this
at all
though they may have shared a bill
on some show we were at
entirely meretricious and icky
In Session at The Tintinabulary
May 14, 2024
Sinfonia 13 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
I waited to post this
until such time as it had passed through
clavichord workshop
May 26, 2024
Lepanto - Keith Eisenbrey
begin plain
wander off
cadence through a side door
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| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Gradus 396 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
and then
the task becomes familiarization
with the feel
of
the rung
exploration
the activity of composition
has within it
no
necessity
to make pieces
as its goal
it could put itself
at the service
of a discipline
a strategy might be
to
look for like kinds of structures
or objects
and put them in
groups
treat similar objects
or structures
similarly
find what is not similar
find a way to get there
a lyric line of
anomalies
May 28, 2024
Caprice for Flute (and imaginary (or optional) percussion) (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
I had a great deal of fun writing this little piece for Cliff Dunn, who has a newly refurbished flute. The percussion parts are:
1. something that can be rolled, such as a suspended cymbal, tambourine, or
rattle
2. something rattatat tatty, such as a crisp snare drum, a high
bongo, or a small wood block
3. something with a solid whump, such as a
kick drum, or an emphatic stomp of the foot
May 31, 2024
Sinfonia 12 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
I had thought I was done making changes
but I was wrong
here is
the actual finished version
Sinfonia 12 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey
and here is the same
on clavichord
Sinfonia 13 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey
this one came together quickly
just a few weeks
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 18: 2020
Études d'exécution imminent - Exercises
Anybody's Fingerbook
What set of etudes would be complete without finger exercises? Anybody's Fingerbook (number 14 of Études d'exécution imminent, consists of 38 perverse note lists that become progressively more fiendish to play. They mark a particular ebenezer of acerbicity in that still-expanding back 40 of compositional doohickies that contains my oeuvre. The 38 are gathered into eight groups of finger twisters. Try these at home kids!
All tracks were recorded in 2021 and 2022
Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2022
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