"PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
At the Philosophical Institution, held at the Pig and Tinder Box, in Liquorpond Street, a letter was read by Sawney Suck-Egg, Esq., on the possibility of extending the realms of space and adding to the duration of eternity. In the same essay, he also satisfactorily proved, that two and too do not make four; that BLACK is very often white; and that a Chancery suit has shown to many a man, that what has a beginning does not necessarily always have an end."
from The Comic Almanack
an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing
Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Live
August 18, 2024
Zoo Tunes: Woods and Waxahatchee
Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle
A wonderful evening of mass picnic on the North Lawn of Woodland Park. One does not really go to an event like this to hear the music exactly, but to bathe in the radiance.
Recorded
6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10, #2 in G Minor, Non troppo lento - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
as though Beethoven had written it
middle voice
steady state
repeating figure
slipping through cracks into troubled chambers
String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 #3 - Felix Mendelssohn - Emerson String Quartet
this music
is composed
so as
to be social
within its
ensemble
all the notes
are enjoyable to play
in the company of the
others
a familiar structural game plan
means
everyone is comfortably at
home in it
these actors are at ease with their props
2 Nocturnes, Op. 55 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau
1
front half of melody
the figure repeats
second half of it
the figure falls
repeat that
then
step into otherwhere
briefly
then back
to the earlier
ritornello
after that
various otherwheres
are poked into
this
otherwhere
is a whole adventure of its own
2
it all hangs from that first high anacrusis
a dance
en
pointe
swift and smooth
they glide across the entire floor
as though without mechanism
{journal entry of August 18, 1996:
high indexing tones to begin
interesting rhythmic relationships between
tune and accompaniment}
Auf Einem Grünen Hügel -, Op. 23 #4 - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar
a melody tracks the voice in its poetic lines
then repeats
but the
lines
find other ways through
Via Crucis: Station III - Jesus fällt zum ersten Mal - Franz Liszt - Nederlands Kamerkoor, Reinbert De Leeuw
a strange and beautiful work
Scherzo, Op. 4 - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden
fugato entrances
enable the subject
to act
as its own
transformative agent
Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 108 #3 - Johannes Brahms - Isaac Stern, Alexander Zakin
we are on the move
decisions have been made
outcomes are uncertain
our time
has been slipping
from our grasp
the notion
that a key
is being established
here
is
without foundation
or sense
I mean
how?
really?
it occupies
without need to construct
Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 8 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
inference of key
by cross-relations
among all the parts
of
the figurational positions
within registers
it is coming apart
torn along an unseen seam
4 Lieder nach Gedichter von F. Rückert - Gustav Mahler - Berlin Philharmnic Orchestra, Karl Böhm, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
1
this sun
is setting for good
but
we will stand
at the end of the void
and posture heorically
2
innocence be doomed
in nursery dreams
3
irony evaporates
4
the past is lost
memory transmutes
and occults
with
a golden glow
Prelude "La Puerta del Vino" - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs
there is a weight to this soundscene
that persists
as depicted
light does
in Vermeer
flat dynamics
but plenty deep
as though for radio
the French language
has Ancient Greek envy
an orderly mind
knows an orderly mind
recorded
so as
to be a notation
of the music
homogeneity freak
disturbing our sense
of what is for real
at least
mostly
the music itself
and not just
in the loud and soft of it
but
in its presentational surface
has a flat dynamic
like letters in
print
on a page
So Crate
Through the Looking Glass - Deems Taylor - Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Gerard Schwarz
surely
this music ought to be stranger than this
treating the imagination of a young girl
depicted as an exotic realm
(well, that's pretty strange, I'll admit)
but icky strange
in a way that Carroll
isn't
quite
nearly
Carroll
had wit
this only has the ick
an illustrated edition
prints by Deems Taylor
scenario:
the hothouse flora
it needs a silent movie
to play along with
all depiction all the
time
it mickey mouses
even without visual Mickeys
like a
parodistic send-up of Strauss
(who happened to still be alive when this
was written)
the only way this music makes sense
is
as a
story being illustrated
and that story
is
itself
full
of absurdities
and unaccountable events
so
I suppose that it
even structurally
depicts the notion
of narrative
nonsense
in the end rather tiresome
Rhapsodie for Violin and Piano #1 - Béla Bartók - Denes Zsigmondy, Anneliese Nissen
music in a narrow passage
Pastorale for Violin, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet and Bassoon - Igor Stravinsky - Columbia Chamber Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky
instruments imitating instruments
cosplaying
Symphony 2 "Anthropos" - Henry Cowell - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein
1
OK
so this Cowell fellow has sung some hymns
he thinks
syllabically
(as do I)
it becomes part of one's musical vocabulary
hymnody's bone structure
each voice has a melodic vector set
2
an intermezzo
for percs and blows
hitting and blowing
instruments
so uncivilized
just like a parade
3
and now an intimate interpretive dance
from our sylph club
just strings
the percs and blows
went down the road
for a beer
4
to his credit
he doesn't milk his endings
a moment
is a span of music
that stops at some point
it is now like
those quaint little Irish folk
have arrived on this side of the pond
proto Lou Harrison
in its attitude toward itself
perfectly
happy to be what it is
possible problem
it's also perfectly
willing
to let us be perfectly happy
to stay the same
be
untransformed
Cantata 2, Op. 31 - Anton Webern - London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, Halina Lukomsak, Barry McDaniel, John Alldis Choir
when listening to this
is my attention to the intervals in play
aimed at
connecting moments
to moments
via paths
of interval patterns
or
to the color
imparted
to
each moment
by its pre- and post-contexts
or
are those
the same activity?
is a moment meaningful
in that
it is the conceptualized extension
of a defined function
or
in that
it comes across
in that way
that only
that path
would
produce?
is all that we can analytically discover
to be perceivable about it
the whole
of what we do experience as it?
do I care about the underlying axioms of this cantata
no
I trust
that Webern's musicality
will pull me through
his sense
of
moving through a sound world
{journal entry of September 7, 1998:
1
voice separate from orchestra
recitative with breaks
an
occasional syllable
underlined with a harmony
2
two-voice texture
baritone
and an apparent single line in
orchestra
3
poly-voiced
high-voiced
thickly orchestrated
4
more calmly echoed
less calmly echoed
5?
solo voice as 2
but female and orchestra
occasionally
in the style of 1
not so transparently single voiced
in
itself
6
homophonic dialog
with solo soprano
choral contrapuntal
texture
renaissance
densely imitative}
rescued from some ancient recording media
aggressively de-noised
some stray pops got through
playing melodic games for a little while
Descent into the Maelstrom - Lenny Tristano [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
Cowellishly depictic
but also
proto-Taylor
Whence That Wince - Norman Morath [from Songs of the Pogo]
barely more
than some playful alliteration
and it's done
Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen [collected from David Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
does with even less than Walt Kelly
but has fun with the microphone
novelty song
begins to play with its medium
(when a song became a
record)
Black Nile - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
this sax player
leans against the beat
intimidatically
we are being moved along
Search and Destroy - The Stooges [from Raw Power]
young blood rutting
Quartet for Brass - Vivian Fine - Ronald K. Anderson and Allan Dean, David Jolley, Lawrence Benz
comes across like variations
a sequence of like-sized segments
of
limited internal figuration types
musicians like to find
in music they play
a clear sense
of
what their part means
to the whole
not
to find their role
to be critically unstable
each fragment
a bit
out of a
different path
through the piece
that is
they want to have a
voice
within what the music is doing
internally
so they can
relate directly/musically
with their fellows
they'd rather not
be movable type
October (love song) - Chris & Cosey
hmm
I left in the opening needle drop
a 45rpm single
I heard this on the radio at some point
in 84 or 85
and called the
station
to find out what it was
Karen and I went to see them
at the Moore
the opener
(name
forgotten if ever known)
was a noisy group
one of whom applied a
disk sander
to a steel drum
streaming sparks into the front rows
until
someone from the venue
pulled the plug
on his
power tool
that quintessential 80s machined sound
all drum machines
and
synths
the only human voice is the vocalist
Invention - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 20, 20024]
couldn't quite control the tempo darn it
much like the Fine
in its attitude towards the players
suits the theater of the concert hall
as long established
refrains from challenging the social construct
the violin
very nearly plays Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
and there
it is in full
and extended further
Banned Rehearsal 482 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 31, 1998]
big beasts
and little beasts
a small dog yips
a little bird
vocalizes
beetles scurry
leg by leg
as best they can
to keep strictly in time
by metronome
is inherently
frustrating
the metronome isn't listening
this is not a chamber symphony
it is a forest floor
through layers
of rotters
into its root web
beneath
layers
of
variously compacted soils
sands
and clays
and aggregates
millennia
of accumulated beach stuff
from unknown ago
{NB this is strong stuff}
that sounds like me playing the piano
here
if not
a more than passable imitation
shh the quartz is singing
oh cool
it's a cave
pools and chambers
thunder above
heard below
a case is unsnapped
a thing is being assembled
what might it be
ah
the trombone
while Anna intones a reading
in the corner
a rude squeal
from the amplificatory mechanism
we are now in inhabited zones
language has fouled the air
we have returned from underground
into the Tintinabulary
there
must be a back passage somewhere
from the therebelow
shower off
and back to regular living
Track 1 - Eckstein Middle School Jazz Band, Moc Escobido [from Mach 6]
nice work on the keys kid
Track 5 - Aaron Keyt [from 7(7)]
your new selection of ringtones!
one for each conversation
straightforward
HonesttoGod
strange
Ram Chaha Leela - Bhoomi Trivedi [from Bollygood Volume 2]
the only reality
is the production of the studio
OK
but why
does it pretend to be a product of the outside?
Foley music baldly done
Socrates
in eternal repose
all irony exhausted
not a crumb
left
worth an ant's notice
So Crate
no irony
for ants
takes the longest possible way around
One Difference - Ensemble Unnamable [from Fourth Floor]
If I mistake not
this was from the Wayward in Limbo series
and
"fourth floor"
refers to the Chapel Performance Space
on the
fourth floor
of the Good Shepherd Center, Seattle,
former home
for wayward girls
where
I presume
this was
recorded
a long
shifting
drone
chorus chats
with the chapel
ghost
O Vos, Felices Radices (De Patriarchis Et Prophetis, Responsorium) - Hildegard von Bingen - Sequentia [from Spiritual Songs]
with a drone like a bowed string
each note in the melodic line
references an interval above it (the drone)
and an interval from
its neighbor (notes)
and
an apparently consistent range
of
how they work together
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 1: XI. So fahr ich hin zu Jesu Christ - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
homophonic chord voicing
at its subtlest
Canzona in D minor, BuxWV 168 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
flutes
the pipe organ as orchestral synthesizer
Cinqueme Ordre (la): Gigue - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
everything points to the beats
figurations and ornaments
Sinfonia in E Major, BWV 792 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld
as here
but
the figures have a life of their own
Sonata in F minor, Kk. 238 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
then
come apart
snip here
splice there
Keyboard Sonata in A minor, Wq. 62/21 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
the surface presents registrally differentiated and hierarchized figuration
schemes
Dexter and Sinister
have social/musical functions
distinct from each other
melody and accompaniment
a vocal
paradigm (song?)
Keyboard Sonata in D Major, Hob XVI.24 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim
they teach us other tricks
try this
check this out
they lead
us
to a new tonality
syncopated figures
momentary metrical
unmoorment
we love dramatic contrasts
and exciting stage action
living among
the height of the fashion
every curlicue curled just so
Symphony in C minor, Op. 67 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
1
firmly not prolonged
the first time
the first movement
hangs above
like an axe
over a royal
fate hangs on a thread
the battle
fierce
2
to cool off
here are some pleasant interval knots
to
puzzle out
||differentiated attack envelopes
- a dynamic emphasis ||
tutti
so that the orchestra
as bodies
emerges
from the
crowd
id est
that's not just the oboe note
that's an oboist
playing that oboe note
these movements
are experiences of events
3
the transformation of
duh duh duh DUH
to
DUH duh duh
DUH
how to make it
all the difference possible in the world
the old
hid
inside
the hemiola
in the new
4
triumphal
vanquishment of fate
general celebration
and encomiums
dancing in the streets
the news filters
outward
the final battle
re-created
fate captured
and
tamed
harmlessly puttering now
in its garden
we have landed
firmly
on solid C Major
unbudgeable
Caprice in G minor, Op. 1 #6 - Niccolo Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
lightning hopscotch
Euryanthe, Act 3 - Carl Maria von Weber - Staatskappelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, Jessye Norman, Nicolai Gedda, Rita Hunter, Tom Krause, Siegfried Vogel, Rundfunkchor Leipzig
the Wikipedia synopsis of this
is a hoot
but the characters take
it seriously
as does the orchestra
which provides
the
gloomily lit scenery
amplifying the moments of the drama
the orchestra agrees
that this
guy
is overly self-important
they fall into a music trap
and must sing their ways out of it
"Now let me die!"
new scene
some solo wind music
to pause with
dramatic action
is the if and only if context
for the song
to properly
exist
Wagner
wanted to mess with that negotiation
that between song and
action
lyric and spectacle
echo play
happy Knechten
orchestra
in close third
person
well that note ought to get their attention
pay mind
or she'll sing it again
big happy ending
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 18, 2024
Migdol - Keith Eisenbrey
August 19, 2024
1
a new pitch
an F-sharp
in the case
of a one-pitch
piece
what is left
to make music with?
the sensuality
of dynamic
and timbre
and decay
and a time-line
of discrete events
the strings
that produce that f-sharp
as their sound decays
exhibit a pulsing
that emerges
subsides and
re-emerges
as though
its exact
out-of-tuneness
is only available
to my ear
at a cyclically
crossed
threshold
2
a simultaneous
half-step like my
5 Movements: November 17, 1983
transposed
into the pitch
collection
of that piece
there is no moment of this rung
which might
not
also
be a moment of
November 17, 1983
it's like being quoted at length
Postscripts
Drops
Greg Short: Twenty-Four Tonal Preludes
Seattle composer Greg Short (1938-1999) left of copy of this score on my doorstep one day in the Summer of 1986, asking if I would play four of them at a program in December, which of course I did. The preludes were composed 1965-66, and revised in 1983, per notes in the score.
All but the last four of these recordings were made, four at a time, at various recitals between 2006 and 2018 at University Temple United Methodist Church, and at The Chapel Performance Space, both in Seattle. The last four were recorded at my home in 2022. I include at the end an "ossia" version of the G-minor Prelude (#22).
Selected recordings of my compositions can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
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