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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
"Keeping his head well in the midst of this shower of riches, Psmith dropped the three letters with a sigh into the waste-paper basket, and opened the next in order. This was a bulky envelope, and its contents consisted of a printed brochure entitled, 'This Night Shall Thy Soul Be Required of Thee' - while, by a curious and appropriate coincidence, Number Five proved to be a circular from an energetic firm of coffin-makers offering to bury him for eight pounds ten. Number Six, also printed, was a manifesto from one Howard Hill, of Newmarket, recommending him to apply without delay for 'Hill's Three-Horse Special,' without which ('Who,' demanded Mr. Hill in large type, 'gave you Wibbly-Wob for the Jubilee Cup?') - no sportsman could hope to accomplish the undoing of the bookmakers."
P. G. Wodehouse - from "Leave it to Psmith"
Texts
Recorded
June 29, 2024
When the Saints Go Marching In - Blind Willie Davis [from Goodbye, Babylon]
working song rhythm
tempo pressed forward
Quintet for Woodwinds - Johanna Beyer - Arizona Wind Quintet
we'll move as a bunch
so keep together
we'll take questions now
bassoon is the teacher in this classroom
Three Anti-Modernist Songs: "A Sharp Where You'd Expect a Natural" - Henry Cowell - Joel Sachs, Cheryl Seltzer
a complaint
about certain inanities in the music biz
Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Weber - Paul Hindemith - Seattle Symphony, Milton Katims
I played percussion in this piece
back in High Scool days
which
may be one of the best ways to experience it
to participate in its
fun
under some transformations
only some portions of the subject transform
other less so
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata III - John Cage - Adam Tendler
a night alone with itself
Octet 1 for Eight Loudspeakers - Earle Brown
(as simulated by two)
assembled from tape fragments
the hard way
a blade
and some sticky tape
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the rhythm of the words
as they are sung
changes the sense we make
of the sordid tale
being told
Joy To The World - Academy of St. Martin-In-The-Fields, Lehman Engel, Walter Baker, Boy Choristers from the Church of the Transfiguration, New York, Stuart Gardner [from The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]
as propounded by a ponderous organ
Happening '68 - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
the title says it all
I guess you had to have been there
Prime - Richard Swift
perhaps
a tale set loose
to roam between the characters
hiding its tracks
inside a coherent pitch space?
a saxophone concerto
Bip Bam Thankyou Mam - Ann Peebles [from Original Funk Soul Sister: The Best of Ann Peebles]
drawing the line
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
{NB: Ben Boretz sent this file to me last year sometime, ostensibly a dub of our duo session from February of 1983, but it appears to be mislabeled. It is not the same as the session I have a dub of from back in the day, and I'm not sure who might be participating besides Ben.}
I had forgotten this session
a rather nice conversation between piano
and Crumar
intertransformative pitch dance
this track puzzles me
I don't remember it
and I can't figure who
might be playing which keyboard
and there may be more than two
I
don't recognize me in the piano playing
and I don't think I'm playing
any synths either
hm
a puzzlement
(lovely session whoever is playing!)
July 1, 2024
Twenty Four - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
shifting up for maximum power
less a groove than a gear
Banned Rehearsal 324 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [March 12, 1993]
scratching at the door
enter the workshop
pump the bellows
lots of banging
to distress the surface
diligent banging
and plucking
and plunking
a steady pulse
lends itself
to scrutiny and criticism
pertaining to its steadiness
steadiness is not accuracy
nor is it inherently musical
steadiness
is an attribute of a sequence
not of the sounds of that
sequence
things clarify
once that steadiness gets out of the way
clang!
try Gorgel Invariants?
redial
reed aisle
there was a wire loose
The Speaker of the House
and The
Aaronsbundler
we were sure loud back then
comic quatrains
on the fictionalized death of old Bach
{journal entry of January 11, 1998:
fabulously luminous strings
positive playing
as though following a
score
playing parts
to a point
then
we begin to talk
then we pick it up again
though
yawns?}
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| Yakima Greenway Trail |
rhythm entwining
pulse
weight
breath
meter
scansion
pace
Prelude in B-flat Major - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded May 18, 2022]
the hymn resounds into the dome
Nina Nana Per Anna - Giya Kancheli - Paul Taub, Mikhail Schmidt, Natasha Bazhanov, Julie Whitton, David Sabee [from Edge - Flute Music from the Periphery of Europe]
the ghost of the last bedraggled tune-bird
wanders through some
cinematic memory
of Rimsky-Korsakoff
lingers all night
sempiternal ritardando
all coda all the time
renewal
is forestalling
the inevitable
entropic
crossing
Luke 6: 20-26 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded March 21 and 26, 2017]
the bifurcated space
is strange
but the performance is pretty good
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
Bait and Switch - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
charm and its complications
Banned Telepath 96 Tucson - Steve Kennedy [February 13, 2023]
metallic
shrill
equipments' complaint
delicate tones
in upper hearing
O Ignis Spiritus Paracliti - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia, Barbara Thornton [from Canticles of Ecstasy]
music as lifted speech
text
inscribed upon voice
breath
Questi Leggiadri Odorosetti Fiori - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini
text
inscribed upon passage walls
twisting our progression
Hodie nobis de caelo - Peter Philips - The Choir of Royal Holiday, Robert Gough, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble [from Cantiones Sacrae Octonis Vocibus]
text
inscribed on a flowing fountain
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| Yakima Greenway Trail |
this music narrows
to get through to the back side of the phrase
to breathe freely at the end
Cantate Domino, BuxWV 12 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet, Suzie LeBlanc, Dame Emma Kirby, Clare Solomon
text
inscribed on a streaming melismatic ribbon dance
Premiere Ordre (sol): Second Courante - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
as though the phrase might have forgotten where it was headed
it hadn't
Invention in D Major, BWV 774 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht Axenfeld
a tour guide patter
no room for questions
move along
there's
a lot to cover
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 231 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
this music takes its tea
with pinky fashionably extended
especially when speaking seriously
Sonata in C Major, Wq. 63/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
composing
with the sense of phrase balancing
as it discovers its
fulcrum
in position preposterous
Sinfonia in D Major, Op. 3 #1 - Johann Christian Bach - Camerata Budapest, Hanspeter Gmür
no such tricks for JC
who plants his feet firmly
and stands
solidly
content to be music
in a civilized
upscale
establishment
 |
| Yakima Greenway Trail |
the Overture establishes the ground rules
for stage and seats
music as a medium of theater
is a character
the words they speak?
a thing of letters?
words
specified by their music
the singing
separates
the singer
from the character
it
is a medium
and a barrier
this music
hangs out with us
one imagines
the backstage of a theater
in front
the
whole house of it
in perpetual battle
for the upper hand
Adagio in C Major for Glass Harmonica - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout
a tiny bit of novelty magic
but real magic ne'er the less
Sonata in D Major, Op. 37 #3 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
good natured
playful
changes course frequently
bob and weave
always a delight
Symphony in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
bright face of a pleasant morning
repetition is an allowance
to
hang in there with it some more
in the process of inventing a new thing for music to be
and to hold
quite still
each movement
an illustration
is it getting dark all of a sudden?
permanence
place
the sudden alarms of war and storm
wandering battles in the heavens
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
Caprice in E Major, Op. 1 #9 - Niccolo Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
a melody
is not just its notes
but also
the act
of
playing it
Sonatina in D Major, Op. 55 #5 - Friedrich Kuhlau - Loredano Brigandi
bourgeois
but striving
and vigorous
respectable
Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel
1
the first downbeat
doesn't arrive
until
we ascribe
it
after the meter
has had a chance
to coalesce
the meter
once established
takes a hike
each new thought
requires
a new coalescement of meter
2
a persistent arpeggiated figure
time's clock
inexorable
performing a piece of music
engaging
in a series of actions
in order
to communicate
what music communicates
something human
but of problematic rationality
it doesn't
sing
in the rational tongue
3
some meter
broke loose of its fellows
in the trio
4
the accent figure that opens
stands outside the body
of its
segment
(first subject)
Symphony in A Major, Op. 90 "Italian" - Felix Mendelssohn - Philadelphia Orchesta, Eugene Ormandy
youthful high spirits
with the Romantic
high-strung
sensitivity to experience
and
compulsion
to express
said sensitivity
in full
the world
becomes
all about them
easily my favorite of his symphonies
it's not getting weird
trying
to say something important
(Reformation, Lobgesang)
and it's more
fun than the Scottish
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| Cowiche Canyon, Uplands Trails |
registration differentiates the puppets
Ich Hab' in Deinem Auge, Op. 13 #5 - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
how we feel
became important
to the aesthetic imagination
Album für die Jugend, Op. 68 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
I'm trying to be good aren't I Mommy?
Robert reveals more than he expresses
as does any pianist
who
ventures to play
a primer
in how to listen to Schumann
How To:
think like a
Romantic Artist
(not be be studied lightly
nor
without due
consideration
of the risks involved)
 |
| Yakima Greenway Trail |
a long poem
of simple verses
progeny
of all Bach's teaching pieces
for the instruction of the greater public
a precis
or manifesto
or mission statement
he misbehaves
even in trying to be good
such is a mischievous
creative mind
confounding puzzles
for youngsters
pulls you in
resistance weakens
a Concept Album
not as haphazard as the Anna Magdalena Notebook
Schumann knew how to group things
for maximum pow
even figurations
have poetics
changes of pace
a universe of next episodes
even finds places to quote himself
switch
to a lively one
when things get too intense
Mefistofele, Act IV - Arrigo Boito - London Symphony Orchestra, Julius Rudel, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, John McCarthy, Norman Treigle, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Cabeallé
visions of loveliness appear animatronically
miracles and wonders
portents and warnings
the dead speak
chorus of the living and the dead
ecstatic vision fades
curtains close
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| Yakima Greenway Trail |
Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56 - Johannes Brahms - Concertgebouworkest, Amsterdam; Bernard Haitink
viscous innards limit mobility
each variation in its own paddock
solid German citizenry
chooses to convince itself
it lacks
for nothing
Symphony in F minor, Op 36 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Leningrad Philhamonic Symphony Orchestra, Yevgeny Mravinsky
main line
and supporting structures
normatively clear
as to
which is which
restful transitions
brings the tone down
to
something like calm
if we build it twice
it will topple over
into the next thing
pairing
relative stability
with instability
completeness
with attenuated
accelerating push and shove
events transpire
without apparent
motivic necessity
the coherence
is at the service
of a
dramatic scene
Moderato, Op. 16 #3 - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
behind the wheel
of a hot new figuration vehicle
just around the
block once
Sobre las Olas - Juventio Rosas, arr. by Johanna Lundy - Borderland Ensemble [from The Space In Which to See]
a familiar late-period waltz
favorite light classics
Sea Pieces: Starlight, Op. 55 #4 - Edward MacDowell - Fred Karpoff
the difference
between a tone-poem
and a tone-painting
is
the modality
of its asserted reference
this music has no sharp edges
Poeme in D Major, Op. 32 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
high strung nervous passion
4 Etudes - Igor Stravinsky - Nikita Magaloff
it sounds as though Busoni had gotten loose in a Scriabin Sonata and redecorated with extreme prejudice
which points
to what was Modernist about Busoni:
the first
Neo-Classical
 |
| Yakima Greenway Trail |
sophisticated harmony
demotic melodic style
like jazz
but
not jazz
Tranquillo, Op. 11 #5 - Zoltán Kodály - Jenö Jandó
Neo-Classical:
depictic music
whose asserted reference
is
music
Modernist reflectivity
Debussy plus Satie
Les Noces - Igor Stravinksy - English Bach Festival Percussion Ensemble, Leonard Bernstein
scenarists
were all about tribal ritual
especially
when it
involved the sacrifice of a virgin
or virginity
in the interest
of fertility
as strange as the dialog music is
it comes across
as perfectly
believable dialog
of real characters
proto-Partch
I guess we're all percussion now
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 30, 2024
Harmony Grove - Keith Eisenbrey
I've been at this project for a year now! I listened last evening to the 26 I made since the beginning of this year and was gratified in how clearly they are all and each the product of a single mind
Banned Telepath 106 Pinehurst - Jennifer Chung
July 1, 2024
Banned Telepath 106 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
Banned Rehearsal 1102 - Jennifer Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
the desire to be part of the evening's sounds
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
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