Now Music in New Albion: Playlist

Preface

"'The Poem which I am now about to read to you was written by Eeyore, or Myself, in a Quiet Moment. If somebody will take Roo's bull's-eye away from him, and wake up Owl, we shall all be able to enjoy it. I call it - POEM.'
This was it.

Christopher Robin is going.
At least I think he is.
Where?
Nobody knows.
but he is going -
I mean he goes
(To rhyme with 'knows')
do we care?
(To rhyme with 'where')
We do
Very much.
(I haven't got a rhyme for that
'is' in the second line yet.
Bother.)
(Now I haven't got a rhyme for bother.
Bother.)
Those two bothers will have to
rhyme with each other Buther.
The fact is this is more difficult
than I thought,
I ought-
(Very good indeed)
to begin again,
But it is easier
To stop.
Christopher Robin, good-bye,
I
(Good)
I
And all your friends
Sends-
I mean all your friend
Send-
(very awkward this, it keeps
going wrong)
Well, anyhow, we send
Our love
END.

'If anybody wants to clap,' said Eeyore when he had read this, 'now is the time to do it.'"

A. A. Milne, from "The House at Pooh Corner"

Texts

Live

August 13, 2024

Confluence I
Jennifer K. Chung, Aaron Keyt, Peter Nelson-King, Greg Powers, Mary Riles, Jenny Ziefel
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

if I listen
to what I hear
is it
by that
music
or
does music arise
in appearance
by other means

Fanfare for a Seismic Retrofit - Aaron Keyt - Peter Nelson-King, Greg Powers

a fittingly fun fanfare

Malinconia - Friedrich Cerha - Peter Nelson-King, Greg Powers

Peter sings
while Greg plays mutes
with his trombone

he plays
his mutes
aloud

Dos sonetos de amor - Jeremy Gill - Peter Nelson-King, Mary Riles

a chamber music
is part conversations
among its players
within the music
being played
could there be a threshold
past which
the conversation
is a depiction
of a conversation
and not one happening
within the music
the sense
of the music
hiding
behind its conceit?
becoming
merely orchestral?

Six Variations - James Dapogny - Peter Nelson-King, Jenny Ziefel

colorful gloss

Eight Haiku - Justin Rizzo-Weaver - Peter Nelson-King, Jenny Ziefel

the strongest piece on the program
that wasn't by Aaron
poem-painting thinking
with the intervals between

selections from Koi Songs - Aaron Keyt - Jennifer K. Chung, Aaron Keyt

the conversation here
is within the negotiation
of making a music of it

Four Tankas - Jirayr Shahraminyan - Peter Nelson-King

watercolor lightness
for appassionato lines

aether - Jordan Nobles - Jennifer K. Chung, Aaron Keyt, Peter Nelson-King, Greg Powers, Mary Riles, Jenny Ziefel

all together now
for shifting shoals
in fogbound waters

a music
with no front or back
nor destination

the players become their locations
around
in a less than virtual space

Recorded

August 11, 2024

Symphony in A Major, Op. 90 "Italian" (#4) - Felix Mendelssohn - Wiener Philharmoniker, John Eliot Gardner

1
bouncy flouncy triplets
a young heart's music
joie de vivre
can not be denied
its joie

2
the flutes
duetting above the strings
is charming
the night
and its romances

every block
a new intrigue

3
now for a song
and tales of ancient heroes

4
whipping along
with urgent hurry

Humoreske, Op. 30 - Robert Schumann - Wilhelm Kempff

melody
raindrops
window dripping
repeats interrupting repeats
someone's been listening to Scarlatti I think

interwoven movements
masterful use of register
Schumann needed no exoticism
beyond his own imagination

3 Mazurkas, Op. 56 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy

1
modulation
by slipping down the chromatics

2
between keys
is the key we're in here

3
between walls
no windows
but my song
will lift my spirits
beyond the ceiling

{journal entry of September 9, 1996:

middles and beginnings are switched}

Romanze in G minor, Op. 21 #3 - Clara Schumann - Susanne Grützmann

the figuration tries to escape
it has flown for now
and we are forlorn
and empty
even returned
it struggles to flee

Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a - Johannes Brahms - Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Charles Mackerras

light on its feet
no wallowing allowed
fluid voice leading
comes alive
thusly brushed

August 12, 2024

Racconti fantastici, Op. 12 - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

fugato
no nonsense
we're being serious here
it hides behind some big fists
but
is never truly gone
always ready to insinuate itself
back into the action

Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 30 - Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Hamburg Symphony, Richard Kapp, Michael Ponti

effective dramatic moments (tm)
strung together
with nothing but gossamer
and a serious piano-playing face
(and bombast)

Gymnopédie 1 - Eric Satie - Double Duet Ma.Gr.Ig.Al [from The Eccentrics]

orchestrated for small theater orchestra of street instruments

Eli Green's Cake Walk - J. Cullen and W. Collins [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

proceeds
as by a schematic plan
of chords and figures

two banjos
if I am not mistaken

4 Preludes, Op. 33 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

1
alone with a dream of floating tonality

2
this tonality wrote a lovely poem for you

3
this tonality is stern

4
and this one is passionate
but heavily burdened

Fireworks, Op. 4 - Igor Stravinsky - New York Philharmonic, Igor Stravinsky

clearly
the spectacle of it is inspired
or inflicted
by Rimsky-Korsakov
but
the differences are telling

Igor
keeps track of the notes he's using
is willing to stretch his instruments
into new colors

chamber orchestra thinking

Prelude: "Feuille Mortes" - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

elusive
coy
clever

Seven Pieces for Piano: Rubato, Op. 11 #7 - Zoltán Kodály - Jenö Jandó

a large irregular object
among the planets

Lux Aeterna - Howard Hanson - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz - Ilkka Talvi, Susan Gulkis

sacred impressionism
how perverse

this material takes itself
humorlessly
serious

eyes raised heavenwards
palm to palm
fingers vertical

Cumberland Gap - Frank Hutchison [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

guitar thinking
both hands are involved in each note sounded

Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra - Arnold Schoenberg - New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz, American String Quartet

small string ensemble
large string ensemble
winds
brass
percussion

the pixies are loose in the museum room

peaceful spirits hang out here

frowning grimly
the keeper staggers home
to face the music

but

no hurry
there's still time

safe and secure
in domestic business

winds up
to what might be
a few
and several
endings all

the musics pile on daddy's lap
for a bednight hug

Billy The Kid (Ballet Suite) - Aaron Copland - Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz

this recording is somehow bland
rubbed smooth

beneath an empty sky
boom boom ka boom boom
comes to its ceremonial
abrupt
end

August 13, 2024

Four Transcriptions from Emerson: #3 - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Ives plays Ives]

the aroma of turgid prose

Grievin' Blues - John Lee Hooker [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

pulling at its chain
driven deep

Bye and Bye - Bob Angliano Quartet [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

chamber singing sociability
sharing the fun of singing together

Ruby, My Dear - John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk [from Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane]

its grip on the firmness of its time
never falters

Sinfonia and Fugato - Vivan Fine - Robert Helps

chromatic homogeneity
obscuring
but not erasing
its essential rootedness

Combination of the Two - Big Brother and the Holding Company [from Cheap Thrills]

a live performance
little rhythmic hoot hoots

Tobacco Road - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]

bragging
on the humble lowness
of ones origins
for authenticity points

groady guitar shredding

Stardust - Willie Nelson [from Stardust]

sings casually
as though simply saying

Let The Passers By - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard Hall, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, March 18, 1983]

my triumph
of sandblock virtuosity

"till all the fool fell off it"

Twenty Four - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

call and response
a social hierarchy

August 14, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 327 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [April 16, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 327 930416

instruments
are operated
toddle interaction
continues
inexhaustibly

John's harnomaka

time is logged
and sounds are made
communication kept away

Do Re Mi

all gone
attention mismatches
we bellow in frustration

cyclic overwhelmment

unlearning how to talk
can you dance
hop like a bunny

binga binga bing bang bink

glossolalia and drumming syllables
we are trying too hard

ambulance
rattle rattle
where's John's tail
homo smart-ass

{journal entry of January 22, 1998:

a rather weary perfunctory session
mostly just hanging out with John
homo smart-ass}

Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend - Moe Tucker [from I Feel So Far Away - Moe Tucker Anthology 1974 - 1998]

dead pan march rhythm

Banned Rehearsal 645 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 10, 2003]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 645 030110

electric guitars
and a small drum machine
set in motion

fingers on each moment
immediacy of potential
for transformation
a sound
can be sustained
with continuous effort
or
set to go
at a single moment
thence
to continue
for its prescribed routine
or
to be shut off
in another single moment

the small drum
has morphed
into other small percussions

a gentle and engaged session

Fallout - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]

happy reeds
happy embouchures

Luke 6: 20-26 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Glynn Olive [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, May 3, 2013]

they sang this well
words of Christ
to be sung by two voices
of indeterminate gender

Encounter Crossroad Labyrinth - Yuji Takahashi - Julia Hsu [from Open Space 44]

a creatively structured list/sequence
so that
we are led to think
across memory
away from the leading edge
or simply
extending the leading edge
back
through the arrow's feathers

Banned Telepath 97 South - Steve Kennedy [February 27, 2023]

a slow tour of sounds
drums
bells
and stringed pluckers

to take several tours
later
in sequence
as looped
into
the eventual
Banned Rehearsal

O Viridissima Virga, Ave - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia [from Canticles of Ecstasy]

music
is a door

to dance
in space

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 1: X. Die mit Tränen säen - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

from the beatitudes I believe

lovely use of metrical tempo shifts!
I am in awe

punctuatory cadences
not the goal posts

Mensch, willst du Leben seliglich, BuxWV 206 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

uplifting arms

L'Antonine - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

fancy footfalls

Sinfonia in E minor, BWV 793, - Johanne Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

old school
solid German values
gothic and clear

August 15, 2024

Sonata in D Major, Kk. 237 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

adding to the figure
at its front end
structurally articulating cadences
are delayed
as a means of underlining them

Sonata in C minor, Wq. 51/3 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

balanced responses
slyly leading questions
the conversational phraseology
incites us
to personify the figures
to imagine people
conversing

Symphony in C Major, Hob. I:60 "Il Distratto" - Franz Joseph Haydn - Austro-Hungarian Orchestra, Ádám Fischer

adagio intro
a sleeping village street
which awakens to dawn

indoors now
in a ceremonial
waiting
room
instructions given

a staged ensemble
street scene conversation
here's the street musicians
to entertain
while we await plot

this may be a brawl
right here
clashing swords
and peril in the outcome

but
here
it is quiet
and
at peaceful prayers
dreams of handsome officers
in braid
and medallions

now let's tune up
just in time
for the fast finale

Flute Concerto in D Major, K. 314 (#2) - Wolfgang Amadues Mozart - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner, James Galway

master of the entrance
the timing
with which
figures
appear

stock cadences
allow the ear a rest
to recalibrate
for
the soon
to be ensuing
new
melodic figures
to follow

Symphony in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (#6) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Stockholm Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler

except track 1
which didn't
and won't
rip properly :-(

a nice nap
in a sunny meadow
beneath a friendly tree
a slowish tempo
that hurries along

this one is plump
the wagon
rolls with the hills

the weather turns
the sky darkens

the pastorality of it
is picturesque
but
the fact that it is not set
in a noble court
is also telling

what it depicts
is available to any

Caprice in E minor, Op. 1 #15 - Niccolo Paganini - Salvatore Accardo

parallel octaves
and fingery bow work

Euryanthe, Act 2 - Carl Maria von Weber - Staatskappelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, Jessye Norman, Nicolai Gedda, Rita Hunter, Tom Krause, Siegfried Vogel, Rundfunkchor Leipzig

much anguish
over fidelities
and wagers
and jealousies

as does any proper Romantic figure
he soliloquizes in verse

scattered scraps of lines
forefigure Eglantine
and her heroine-ic high notes

new scene
some work for the flute
and clarinet
and viola
and bassoon

agreement among two
is signified
by syllable to syllable
coordinated
singing

hollow drums
an unsettled day breaks
and promptly goes
all to heck

apparent betrayal
of faith
and protestations
of innocence

what is a poor tenor to do?

effective
dramatic
use
of choral pianississimo
for
an ominous hush of dread

all the guys
point
at the evil Verträterin

Sonata in C Major, D. 958 (#18) - Franz Schubert - Paul Badura-Skoda

living in Kierkegaardian tension
the inner is not the outer
they do not accord
peace of spirit
is not an accomplishment
for a restless soul
facing a chasm
that can't be crossed

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 2, 2024

Sinfonia 15 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey