Playlist

Preface

"This is much; yet Ahab's larger, darker, deeper part remains unhinted. But vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound. Winding far down from within the very heart of this spiked Hotel de Cluny where we stand - however grand and wonderful, now quit it; - and take your way, ye nobler, sadder souls, to those vast Roman halls of Thermes; where far beneath the fantastic towers of man's upper earth, his root of grandeur, his whole awful essence sits in bearded state; an antique buried beneath antiquities, and throned on torsoes! So with a broken throne, the great gods mock that captive king; so like a Caryatid, he patient sits, upholding on his frozen brow the piled entablatures of ages. Wind ye down there, ye prouder, sadder souls! question that proud sad king! A family likeness! aye, he did beget ye, ye young exiled royalties; and from your grim sire only will the old State-secret come."

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

Texts

Recorded

December 21, 2024

Limehouse Blues - Joe Haymes [from That Devilin' Tune]

each new stanza resets the flow

I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a tempo to slink through
with a feather boa

Patch for Study No. 23 (mid 1930's) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

nothing murky
that can't be murkier

Composition for Twelve Instruments - Milton Babbitt [from Eric Carlson's Ever Expanding Milton Babbitt Album]

this music never loses touch
with
how the instruments
are addressing their fellow instruments
and us
and
that
they are speaking pitches
notes

Prayers of Kierkegaard - Samuel Barber - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robert Shaw, Richard Clement, Nathan Gunn, Patricia Nealon, Pamela Elrod, Sean Mayer, William Borland

concerning the music that arose
in the gloomy guts of stone churches
across the land

recording tech
tends to shrink the sound
of a symphonic chorus
so many pounds of flesh
lost in translation

December 23, 2024

Solo for Piano - John Cage - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, May 4, 2013]

a state of mind
can be allowed
by an agent
but
can't be forced
or coerced
the image
of rhetorical force
vs
cogent and effective rhetorical force
the image of rhetorical force
arising from Beethoven
is one of insistence
on truth
and power
the image
of rhetorical force
in Cage
is absent 

the long silence
with which Neal began this performance
is
yes
an opportunity to listen to the pretty birds
or the barking dogs
but also
a substantial experience
of a long protracted anacrusis

the clock will count for you 

the heart requires a ritual of solitude
before it can speak in its tongues 

once the sounds enter
they move spritely along
at about a quarter note = one 

a counted out rhythm
is proportional
by virtue of its having been counted out
not
by its relative steadiness
nor
by its durations 

naked sequence 

as I recall
Neal played a single page of the score for this performance
which is lovely
by the way 

scale-like sequences
are polemical here
a signifier
of abstract musicality
otherwise not notably present
(concrete musicality?) 

young hominids' homonidical shouts
yips and calls
plus a few dogs 

we are released from its spell
an event
marked by applause

Abraham and Isaac - Igor Stravinsky - London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen, David Wilson-Johnson

Stravinksy emigrated
from pre-revolutionary Russia
to European culture at large
relevant to all of it

Nurse's Song (Innocence) (William Blake) - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]

the voice of Blake
heard by Ginsberg
was a sing-song voice 

three-part conversation
on
all the hills are echoing
the higher
of the three voices
often pronounces the second syllable
of echoing
significantly more quickly
than the other voices do 

now we'll all yodel
and sing along

Images - Sun Ra [from Space Is The Place]

piano and bass
just having a little moment together

My Father - Nina Simone [from Baltimore]

a poem
can be
in the form
of a personal essay
memoir chapter

December 26, 2024

Playalong 5 - Aaron Keyt [February 5, 1988]

piano tones
in wide intervals
with tape wobbles
stepwise
and small-interval skips
scattered at wide intervals

uniform textures
tax attention 

a field to wander across

crows
in improvised formation
weave in the gloaming sky 

an articulation
by means of resting
then
the same
but
re-registered 

the new rises into the old
and they are joined

Soundscapes - Sun Ra [from Monorails and Satellites]

hands dance against each other
get physical

Banned Rehearsal 493 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 2, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 493 980502

we remove the coverings from sound
soon joined from other watersheds
the waters mingle
but claim distinction
the spider
is on the move
the mass powers up
radio has been filtered out
but returns
in a can

{journal entry of March 28, 2006:

fun big tape
glitch 20 minutes in}

Dirty Money - Karin Blaine [from Dirty Money]

preacher testimony

Gradus 133 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 11, 2008]

we wonder at a discipline
it is a marvel
a feat
of will power
or need 

compulsion
is a free-agent will
outside consciousness 

does consciousness
serve
what the muses sing
or
does it impede? 

what am I conscious of?
what is there
to be conscious of? 

{we leave off between the rungs
interrupting the silence for supper} 

with good headphones
one can observe the signal
clearly 

speakered into a room
one can hear it
as a sound
in the same room
with you
rather than
in some room
within your skull
the signal
is at a distance
and obscures the sound it makes less

compulsion
is a form of will
or a mode thereof? 

the devil made them do it 

so sang the muses

Attractors - Bruce Hamilton - Iktus Piano & Percussion Duo

the social venue
within which a music
such as this
or any
occurs
surely
ought to include
the musicians
fully 

beats attract grids
adherence
coercion

Preludes 17-20 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

so much water under the bridge since then
these
are among a handful of pieces
that I keep coming back to
because they never cease teaching me

Puget Sounds - S. Eric Scribner [from Adjacencies]

waves grinding
gravel
blunting waves
a perpetual friction

Madrigals, Book IV: Ah, dolente partita! - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Allesandrini

a cooperate puppeteer
to the person
of the voice
of the poem

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXVIII. Auf dem Gebirge - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

voices of lips and tongues
cords
in throats
lips
to lengths of air
vibrations 

where structural expression
is architectural
rather than directly personal

Toccata in F Major, BuxWV 157 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

this is a stern sermon we are in receipt of 

you will now remain seated
while the ushers collect the donation

Premier livre de clavecin: Cinquieme Ordre (la): Les Agremens. Gracieusement, sans lenteur - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

elaborate means employed
to count out patterns
in the time-path

In Session at The Tintinabulary

December 23, 2024

Jordan - Keith Eisenbrey

I didn't have time
the morning I wrote this
(the 22nd)
to record it,
and I typically use the recording process
to iron out the last few details of the composition. 

I recorded it the next day,
but in listening back
I think I need to spend a few more minutes with it before I'm done. 

I should have time for that later today.

Detritus 4 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 04 Detritus 4 241216 [241223]

Gradus 407 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

1
what is the relation obtaining
among the sounds presented
as the representatives
of the list
of keys
within
the defined parameters
of the rung
and the words
in the list? 

if
ones purpose
were
to differentiate the rungs
compositionally
one could proceed
from ones manner of playing
or
from ones manner of thinking
(or both of course) 

within a moment of sonority
we can
with some effort
trace our own ordering of attention
through the pitches persisting
within that moment:
voluntary
or volitional
serial improvisation 

2
a pitch-class
in common
between two
or several sonorities
but
registrally differentiated
imparts leanings
against
the several sonorities
which leanings
can be analyzed
as
being due
to the in-common pitch-class
the relation
so obtaining
is not a simple vector

December 27, 2024

("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz

I'm getting closer on this.
I need to control my tempos better as it moves along.

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"November [1836] - Lord Mayor's Day"

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

December 15, 2024

Yakety Yak - The Coasters [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

a work song
of the chore sort

Land of 1,000 Dances - Chris Kenner [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

this is the test at the end of the term

Spiral I for Electronium and Short Wave Radio - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Harold Boje

inscrutable as a matter of principle
however
the desire
to not deal
with the concert music industry
on terms that industry understands
seems valid 

only in academia
does any attempt get made
to straddle both worlds 

making each
to be more like the other 

didactic synthesis
is self-fulfilling
(self-emptemptying?)

treats music as a matter of material science
music
is its sound only
(no fury)

The Singer - The Fifth Dimension [a Rescued Record]

crooner crooning
a stage moment
not for porch singing

Candy's Room - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness on the Edge of Town]

demonstrating
that some words
really should have been sung
instead of recited

European Female - The Stranglers [a Rescued Record]

the cool clean surface
of manufactured sound in the 80s 

it don't mean a thing
if it ain't got that sheen

December 16, 2024

Assembly Rechoired 42 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith ‪Eisenbrey, Wally Shoup [February 5, 1988]

Keith Eisenbrey · Assembly Rechoired 42 880205

a fipple flute's sound
is unstable
as to pitch count
partials
erupt
at tiny perturbations
but
that's just Wally
finding the fipple flute
at the heart
of his saxophone 

a long poem
for sax drums and piano 

the line is a breath
the line is a figure
the line is a comment 

finding the larger breaths
below the lines

Cold Mountain Songs: Meeting Cold Mountain - Robert Morris [from Open Space 30]

a line might answer
or
a line might comment upon
or
a line might translate
exposing the sound behind the curtain

December 17, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 492 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 25, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 492 980425

doing emerges
from settling in 

music emerges
from doing listening 

what is
or isn't music
isn't subject to dogmatic assertion
but
is
rather
a matter of spontaneous individual apprehension 

results will vary 

the apprehension
as music or as not music
by one party to a shared experience
has no bearing or force
upon the apprehension
as music or as not music
of another party to that shared experience
whether they agree or not 

musichood
isn't in the signal

do we objectify music
because the only other way to explain it
as a phenomenon
involves telepathy?
a gastromancy of thought 

we think of a sound to make
and in making that sound
we have inscribed a translation of that thought
into a social space
as sound
(typically)
the listener translates that sonic inscription
into a thought
the miracle
is
that we often agree
at all 

not the universal language
but
relatively porous apprehensions
as musics
across cultural differences

{journal entry of March 25, 2006:

open:
puttering sounds
lowkey percussion
used
by the big fat music-y piano
and drum
as a ground
upon which
to measure out
a lovely
still
space 

Billie Holiday
would come across
as spritely
in this venue 

outlining distinct idea spaces
sonically linked
by the reflexivity
of their time-warping 

gradually
both worlds gain menace 

we are a train
rolling through the landscapes
we are the landscapes
beholding the train
{an unfortunate glitch in the transfer}
{another - about 1/2 way through}
much glitchier
as it goes along
perhaps
a problem with a badly fragmented hard-drive}

shouldn't we talk?: I - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 19]

theatrical cues
with ears to each other
and
to their own dramaturgy

Zither Film 9 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 10, 2008]

tuning in
to a vacuity
whatever
is here
there is less
out there
where
even whispers
are rare 

slow absorption
into the music behind nothing
passing by
at an immense distance 

can these pitches
be properly described
as being members
of such things as  pitch classes? 

intervals
are not
a distance

Untitled Track 3 - The Blue Ribbon Boys [from Five Songs]

the vocals aren't in the same timeworld
as the band (interesting effect)
more or less on the beat
but not
with it 

trust me guys
I didn't understand a word you were saying

17 Prepuntal Contraludes - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

I still like these pieces
the performance has some nice interpretive touches
but a lot of wrong notes too

Snohomish Piece 1 - Keith Eisenbrey, S. Eric Scribner, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from Four]

I guess I have this track in several places
oh well! 

so:
is this music?
is all of it music?
could it be music
as a whole
if some part of it
isn't music?
even partly? 

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXVII. Der Engel sprach zu den Hirten: super Angelus ad pastores Andreae Gabrielis - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

concord stands for correctness
in an harmonic world 

now that
George
is how to write an hallelujah!

Canzona in C major, BuxWV 166 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

the elaborate contrapuntal forms
of the late 17th Century
surely
arose
out of musicians
showing off
in order
to land jobs

Cinqueieme Ordre (la) La Vendangeuses. Rondeau - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

so matter-of-fact about its ornateness

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

if the lines imply harmonies
they use those means to do so
that lines have
but
independently of the other voices
doing the same thing
even
when the two lines
imply the same harmony
they imply it separately
by different paths

Keyboard Sonata in C Minor, Kk. 254 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

repeats so often
and at such strange measures
we lose our place 

we have become ecstasied

Sinfonia for Double Orchestra in E Major, Op. 18 #5 - Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra - Hanspeter Gmür

two orchestras
for double the pleasure
of double the splendor
not available in all locations 

complete with coordinated crescendo
it's all the rage this year 

fruits of conquest
as dainties for the king

Sonata in C Major, Wq. 55/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

1
bursts of furious activity
punctuated with a polite little bow 

2
a lament
to be sung with lute
in serenader guise 

3
later
we can stroll in the gardens
and have a nice chat

Sonata in C Major, K. 330 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Vladimir Horowitz [from Horowitz in Moscow]

light touch
never slurred
finds an odd little detail in the final cadence of the first movement

String Quartet In E Major, Op. 54 #3 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet

figures
with numbers of note-items 

a number
can be a thought in common

December 18, 2024

Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Vienna Philharmonic, Otto Klemperer, Ilona Steingruber, Else Schuerhoff, Ernst Majkut, Otto Wiener, Akademiechor

a mono recording
as though through a door 

pulled from voice to voice 

repetitions provide comfort 

the parts are crammed together 

melody is found
as necessary 

fugal exposition and elaboration
attempts to control the uncontrollable
(Beethoven never met a fugue he couldn't and didn't break) 

ritual acts inhabit a cyclic eternity 

violin solo blesses from on high 

peccatas
set in a chain
linked by common tones

Ständchen, D. 957 #4 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

that the introductory measures
are in a tried-and-true pattern
is crucial
to the interpretation of the text
the image of inevitability

Variations on "The Little Bell" by Paganini - Robert Schumann (completed by J. Draheim) - Florian Uhlig

sparkly delight
and sharp bass jabs
to soften it up

Mazurka in B minor, Op. 33 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy

keys change
but possibly only in a portion of the music

Storkenbotschaft - Hugo Wolf - Dieterich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

nor tried nor true
harmonic pattern
to set this 

a hint of a figure or two

Etude in F-sharp Major, Op. 42 #4 - Alexander Scriabin - Ruth Laredo

this key
is dreaming of another 

in Scriabin's figures
a note
can be a beginning
or a continuation
or a change in rhythms
contrapuntled independently

Preludes, Book 2: General Lavine, Excentric - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

astonishing
but clearly
and without pretense of cultural importance

In a Nutshell: No. 4 The Gumsucker's March - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger, Lotta Mills Hough [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

composed so that
watching the player piano playing it
would be a selling point

Piano Sonata - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

starts with a jump scare drama gesture
then a slower bit
this moves like a parody
or a foreshortened view
of an appropriately dramatic Romantic Piano Sonata 

the formal construction of this
is rather interesting
in thrall of Scriabin yet?
just the juicy bits

John the Baptist - Rev. Moses Mason [from Anthology of American Folk Music]

lost locutions of incantatory song
we get a long reading from the Gospels
baptism and temptation

L'Album de Mme Bovary - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

music composed to stand aside
now exposed to merciless view
fleeting
as the flickering image on screen

Mathis Der Maler (Opera): "Du Bringst Es Über Mich, Mein Freund" - "Wer Kann So Erfassen Wie Ihr Mein Handeln" - Paul Hindemith - Radio-Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Leopold Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Donald Grobe 

clearing the brush
that had accumulated around first principles
not one for unapproached dissonance or other non sequiturs

Study No. 11 (mid 1930's) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

smearing oil on canvas

Lost On The River - Hank Williams [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

each stanza starts with a traditional sounding line
and gradually particularizes the story

Tiger Man - Rufus Thomas [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

tom tom spectacular
a brag song
roars and growls

Maybe Baby - Buddy Holly [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

maybe baby
funny honey 

backup singing the extra drumming part

The Savage - The Ventures [from Walk Don't Run]

jungle drums
were hip and happening 

sounds more like Rudimental Rumpus
than jungle
but what do I know

Dance To The Music - Sly and the Family Stone [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

instructional:
how to listen
and dance
step by step

Turn on the Radio (stereo) - Jerry Tawney [a Rescued Record]

letter home from tour of duty

All of Me - Willie Nelson [from Stardust]

at a tempo
where dancers
can see each others faces

The Bare and Peeling Painted Walls - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

in which
I clap two rocks together
and crumple some paper

December 19, 2024

Lilith - Deborah Drattel - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

within a culture of institutions
the preservation of those institutions
is paramount 

the institutions
consume creative work
but
are resistant to transformation
by creative work
so
they seek out such work
as will not trouble their digestion 

I was a regular audience member of the SSO
at the time this recording was released 

it
the piece
was not
to my recollection
ever programmed
nor
were any of the other works on the CD
I am forced to presume
they recorded them
for hire
possibly
at the behest of the label? 

all surmise of course
transactional music production
the vibe
is that of a soundtrack
for the movies or games 

has some low brass vomits at the end
but is essentially inert

("...finish, then, Thy new creation...") - Keith Eisenbrey - Summer Strings, Dell Wade [a sight-reading September 10, 1998]

a reading rehearsal
of a (now withdrawn) piece for string orchestra
adapted
from a (never performed as such) organ score
bravely ventured
by an amateur pick-up ensemble
in the basement
of a church
up on Phinney Ridge
if memory serves 

opens with lugubrious Shostakovichianism 

the 90s were
for me
a time in which
I was working out what sort of music
I had in me
(there were several false starts) 

this piece is overly complex for an amateur ensemble
and wouldn't have been all that great even if played well 

Isaac chatters happily throughout

When I Dance - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]

a brag and an instruction

Banned Rehearsal 647 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 21, 2003]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 647 030321

picks up moss as it rolls

BR has been a lifeline for me
a society
in which my ear can be at home
without a public face 

this one has sedatory vibes
not a lot of go go
mostly we're working at developing a shimmery gauze

Symphony No. 1: 2nd Movement - Charles Graef

moody evocations for moody visuals
this music makes no demands that we keep track of it

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

I must have opened with this
start your recital with a furious tale
of uncertain outcome

Watercolors: Geode - Craig Pepples - Julia Hsu [from Open Space 47]

the readings are ominously precise
probing you
to see
of what mettle and worship
ye be made 

Banned Rehearsal 1072 - Jennifer Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 13, 2023]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1072 230313

as though
in were outdoors
and out
were in 

the synthesis
is incomparable
with its constituents
their conjointure
utterly transforms them
(from telepaths 98)
Hoonah jostles and squeezes in
a tight fit

Benvenuto Cellini - Act I, Scene 3 - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

an elaborately composed ensemble conversation
with the audience 

leaping from recitative to song 

just how quickly can we sing in French?
that's a bushel of silent letters spilling out between the sixteenth notes

Se equivoco la paloma - Carlos Guastavino - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

type-changes
to measure the lines
and organize the stanzas

Tackin' Em Down - Van and Schenk [from That Devilin' Tune]

advice for dancing
or something else 

a Vaudeville stage is required
to project the proper wink wink nudge nudge

Samba Classico - Heitor Villa-Lobos - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

late entry into the National Pride Registry
our dance is our badge

Touch Me Light Mama - George Bullet Williams [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

more paths through the rhythm field
than performers

In Session at The Tintinabulary

December 15, 2024

Medfield - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 76 Medfield 241215 [241215]

December 16, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 1115 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1115 241216

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"Now
heroes
bold
in
leather
breeches
do
leap
o'er
five
barred
gates
and
ditches
the
perils
of
the
field
to
dare
and
hunt
that
furious
beast
the
hare!
Oh,
courage
rare!"

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

Texts

Live

December 13, 2024

Red Pants Collective + Kin of the Moon
Heather Bentley, Kaley Lane Eaton, Giordana Falzone, James Falzone, Leanna Keith, Hannah Rice
The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

what portends before the song begins... 

partly hushed private chats in a public space
attentions
preparing to key into collective experience
soon
the hush presaging 

setup is relatively light on electronics
nary a laptop in sight 

entrance of the celebrants
a composed event
slowed breathing
twisting the floor
walking from air
moving pillars
leaping to breathlessness 

music sings to heal and restore
harass and beguile

leaves as gently as arrives

I have been in a strangely reclusive mood of late
but this was just what I needed and I'm glad we went.
I was especially taken with the permeable boundary
between the movement-artists and the sound-makers
- a remarkable and healing Gesamtkunstwerk.

Recorded

December 8, 2024

Argentina - Corina Nolting [from The World Sings Goodnight]

I believe this album
(a cassette tape)
was a gift to our family
at some point back in the 90s
when we had small kids
it was never a favorite 

innocuous music is an existential problem

Banned Rehearsal 491 - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 18, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 491 980418

assertions are made and quickly discarded
our thoughts wander
the sounds in this session
seem to be reluctant to get into common spaces with their fellow sounds
disinclined
to engage 

goes through motions
puts in time
the possibility
that feedback could erupt
provides stakes
a too-easy effect?
aims too low? 

the round-robin sessions
were predicated on an assumption
that if one was in the room
one was expected to be making sound
as a social requirement
but
does leaving the space
even
or
especially
if done on a schedule
and re-entering
merely make public
a decision
to not be engaging
in the prescribed manner
for a time
a decision
that doesn't need to be made so theatrically public?
an enforced shaming?
or
a spontaneously arising ritualization
of various transformations among the members
that affect their interactions?
an episode within a work in process

{journal entry of March 21, 2006:

narration by Isaac
lots
of plucked
and strucked
until the organ comes in
low
then carefully glowing
around
certain individual sound spaces 

roundrobin session
with characteristic transparence and episodicity
one bad transfer spot
I wonder what that was about}

Intrada - Ryan Hare [from Intrada]

a blatant fanfare
for a blatant time 

the extended techniques employed
(singing while playing?)
serve the music
because they are so clearly heard
on the composer's part
and
their sonic manifestations
are so precisely integrated into the pitch world of the piece

December 9, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 732 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 4, 2008]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 732 080204

microphone placement
and speaker placement
are determinants of the virtual space
the projected sound is in
(sounds are in)
although
a sensitive ear can tell
that some sound
is being projected from speakers
that sound
is not different
from sounds otherwise produced*
(sound is sound)
they are sounds with peculiarities 

*the ear hears them
by the same mechanism
and wetware
the distinction
is entirely in-house
to the listener 

we posit histories
for the sounds we hear
and
we fancy
we can determine traces
of that history
within the sound
as well
as though memories of artifacts' histories
(how those sounds got into those speakers) 

clarinety feedback
electric guitars
and autoharp
and little bells
and xylophone

Snohomish Mash-Up Piece #1 - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer, Steve Scribner [from Odds and Ends]

a complexly layered artifactual history
the senses in which
I know what I'm doing
are peripheral to the doing

Patti's Parlour Pieces 17 - 20 - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

careful attention
to the beats between beats

Suyama - Steve Peters [from Chamber Music]

its own virtual chamber of music
an odd little music-dimensioned maze
here is a heart of it

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXVI. Sehet an den Feigenbaum - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

how grandly we slowed
times within times

Deuxieme Ordre (ré): Passepied - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

too enjoyable to think

Barmherziges Herze Der Ewige Liebe, BWV 185 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman

imitation:
ritualized memory
presented as an aesthetic process

finger slap
or extra-resonant sounds
from the organ(?)
not exactly part of the pitch-music
a marker
for a voice within the fabric
this stop just does that

Keyboard Sonata in E-flat Major, Kk. 253 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

runs a prescribed course
this part is for endurance
trial by modulation

December 10, 2024

Symphony in C Major, Wq. 182/3 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort - Trevor Pinnock

count carefully
we're full of sudden divisions and hold-ups
we form incoming sound
into an expression
we desire to make
with that sound
even
if that desire
was inchoate
until that incoming sound
formed it
or awakened it
from in us

String Quartet in D minor, K. 421 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Budapest Quartet

a common tone
sunk into the depths
by a melody of intervals
by the book cadences
extended by fragmentation and repetition
still signify formal articulations
serve as punctuation 

excursus:
in two major-key collections
related to each other by transposition of six semi-tones
the subdominant of one
is the leading tone of the other
and vice-versa
of course
and
they are the two common tones between them
6 semi-tones apart
as can be easily seen
that's why they're common tones

String Quartet in G Major, Op. 54 #1 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Endellion Quartet

always clever
where all the parts come from
figures
sliced out of melody
dissected fancy

in the Haydnesque four-movement format
the first and last movements
are generally in the same key
but
they are different versions of that key
derived by independent means
no two G Majors are made alike

Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Marga Hoffgen, Waldemar Kmentt, Martti Talvela

whence this material?
it coalesces instantaneously
a blinding flash
it is essential
that each voice
stick to its guns
do NOT glance fetchingly
at any of your fellows
(or you're next) 

suddenly
we've still been here
at the blinding flash 

Gloria:
(a reasonable reaction) 

successive entrances
stacked
create the illusion
of further entrances
within the mass
of those original entrances
as they proceed 

psycho-acoustic moil
emerging from everything
and nothing

the soloists
are not soloists
they are parts of a thing happening
with fiery tongues

stern credo-lotry
he means what he says 

the voices float upon the Gospel
cyclic recitation
Kierkegaardian repetition
echoes
and echoes
of echoes
of entrances
and entrances
of entrances
it overwhelms utterly 

(a truly epic amen) 

the harmonics
of wonder and awe 

we have moved beyond the world of figures

Frühlingssehnsucht - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Gerald Moore

tempo change
as though glancing worriedly over ones shoulder

6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10 #6 in E Minor, Sostenuto - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

roll a chord
and the downbeat
is the top of the top

a figuration freak like me

Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Peter Katin

entrance of the grandees
their medals that gleam
and jewels that glitter
pomposity after pomposity

December 11, 2024

Denk es, O Seele! - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

toward
stream-of-consciousness through-composition
away
from Romantic folkish strophes

Etude in F-sharp Major, Op. 42 #4 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

gently drifting down to slumber

Suite, Op. 8 - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

1
softness upon softness
a gently colored painting
soft trees and gentle waters 

2
a wind-up toy dance
steps ex mechanisma 

3
a forthright approach
will see us through difficulties 

4
dark and murky
as the sun descends
adventure portended
be brave
and stand firm 

5
is this dawn we see?
a paler dark
in the East sky
gathering our forces
for struggles ahead
re-waking reluctantly

In a Nutshell #2: Gay but Wistful - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

in the style
of piano pounding for the flicks
no sensibilities will be offended

Confidénces - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

the somewhat sentimental music of the streets that surrounded modernity

Left Alone Blues - Ishmon Bracy [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

you can smell the dust of the streets in this

Nobody's Sweetheart - Arthur Briggs [from That Devilin' Tune]

to be sung on stage
with a cane and hat and tap shoes 

vigorous piano pounding

Mathis Der Maler (Opera): "Mein Bruder, Entreiße Dich Der Höllentiefen Qual" - Laß Mich Im Pfuhle Untergehen - Paul Hindemith - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin , Leopold Ludwig, Donald Grobe, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

singing dialog in epistolary rhythms
paragraphs traded via song
volume modulates with emotional emphasis

I Cried for You - Billie Holiday (with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra) [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

reversal of fortune
my how her lines float!

Mass - Igor Stravinsky - English Bach Festival Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, Trinity Boy's Choir, English Bach Festival Chorus, Nicholas Cleobury

stripped down
to follow twisted paths
to articulatory concords
and their clear progeny
intimate statements
of inscribed words
as sung
by the assembled

liberate dissonance
and liberate harmony
and notes and syllables while you're at it 

one can listen
to a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass
as a concert piece
or
one can listen
as a believer
how might it benefit us
to make it a conscious choice?
(or both of course) 

this faith is timeless
ecstatic
monasterial
learned
practiced 

histrionics are irrelevant here

it prays constantly
holy repetitions
a traditional incantation 

of course
it is always clear
that this music
is about The Mass
in a peculiarly
meta
manner

{journal entry of December 29, 2005:

1
kyrie:
each statement carefully
individually
rendered
not: dramatized
rather: highlit 

2
gloria:
lyric stasis  

3
credo:
enunciation 

4
sanctus:
declamation
hosanna
-- 

5
agnus dei:
beginnings
no endings}

Klavierstück IV - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Aloys Kontarsky

maximate dynamic range and precision
it is insistent
that its cultural importance
should be emphasized
vehemently

Music Walk - John Cage - Stephen Drury

isolation
each bit in its box
nobody is in the same room
the strictest observance
of these orders of freedoms
is required
this music
is a strict observance
of the orders
beauty is beside its point

Call On Me - Bobby Bland [a Rescued Record]

the beach blanket bingo moment
the singer is top notch

Who's Making Love - Johnnie Taylor [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

a dance to shake some sense into you

Panic in Detroit - David Bowie [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo &  The Beat]

the triumph of production value

Blue Skies - Willie Nelson [from Stardust]

blue skies
for blues guys

Let the Passers By - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 8, 1983]

on target:
guitar (Dan)
and sandblock (me)
and Jill
being brilliant

Need - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

power steps
for simple words
bang on the head 

Banned Rehearsal 333 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey,  Aaron Keyt [June 25, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 333 930625

let's all tune to the Funmaker
and be unfair to our elders 

the Greek word for sound
was lying on the floor
with the twinkle star 

playing with the snare
to make the toddler laugh with amusement 

a flimsy and cheap imitation
of what's supposed to be a veil 

three quarters of us
have gone to diaper town
Aaron is left
to fend for his self 

Sog of the Bood

December 12, 2024

To Zion (feat. Carlos Santana) - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]

gospel testimony
within a reimagined hymn
(one of my favorites too!)

Sounds of the Brush: Improvisation 6 - Gust Burns, Adam Diller, Keith Eisenbrey, Mike Marlin, DL Scott, Adam Weiss [recorded live at Chamber Theater, 4th Floor, Odd Fellows Hall, Seattle]

socially
we wish to participate in the music
that is amenable to our personalities 

the success of that music
as an influence within society
is irrelevant
to our desire
to participate in it

dunes - Dorota Czerner [from Open Space 24]

cyclic word ripples
moving through us
moving through

Attitude - Doug Palmer - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded November 4, 2014]

distracted

A Question, A Rose - Benjamin Boretz - Pauline Kim Harris [recorded from a streamed  concert December 4, 2024]

the public space
just organized itself
to attend
to this intimate moment
collective
total
engagement
the grip of musical attention

Banned Telepath 98 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 13, 2023]

hoots from Hoonah
ahre ahluded tooah 

fascinated with revolutions
of elliptical arithmetics
(genuine fascination:
arising from within the musical activity itself) 

there are musicians
who face the public
and there are musicians
who remain private 

must be me on piano
working on the problems I was having
with my work in Subvector Colloquy 

specifically:
the most congenial way for my playing
to participate
in that environment 

we gather in small groups
to share what we are working on
how Methodist is that? 

my ear is concerned with the notes I'm playing
even when
it doesn't matter
(how they don't matter
matters)
(they must not matter
in a particular way)
(their manner of mattering
or not
matters) 

can music withdraw into its own thoughts?
the various bells and gongs
arranged around the Kingsbury
are necessary acolytes to it

Benvenuto Cellini, Act I, Scene 2 - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

the person of this
is uncomforably close 

in Wagner
the whole of the drama
is present to any moment
in this
any moment
is all the drama it could be 

(a musician's composer)

Preludes, Book 2 #5: "Bruyer" - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

brushstrokes

Everybody's Crazy About the Doggone Blues But I'm Happy - Wilbur Sweatman [from That Devilin' Tune]

this song
is a three-ring circus clown car parade

Mr. Crow and Mrs. Wren Go For a  Walk - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

frivolous but sharp

Die Dreigroschenopr (beginning) - Kurt Weill - Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg

the ungrand opera

this music holds us
and itself
in utter contempt 

the gig pays
in meta-coin 

(you'll never get the irony out of the carpet) 

more than halfway to Partch 

(8mm
3-penny
musical) 

proverbs and commentary

Western Cowboy Huddle - Leadbelly [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

each verse ends
in a multisyllabic nonsense cadence
each verse
has four lines
and three parts
accelerating
to the aforementioned cadence 

(cattle calling)

Passionette - Willie The Lion Smith [from That Devilin' Tune]

fractured measure
(after-balance)(?)
balancing measure
free within the time grid

Study No. 11 (mid 1930's) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

composes like a painter

We Will Know - Roy Lanham and his Gospel Quartet [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

music shapes itself to its stage
(radio being the stage)

Invocation and Dance - Paul Creston - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

like a film of an historic ballet score
not quite the real thing 

keeping the fires of early modernism alive
for film fans everywhere 

a touch of Igor
a dash of Maurice
cleansed of offense
all your favorite bits
from the old icons
(back when Le Sacre
was unfashionably weird) 

wants visuals to complete it 

for when there isn't time
for real Spring

In Session at The Tintinabulary

December 8, 2024

Barby - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 75 Barby 241208 [241208]

December 9, 2024

Detritus 3 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 03 Detritus 3 241209 [241210]

Gradus 406 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

polypticules tickle 

it has become traditional
to leave long gaps of doing nothing
great heaps
of undigested Cagean silence
for ceremony's sake 

acquisition
and use
of assets
tokens
for combination

Postscripts

Drops

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

Playlist

Preface

"'Twas not so hard a task. I thought to find one stubborn, at the least; but my one cogged circle fits into all their various wheels, and they revolve. Or, if you will, like so many ant-hills of powder, they all stand before me; and I their match. Oh, hard! that to fire others, the match itself must needs be wasting! What I've dared, I've willed; and what I've willed, I'll do! They think me mad - Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and - Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and fulfiller one. That's more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and Blinded Bendigoes! I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies,  - Take some one of your own size; don't pommel me! No, ye've knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have no long gun to reach ye. Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"

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

Texts

Streaming

December 4, 2024

Music by Ben Boretz & Frank Brickle at Greenwich House Music School

City of Orgies (2016) - Frank Brickle - Bowers Fader Duo

Piazza piece (2016) - Frank Brickle - Bowers Fader Duo

A Question, a Rose (2018) - Ben Boretz - Pauline Kim Harris

Genius Loci (2008) - Frank Brickle - William Anderson

Denk Es O Seele (2006) - Frank Brickle - Jessica Bowers, William Anderson, Oren Fader

Catullus 101 (to Milton Babbitt) - Frank Brickle - Jessica Bowers, William Anderson, - Oren Fader

Danci - Milton Babbitt - Daniel Conant

O (2000) - Ben Boretz; Arr. Mary Roberts, 2003 - Kyle Miller

Partita for Piano (1955) - Ben Boretz - Steven Beck

Pages From a Plague Diary - Frank Brickle - Beth Levin

for Ben (2015) - Frank Brickle - Beth Levin

...the sun poured molten glass on the fields... (2014) - Ben Boretz - Andrew Zhou

Tri-harmonic - Pascual Araujo - Pascual Araujo

in media res (2009) - Frank Brickle - Joan Forsyth, Steven Beck

Invention (1985) - Benjamin Boretz - Joan Forsyth, Steven Beck

2 Musics for Lukas Foss (1958) - Benjamin Boretz - Joan Forsyth, Steven Beck

Midnight Round (2010) - Frank Brickle - John Chang, Pascual Araujo, Aiden Lyons, William Anders

This was a wonderful concert, streamed from New York. I look forward to listening to it more carefully later, as I was somewhat distracted at the time by dinner preparations.

Recorded

November 30, 2024

Drift Away - Dobie Gray [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

give me the beat
so I can drift away 

no prescription necessary

The Family - Nina Simone [from Baltimore]

carefully constructed strophes
around the word 'took'

Earth Song - Future Forefathers [from Bard Sampler 82 & 83]

jam in quiet jars
under the house
progless prog vibe

Assembly Rechoired 41 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Bill Meyer, Wally Shoup [January 29, 1988]

Keith Eisenbrey · Assembly Rechoired 41 880129

Wally was over for a session
when Karen's dad came by to visit
the room becomes flooded with consciousness
from below
meniscus on the surface tension of collective consciousness
whatever other qualities this music has
the engagement of its sessioners is total
are chords comfortable to sit upon?
exploiting the weak points of metaphor
to open the mind
just past the limits of metaphorical relevance
is a slippery realm
maybe that is what I meant to say
and not just a game with words
what a privilege it was
to have Wally among us for so many years

December 1, 2024

Hope Chest - Rustbucket [a Rescued Record]

studies how to sing with a constant sneer
(kin to Lawrence Welk's required* grin)
*for all employees

Banned Rehearsal 490 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 11, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 490 980411

a session is not begun
rather
it enters through us
sometimes
it honks its clown car horn
the collective sensibility
is not as binding
now and then
a bare patch
or an articulation in the time flow
a sessions' collective sensibility
has terrain
sitting on the snare drum
watching soaring birds in the evening sky
these tones
face the corners
low tones
having a low howl
reading can be had in the reading room
we get quite enthusiastic about something
the guitar eats noisily
bell rings the time

Deconstructing Steve - Tom Baker [from Sounding The Curve]

pitch sets
in layered figures
articulated into groups of such
how like guitar figures
are these figures
(layered, of pitch sets)
made with guitar figures

December 2, 2024

Gradus 132 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 21, 2008]

shall we play A?
with pauses?
we call these sounds As
but are they?
careful on the ladder
the rungs pause
a study in perspective

{journal entry of January 21, 2008:

we gently:
sustained
- and then
tiny <boop boop>
Long Stillness
double attack:
the boop boop
transformed by pedal
I think he started with A 4 6 7
by mistake
bigness on A
time to switch
Long Stillness
to A 4 A 5 A 7
(heading back down the hill)
invert:
from playing the octave
A 6 A 7 and A 4
as separate
to playing the octave A 4 A 5 and A7
as separate
tea goes 

like climbing stairs
yes
but a staircase
in which
each successive step
consists
of a duplicate
of all the steps
you have already taken
from the beginning}

Lookin' For A Kick - The Blue Ribbon Boys

head banging time
hey hey hey
more than enough times over

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

I worry that poem
it's more like regular music
than you realize

two long platforms over shallow water - Leanna Keith [from 3 Vignettes]

we breathe with the image

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXV. Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

does the quality of ones thinking
depend
on the quality of its rhetoric?
hemiolic dance

Canzonetta in C Major, BuxWV 167 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

perhaps in well-recorded organ music
I don't mind the headphone experience
because organ sound
is never from a particular location in space
but from space at large

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

no attempt is made outside its bounds
its place is a known place
it knows it

Invention in G major, BWV 781 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

harpsichord is really such a crass instrument for this piece

Sonata in E-flat Major, Kk. 252 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

led firmly astray
in explainable steps
an algorithm to absurdity
a delightful music
made from the bars of a cage
one is left quite dizzy

Symphony in G Major, Wq. 182/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock

a tellingly understated touch
misdirection upon misdirection
Carl cracked the code

December 3, 2024

Sonata in C Major, K. 330 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Peter Katin

trill and finish
as two separate ornaments 

a light touch on both the keys and the rubato 

does music rely on the social value attached to it
from any source
to be music?

String Quartet in A Major, Op. 55 #1 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet

this music invites us inside of it
to listen
from the players' ears
we are four at once
music
as an activity
in which to engage
rather than
a means of expression

Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" - Ludwig van Beethoven - HJ Lim

if notes are tools of expression
they must
perforce
imbue that expression
with their own qualities
notes
enforce their own contingencies
into the musical expression
becoming part of it
we recognize
parts of melodies
we have never encountered
a reminiscence
of a tune
from later
perhaps

Kriegers Anhung - Franz Schubert - Dieterich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

these chords are personal
to portray an expression
is to expose it
not a word must leave this room

Nocturne in F-sharp Major, Op. 15 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau

deep inside this cheap salon frippery
an original ear-thinker
hints
at their handiwork
in broad daylight

Novelleten: #1 in F Major, Op. 21 #1 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

come on lad
be a hero
sign right here
where it says hero 

fond thoughts of home 

but off to be a hero
here I go 

but this countryside
like home appears

off to war
back to the daily grind 

cognitive dissonance
as a music

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

all allowable moves
are always allowable
forbearance is rewarded
trickery not discouraged
fugue subject
has two figurationally differentiated parts
some leaps and some stepwork
the leaps work the steps
the steps the leaps
(it's all very Bachic)

Der Tambour - Hugo Wolf - Dieterich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

shakes it right in your face
the voice of experience

Mazurka in F-sharp Major, Op. 40 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

under some circumstances
cheap salon frippery
is as good a place to hide experimentation
as anywhere else
the finish seems abrupt

Preludes Book 2: #4 Les Fees Sont D'Exquises Danseuses - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

this music
is for the pianist
(not me)
(alas)

Turkey in the Straw - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

music imitated
by a contraption
with 88 keys

Cancao do poeta do seculo XVIII - Heitor Villa-Lobos - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

for singing in an elegant gown

Prelude #1 - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

the moment we begin to question tonality
is when we write preludes

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

music for private pianist
and their amusement

Polyphonica for Small Orchestra - Henry Cowell - Continuum, Joel Sachs

of discrete parts
strictly comparable
in a neat hand
the clunkiness
is kind of charming

Study No. 11 (abandoned) (mid 1930's) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

idea scrap

Out of the Blue - Hadda Brooks [from That Devilin' Tune]

advice for the love lorn
with some sweet guitar plucking

Crying In The Chapel - Orioles [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

a song has become a record
a singing
as a duplicable commodity 

nice singin' gents

The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's SADA: Dancing Through The Decades]

blame the hormones

Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

the song never strays from its original wrapper

Pairs - Christian Wolf - Seattle Percussion Collective

music from inside music's works
splurty little poems

Ol' Helen - Red Steagall [a Rescued Record]

escaping home life
then escaping escape

Teenage Lobotomy - Ramones [from It's Alive]

sophomoric charisma

My Kar Kat - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

re-entry from the glow

Chain That Door - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

face into the loudspeaker
for maximal benefits

December 4, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 332 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [June 18, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 332 930618

my being here
is amplified
and repeated
we shake foil
and rub it
till it rattles
and rings
and scrapes 

whatever is done
is done in dialog 

some places are scribbled out 

no confidence
just as well

scribbling is its own music 

twinkle twinkle little star
how I wonder what you are 

a great deal of moving-around sounds
now the drum tattoos
gavel to order

any set of recorded traces
is a journal
if and only if
order matters 

we tune ourselves to each other
a work in progress 

playing with cheap pitch bend propogation
making proper funmaker fun
giving it a real work out

{journal entry of March 8, 1998:

the amp arrives}

Shenandoah - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]

street market pop:
pretty instruments playing in tune
with no swing 

renfair ready 

background for your wedding pictures

Sounds of the Brush Improvisation #5 - Gust Burns, Adam Diller, Keith Eisenbrey, Mike Marlin, DL Scott, Adam Weiss

a loose confederation of ecstatic sectarians
egg each other on 

(mostly harmless)

3 Translation of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti: No. 2, Counting People - Alvin Lucier - Alter Ego

dutiful reformations
absent commentary
whatever pitch it is
we care
that it is the pitch it is

Attitude - Doug Palmer - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 26, 2013]

I play this rather well I think
that's a lot of music in less than four minutes

Bofur ni tsukamatte - Yuji Takahashi [from Open Space 43]

voice and serpent
regard us aesthetically
we are the third

Banned Telepath 98 Hoonah Morning - Jennifer Chung, Aaron Keyt [March 12, 2023]

rhythm of wind buffeting
a hand pipe greets us
some sort of low pipe
is blown
hoot pipes in the Hoonah dawn

Benvenuto Cellini: Act I, Scene I - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

a world of wonders opens to us
action and pageantry
suddenly the stage is all aflutter with doings

December 5, 2024

Pampamapa - Carlos Guastavino - Teresa Berganza, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

if art-song is a mode of reciting poetry
does the use of national-pride seriousness
preclude the irony that might otherwise come to the surface?

The Jazz Band Ball - Original Dixieland Jazz Band [from That Devilin' Tune]

youthful energy on the loose

Apanhe-te Cavaquinho - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

sticks close to home
finds its figuration
does not let go

Petits Cours de morale - Arthur Honneger - Frederica von Stade, Martin Katz

of course
French just oozes with irony
especially when sincerity is on the line

Firebird - Spike Hughes [from That Devilin' Tune]

to be danced to
every figure
is a bodily movement
the motions
evoke
a bodily form
that dances

Mathis Der Maler (Opera): "Alte Märchen Woben Uns Fromme Bilder" - "Es Sungen Drei Engel Ein Süßen Gesang" - Paul Hindemith -Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Leopold Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Pilar Lorengar

statements slide off the stack
propped up
by busy stage hand elves
score cards in constant change

Let's Dream In The Moonlight - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

instrumental variations precede the vocal
provide a context
within a social scene

Fifth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 24, 2024]

I'm quite pleased with this performance
every tempo and weight is considered and projected 

nailed it

Death In The Morning - Rev. Anderson Johnson [from Goodbye Babylon]

fear is a path to ecstatic testimony

I Wonder Why - Dion and the Belmonts [colected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

as is lust
the ecstatic
is a fluid state
colored by
but not consisting of
the psychic content
of its entry path

Detroit City - Bobby Bane [colected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

cotton fields are the opposite of Detroit City
the glamor has faded from urban living

Daddy Rollin' In Your Arms - Dion

lines aimed to the end point

Ylem (Erste London vers.) - Karlheinz Stockhausen - London Sinfonietta

splat and disperse
big bang theory
(top down)
of musical communication 

we are a happening here
but engineered like German Automobiles
(over-complicated, require frequent service)

the flash of genius
the obeisance of the minions 

(what would hap
should the minions organize?)
((black cat:
Warble-y))
we'll lock them each in their own custom carapace 

happenings by happenstance
to have a happening
one must happen upon it
by happenstance 

what style of stance
is happenstance? 

has wisdom been distributed?
are we fed?
or are we dissipated?
(like fog)
I couldabeena miasma! 

ecstatic reabsorption into the weary gonads of Coyote
b'bye! 

happening now elsewhere
by elsewhere's happenstance

I'd like to see it lap the miles - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt

literary criticism in song
(an analysis)

Let's Say Goodnight - Los Lobos [from And A Time To Dance]

so
still at the dance
and still dancing
but planning the getaway
in the dance
as the dance

Playalong 4 "by candlelight" - Aaron Keyt [February 1, 1988]

a mouth sized cavern wind
inflated by means of a simulated nearness to the ear:
compromised
ersatzified
abstracted
distanced
alienated
unwelcomed
imprisoned
put off 

why the wind blows
none ever know 

it is wind
because it blows
it blows
because it is wind
blowing
is what wind is
wind
is what blowing is

unvoiced
just the shapes wherein voice could be
Karen and I did play along with these four playalongs that Aaron had made
they could
as a banned project
be considered
as a variant
of the telepath concept
except that
there would be added the idea
that one of the telepaths not only precede the other
but
that a playback of the first
during the second (telepath)
would be part of that second
but
without the notion
of then mixing the two telepaths together
(but:
why not?:
I could do that now in a few minutes:
what would I call them?
a Banned Playalong Playalong played along?
(heavy sigh)
Banned Playedalong Combo package)

there are also some metallic bumps and rubbings
which have now utterly supplanted the wind
but no!
the wind blows back!
a reference to the past
perhaps we're being played along?

In Session at The Tintinabulary

December 1, 2024

Rochester - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 74 Rochester 241201 [241201]

December 2, 2024

Banned Rehearsal 1114 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Postscripts

Drops

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