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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
"Nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same sea-taste that had achieved the ladder and the picture. Its paneled front was in the likeness of a ship's bluff bows, and the Holy Bible rested on a projecting piece of scroll work, fashioned after a ship's fiddle-headed beak.
What could be more full of meaning? - for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried. and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."
Herman Melville - from Moby-Dick; or, the Whale.
Texts
Recorded
 |
| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Symphony in G Major, Op. 88 (#8) - Antonín Dvořák - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
1
preps for a royal visit
so much to do
meanwhile
in the meadow
the poets and millers' daughters
dream away
wooden sword fights
make believe swashbuckling
one of my favorites among Dvořák's symphonies
because it's having so
much fun being all bucolic and all
2
nicely voiced string writing
mechanical bird calls
story
book land
not trying to be profound
mostly Antonín just wants to
have fun
3
ball gown
dance dream
negotiations delicate
all move
together
happy town
street parades and commerce
4
the king is trumpeted
and arrives
seated on a divan
unjostlingly transported
the crowd goes wild with excitement
dance symphony
concertina for flute
but now
the dreamers
must back to sleep
 |
| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Fantasy in A minor, Op. posth. - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti, Robert Leonardi
the two-piano piece
with the great little tune
could be a sketch
for a concerto movement
perfect simultaneities are problematic
with two piano music
doesn't matter so much
except in those
places where it really does
and could be more correctly done
with one player
{from my journal of December 8, 1997:
that pretty little tune
is
still very nice
even after all these years}
Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 4, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (After J. S. Bach's BWV 734) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
a given line
encased in ornateness
now newly refurbished
the piano
as used here
is a considerably more intimate instrument
than a pipe-organ
which changes the feel of the piece
as to its immediate relation to us
Pelleas und Melisande - Arnold Schoenberg - CBC Symphony Orchestra, Robert Craft
tendrils accumulate
entwine themselves
into the form of a
body
as a silent movie does
it mimes personal interactions
an operatic
model
the music as a freely re-configuring stage of action
relies
on us following it
like a drama is happening
in front of it
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
quick cuts
hovering in a key's vicinity
or running circles around
it
Syrinx - Claude Debussy - Roger Bourdin
repetition of first figure throughout
resets
new paragraph
3 Poems of Fiona MacLeod - Charles Griffes - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, Phyllis Bryn-Julson
1
in the first person
talking to itself
we listen in
the stage
is within the song
2
as though heard from across a distance
or in a dream
3
twilight or dawn
bowers and vines
golden light
House of David Blues - Midway Dance Orchestra [from That Devilin' Tune]
stage stroll dance
long liquid legs
slow frame rate
Wang Wang Blues - Sam Ku West Harmony Boys [from Really The Blues]
interesting guitar playing
steel or lap?
 |
| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Wait for Me - Harold and Hazel [from Turn Me Loose, White Man]
another lost or obscure set of vowels
suddenly yodeling
"long"
almost
"lo-ahng"
The Incredible Flutist - Walter Piston - Howard Hanson
one of those Modernist ballets?
orchestral instruments are line players
they play musical lines
it was considered rude
to provide
them
with only a bit of something
or with not enough of a line
to understand
as a part of the piece the orchestra is playing
treating instrumentalists like factory workers
part of the reason
the later pointillism rubbed some folks the wrong way
notes to
play
but no way to easily understand those notes
as a part of
anything in particular
They Say - Billie Holiday, Teddie Wilson and His Orchestra [from Lady Day; The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
lazy shuffle groove
cushioned beats
In a Landscape - John Cage - Melissa Walsh [recorded live at the Chapel Performance Space May 25, 2012]
late stage Modernist exoticism?
Need Somebody - John Lee Hooker [from The Legendary Modern Recordings]
drum stomp
beat beat beat beat
John & Marsha - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
tour de force of voice acting and script-writing
Moon Child - The Ventures [from Walk Don't Run]
simple lines one could learn to play for yourself
offered accessibility
to participation
American bona fides
I'm folks
just folks
and right proud
about it
Space Is The Place - Sun Ra [from Space Is The Place]
comes on like alarms going off
bloop! bleep!
pay attention
layers of messages
coming through a cramped stereo field
singlehandedly renders Stockhausen's Sirius thingy
unnecessary
Sun Ra had better space ships
than Karlheinz had
this music is having too much fun to want to stop
Straight On - Heart [from Greatest Hits]
completely believable as a thing to play on a porch
with folks
foot tapping tempo
BAB KEE - Benjamin Boretz, Keith Eisenbrey [February 27, 1983]
that's me fighting off
my own dispositions
clinging to
through-lines
found a well-spaced chord
any little move will set it off
compositional role playing
as an
exercise
continuity freak
time to change the subject?
rarely
a good idea
talks incessantly
not clear
on the concept of
shared spotlight
but that's because
I still hear this as a lesson
and so
I impulsively pathologize
but
what would this
be
if I didn't know the players?
piano heavy duet with Crumar
commentary
but
the pianist's obsessions have stoppered his ears
afeared to stop now
through-lines are for clinging to
every
cranny stuffed with sound
fast-forward manually
shout down
to play piano
was
then
still
to play
as
though a soloist on stage
stuck on a vamp
broken record
Burn It Clean - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
role playing as a captured animal
attacking past their cage
a
straining energy
chain dragging
Banned Rehearsal 323 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [Mary 3, 1993]
starts with a racket
seems to have settled down
we hear these
sounds
as if our ears were right up to each of them
no sound is
further off than a few feet
is the first-person possessive
a common form of pronoun
to learn
and speak first
when learning from infancy?
burst-groaning
Funmaker stops
were so much fun
the guitar
has not always been there
but now it has
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
past its capacities
our trademark
shouting like a pirate
Aaronosaur
Bunny of Doom is back
Funmaker makes the mics rattle against their platforms
there's the Aaronsbundler idee fixe
the problem with idees fixe
and leitmotifs
is that
representation and assigned meanings
restrict their movements
a Bickleton limb
you've left me with
{journal entry of December 31, 1997:
another fine session
full of sound and space
an essay in Funmaker
solemnity
Walt Whitman's Niece - Billy Bragg and Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]
between the accent and the echo
a story about a book of poems
5 Duets for Solo Piano - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, June 21, 2003]
the range of the originally conceived instrumentation (two clarinets)
keeps the keyboard writing under control in these transcriptions
other than being obsessively musical
these are pretty sharp little
pieces
and pretty well played by past me
 |
| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Triptych for Kelly - David Hicks - Hideo Kikuchi, Julia Hsu [from Open Space 39]
naming images
belittles them
a function played out
creates an image of its playing out
to name
that played-out image
by its generating function
is aesthetic
robbery
id est
the realization of T3 is not T3
not really
likewise
the function of identity
this music rewards paying close attention
not because of the functions
at play
but because they are alive in this to experience
Luke 6: 20-26 - Keith Eisenbrey - Zach Buker, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, June 25, 2017]
a through-composed setting
of the less commonly heard version of The
Beatitudes
(from Luke)
balanced
by the Woes Unto Y'all
Intermezzo in Midi: 3. (Pno.) - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]
dynamic temporal exactness
Banned Telepath 96 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 13, 2023]
the primer coat is thin
sheer
appearances unimpeded
ancient
midi keys
phone speaker
wrecked kora
and percussion
paths of intention
guide attention
what is it about music
that this would want to be it?
somebody
else's anxiety
not its
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
reading contour by touch
Mentre Mia Stella, Miri - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini
masses move
landslide slope
spread easingly
Beata Dei genitrix a 8 - Peter Philips - The Choir of Royal Holiday, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Robert Gough
mother of God
God's matrix
an elder god
always
the
Goddess of Elderness
substrate
of substratification
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, V. Gib unsern Fürsten (Anderer Theil) - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
not a scale model
but a model scaled to fill its space
Herr, wenn ich nur dich hab, BuxWV 38 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet
singing in
or as
a character
saying
Cinquieme Ordre (la): Seconde Courante - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
keeps saying what it just said
until it comes back around on itself
Sinfonia in B-flat Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edit Picht-Axenfeld
ok
now retrace your steps
you remember how you got here
don't you?
Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 229 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
music wonders at itself
it is the sound worth hearing
Sonata in E-flat Major, Wq. 63/5 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
1
a guided tour
of how it's all done
goes by quick
2
fond of his laments
master of the sudden cessation
held in
suspense
3
you'd almost think
that was a normal sort of period
back
there
but you'd be mistaken
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
1
ends of phrases
trade figurations with each other
like
clothes
utterly at home in these tonalities
built like a palace
2
we follow a simple servant
on their servile rounds
dull
check points
3
the dance of table service
to a long full table
conversation of the genteelestest
4
ah the fugal chores must now be done
careful with that it's
tippy
La de Drummond - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset
folk song directness
to the setting
relatively unadorned melody
an easily pluckable accompanimental figure
street music
Symphony in B-flat Major, K173dA(182) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood, Jaap Schroder
pronouncements and repercussions
Sonata in D Major, Op. 10 #3 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda
1
from within every wee seed
sprouts grow
ideas just
everywhere
out of everything
2
yet to the grave all go
but comfort is offered
stern
comfort
but it's what's available
3
a stroll in the fresh air
will do a world of good
for you
put some vim in your vigor
4
an inquiry is made
an insistent inquiry
no use shouting
it will inquire again
no use stopping your ears
inquiry will
be made
Caprice in A minor, Op. 1 #7 - Niccolò Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
behind the octave leaping
is a street-music directness to his lyricism
which anchors the whole
Sonata in A minor, D. 784 - Franz Schubert - Vladimir Ashkenazy
1
opens onto the inside
bewail we our anguish and woe
the
only line
is straight through
battle heroically
2
nagging thoughts
with every balanced phrase
hears where
they live
to ply the balanced seas
3
good horses
let's ride out into the lanes
 |
| Yakima Area Arboretum |
Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin
three tonal areas
each no bigger than it need be
Bunte Blätter, Op. 99 (Excerpts): No. 7, Albumblätter - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
the steps down
aren't always the same
a dark thought
Der Mond Kommt Still Gegangen - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
in the midst of the incipient musical gargantuanism
of the 19th Century
folks
still made delicate miniatures
Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 - Johannes Brahms - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
1
picks up at the moment
the suffering of one ends
and the
grief of the others begins
2
burial
finality
mortal dread
blessed comfort
triumphal entry
3
prayer to be taught
awareness of mortality
brawny
morality
the full fugal monty
with timpani
4
oh it's nice here!
5
a lullaby
6
reality sets in
as we march grimly reaperward
to shout it
down
there's always time for a fugue!
7
back to blessed assurance
the firm foundation of hope
in
bliss
even the billowy vapors
know proper voice-leading
 |
| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trail |
hot heads quarrel at a dance
shots are fired
male chorus gets a say
female chorus gets a say
society's
whirl
the engineering on this recording
is truly weird creates
an
impossible stage experience
the soloists must be in isolation booths
miniaturizes the orchestra and chorus
the soloists sit next to you
make you jump
when they suddenly enter
in full size
keep low in your seat
remember
shots will be fired
begin scene two
with the mirror image
of the end of scene one
the one guy gets all soulful
with bassoons and all
the field of honor
surely those two should be at opposite ends
not
singing right at each other's mouths
Hitchcock suspense
Horn Concerto - Richard Struass - Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell
could be a passable Mendelssohn piece
though he orchestrates with a
lighter touch than Felix generally did
and modulates more freely
the noble horn hero
shines in the end
adulation to follow entry
then supper
Symphony in D Major (#1) - Gustav Mahler - Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik
1
buoyed by youth
and a bright new day
but the world is vast
and the forest deep
littered with past battles
and crushed
bones
2
outing the domestic exotic
our own little picturesque
country and town
3
meanwhile
back deep in the backwoods
a caricature of
grimly processing
apparently the forest critters play klesmer
4
sudden attack of terror
fighting on all sides
unconscious
fallen in a heap
to dream
an angelic dream
interrupted
by returning consciousness
battle surrounds us
but victory
will be ours
we worry
such a long journey
only to end in
defeat
but no worries
we see the castle approaching now
how
glorious
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 16, 2024
Quito - Keith Eisenbrey
I've been at this weekly project for almost a year now
this was number
50
June 17, 2024
Banned Rehearsal 1101 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
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".
Rounds for Aaron are formed
from sequences of notes successively trading off forms of each other, each
form pulled from within each other's orderings.
Rungs for Neal are four pages with sets of notes on them, tones in common among those
pages on the left and all the rest to the right, to some extent circling the
whole cycle of etudes back to its beginnings - literally as to row form, and
expressively as to this realization, but eschewing hard and fast sequence in
all but the page layout.
All tracks were recorded in 2022.
Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2023
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