"Sir,
I beg to inform you that a poor man was blown to atoms by the
explosion of the Powder Mills on Hounslow Heath. His affectionate wife, who
happened to be passing at the time, carefully picked up the fragments, and
placed them together; and, by administering a dose of the Universal Medicine,
he was able to walk home, and eat a hearty dinner of bacon and cabbage.
If
any person should doubt the truth of the above statement, I beg you will refer
them to me, when I will fully satisfy all inquiries. I am easily
found out, - as everybody knows me.
Your obedient Servant, Giles
Gammon
No. 1, Blarneygig Place,
Salisbury Plain,
next door to
Stonehenge.
P.S. - I forgot to add, that the poor woman, in the hurry of the moment, made a small mistake, by placing the head of a donkey, which had been blown off by the explosion, upon her husband's shoulder, instead of his own; But she says it is of very little consequence, as very few of his acquaintance could perceive any difference."
from The Comic Almanack
an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing
Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
An American in Paris (uncut) - George Gershwin -Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz
a stroll on the rues
what strange beasts these Parisians are
every
street corner a new sight to have seen
this music demands a fantasy for its logic
a fairly well-constructed medley
but its well-constructedness
is
of the 'good-enough' variety
that never questions itself
Gene Kelly nailed it
a day dreamed romance
in the freshly scrubbed
exotic
of the old world
in the new times
I'm not sure how much the restored cuts add
but the recording sounds
pretty good
Two Tickets to Georgia - Ben Pollack [from That Devilin' Tune]
party music for dancing
Mathis der Maler (excerpts): Sonniges Land. Mildes Drängen Schon Nahen Sommers - Paul Hindemith - Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Joseph Keilberth Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Leopold Ludwig
this music has a lot to get off its chest
Symphony in C minor, Op. 65 (#8) - Dmitri Shostakovich - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov
1
this music proceeds from the silenced
I ascribe an attitude to
it
as I might to a fellow human
I personify
I ascribe a
clear intent to mime
in particular
to mime a singer
or a
Mussorgskyan mob milling on a somber stage
this music doesn't move along quickly
no reason to move quickly
within such a constricted and somber stage
its slowness of moving
mimes the narrowness of its confines
I ascribe to it
an architecture
and a virtual occasion
as
though it were an other thing entirely
a hummingbird is perched in our western lilac
(it's west of our
eastern)
2
compulsory militarization service
reduced to a flip book
cartoon
3
the string through-line of steady sharp pulses
and its
refigurations
are full of tricks
can even go undercover as a
drumbeat
is finally squashed quite flat
4
midway the wee smalls
sleepless anxiety tiks its inexorable tok
in the dark
5
morning eventually arrives
and all its worries and concerns
we are reminded of the squashing in the 3rd movement
we pick
ourselves back up
mend what we can
resume milling
1
long winter introduction
two parts
then joined
[Fr.
Over./elegy]
2nd theme group
as in the 5th
a motor rhythm
a high violin
a slow motor build
horrifically and
ever-so-slowly
works its way down
to the long winter
always
a shining hint of spring
2
back tape {??}
vomiting menuet
grotesquery like silvered
platitudes
winds have their secret say
a whispering campaign
always the macabre development
a grinning skeleton dance
a
flip back at the end
last few measures
3
a development from
out of the middle of 2
an invention
- becoming theme & variations
'variations'
that intrude
upon each other
to make arch-closures
[no breaks]?
4
the still long winter
still
inside or outside?
night
or day?
bright or dark?
from this side death or that?
weird
piccolo bird
as though cubisted
- through facets of glass shards
again
a development from within
some unheard middle of ---?
1.?
5
spring?
weighted down
but birds!
each with a tale to
tell
in careful stanzas
and the macabre rises from within
like gorge
and we cycle back
to that whirling French
overture theme
at the top of our
lungs even the skeleton dance
returns}
Composition for Twelve Instruments - Milton Babbitt - Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose
this music is not difficult to comprehend
it's doing that for you
quite clearly and explicitly
it is taking itself apart
Symphony #6 - Bohuslav Jan Martinů - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Neumann
1
carefully
a goodfeeling is tried on
it's been awhile
but we must struggle
through the period of compulsory factory
service
industrialization sucks
but it must be done
a job
well done
is a goodfeeling hit
2
a gnat is in the room
and that gnat has friends
a battle
among the gnat swarmhordes
heroic deeds
3
a dramatic vista
a comfortable chair
a fine fire on the
hearth
and a pipe
another goodfeeling hit
oh no!
a
peril and its anxieties
possible hope in the distance
smoke on that
In Spite of All The Danger - The Beatles [from Anthology]
working hard at getting it together
Love's Gonna Live Here - Buck Owens [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
on the country slope
of the American Pop Massif
Spiral I for Electonium & Short Wave Radio - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Harold Bojé
gestures such as might be made
with patches dials and sliders
if an item is composed
with the purpose of creating interest
it
has already failed
a new thing
isn't interesting
just on the basis of its newness
but rather
on a synthesis
of its newness
and its
generational relations
to the former things
where we are now
together with
where we came from
to get
here
Extensions for Trumpet and Tape - Charles Dodge - Ronald Anderson
back in the old days
when coordinating live and taped
was done the
hard way
stopwatches and pushbuttons and start stop cues
a problem
the tape part doesn't pull its weight
the trumpet is
doing all sorts of fancy lip actions
the tape is rolling
effort of
manufacture
is irrelevant to the occasion
Rockaway Beach - Ramones [from It's Alive]
the multitudes
all excited
to see
what made that sound
bathe in a common social attitude
Delirious - Prince [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
builds itself up
from the production a cycle
upon which to dance
Banned Rehearsal 131 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [January 1, 1988]
toy accordion (closely micd)
violin (less so)
lamellophone
(amplified significantly)
some singing (by the lamellophonist)
we make some adjustments
violin steps closer
this music wheezes as it moves
or perhaps it just sits there
wheezing without moving
the physical room this tape was made in
was a low-ceilinged living-room
the virtual room this tape is in
is more crowded
we are inflected versions of ourselves
balloons in a bag
we articulate a restart
have a rhythm
like wheezing
breathing
bellows
squeeze and stretch
we seem to have gotten most of the wheezing over with
differently inflated sets of balloons
form a different bag
less obvious amplification effects
{journal entry of December 2, 1991:
harps and violin
one harp is actually the accordion from hell
not
mouth harp
blues harp}
Weary - Rocksalat [from Loose (a Rescued Record)]
a chord in a set of changes
analyzes the text being sung in conjunction
with it
Banned Rehearsal 486 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 28, 1998]
this became the second cut on Teach Yourself To Drive
we grow ourselves out of first principles
(first firstiples)
(princely principles?)
we move through the duff
like a fungus
toadstool telescopes
whatever it is we are doing
we are fully engaged in it
one exchange of instrument
ramifies into all the other agendi
and
their instruments
a ceremonial place has been reached
solemnly processed around feedback
glimmering
glinting glancing
final principles
Drogget - Christian Asplund [from Brainstun]
the closest thing I had
in my experience
to what this music was
would have been Braxton
avant jazz?
a new linqua franca
had emerged
out of my earshot
edging
toward Goat Rodeo territory
Track 9 - Aaron Keyt [from 7(7)]
cracks of doom sketch book
sound-effects for Bluebeard's doors
tumblers turning in locks
A Five-Note Chord, seen from the porch of a curious mind - Garrett Schumann - Latitude 49 [from Curious Minds]
this music puts itself together with its pitches
(as mine does)
but with more entertainment value
(it's more intentionally
shapely)
Banned Rehearsal 951 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 29 & 30, 2018]
 |
| journal entry Banned Rehearsal 951 |
lamellophonics among cetaceans
and the guide Beaver Gigley
Set A
and Set B
equivalent but not equal
poetics of description
the consciousness of the great universal mind
and the mortal world
O Novilissima Viniditas - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia [from Canticles of Ecstasy]
to the north of these words
are intended to persist
an index
to an inscription
of a signal
created
as an
interpretation
of an inscription
of an idea
so that
you too
should you desire
locate said inscription
signal
interpretation
inscription
idea
place
your stylus
on the tablet
and inscribe
I do not discourage this practice
Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 1: XVII. Das Wort ward Fleisch - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
don't look up
there's another indexy inscription
to a sequence of
inscriptions
leading back to what?
an idea
(a musical/poetic
one)
named by the words
that form its poetry
which (words)
index those words
and their idea inscriptions of thoughts
all the way down
to the beetle-like things
the opacity
of experiencing
our experiencing
Praeludium in G minor, BuxWV 163 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Stella Simone
prelusive music
to a service of the Word
it separates the realms
an extensive prelude
to a festival service
to put us in the
proper frame of mind
ends with several question marks: ??
a packaged service of the Word
giving it flesh
Cinquieme Ordre (la): La Flore: Gracieusement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
does the decorative intent
of courtly music
render it more
flippant
as itself
than service of the Word?
is the seriousness of music
irrelevant
to its worldly
intent?
Keyboard Sonata in B Major, Kk. 244 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
does a playful face
betray lack of seriousness
is it all just a
skill?
a knack?
an actualized idea (?)
Sonata in F minor, Wq. 57/6 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
is this music serious?
what is its intent?
decoration?
service?
flattery?
entertainment?
to be a medium of
expression?
marketable as such?
an inscription?
a graffiti?
a lyric poem
a rarefied pleasure
[early fortepiano]
categorically indexed
(by format name)
(also points to a
catalogue entry)
and a file
or set of files
on the external
drive
velcroed
to the side
of my cassette tape machine
upon which
sits
a laptop
with
audio out
wired
to my home stereo
this second movement is no ingenue
it reads as deathly serious
the dance movement might read as flippant
were it not for the messages
transmitted
under cover
this is actually a rather alarmingly strange symphony
Sonata in C Major, K. 330 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida
an ornament
might be
to a note
or
between notes
ornamenting their interval
bow tie on the difference between them
the difference
they share
a difference
with a quantity
of vectors
Symphony in C minor, Op. 65 (#5) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler
a new concept
for what serious could be
a driving urgency
no
ingenue here either
the weight of imperial oppression
and this is
no light-hearted social occasion
no ball gowns
no glitter
dark of night
secret meet ups
after which
storms
the nation rejoices
hoorah!
Caprice in F Major, Op. 1 #22 - Niccolo Paganini - Salvatore Accardo
what is simple on the page
sorceled to incandesce
by the struggle
to execute it
Liebesbotschaft, D. 957 #1 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
at first the lines are set distinctly
articulated
as they develop
the articulations are overrun
Waltz in E-flat Major, Op. 18 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
a milieu's soundtrack
creating a depiction
out of
whole-cloth
in miming our times
we create them
(see Cruikshank)
Albumblätter, Op. 124 #7 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
the oddities of its phraseology
suggest personhood
Via Crucis: Station IX - Jesus fällt zum dritten Mal - Franz Liszt - Nederlands Kammerchor, Reinbert de Leeuw
a through composed recitative
for singers and piano continuo
opening salvo
in Addams Family Theme rhythm
but pressed
forward
the fugue that wouldn't stop
there's always time for another coda
Fünf Gesänge, Op. 104 - Johannes Brahms - Harvestehude Chamber Choir, Claus Bantzer
the grand plan of Bach the JS
to unite polyphony
with figured bass
harmony
in the late stages of falling apart for good
my new favorite Brahms
Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 42 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti
playfully cadenced
Enfantillages pittoresques - Eric Satie - Frank Glazer
a clever monkey
takes some Couperin apart
French neo-classical modernism
One More Day, My John - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger, Lotta Mills Hough [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]
there's an almost Liberacean grandeur
to the pianistical infractions of
Mr. Percy Grainger
Wolverine Stomp - The Sunset Band [from That Devilin' Tune]
see Chopin supra
milieus and self creating sound tracks
fluid
Fleischer curvilinears
City Trees - Pricilla Alden Beach - Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra, Reuben Blundell
after French models
of the less ironic bent
a watercolor
(and an impressive example of one too!)
he plays around in the song
as though it were monkey bars
and he
free
to swing
as fleet as a squirrel
My Man (with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day, The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
devotion in spite of it all : a species of erotic playacting
Come Sunday - Duke Ellington - David di Fiore [from The Cathedral Organ Collection - live recital from St Martin Metropolitan Cathedral Bratislava, August 28th, 2013]
here's another one I remember David workshopping
for our postludes and
preludes
Violin Concerto No. 2 - David Diamond - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Ilka Talvi
1
under Schwarz
the SSO made excellent recordings
of a
certain tranche of American Symphonic music
violin as shapeshifter
but with a speedy shift
2
melodic reverie
a warm glow
the incessant activity of life
deadlines to meet
classes to teach
grants to apply for
Administrativism
(its unwritten manifesto)
it does run on rather
Dedicated to The One I Love - The "5" Royales [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the electric guitar was their new synth
Please Take Me Back - John Lee Hooker [from The Legendary Modern Recordings]
seems to be just the raw plea
then it becomes a vehicle
for
performative pleading
Can I Get A Witness - Marvin Gaye [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
chord changes aid scansion
Tighten Up - Archie Bell and the Drells [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
a new dance craze
just do what the players do
aerobics
Polyptique for Solo Violin and Two String Orchestras - Frank Martin - Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Edmond de Stoutz, Yehudi Menuhin
each place
has all the proper parts
of place
to be solid
were the light
not so malevolently angled
and
were we
not so weary
were not
the burden
so weighty
3 Record Set (continued) - Anthony Braxton - Oberlin College Orchestra, Kenneth Moore
note sets : (various) : sorted by ear : laid out on the time slab
inventories of items
within delimited boundaries
music
as data
some coordinates
are notably more full of sound
than others
the item sets
are laid out
as terrain
eptly produced notes
in sets
chops
as a given
if one
were to swap the order positions
of pairs of adjacent notes
how would it alter our overview?
or swap order positions
of
adjacent sets
of any magnitude?
put 'em in a blender?
(liquified Braxton?)
the my-kid-coulda-made-that argument
(...then why didn't they..?.)
id est
it's all just a jumble of random notes?
depictive of
the jumble it is out there
in the wild
but
this jumble has
been sculpted
into this terrain
of those note sets
on that
time slab
Intermezzo 3 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]
so that polyphonic motions appear
as an epiphenomenon
of a stern
figuration
an audial illusion
In 'n' Out of Grace (demo) - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
thrill riding
something exposed
with a big motor
grinds to a
gradual halt
("…what I could hear, trying to crawl out from between the lines of your last ferocious Sonata…") - Benjamin Boretz [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, Mary 14, 1993]
this homophony
is a monophony : a soliloquy
a few wrong notes
but it comes across
Cinema - the Kent 3 [from Blood on the Flat Track Soundtrack]
song composed as its arrangement
for external application only
pebbles placed just so in sand
a terrain of distinctions of proximities
and inexplicit paths
Symphony #1 (second movement) - Charles Graef
a night scene
a sea of secrets
a menace monster
Grändelkönig
(80s heavy metal band name?)
horrorgore
nouveaux grandiose
Banned Rehearsal 832 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 22, 2013]
my recording begins
with the space
and us
putting us back
up
the sound
of preparing a public Banned Rehearsal
an infamous intermission
(for Chris DeLaurenti)
I overhear the past
eleven years gone
and more
we all take our places
separation of the nuclear material
we march
in
according to ceremony
we
the presenters
they
the presentees
me
the present
where am I sitting
(as an auditor
of a recording
of the
sound
of a most particular social interaction)
in reference
to that
parenthetically
just referenced interaction?
not just
not in its space
but also
not
in its
time
OUTSIDE
this sounds great!
we give the Chapel Ghost
a right celebratory
party
of well wishing
at our magnificentedly magnificentest
the grand fun for all
cacophoniad of the cacophonaiads
pedal and bell tones
some
amplified snorer
comments snorily
wood
is deconstructed
on stage
in front of multitudes
music
of which
only the occasion
is pre-planned
did we have pre-recorded sounds playing?
I don't recall
but I
would believe it based on the sound of this
Eight Pieces for the Vernal Equinox - Kris Davis - Rory Cowal
a procedure
or a process
sets of cross-rhythms
pretty fun
piano writing
(way over my abilities)
figuration
gesture
mimicry
it talks with its hands
Improvisation - Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith (Subvector Colloquy) [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 2, 2023}
playful tussle
wooden swords
In Session at The Tintinabulary
October 6, 2024
Ortonville - Keith Eisenbrey
first of the Common Meter tunes in the book: 8 6 8 6
October 7, 2024
Banned Rehearsal 1110 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
October 8, 2024
Sinfonia 14 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
