"This new edition of Lord Jim will be succeeded, we suppose, by the rest of Mr Conrad's works - those that are already published, and the many, as we hope, that are still to come. But will they all appear in the binding which disfigured The Shadow Line and now afflicts us once more in Lord Jim? Will they all be of a sad green colour, and sprinkled with chocolate-brown nautical emblems such as might be stamped upon club note-paper, or upon some florid philanthropic pamphlet drawing attention to the claims of sea-captains' widows? As a general rule we submit to the will of publishers in silence, but it is time to cry out when they ask us to disfigure our shelves upon so large a scale as this. It is not a question of luxury, but of necessity: we have to buy Mr Conrad; all our friends have to buy Mr Conrad; and that Mr Conrad of all people should be robbed even of a shred of that dignity and beauty which he more than any living writer is able to create seems quite distressingly inappropriate."
Virginia Woolf, from "Lord Jim [Lord Jim. A Tale (J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1917) by Joseph Conrad.]"
Texts
Live
Totems and Reflections Part 1
Mark Hilliard Wilson at The Chapel
Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Reflections on a Glacier - Tom Baker
Totems - Pascal Sasseville Quoquochi
? - Diomedes Cato
? - Graeme Koehne
? - Josquin de Pres
The names of the pieces
were projected upon a screen
but my eyes
couldn't make them out
I believe there was one called "Eagle"
and
another called "Owl"
body of guitar
is held close
whisper close
the body's voice
sings
from an embrace
the tenderness
of the situation
is present
in the music
that reaches us
therefrom
trace
a careful line
Recorded
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
to the extent
that the lyrics are opaque
as to their application
or reference
the whole
is designed
to attract some
to within the veil
and to repel others
out
from the
circle
Something So Right - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]
an epistolary poem
mixtape ready
There Came a Wind Like a Bugle - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt
the music of the sung line
describes the music of the piano part
which stands in for the lexical referent
of the sung words
Rely - Contempo & Treehouse [from Bard Sampler 82 & 83]
it lies there
with undeniable features
but is clearly half-assed
in intent
Retrato de Euchababilla en la Noche - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey
I have two files on the hard drive of this piece
one was ripped from the
original cassette tape
and this one was ripped
from a copy of that
tape
that I had made a bunch of
to give away
this rip
is notably muddier
and the original
is far from
pristine
the sequence of pitches
the piano plays
was composed in 1986
in Port Macquarie, NSW
I used it later
as an experiment
in composing
with both mod-12 derived pitch sets
and mod-17
derived pitch sets
{my Toccata of 2002}
this version
is a good example
for me
of the mistake
of trying to accomplish an aesthetic end
by processing the signal
rather than
composing the signal
more effectively
to
begin with
it has its charms
but there's an undercurrent of fraud about it
Group Variations II for computer - Benjamin Boretz (remastered by Paul Lansky) [from Open Space 5]
a sea of pulses
and their numbers
and their angles to each other
and their rates of flows
across their terrain
January 13, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 495 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 23, 1998]
collective slow breathing
a janglesome thump
and it stretches
and begins its quiet morning living
melody is shared among the winds
news of the day
brought to you on banjo
we engage in our chores
for the good of the order
feedback is aroused
{journal entry of April 17, 2006:
must have had the talk about transparence
and for all of that
the
transparence is remarkable
even the sax playing is pretty good here
after Anna song
poke piano notes
play game
with
presence/layers above
then
within
the banjo
it
cumulates
with playbacks
and feedbacks}
Ericulation - Steve Kennedy [from State's Exhibit]
dense manufacturing sounds
we are hearing things
being done to
things
Banned Rehearsal 733 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 18, 2008]
tip tap
ring a bell
biding time
the Wurlitzer
inhabits
its uppermost tones
electric guitar
and zithers
are rung
and scraped
by various objects
the time was well bided
that led to this activity
of aural
interest
Tempest Tossed - Dawn Clement [from Tempest/Cobalt]
fancy pitch work
without being all pretentious about it
Preludes 17 - 20 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]
the key is never lost sight of
The Gold Tape - Pete Comley [from Paintronics Volume 7]
that is some magnificent crud Pete!
it gouges its time
slow lathe
in the grooves of this record
stylus's eye view
Madrigals, Book IV: Anima mia, perdona: No. 2, Che se tu se ’l cor mio - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rossana Bertini, Claudio Cavina, Giuseppe Maletto, Marcello Vargetto, Cristina Miatello
song
as stylized poetry
Geistliche Chor-Music, SWV 369-397: No. 5, Gieb unsern Fürsten, SWV 373 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
the Word
as a theatrically presented music
right there in church
solid and firm
in plain words
an assurance of authority
Was Mir Behagt, Ist Nur Die Muntre Lagd, BWV 208 - Johann Sebastian Bach - The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Ton Koopman
an image
of the secular world
mirrored back
a theatrical
presentation
of stylized dramatic poetry
as a musical
entertainment
a plot that makes sense
just distracts from the musical
entertainment
the voices are dancing with their fellows
in figured motions
to
amuse
those that could afford such extravagances
a wedding*
perhaps
seems more likely
as we move along
orchestrated
so that
instrument groups
stand for the figures
of the music
as they create it
among themselves
like Busby
Berkeley
{*nope: birthday for the Duke-y}
music presented
as a contraption
Sinfonia in D Major, Op. 18 #3 "Overture to Endimone"- Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hans Gmür
music
appropriate to an occasion of propriety
appropriate to
but not contingent upon that occasion
any will do
in certain figures
such as an appoggiatura
the two tones
are linked
as a single item
(with accoutrement)
in certain other figures
such as that
between the boundary
tones
of two appoggiaturas
the two tones
are de-linked
they are not an item
and yet
structurally
a pair
a different sort of interval
paired
across
an
articulation
Symphony in B minor, Wq. 182/5 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock
discontented
harrumphs about the house
barking orders
is it
with the overtly dramatic thrust
of Mozart
that we
begin to feel
a certain impatience
with those first-movement
repeats?
where the parts of the exposition
don't tell a story
it is easier
to understand them
as places to be
rather than as a melody
to sing
in its proper narrative sequence
within a
transpiration of events
contrast to
chairs in a room
it discomforts
to relive an event
but not
to sit
in
the same chair
cadence within the prevailing figuration scheme
as neat as a little
courtesy bow
String Quartet in G Major, Op. 54 #1 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
Haydn's exposition parts
are definitely furnishings
this movement might be a window
through which we stare vacantly
some rooms and times are sunnier
Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner, Charlotte Margione, Catherine Robbin, William Kendall, Alastair Miles
this dub seems faded
as though heard through a scrim
the dynamic
contrast
is flattened
turning it up helps some
Gloria's ending:
a cadence
within the prevailing figuration scheme
(and born of it)
(no longer such a neat little courtesy bow)
Abschied, D. 957 #7 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
on a fine day
a brave face
Impromptus sur en théme de Clara Wieck, Op. 5 - Robert Schumann, Eric La Sage
the image
of an improvising imagination
its written-down-ness
obscures the probability
that they were nearly
if not
completely
transcriptions of improvisations
they certainly want to
seem that way
a cultural obsession
with direct expression
intimate access
to the creative impulse
what are
the (our) cultural signifiers
of such direct access?
a patterned floor
of hollow spaces
upon which
the best that
can be done
as sorry as it is
under the circumstances
is
done
Abschied - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim
neither such a fine day
nor so brave a face
Allegro Appassionata - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
the figurations
thrust and glide
through their tempo
as
through a medium
a water ballet
Preludes Book II: No.6, General Lavine - eccentric - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking
one
who does
not
as others
do
does
as
others
do
not
desperately pulling flowers
from sleeves
ears
and
pants
one trick pony
Coração Que Sente - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Batke
what music
is enjoyable
by the player
just for themselves?
or to share
among friends
parlour music
Die Driegroschenopr, end - Kurt Weill - Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg
demotic signifier
locution
syllable by syllable
each
syllable
is
its final phoneme
ornamented
by its
preceding phonemes
signboard musics
a theater of types
song
has it out
with speech
Weimarian Waltz tempo/mode
reading the entrails of a decaying world
(anthem patriotique)
Symphony in Riffs - Benny Carter [from That Devilin' Tune]
a showcase
for the players in the band
(throw money)
Sewing On The Mountain - C*** Creek Girls [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
moral propaganda
sewing and reaping
Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 3 - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]
there is a threshold
between the realms
of recordings of
historical interest
and the science of sound recovery
(noise
removal)
and
the crudsome filters of the noise artists
(a short jump to psychedelia too)
plush
embracing
pure from the heart
I Heard About You - Charlene Arthur [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
I guess it's not her first rodeo
Istn't It a Pity - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan sings George Gerswhin]
a song
as a single utterance of sentiment
drawn out
over
multiple stanzas
White Christmas - Darlene Love [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]
strange
how a music
can feel appropriate
to a time of year
music's seasonal aisle
never been such a day
in old LA
timely
in a horribly sad way
Aufwärts - Karlheinz Stockhausen
I trust
that few would sit down
to whatever these instruments are
in their homes
to play their parts in this
for their own
enjoyment
or
to share with friends
it is
not to be enjoyed
but appreciated
worshiped
music
to impress
not express
after all
we are
hard-nosed intellectuals here
performative seriousness
the isolation
of each player
becomes almost poignant
I wonder
if this is one of those improv sessions
he attached his
name to
small sounds amplified
amid big sounds left alone
In Session at The Tintinabulary
January 12, 2025
Howard - Keith Eisenbrey
January 13, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1117 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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