Playlist

Preface

"THEATRE ROYAL, DREARY LANE. - This Evening, their Majesties' Servants will perform
THE MANAGER IS IN DISTRESS;
To which will be added the serious Extravaganza of
THE HOT CROSS BUNN;
The principal Character by the Manager.
The whole to conclude with
THE DEVIL TO PAY.
On Monday next, Mr. SWING will exhibit his extraordinary performances on the Tight Rope. - N.B. On this occasion all persons on the Free List will be suspended."

from The Comic Almanack
an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Live

November 27, 2024

Amatuer Night: Mike Frazier and Stephanie Bruno, Your Mother Should Know, Redshift, Dead Bars
Sunset Tavern, Seattle

It has been years since I spent so much time in a dive bar with loud music.
Mike and Stephanie hosted the evening with introductory songs and stories before each band.
Your Mother Should Know is my lovely wife Karen and her brother (and my long-time collaborator) Neal Kosály-Meyer.
It had been many years since they had played a whole set out in public, and I found myself falling back into my "will it be a disaster?" mind warp. It wasn't.
Redshift is a three piece and I suppose they are entertaining in the same manner as competitive power lifting, arm wrestling, or scrotum clenching might be, but they really weren't my thing.
Dead Bars are loud with good feelings, and hard not to enjoy.
But the highlight of the evening for me was just before they came on,
when Mike and Stephanie led us all in an enthusiastic sing-along of Woody Guthrie's All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose. It felt good.

Recorded

November 24, 2024

The Dublin Three - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]

sea shanties
in their modern popular iteration
and their ilk
are a subset
of rural
nostalgia for the seas
as ruled by the British Empire
from a working people's point of view

Subvector Colloquy (whole, edited) - Tom Baker, Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith, Jim Knodle [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 2, 2023]

listening to a recording of ones self improvising
I put on my self judgment hat
removing it
might allow an appraisal
of what that pianist is doing
within this music
without recourse
to second thoughts
the persistent delusion
that the past can be improved
also difficult to remove
from the question
of what that pianist is doing
the taint of my memory
of what I was thinking
including
that past thinking's self-doubt
perhaps
when I can succeed at this
and get a few moments of clarity
I can allow myself some credit 

approaching the subject with gradual eternity 

I think I would have enjoyed this show
had I been in the audience
and I am in awe of my fellow colloquials
then and now

November 25, 2024

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXIV. Was mein Gott will, das gscheh allzeit - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

partaking of trombone authority
composed to impress and pacify

Gelobet seit du, Jesu Christe, BuxWV 189 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

music to grace the music of worship

Triosieme Ordre (ut): Menuet - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

spine straight
or
corsets bite back

Invention in F minor, BWV 780 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

its eyes open wider and wider

Keyboard Sonata in C Major, Kk. 251 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

clockwork dancer
a delightful contrivance

Symphony in A Major, Wq. 182 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock

immediately disbalanced
sequences of suspensions
are a tonality pressure
release mechanism

Mass in C minor "Grosse", K. 427 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis, Helen Donath, Heather Harper, Ryland Davies, Stafford Dean, London Symphony Chorus, Arthur Oldham, John Constable

this music doesn't invite us in right away
opens with solemn spectacle
idealizes the personal
in the voice of a soprano soloist
it's easier for everyone to keep together
if one thread of the music
is keeping time like a little clock
imposingly grand
the Credo
is a miniature symphony
inside the larger symphony
of the whole Mass

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 #2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Endellion String Quartet

a learned discussion
among the elitest of elites
has a way of sucking one in
don't it

there is more music in this
than can be imagined

how does phrase balance feel
as it goes by
as the oppression of societal norms
or as a potent idea? 

where do societal norms even exist
except
as the expressions of individuals

November 26, 2024

Sonata in B-flat Major, "Hammerklavier", Op. 106 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Stephen Kovacevich

we'll take a tour through the registers
enter through the grand gate

the forte piano took off in the Romantic era
and was developed into our modern instrument
because
there was a need for an instrument
that could transform
the entire strength of a human
into its heroic potential
(Faust/Napoleon)
Beethoven's sonatas
pointed in that direction 

this cathedral space
encloses its own temporality
(it is apart)

Moment Musicaux in A-flat Major, Op. 94 #6 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

a phrase is a problem to solve

Mazurka in A-flat Major, Op. 17 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

in a narrow frame
an expansive memory
one brings to mind the next
a chain of associations
lurking back there

Kinderszene, Op. 15 - Robert Schumann - Peter Fankl

domestic life
as appropriate subject
of aesthetic regard
or
to experiment
(under cover of slightness)
with figures
and voice leadings 

a group of drawings
of various sizes 

this slow one
is the centerpiece
the ideal image
of the lot

Prelude and Fugue in C minor - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

excursus:
what does the geometry of pitch look like from above? 

I value Busoni
for his valiance 

diatonic forward march
the remnant of Bach's legions
pelling mell into the future

Valse, Op. 1 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

the process of translating Chopin into Scriabin
(by Scriabin)
unleashed an ear

Symphony in E-flat Major (#2) - Franz Schmidt - Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Ludovit Rajter

the first symphony ever
Filmed in Imax
Orchestrations by Dolby 

lose yourself in lush folds
cotton soft
feather light 

we'll sneak the machinery of war in
under cover of great cinematography 

desperately shaking the fairy tale snow-globe
(Rosebud)

Brahms in the wrong century
this movement
moves
like spoke-variations
or sprite-led variations 

from what position
with respect to pitch space geometry
do we construct partitions?
(or pitch-class for that matter) 

watching polyphony dry
(going down triumphantly
ship and all)

Sheep and Goat Walkin' To The Pasture -  Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

period animation
subtleties of construction
left at the vaudeville door
for laughs
ribald and broad

Octandre - Edgard Varèse - New York Wind Ensemble, Frederic Waldman

recorded in
(and intended to sound like it was)
a studio
scientifically
hi-fi-ally
hi-isolation-ally 

music for industrial use
war poem
from within

Mill Man Blues - Billy Bird [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

music in no need of a national stage

Quatre Romances Sans Parole: Romance III - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

containing comments
concerning its tonality

Mathis der Maler: Excerpt "Du Wirst Mich Verlieren" - "Laß Uns Doch Weiterlaufen" - Paul Hindemith - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Leopold Ludwig, Pilar Lorengar, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

music made of strings of notes
in groups of strings
syllabic

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 1  (end) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

hey Chuck!
I brought along a cheap recording device
let's go down to the piano in the basement
and I'll record you playing some of your stuff

What Is This Thing Called Love - Anita O'Day [from That Devilin' Tune]

quick cut tempo changes
hey ba-oody bop!
hip wiggle
around the pitch

Fifth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson - Barbara Keck

sounds like it was recorded on a spinet with squeaky pedals
and a band practicing a few doors down
and cupboard doors

Dance With Me Henry - Etta James [from Original Oldies from the 50's Volume Thirteen]

of course
what she sings
is "Roll With Me"
probably too suggestive
for radio play

Abraham and Isaac - Igor Stravinsky - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky

the vocal line
accentuates the diaphragmic
syllabic
physical effort
of language
the difficulties
of saying

Chamber Piece 2 - Stefan Wolpe - Heinrich Hörlein, Hans-Christoph Sauer, Thomas Oepen, Eckhard Hemkemeier, Hand-Udo Helnzmann, Franz Behle, Michael Wagener, Wilfried Schoberansky, Markus Fank, Markus Eulinger, Stefan Geiger, Jürgen Lamke, Holger Garbs

a sculpture
that moves around you
wary
menacing
finish
with a naked drum

In Session at The Tintinabulary

November 24, 2024 

Stephens - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 73 Stephens 241124 [241124]

November 25, 2024

Gradus 405 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

I've heard this one before
and may yet again 

we listen intently
as Neal does not move
and makes no sound
(is this the part that's music?)
(is this?)
(are we sure?)
(is it music
because we assert that it is?)
mnemonic notation
(just enough to recall)
(when this you see remember me)
slows as it drops
the first time
music must swim in conversation
to be

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"July - Dog Days'"

George Cruikshank, from The Comic Almanack
an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

November 17, 2024

L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Act III - Claudio Monteverdi - Orfeo Orchestra, Sergio Vartolo

repetition as internal reference
we understand it
musically
immediately
but have difficulty
explaining in words
what we understand to be happening
without words

what we call rhythm and number
can be diagrammed abstractly
but
only from a standpoint
outside of our immediate experience
of it happening

stylized stage drama
precisely controlled expression

November 18, 2024

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXIII. Selig sind die Toten - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

looming behind the German Requiem
a deep history of sacred polyphony
we presume Brahms knew this setting

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

internal motions
count out the number
between external motions
where
internal is equivalent to more quickly moving
and external
to more stately moving

Triosieme Ordre (ut) - Gavotte - François Couperin - Simone Stella

flatteries in flatteries

Sinfonia in D minor, BWV 790 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

as though several musics were oozing through the great halls

Keyboard Sonata in C Major, Kk. 250 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

differentiated by figure
twists of voices

L'infedeltà delusa (continued) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne - Antal Doráti

the importance of what is going down
is thrust upon our senses
complete with ceremonial dance 

higher voices
have a conversation
orchestra counting out their number
now we have two lower voices
and one higher voice 

dramatically orchestrated recitative

November 19, 2024

Rondo in C Major, Wq. 56/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

the subject
and the commentary upon it
in adjoining columns 

day dreamy asides get everywhere

String Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 428 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Budapest Quartet

if the ear hears a pattern
it will leap ahead
(tonal expectations
for instance)
but
does such anticipation
prejudice itself? 

what we hear
is colored
by our expectation
of what we will hear 

a firm cadence
can clear the ear
to start afresh 

patterns of expectations
arising
from recognitions of patterns
patterns of expected unexpecteds
expected to repeat
in whole

Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (Hammerklavier) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Alfred Brendel

1-3
in regard to the adequacy
of period instruments
for late Beethoven:
a common comment
is that the excitement of wondering
whether the instrument will survive:
is that even a crucial element of the piece?
or
an unfortunate side-effect 

the pulls of scale-degree functions
against each other
we never arrive
at a definitive statement
against which
all others are held 

some tonalities only exist
if approached from several specific directions
the path to them
as much a part of their key
as their pitch class sets 

common practice period tonality
a set of intricate
inter-relatable
relations
holding
among certain pitch class set types 

4
open pages at random
see what's there
ah yes the fugue

{NB: it was at this point that our power went out for 22 hours}

November 20, 2024

Sonata in C minor, D. 958 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

this music is on the edge of its seat
listening intently
to something truly fine 

we are drawn into this music
as we listen
intently
edge-of-our-seats-ly

6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10: No. 5 in B Minor - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

if the figure has enough little places
between each beat
supplemental figures
can be made to play

Waltz in F Major, Op. 34 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin

this dashing young gent
is quite witty
and I
am just so giddy

Via Crucis, Station XIV - Jesus wird ins Grab gelegt - Franz Liszt - Nederlands Kamerkoor, Reinbert De Leeuw

some scenes require no commentary
just ceremony
to draw the curtains closed

An die Geliebte - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

can you trust a swain
who uses such chromaticisms?
really turns it on

Etude in F-sharp  Major, Op. 42 #3 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo

little tummy tickles

San Francisco Bay - Hedges Brothers and Jacobson [from That Devilin' Tune]

vaudeville circuit favorites

Four Irish Dances, Op. 79: No. 4,  A Reel (Arr. Grainger) - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

seemed so sweet
on the way
paid
by the column inch

Tenebroso - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

similar in spirit
to some modes of Ken Benshoof

Symphony in A Major (#3) - Franz Schmidt - Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Ludovit Rajter

1
snow falls across the village
sleepily and sweetly
snuggle down
all warm and cozy
we'll tell a tale
of heroes and kings
of hunts and battles
a manly tale
of manly things 

mind the meanderings of the low strings
that's where the money changes hands 

doesn't finish
just stops 

2
no matter where we go
we do the same old things
we move through this
as we might
through honey 

far from friends or family
in a dark and drear world 

3
below the web
the scattered husks
of waltzes past
rubbing sore feet
and comforting bruised hearts 

4
a pilgrim's quest

re:
intervals:
in order for the system to work
as we seem to think it does work
the intervals
must be regarded
as compositionally metricized functions
rather than
as qualities:
could one take the quality of interval
to be primitive
and also
take the quality of pitch
to be primitive
and
also
have the system work
as we seem to think it does?

November 21, 2024

Trois Valses Extraites Du Film Madame Bovary, a Jean Renoir Op. 128 - Darius Milhaud - Françoise Choveaux

the film is intriguing
but not available
as far as I could find

When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a lament
over
a happy dance

Ode (Triptychon for Orchestra) - Igor Stravinsky - New York Philharmonic, Igor Stravinsky

lifted from somewhat noisy vinyl at some point 

close order polyphony

Missa Trencin - M. Schneider Teplicensis - Mixed Choir Tirnava, Trnava Chamber Orchestra

concert music
for festival time worship
suitably grand

the traditionally chanted
Gloria in excelsis deo
and
Credo in unum deum
are they set that way
by edict from above
or only because it is traditional
to do them that way?
it produces a strange aesthetic disjuncture
within the setting of the text
in
style of singing
setting
syntax
rhythm
everything

Enactments for 3 Pianos - Stefan Wolpe - Anne Chamberlain, Joel Sachs, Cheryl Seltzer

post-war
thorn vine bush 

music
is data bits
hard facts
in black and white 

music
for the atomic auditorium 

Excursus:
inside the piano sounds:
to what extent
are they the same activity
as playing the piano?
and to what extent
are they not? 

the sounds will
share a common resonating space
and source of pitch-sounds (the strings)
while amending
supplementing
or circumventing
some
or all
of the mechanism
(the piano's action)

Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

energy held at high pressure

Goodnight My Love - The Fleetwoods [from Come Softly To Me]

soft core
puppy love
daisy petals
and diary secrets 

is that a Fender Rhodes?
(unclear)

Cinderella Sunshine - Paul Revere & The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]

Summer Girl 1968
weird 60s bridge
to upmodulation
to fade

A Special Song for Wanda - The Statler Brothers [a Rescued Record]

discussing a moral question
with due regard to its morality

Something In The Night - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]

spotlight arrangement
composed with dramatic camera angles
baked in

Untitled - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

on a tuning figure

Bad Little Woman - U-Men

tri-syllabic woman
woo-ma-ain 

jealousy as a turn-on
(hm)

Banned Rehearsal 331 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [June 11, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 331 930611

recorder intones the first pitch for posterity
the rhythmic chant
of toddler need
loop statement
snare drum
makes sound
from two distinct places in the mix 

pitch
is a further geometry of place 

sounds like a noise to me too 

Raise to the Loud a Glorious Din!
FW: lessons in deconstructional language construction 

where stick go? 

does it matter
to the Din
whether the Din
be Music?
Do I matter
to the Din? 

saxophone role
of Pelleas
in Pelleas and Mellophone 

paleo-saxophone
paleo-phonics 

specifically designed
for marching 

sounds ghost prematurely
human sacrifice
heartless right wing jurists
drums and baseballs
she can't kyrie tune 

Hear the Lively Sounds/Jingle Bells 

a sudden mash
marches to the organ 

toccata'd while reading Flaubert 

Emma Dilemma
reeds
free
single
and synthesized 

we provide perversity
orchestra
fugued upon Baudelaire
the flower of evils
eaten by weevils
J says
I can't reach the phone yet
at 2+

this music is really hip
(elbow too)

{journal entry of March 2, 1998:

all through this period - the band in a kind of holding pattern}

California Stars - Billy Bragg & Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]

to write a song
on another songwriter's words
an act of translation

Sounds of the Brush: Improvisation 4 - Gust Burns, Adam Diller, Keith Eisenbrey, Mike Marlin, DL Scott, Adam Weiss [recorded live at The Odd Fellows Hall, Seattle, March 17, 2003]

what might have been an outside sound
is found
to be inside
after all 

ideally
each sound
responds
to the whole sound

It's OK I Understand - Courtney Marie Andrews [from Urban Myths]

harmony with oneself
self extension

Attitude - Doug Palmer - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, April 12, 2014]

differences
that can't be settled
incompatibly combative posturing

In Session at The Tintinabulary

November 17, 2024

Bolton - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 72 Bolton 241117 [241117]

Shape note tunes, aside from being among the roots and soil of American Hymnody (which counts as that particular segment of folk music that I grew within), share a strong sense of rhythmic and harmonic robustness. They are a music of strong bones and a joy to work with.

November 28, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 1113 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1113 241118

Aaron couldn't come over but we carried on.

November 19, 2024

Detritus 2 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 02 Detritus 2 241115 [241119]

I'll probably try to redo some of these recordings without some of the street noise static.

November 22, 2024

Sinfonia 16 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 16 Sinfonia 16 240809 [241122] piano

I now have solid piano recordings of the whole set of 16 Sinfonias. It was quite a project for me - I had no idea it would be so chart-intensive when I first entertained the idea of composing Sinfonias (for clavichord or piano or any other keyboard on which they will fit). One factoid about the whole set is that, within certain consistently presented frames of time, there is a direct note-to-note correspondence that holds between each of them. It may not be recoverable from the score, but if one knew how the chart functioned one could trade the notes of any one of them for the notes of any other of them - they are each direct transformations of each other. Sometime in the next few weeks I'll be putting together an album of all 16 of these on piano. Onward now to something new!

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"Of modern standers-of-mast-heads we have but a lifeless set; mere stone, iron, and bronze men; who, though well capable of facing out a stiff gale, are still entirely incompetent to the business of singing out upon discovering any strange sight. There is Napoleon; who, upon the top of the column of Vendome, stands with arms folded, some one hundred and fifty feet in the air; careless, now, who rules the decks below; whether Louis Phillippe, Louis Blanc, or Louis the Devil. Great Washington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules' pillars his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go. Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in Trafalgar Square; and even when most obscured by that London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is smoke, must be fire. But neither great Washington, nor Napoleon, nor Nelson, will answer a single hail from below, however madly invoked to befriend by their counsels the distracted decks upon which they gaze; however, it may be surmised, that their spirits penetrate through the thick haze of the future, and descry what shoals and what rocks must be shunned."

Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.

Texts

Recorded

November 9, 2024

Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms) - Dion [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

lopsided blues stanzas

Aladdin Sane - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]

a song of alternating states
verses and choruses
are states
upon which
words or instrumental solos
are inscribed

3 Record Set (end) - Anthony Braxton - Oberlin College Orchestra, Kenneth Moore

threads to follow
through a dim space
tonality
a thick paste
enclosed
cut off
there is no outside
all directions are static
indifferent

November 10, 2024

Brain - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

a bichordal guitar-drum composition
with an all-off position
and a flourish to finish

Concerto 10, Op. 413 - Alan Hovhannes - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Martin Berkofsky, Chris Butler

a music of nowhere
a cocoon without metamorphosis
all contact with what exists beyond the temple walls
have been severed and lost
muted colors

one interesting thing:
he is treating the solo piano
as a melodic instrument
not only
that
there is no real counterpoint in its part
but that
there are hardly any chords at all 

Banned Rehearsal 330 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [June 4, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 330 930604

peekaboo baby
from the start
a wooden rattle
loudly shaken
near the mic
in a rhythm
fades from awareness
before vanishing in fact
before re-appearing 

the ukulele
is like a baby guitar 

sounds are toys we play with 

John just pulled the plug on the Funmaker 

a precise scientific readout
of the silliness in the room
more tape
that's my boy

November 11, 2024

Finalala - Amy Denio - Die Knodel [from Tutto Bene]

cabaret and circus and fair and dance

Sounds of the Brush: Improvisation 3 - Gust Burns, Adam Diller, Keith Eisenbrey, Mike Marlin, DL Scott, Adam Weiss [March 17, 2003]

a bit of poetry in pitch conjuration

Freedom is on the March - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]

winds climb stepwise above a landscape of bass and percussion

Attitude - Doug Palmer - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 1, 2013]

taking punches at a sack of sand

Every Time I Hear That Song - Brandi Carlyle [from By The Way, I Forgive You]

there is no less reliable a narrator
than that of a breakup song 

rhythm/rhyme
as they are commonly understood
are aids to the immediate comprehension of the "rim" (number)
in the old sense

Subvector Colloquy (unedited) - Tom Baker, Keith Eisenbrey, Leanna Keith, Jim Knodle [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, March 3, 2023]

negotiating a space for conversations
three interviews and an open forum  

improvisation
can liberate attention
from obsessive preparation 

an arithmetic
of irrational rim 

an organized entrance
to the quartet
one at a time
in order of appearance
piano guitar flute trumpet 

this is really lovely

November 12, 2024

L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Act II - Claudio Monteverdi - Orfeo   Orchestra, Sergio Vartolo

from in what person
does a monologue/aria address us? 

from what person do we hear it? 

are we eavesdropping
or do the characters turn their masks
partly toward us? 

in Baroque small-stage opera
we are closer to the words
and the page
hearing an opera
was more like reading a drama
than like seeing it 

sequences of stepwise-related figures
arising
in the context
of an operatic ensemble 

to these modern ears
the relative dearth of ensembles and choruses
(as compared with, say, Mozart)
would get monotonous
were not each line so demanding of attention 

deep characterizations
not for the faint of heart

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXII. Unser Wandel ist im Himmel - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

didactic setting:
set in order to teach:
learn these words
by hearing their music 

styles do not succeed each other
they consume each other

Praeludium in G Major, BuxWV 162 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

an elaborate culture accreted to the Church
to grace it
should now
the Church
shed it? 

unsettled

Cinquieme Ordre (la) : La Villers. Gracieusement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

costumer of music
to the King of France
center of the civilized world

Sinfonia in E-flat Major, BWV 791 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

a duet of voices with guitar
the harpsichordist uses a two manual instrument
left hand manual is muted
to depict the guitar

Keyboard Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 249 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

this music nibbles at itself
piranha-like
forces doors into the inner tonalities
not so distant
but you'll never find them again

Symphony in E Major, Wq. 182/6 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock

it is important for everyone in the orchestra
to appear quite busy and useful
so they get paid
they hope
Prussian efficiency
so fleissig!

Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 333 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Kristian Bezuidenhout

always the storyteller
verging on the confessional

String Quartet in C Major, Op. 54 #2 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet

sophisticated amusement
its tonality is the subject matter of its going
rather than the substrate of its social propriety
a political mirror
held from within
an image of its society 

last movement
is really two movements
a long slow one
and a sizable fast one
each complete
back to the long slow music to finish

Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Peter Serkin

possibly the craziest symphonic music he ever composed
there are some interesting acoustic things going on with this period instrument
it even includes a tuning up figure to start the fourth movement
the fugue
is a heck of a chase
lickety-split
exhilarating as all get-out
a battle to the death or the glory

November 13, 2024

Sonata in A Major, D. 959 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

proceeds streamlike
through merry burbles and quiet pools
stream's eye view
as it experiences itself
from rise to outflow
nights and days
in their ways and dreams 

lakes at night
and their nymphs and naiads
all the assorted fae
and fae adjacent
in ancient battles
nightly renewed 

it rains upon its face
hop frogs dancing
log to log
retire to their home ponds
and pipes
and joys
tales of old campaigns
and heroes
and escapades

Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau

domestic peace calms violent passion

Presto Passionato, Op. Posth. - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

more than a babbling brook's force to this
it is being powered and pushed and thrust
by the will power of human heroic striving

Via Crucis, Station XIII - Jesus wird vom Kreuz genommen - Franz Liszt - Reinbert De Leeuw

unbearably tender

Auf ein altes Bild - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

spare

Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 10, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (After J. S. Bach's BWV 665) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

implies as many other keys as it establishes
following the logic of the chorale melody
as its key center

Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 42 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo

inscribing oneself onto future events

Symphony in E-flat Major (#2) - Franz Schmidt - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi

1
is music well-served by the gargantuan?
the large orchestra?
the immense hall?
the national audience?
even if it becomes a mirror to that national audience
so they can hear themselves
(which is also the essential Ivesian approach) 

2
our national character on display
its harmonious virtues 

a set of variations
Straußian
but well-behaved
an orgy of lusciousness
an eternal Busby Berkeley thingy
legs and legs and legs
and bustles and bustles and bustles
and fans and fans and fans 

An Austrian in Paris 

3
meanwhile
back here in contrapuntal land
shy
about its inner workings

The Leprechaun's Dance - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

I can almost picture the art on the sheet-music cover

Theme and Variations - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

OK it's derivative (an early work)
but there's an ear in there
to rhythm and its propensities
and she does know her counterpoint

Le baiser de la fée - Igor Stravinsky - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler 

[recorded May 18, 1953]

each thing doing a thing
is doing that thing
and no other thing
neither right nor left is turned to
||:rule:
it is not necessary to see the dance
to understand a ballet score
but it helps
at times
to imagine a dance to it
don't worry about the actual plot
or Balanchine's style
or the original costumery
this music dances for us
or
better
get up and dance yourself
no one's watching

Quatre Romances Sans Paroles: Romance 2, Op. 129 #2 - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

a 48 second Romance
so fleeting so fancy

Mathis der maler: excerpt #4 - Paul Hindemith - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Leopold Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

an Artist is their own state
heroic independence
and other delusions of grandeur

Hello, My Darling (with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a band of musicians discuss a song from within it

God Don't Like It - Elder A. Johnson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

damn! that guitar sound!

Rock Me Lucky - Joe Lamond - [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

entirely meretricious

Carol - Chuck Berry - [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

the music is intended to act as a social lubricant
to move your feet
out onto the body-display floor

Samson Agonistes (Symphonic Portrait) - Robert Starer - Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Valek

what is the social purpose
of making orchestra music since WW II?
career fulfillment?
fodder for the institutions
so they can continue to pretend
to be relevant
while changing nothing? 

a star in one's earthly crown?

November 14, 2024

Street Fightin' Man - The Rolling Stones [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

square and colorless

Irish Washerwoman - Old Thresher's Fife and Drum Band [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]

comes on strong
bows out with a standard tag
(shave and a haircut six bits)
all done in less than a minute

13 Emily Dickinson Songs: #1: Perhaps you'd like to buy a flower - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt [from A Tribute to Soprano Bethany Beardslee]

ends of lines to beginnings of next lines linked
forward vowel on the i of till
bright and clear

The Late Great Johnny Ace - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]

any tribute to a life
from with a life
is about that life

Banned Playalong 3 - Aaron Keyt [January 20, 1988]

a solid hum
to keep us anchored
keyboard chords pull against it
the interval
between anchor and chord
is at an angle of pitch

(see fig. 1)
the hum is a creature of the recording process
(artifactual)
the piano chords also
but
their stimulating agent
is a human
more immediately discernable 

it is not a desire to express my emotions

(my feelings)

that drives

rather

it is a desire

to express my humanity

as immediately as possible

likewise

my desire for music

is a desire

for a connection with a human

at their most immediate

however
one could read the hum
as being as fully intentional a part of the tape-artifact as anything 

the work
is its recording 

(*is the angle of acoustic yank different than the angle of pitch-class yank?) 

hums elicit further hums from tones
tones shed hums
they fall into the hum bin
at the center of hummity
a sedimentary hum
is a dense layer of hum 

music for a wandering mind

Sabre Dance - Empire Brass [from Class Brass on the Edge]

the back rows of the orchestra get rowdy
arranged for brass enthusiasts

Banned Rehearsal 489 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 28, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 489 980328

we emerge from our muck
fixed in frustration
a discussion is engaged
strenuous and fierce
stress induced friction
Banned Rehearsal
is a journal of artifacts
we put together something like a rhythm groove
choppy guitar says bwá
the Mighty W appears in full bundler regalia

{journal entry of March 19, 2006:

has transfer issues throughout
especially at the high volume end
must have been one of our bad days
lots of gonzo drumming}

Music for Bassoon - Joshua Parmenter - Ryan Hare [from Intrada]

performed in conjunction with a computer program
that processes the incoming sounds in composed ways
a pattern of filters and inputs
suddenly there are bassoons everywhere
chattering even in the stairwells and broom closets 

quite the ride guys!

Zither Film 8 - Keith Eisenbrey [January 21, 2008]

it separates like milk and cream
hints of regularity

November 15, 2024

Sextet II: Apostillas a Mil Panaderos - Tomas I. Gueglio Saccone - Latitude 49 [from Curious Minds]

is up-to-the-minute performance practice
worth the trouble
or will it gray out other compositional potentials?
that is
if the purpose of a note
is to carry a technique
rather than
the technique articulating the note
what are we left with?
a string of techniques?
the colors of things
their surfaces
shiny and new

Partita - Benjamin Boretz - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

I did somewhat better at controlling the tempo for these
but all those parkour leaps got my fingers all cross-fumbled
so it ends up being pretty much a hatchet job
clearly beyond my abilities to pull off live
oh well
what's frustrating
is that I know what all those notes are
and have a clear idea in my ear
about how they fit together

Comfort Me - Carla Thomas [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

no element distracts
attention riveted start to finish

In Session at The Tintinabulary

November 10, 2024

Coronation - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 71 Coronation 241110 [241110]

November 11, 2024

Gradus 404 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

three rungs anticipating December 14 at 1412
(12/14 at 1412, heh heh)
we seep into the new rung
from one
to a great plenty
seepage continues
travel
by registral adjacency
a slow broad sweep of the field
variant sweeps
at other resolutions

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"Gunpowder Plot.

     'Tis good to remember
     The Fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason, and plot;
     There's abundance of reason
     To think of the treason,
Then why should it e'er be forgot?

     Our sympathies thrive
     By keeping alive
Such sweet little hatreds as these;
     And folks love each other
     As dear as a brother,
Whose throat they are ready to squeeze.

     I delight in the joys
     Of the vagabond boys
When they're burning Guy Vaux and the Pope;
     It the flame keeps alive,
     It makes bigotry thrive,
And gives it abundance of scope.

     'Tis a beautiful truth
      For the minds of our youth,
And will make 'em all Christians indeed;
      For the Church and the State
     Thus to teach 'em to hate
All those of a different creed.

     It is two hundred years
     Since our ancestors' fears
Were arous'd by this blood-thirsty fox;
     But often, since then,
     Our parliament men
Have been awfully blown up by Vaux.

     Now, they cannot deny
     They're afraid of their Guy;
And some of them earnestly hope,
     He may fancy a swing
     At the end of a string;
And they promise him plenty of rope."

from The Comic Almanack
an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

November 2, 2024

33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Artur Schnabel

internal motions
come to life
right away
in the first variation 

notes
stack themselves slant
extend themselves
out
over chasms
perilous weight shifts 

what seems restful
is rattled off its foundation
forcing them
to fit 

regularity
regularly
gone astray 

pulling attention
down
into intimate spaces
voices
slip from alignment
as the ear
picks up
on a repetition in progress
the least aberration
activates
a new trajectory

November 3, 2024

6 Moments Musicaux: Allegro Vivace in F minor, Op. 94 #5 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

don't hurry to get on
but
once on
don't look back

6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini: Vivace in G minor,  Op. 10 #3 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

does this make more
or less
sense
if
one can track the barlines
or
sense
is not something
that music can make? 

music rhymes
it does not reason
any reasons
music has
are rhymic
reasons

Mazurka in C Major, Op. 33 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy

a firm grip on propriety
clever remarks
crack open a window

Via Crucis: Station XII - Jesus stirbt am Kreuze - Franz Liszt - Nederlands Kamerkoor, Reinbert De Leeuw

hollowed out monophony
descending
into hollowed out sorrow
hollowed out comfort
in moments of sublimity
try singing chorales

Der Gärtner - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

does goosing the characterization
help the song?

Das Orgel-Büchlein, BV B 27: No. 9, in dir ist Freude (After J. S. Bach's BWV 615) - Ferruccio Busoni - Wolf Harden

imitative polyphony
resounds the chorale's parts

Etude in D-flat Major, Op. 42 #1 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo

a being
of butterflies
and blooms

Preludes Book II: No.4, Les fees sont d'exquises danseuses - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking

cryptid exoticism

MacGaine's Kick - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

my thoughts gravitate
toward the economic position
of this music
within its society

Pássaros Em Feste - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

settles
for the adequate arrangement

Wayward Girl Blues - Lottie Kimbrough [from Really The Blues]

blues strophes
aim
to their rhetorical ends

Quatre Romances Sans Paroles, Romance I: Op. 129, #1 - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

how is this different from Nazareth?
it isn't an acceptably able arrangement
that gets out of the way
all the lines work together
to shape each other

Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man - Billie Holiday (with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra) [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

this music settles never
I note
that she clearly sings
"that"
not "dat"

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 1  (beg.) - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

murky harmonies
hidden under a blanket

Looking for a Woman - Roy Brown [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

the technology of sound recording
took a giant leap
during the war
(sonar research effort?)

Love My Baby - Little Junior's Blue Flames [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

a lick
that is mum
about its beat
is shown
to fit in
quite nicely
become ordinary

There's a Moon Out Tonight - The Capris [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

life's all right
no blues here

I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles [from Please Please Me]

I like the guitar solo

November 4, 2024

The Echoing Green (William Blake) - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]

exaggerated enunciation

Quadrant 4 - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]

playing together
wicked fast
signifies
hypercompetence
as a display feature
male bonding

Everything Must Change - Nina Simone [from Baltimore]

long lines
articulate
opposing forces
and
their resultant energy states

Place For Us - Kool & The Gang [a Rescued Record]

cliché
pop anthem

November 5, 2024

Playalong 2 - Aaron Keyt [January 17, 1988]

the room this sound is in
is also host
to a more global
external
low hum
possibly
the heating unit
for the building 

such a constant sound
acts
as a surface
for the percussion to be played upon 

tip tap
crickle crickle
hum 

sing a song
in the playalong

utterance
exitrance

Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

a display concerto
is a display of prowess
wealth 

what lovely instruments
we afford for ourselves
life's finer things
for refined natures
be impressed
and suitably so

Banned Rehearsal 488 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 12, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 488 980321

we open
with something like
what might have become a beat
had we all
not drifted off
into our own tempo corners 

don't let steadiness fool you
drums
signify
the anchor
firm
but
the line
has gone lax 

else where 

household of sounds
lives here 

where else? 

the steady needling
of the small drum 

apply pressure
I confess
to academic credentials
with my full name
but without basis 

occluded lines
in turns dialogical
we drift slumberward
winking across
wavering back

{journal entry of March 14, 2006:

a throwback
sort of
lots of talking}

Toccata and Fugue - Michael Nicolella - Michael Nicolella [from Shard]

touch of tocattas
the art
of distinctions of weights
through the hand

Zither Film 7 - Keith Eisenbrey [January 19, 2008]

temporary continuities
appear
some quite persistent
they are missed
where they would have been
had they not ceased to persist
all at once

I made this file
with a purpose in mind for it
but
that was my purpose
not its

Nocturne - Craig Pepples - Yuji Takahashi [from Open Space 53]

a linked chain
links made apparent
a figure
in a pulse
has a first token
unique
in being
without predecessor
and
a last token
unique
in not going on
to a further token

Puppet Pieces - Kam Morrill - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live  at the Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

open unassumingly
without splash or flash

Loops from the Crypts of Chaos, Slow Speed Backwards Version - Pete Comley [from Paintronics 3]

should a music
not build itself
from its sounds' internal urgencies
upon what basis
then
do we assess its utterance? 

sounds
become stated facts
inarguable
and opaque
a storage room
of sounds
in piles
on shelves
ready for use

November 6, 2024

L'Incoronazaione di Poppea, Prologue and Act 1 - Claudio Monteverdi - Orfeo Orchestra, Sergio Vartolo

we make use of Gods
as a literary device
to personify
the impulses of drama
later
we would make them
all too human
as yet another literary device
we make use of royalty
as a literary device
to act
as puppets
of us
out there
where we can see them
and voice their thoughts 

the music
is a mechanism of a literary conceit
a drossless societal self portrait
we write ourselves large

the singing style in use
is actorly 0

low buzzies!
how lovely! 

harpsichord turns the pages
traces the lines
the orchestra
is the body
of the readers of the work 

costumed placards
the masks
from beneath which
the text emerges

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXI. Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

a text
is proliferated
into architectures

Canzonetta in G Major, BuxWV 171 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

oh
you thought that was it did you?
we have one more for you

Cinquieme Ordre (la): L'Angelique. Rondeau. D'une legerete moderee - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

flawless service

Keyboard Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 248 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

music
as an arcane skill

Keyboard Sonata in A Major, Wq. 65/37 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

takes an appraising tour of the stage
gets to know his props
we are mid scene
before we have been aware
now it's time to clear the dishes for the evening

Keyboard Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI:23 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Christine Schornsheim

improvisatory display of courtesy
competitive flattery

November 7, 2024

Sonata in A Major, K. 331 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Peter Katin

1
gently played
a lullaby
as with
one might lull someone
to sleep
or ignorance
is a magic incantation

a lullaby
has been applied
and it has been lulled
also
the state of having been lulled
a lullaby
in the storm 

a day of play
presented
as a set of variations
on a lullaby 

2
and now
for a balancing act
with jugglers
and sad clowns
and droll clowns
and mustachio twirling clowns 

3
and then
of course
the foreign dance troupe
Wolfgang's Amazing Three Ring Circus
entertainment for all

Six melodies pour le piano, Op. 4 & Op. 5: VI. Andante Soave - Fanny Hensel - Béatrice Rauchs

pulls a melody out
from a slowly simmering figuration
it drops back into the pot

Whistling Rufus - Olly Oakley [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

this cook
uses saltier language
homespun garmentry

Le Sacre du printemps - Igor Stravinsky - London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

nothing about how this music gathers itself together
is unextraordinary
quick cuts (cinematic)
multiple screens
multiply overlapped
nothing solid enough
to balance with 
I wonder
if the original choreography
was as utterly new? 

pattern play
of inner voices 

the timpani player(s) in this recording is(are) excellent!

String Quartet 2 - Zoltán Kodály - Kodály Quartet

the exotic
has begun to think about our language
in relation to its own tongue
but
in our language
of which language (our)

they
are also
of
its our
our our
too
in point of fact

something new
haunts the old mansions 

inhabitation  is encouraged
decoration beyhond utility
is discouraged 

have you ever studied your own handwriting?
what is it like?
how do you make your marks? 

I enjoy js and gs
I fill in gaps later
my i dotting
is irregular
t crossings
are rarely missing
ks rarely appear
connected to the next letter
though
sometimes
from the prior 

fs and zs
are also crossed regularly 

in general
I'm better about crossing
than I am
about dotting 

ns are a problem
ms and ws
cause me to lose count
of bumps 

vowel concatenation 
run together 

hs
ds
ps

Piano Sonata - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

skeletal Scriabin
a ghostly
ghastly tale
dusty corners
in dimly cavernous halls
gloomy
with dark frames
of obscured figures 

rs and ns
are difficult to distinguish
sometimes
they are elided 

the forms
of es
are dependent
upon their surroundings 

ss are not joiners

I Must Have That Man - Annette Hanshaw [from Really The Blues]

the art of discussing troubles in public

Firebird - Spike Hughes [from That Devilin' Tune]

do such things as night clubs
with house orchestras
and dancing
exist anywhere
anymore?

Bachiana Brasileiras No. 3: Aria - Heitor Villa-Lobos - New York Chamber Symphony - Gerard Schwarz - Robert Bonfiglio

my notion
of what Villa-Lobos is
to me
as a composer
is colored
by the fact
of interactions I had
decades ago
on CompuServe
with a conductor
who rather belligerently maintained
that Villa-Lobos
was a superior composer
to such as might pen dissonant music
and
that this was proved
by the superior number of pages
in his New York Times Obituary
in comparison with those other dead guys' obituarious page counts

Tess' Torch Song - Ella Mae Morse [from That Devilin' Tune]

or
was the nightclub scene
a creature of Hollywood?
modern stand-in
for the fancy dress ball

Symphony #4 - David Diamond - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

orchestral music
of mid 20th Century Symphony patron acceptability
required
that all musical material
be made
quite plain to hear
wherever it appears
radical transformation
is frowned upon
these
are my tunes
they permeate everything
and won't go away
nor transmigrate
they keep on
being here
as
they are all there is 

a homogeneity to it
like unto that of Hovhannes 

these rhythms
are Exciting®
by definition

{journal entry of February 21, 2006:

settling into a warm bath
we are unsettled
to realize
it
is
an unending mirror image
of a warm bath
and
that
all these mirrored baths
are poured out
ecstatically
into a richly jeweled
and embroidered cave
of mirrored
warm baths 

sternly warmed
but still
a  bath 

warm once again
poured ecstatically out
in a warm kind of ecstasy
though
the lip
over which
we
are poured
is sharper
harder
moral feeling 

(now
some good old American muscle rhythms
happy worker/consumer music}

Old Grey Goose - Red Belcher & The Kentucky Ridgerun [from That Devilin' Tune]

high tail hootenanny
hokum
comic shtick

For Your Precious Love - Jerry Butler and The Impressions [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

the thin line
between sincerity
and mockery

Times Five - Earle Brown

there was a fashion
for composing instrumental music
so that
it imitated
some of the odd effects
that electronic music
of the time
had come up with
so that
it would sound
suitably
up to the minute 

is it possible
to perform indeterminately derived music
indeterminately
or
is performing
exactly
the ultimate
determination
of the suggested potential? 

every score
is indeterminate
in relation
to its ultimate performances

you can put a sound
in a person's ear
but you can't make
what they hear 

the open-formness of Brown
(if that's what's at play here)
is more interesting
than the modernism of the sounds
he uses
which
from this distance
seem mostly
just
old-fashioned
as 60s as The Beatles

In Session at The Tintinabulary

November 3, 2024

Patmos - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 70 Patmos 241103 [241103]

Magnuson Park - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Magnuson Park 241103

some froggy action in the Sunday afternoon wetlands

November 4, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 1112 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1112 241104

Postscripts

Drops

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