Saturday, September 14, 2024

Playlist

Preface

"'Elijah,' said I, 'you will oblige my friend and me by withdrawing. We are going to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and would prefer not to be detained.'
''Ye be, be ye? Coming back afore breakfast?'
'He's cracked, Queequeg,' said I, 'come on.'
'Holloa!' cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we had removed a few paces.
'Never mind him,' said I, 'Queequeg, come on.'
But he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his hand on my shoulder, said - 'Did ye see anything looking like men going towards that ship a while ago?'
Struck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered, saying 'Yes, I thought I did see four or five men; but it was too dim to be sure.'
'Very dim, very dim,' said Elijah. 'Morning to ye.'
Once more we quitted him; but once more he came softly after us; and touching my shoulder again, said, 'See if you can find 'em now, will ye?
'Find who?'
"Morning to ye! morning to ye!' he rejoined, again moving off. 'Oh! I was going to warn ye against - but never mind, never mind -it's all one, all in the family too; - sharp frost this morning, ain't it? Good bye to ye. Shan't see ye again very soon, I guess; unless it's before the Grand Jury.'

Herman Melville, from "Moby-Dick; or, the Whale."

Texts

Recorded

September 8, 2024

Le Poème de l'extase, Op. 54 - Alexander Scriabin - Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Eliahu Inbal

plunging into the chasm
opened by Tristan
and widened by Debussy
to be projected
upon the widest
and tallest screen possible
maximize resplendence

Le Sacre du Printemps - Igor Stravinsky - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

here be Igor's goriest
and all else
that emerges out
from cold storage 

primitive exotics 

is the sacrifice
to call
or to control 

the elders proceed deliberately
step by step
omitting none 

sounds like control to me 

all the spasms of being
enacted upon a body

Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 - Edward Elgar - Claremont Quartet

meanwhile in Merry Old England
the elders indulge in Brahmsian counterpoint
vigorously scrubbing
to call forth
the tried and true 

it is however
true social-chamber music
that is
the players are given parts
that are a pleasure to play
(with others)
with
which
is not true
of the entirely outwardly facing music
of Le Sacre 
and of Le Poéme

Prelude et Etude in Arpeges - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

figures of figures
Schumannian
in moderner modes

September 9, 2024

Mon Cherie - Bebe Creole McGee [from Really The Blues]

high pitched voice
pulled into a nasal twang
to match the fiddle scrubbing

Hambone Am Sweet - Four Southern Singers [from That Devilin' Tune]

ostensibly about food
but mostly about making vocal harmony
with each other

Symphony No. 3, Op. 33 - Howard Hanson - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

1
we stand and watch
a solemn mass
of the heavy laden
slog past

next shot
close up
to individual struggles
among them
heroic energy urges on
look ahead
to a new dawn 

2
prairie morning
in a new land
stubbornly sticks to its configurements
less a movement
than a patch of playing music
homespun tunebird 

a time
that was obsessed with its nationness 

3
battle drums on the horizon
life goes on nervously
national matters intrude 

4
back to the slog
now encamped in hiding
dream of a new land
that prairie heaven
just across the waste

6 Monologe aus "Jedermann" - Frank Martin - Nurnberger Symphoniker, Pierre Domoninue Ponnell, Martin Egel

a darkened room
a cramped refuge
worry
for what might be working
beyond the walls
isolated
remaindered

Life is a Problem - Sister O. M. Terrell [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

preaching guitar-preacher

Money Honey - The Drifters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

lack of
is made a problem
by policy of law

Cut Across Shorty - Eddie Cochran

Miss Lucy's hand
for something
that can't be found in books 

she's rooting for the shorty guy
a rigged race

Rally Songs Medley - Gregg Smith Singers [from The Great Sentimental Age]

I can only think
this should have been indexed
to another year than 1963
this just doesn't sound like a Vietnam era recruitment medley 

Mr. Lincoln
perhaps should have been 1863
oh well 

rip rap
flip flap
strap your knapsacks
on your back
for we're a goin down
to Washington
to fight for Uncle Abe

rally round the flag lads

...And The Gods Made Love - The Jimi Hendrix Experience [from Electric Lady Land]

playing with tape speed and echo
to its credit
doing nothing else

it
is
it 

full stop

Evryali - Iannis Xenakis - Aki Takahashi

a bald statement
a clot
and another
a series of clots
fallen trees in mountain rivers 

from a generation
that felt an urgent need
to jettison contact
with their inescapable pasts 

fierce portraits
of an interrupted flow
everything you hear
is in the way  

massive poly-pitch sonorities
passing through a pressured narrows 

I couldn't begin to play this
so I'm glad Aki can 

oddly sized segments
articulated
by oddly sized caesuras

A Good Day for Lovin' - Ann Peebles [from The Original Funk Soul Sister: The Best of Ann Peebles]

perfectly tuned vocal entrance
compositional arrangement
as perfect as a thing can be
as a creature of the mixing board

Intermezzo IV - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

starting from everywhere
count to many
proceed from anywhence 

pairs are important to hear
but which?
each singularity
a dyad
each dyad
leads awry
exploration
by losing ones place
eternal alphaomega 

that piano was in a funky tune

Love Me Do - The Beatles [from Past Masters]

a rhyme game and nothing else

Brandeis - Elaine Barkin - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, May 14, 1993]

I intend to work this up again
the score has been on my piano desk
for several years
I need to clear the decks
of pieces I have
nearly in hand 

as musics
they elude my own comprehension
as I am playing them
I can only think of notes
and my own actions
and timings 

I like what I'm doing in this performance
every figure is specific and exact


September 10, 2024

Ex-Factor - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]

the words of the text
are immediately reinforced
by answering repetition
not merely
a textual feature
it also adds
to the musical texture

Gradus 37 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 21, 2003]

homo parenthesien
(in a bracket) 

a matched pair
(dyad)
(set)
joined
by what separates them
by being enclosed
between them

Blanc (for piano) - Elaine Barkin - electronic realization by Benjamin Boretz [from Open Space 24]

parts alone
of parts alone

Gradus 221 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 11, 2013]

poke a note
poke another
poked
the notes never devolve
into their partials

Homeland - Allison Loggins-Hull - Jennifer Grim, Michael Sheppard

flute
pitch bent pitches
center themselves
on a pitch
but don't necessarily
become separate functions
they are
(here)
a decoration
(not a bad thing)
(simply an uncrucial thing) 

it seeks our attention
as such
a rhetorical device
a pointer

Banned Telepath 97 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [February 27, 2023]

we conspire
to plunk
some melody
out of thin air
which
upon being plucked
proceeds
to poke about
in the corners
open
old drawers 

this
must have been the first session
with my rubberband guitar
(a birthday present)

O Pastor Animalum - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia [from Canticles of Ecstasy]

music for an empty stone chamber

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 1: XIV. Tröstet, tröstet mein Volk - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

articulation to the front
a music of segments
of contrapuntal strategies
and metrical differentiations
put together
rather than spun out
as a thread
or spider silk

Auf meinem lieben Gott, BuxWV 179 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

music for organ
fills a space
but often
its innerness
is an extreme of intimacy
small
private
writ
into a cathedral space
a cosmical intimacy

Deuxiéme Ordre (Ré): Gavotte - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

so elegant
so frivolous

September 11, 2024

Invention in A minor, BWV 784 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

the leading voice
passes figures
to its subordinate executor
all in good order

Sonata in G Major, Kk. 240 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

monarchy loves an hierarchy
and agreeable efficiency

Sonata in D minor, Wq. 51/4 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

measuring a line
from a fixed point of articulation
regards
poses
as in a mirror
perfecting
ones outward grace
a sequence of figurations
across a sequence of tonal relations  

not
about keeping track
of where one is
on a map
but
as in a terrain

6 Variations on "Mio caro Adone", in G Major, K. 180 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout

outfits
for the theme
to model

Klaviertrio in D Major, Hob. XV.24 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Beaux Arts Trio

an object of figures
held up for investigation
its shapes and propensities
fascinate
each moment
a new angle
a new feature
it isn't just the fine workmanship
it is
that
the workmanship
is
the subject
of its workmanship
harmonically useful cogs
otherwise disregardable
can be composed
in figures
of such cogs
and trace
a tonality
unique
to that figure 

another polyphonic potential

Symphony in C minor, Op. 67 (#5) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert Von Karajan

there is a temptation
to re-compose
at the mixing board
to make of recorded sound
what an iconic work is
in the iconic imagination
constructing definitivity
or
a recording
is an artifact
of a performance
an intent
collaboration of experts
and a moment
in tech-time-space
attended
by its army of experts
and critics
bigger than life
inflated
in full 3D
surround sound
never bene better
glory
what must the experience be
of
say
a violist
in the BPO
recording B's 5th
with Von K
for DG?
does the  toxic notion
of definitivity
pervade that far into the foliage?
who does the bowings of definitivity?

but what is the music about?
finding things
inside other findings
sitting in the seat of definitivity
nothing but the best
(see under glutton; crotchety)
(granted
it is an impressively iconic icon)

Caprice in C Major, Op. 1 #18 - Niccolo Paganini - Salvatore Accardo

a new image
executory skill
instrumental prowess
performative virtuosity

Moment Musicaux in A-flat Major, Op. 94 #2 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

what is a musical moment
a moment
of? 

thinking about balances
what they are
and how they are
and how they behave
this music
is too internally thoughtful of itself
to be concerned with definitivity

6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10: No. 3 in G minor, Vivace - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

this music
is the excited mind state
of a young Romantic
listening to Paganini

Mazurka in D Major, Op. 33 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy

playing with segments of sizes
and repetitions of such segments

O Lust, O Lust - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar

that's a lot of notes
in big quick arpeggiations

Slavonic Dance in A Major, Op. 46a #5 - Antonín Dvořák - The Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnányi

dance and costumery
concern themselves
with the human body
as a living form
the music
of dance
does so
secondarily

Symphony in F Major, Op. 90 (#3) - Johannes Brahms - Dresden State Orchestra, Claudio Abbado

1
in transitions
the figures get loose of their meters
the notes get loose of their tonics
bereft of bearing
never fear!
tonality man is here! 

2
studious thoughts
and daydreams
of lovely ladies
and surging feels
then slumber 

3
slo-mo nostalgia
sepia dance 

4
a battle of heroes
counterpoints vs counterpoints
the clash of arms
mighty clashing armies
all shouting
their heroes' cries
of battle glorious
fades
into the Rheinland sunset

Die Feuerreiter - Hugo Wolf - Dieterich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

newsliedreel footage
with intercards 

a two part song
or
a song in two movements

Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 6, Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf (After J. S. Bach's BWV 617) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

the intimacy index
of a piano
is different
from that of a pipe organ
even
or especially
in the same architecture/acoustic 

the music (on piano)
is more human sized
its presence
doesn't surround
and overwhelm

September 12, 2024

Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire - Eric Satie - Frank Glazer, Richard Deas

the tonality slips
from one state
to its duplicate
on another plane
panels
of the same color
offset
one
behind
the
other

Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 16 (#2) - Sergei Prokofiev - Nurnberger Symphoniker, Ainslee cox, Jorge Bolet

a simply presented tune
accumulates bric-a-brac
as it rolls along

imagine
being presented with this
in 1913
accustomed to Rachmaninov
and Tchaikovsky 

gonzo pianism
supplants Romantic nostalgia dreams 

what would the Tsar make of this? 

one can hear the little noises the orchestra is making
trying to not make noises
they remain a presence in the space the music is occupying

Jutish Medley - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger, Lotta Mills Hough [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

moving pictures
as portraits of musics 

over-hyped

Vox clamans in deserto - Carl Ruggles - The Buffalo Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas, Beverly Morgan

the text
describes scenes poetically 

what does the music do?
illustrate
the described scenes?
perhaps
assist the singer
in the articulation of their text?
probably

America, an Epic Rhapsody for Orchestra, I. Oh America - Ernst Bloch - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Chorale, Gerard Schwarz, Richard Sparks

that dark land
beyond the sea
home
of noble savagery
untainted
by the quarrels
of the civilized worlds
a new start
for the dregs of Empire
bringing light to the benighted

Merry Go Round - Duke Ellington [from That Devilin' Tune]

sophistication
from a different line of development
than Europe's concert repertoire

Liza Pull Down the Shades - Bob Wills [from That Devilin' Tune]

concerns itself
with a brisk tempo
bending toward bebop

Violin Concerto #2 - Bohuslav Jan Martinů - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann

in a time of global war
a ceiling of dread
try not to look up
the soloist
nearly lost
amid the crowd
they are
an anyone 

sensitivity
to the voicing
of pitch sets
in simultaneous sounding
so that
the motions
among them
are
both internal
to the voices
and functional
within their sets 

the soloist
acts as a concentrated focus
of chord voicing 

an interesting piece to hear
for that unique take
on how the soloist
fits in the concerto 

certainly
clinging to the old heroic models
but
finding it harder
to accomplish
in the new times

Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp, and Piano - Aaron Copland - Columbia Symphony Strings, Aaron Copland, Benny Goodman

a slow sunset waltz
on all the front porches
of middle America
all Hallmark moments
all the time
Rockwell land 

rocking out
on the glider 

americana
comfort blanky 

they visit the big city
with its international oddities
and mixedness

Souvenirs, Op. 28 - Samuel Barber - John Browning, Leonard Slatkin

this tune
goes back to the Satie-times
but memory
is crowded with ghosts 

a selection of old favorites
been sitting on the piano desk
since at least way back when
the modern era
itself
treated modernistically
as an exotic land

I Want to Talk About You - Ray Charles [a Rescued Record]

a set of pools
in a water feature
we trace the tune
as it spills
from pool to pool
it descends to our feet

Louie Louie - The Kingsmen [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

recorded so poorly
that the words can't be made out
except
perhaps
the
let's give it to 'em right now

Dear Prudence - The Beatles [from The Beatles (The White Album)]

one of John's tighter songs

Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight and The Pips [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

a tonality
constructed of chord changes
rather than tonic/dominant/et-ceteral relationships

My Ends Are My Beginnings - Milton Babbitt - Joshua Rubin [from Erik Carlson's Slowly Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]

do I hear row forms going by?
no
though
if they are in the sounds
I hear going by
then
perhaps
I have heard them
but
are the forms
in
the sounds?
no
since
we assign the sounds
to their row forms
unless
I am assigning sounds
to forms
for me
to hear them
I did not hear those forms
nevertheless
I hear these sounds
as within forms
and they must be forms
I made
but
what might those forms
I made
for the sounds to be in
be? 

run-on figures
the composition
is a designed figure of figures

Pink Houses - John Cougar Mellencamp [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of rock & Soul]

roadhouse roots

Electric Garbage - Banned Rehearsal [from Purple Stripe]

Neal on guitar
me on drums
Karen on the harmonica? 

and of course
Neal's vocal 

but who plays cornet
must be Neal

we coalesce around a steady pulse
but don't always agree
on where one is
we are free
to use our own one
for a while
should we so choose 

perhaps it's Karen on guitar {NB: yes}

clock chimes
time to stop

In Session at The Tintinabulary

September 8, 2024

Frostenden - Keith Eisenbrey

September 13, 2024

Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La - William Byrd

Fifth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson

Liebeslied - Benjamin Boretz

I'm going to give each of these at least another try - very close all around

Postscripts

Drops

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

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