"November [1837] - St. Cecelia'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
Live
March 1, 2025
Invention
Harmonia Chorus, William White
First Free Methodist
Church, Seattle
Pseudo-Yoik - Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
"Quando son più lontan" from
Madrigali - Morten Lauridsen
Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine
- Eric Whitacre
The Lesson - Marques L.A. Garrett
O Holy Lord
- R. Nathaniel Dett / Ed. Marques L.A. Garrett
A Prayer - Ken
Burton
"Stone" from The Earthmakers - Carol Sams
Nizina
- Aaron Keyt
At harbor, waiting for wind - Sheila Bristow
"Confiteor" from Mass in B minor, BWV 232
- Johann Sebastian Bach
It was with great anticipation and pleasure that Karen and I wandered out to North Queen Ann to hear Aaron Keyt's new work for choir and two cellos, ably performed by Harmonia Chorus. As I have come to expect, the poetry of his composing voice sneaks in under the radar of a deceptively disarming surface. I wasn't taking notes that evening, but the entire concert was a lovely thing to be at.
An evening of music from Mark with a lot of help from his friends
Seattle
Guitar Orchestra, Leanna Keith, Bhavani Kotha, Kate MacKenzie, Peter
Nelson-King, Beverly Setzer, Teresa Tam, Mark Hilliard Wilson
Chapel
Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Wind Quartet - Mark Hilliard Wilson
To the Griot - Mark
Hilliard Wilson
First Toccata for Kapsberger - Mark Hilliard
Wilson
First Day of School - Mark Hilliard Wilson
Now 4:01
- Mark Hilliard Wilson
A Minor Milonga - Mark Hilliard Wilson
Poison Garden
- Mark Hilliard Wilson
Moon represents my heart - [a Thai pop
song?]
In Honor of Her Success 4:52 - Mark Hilliard Wilson
Tombeau de Bogiagis
- Mark Hilliard Wilson
Canon Beach and Rise and Shine - Mark
Hilliard Wilson
Three Bagatelles - Mark Hilliard Wilson
Yo Soy Teresa
- ?
{NB: not played in the above order, and I didn't try to keep track}
start with an additive passacaglia
for nine guitars
and some
canons
guitar orchestra
as a means of amplification
what would a
clavichord orchestra sound like?
does the sound board's expanded area
(as perceived)
proceed arithmetically
or is the math more
interesting?
nine guitarists
nine ways of being intent
a wind quintet
some solo pieces
a donkey a bullfrog and a dog
a whole story
trumpet and guitar
then electric guitar
bassoon and tuba
to roar a solid roar
then a song
the winds
and Mark
in a bright red jumpsuit
Recorded
Madrigals, Book IV: Voi pur da me partite, anima dura - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
a vowel sound includes its harmony
and its vector potentialities
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, SWV 380 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana
the system I have developed
and followed
for choosing what comes
up
in my listening
results
in a spot check sample
that
situates that music-item
within the sequence of history
start with
early
go till the recent
then back around
to the start
clearly
this must color each item
as well as provide it
with a particular
kind
of context
Ich dank dir, lieber Herr, BuxWV 194 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
which allows a method
of hearing the change of stylistic fashion
but also allows insight
into shifts in tonal thinking
Premier livre de clavecin: Triosieme Ordre (ut) : Les Matelotes Provencales. Gayement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert
elegant frivolity
ruffles and needlework
Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman
tonalities are related to each other actively
the lines of which they
are made
may seem to ascend and descend
but the tonalities
themselves
aren't related in the up down metaphor
they arrange
themselves around their common tones
Sonata in E Major, Kk. 264 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
accumulations of balance
and of abrupt articulations
String Quartet in D minor, K. 421 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - The Alban Berg Quartet
phrase balance
more by downbeat count
than by absolute
length
pay mind
to the moments between phrases
and figures
and
to sequences of figures
entupling up the sizes
of parts of
balance
less overtly operatic
than is usually the case with Mozart
more of a danciness to it
phrases are constructed of clearly audible figures
each phrase a fresh
trajectory and portioning
long held pedal
once it moves
its line goes steadily
String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 71 #3 - Franz Joseph Haydn - The London Haydn Quartet
last moment nips and tucks being made
napkins folded just so
straight edged place settings
dramatic centerpieces
sequences are a device of tonal transformation
Die Taubenpost - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore
aloft by pigeon mail
(text only
no packages)
swan songs
end up with the pigeons
true communion at a distance?
possible?
not?
6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10, #5 in B minor - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
massless as fae
do we inhabit
our synapses?
Prelude in A Major, Op. 24 #7 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
possibly the first Chopin I learned
back in the day
a tenderly
drawn key
Slavonic Dance in A-flat Major, Op. 46 #3 - Antonín Dvořák - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Farrer
where
within the balance
the thumb
is applied
the art
of written out phraseological rubato
riffs on a music box
cyclicity
breaking free
Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 42 #5 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
a study in a method of singing
between the hands
Preludes Book II: No.8, Ondine - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking
touches us
like spray from a mountain falls
Faciera - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcel Bratke
parlour waltz
for two
Wagoner's Lad - Buell Kazee [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
early cross gender voicing
The Moon Looks Down and Laughs - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]
makes gold
out of cornball lyrics
Study No. 2 (beg.) (1938) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]
the heap collapses
Fugue for Percussion - Lou Harrison - Daniel Kennedy, David Rosenthal, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Stephen Mosko, Todd Manley, William Winant
the ringing kind
bells of various shapes
now some wood too
and shakers
Passion Flower - Duke Ellington [from Piano Reflections]
is swing a style of rhythm
or a flavor of common groove?
Invisible - Ornette Coleman [from Something Else!!!!]
or
a particular medium of telepathy?
a sensibility of togetherness
from within
Brandy Wine Blues - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross-Country Concert]
pop folk
all scrubbed
clean and white
Those Were The Good Old Days - Gene Chandler [a Rescued Record]
Vegas production
Too High - Stevie Wonder [from Innervisions]
some music fascinates
as it goes dancing by
Factory - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]
day in day out
we emerge in dialog
memory:
I remember that I participated in a
bunch of these
at the time
but I recall of them
only a few
embarrassing moments
(lapses of my musicality)
and
that I
was there
Sarah was her own different drummer
to which Dan and I
circle
in our pitch world
recitative accompaniment:
a playacted dialog
with the recitativer
a fit theme for improvisation
I'm noisy and inconsiderate
but
am trying to work something out
pianistically
(I had been playing piano for dance classes the year
before
(not pleasant)
so there may have been some frustration
being released)
winding down music box
weariness
some chords
are to say
I'm here
I'm listening
sound without mass
A Three Year Old Could Do That - U-Men
smart punk
art punk
J Awakes - Keith Eisenbrey [September 4, 1993]
at two plus years
babbling in his crib
with system hum
and
something coming through
from the radiosphere practicing
the saying of Amnehitabel
and other nonsense
what's the
matter kitty?
what's the matter?
what's the maddür
making
polysyllables
blanky and bunbun
happy kitty
what's the
kitty's name?
spontaneous language spout
in all the pitch registers he can reach
vowel control
jumping on bed
bounce bounce bounce
Louie, Louie - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]
lazy luck
Work / Architecture / Unity / And / The (final edit) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, April 29, 2003]
regardless of my feelings about this
in terms of success
at my
original idea for it
it remains what it is
so
what is it?
a collection of widely spaced sounds
piano as percussion
caged sounds
exquisitely recorded
in dialog
with
modernism
(or post):
the neo-classical impulse
of
modernism's gaze
fixed
upon a post-modern sensibility?
does
it go on a bit long?
possibly?
why is that an issue?
Animals - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
we are moving imperceptibly slow
guitar strummy
hook based
tightly circular lines
a narrow aperture of tonal allowance
A Natural
Enforcer
(how
rude)
Nearly A
is fine
(if loud enough)
it's the
thought
(that
counts)
the As don't always play nicely together
they can get snippy and sulky
A Tale In Thirds - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
in the person of a narrator who voices all the characters
Sinfonia 1 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded April 8, 2023]
on clavichord
begin
in my most disarming neo-classical manner
Agggravatin' Papa - Sophie Tucker [from Really The Blues]
rhyme as quickly as possible
in the set up
gives the payoff
room to spread out
Midnight Mama - Jelly Roll Morton, Frances Hereford [from Really The Blues]
in the tempo
of a character
in a stage act
this song
is a complement
to the last
(and she
sings
"Midnight Papa")
Jonah, Come Out The Wilderness - Roaring Lion with Cyril Monrose String Orchestra [from Goodbye, Babylon]
sure are a bunch of winds in that string orchestra
Chaconne for Piano, Op. 29 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle]
a few clunkers
but I hold it together pretty well for the most part
The Green Automobile - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul, Jelly Roll]
the greater driver
eastward to the tomb town
cashed a great check in my skull bank
an epistle
we
will be real heroes now
More Than You Know - Morgana King [from Sings The Blues]
give you the brain you need !!
celeste!
Come Back And See - Chris Kenner [from Land of 1000 Dances]
a blues
such as
you done
to me
(Sittin' On) The Dock of The Bay - Otis Redding [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
I suppose the sound effects
were a nod to the psychedelicals
Gimme Danger - The Stooges [from Raw Power]
sounds like a cowbell back there
keeping the beat
for factory
efficiency
Rich Girl - Nina Simone [from Baltimore]
social confrontational
I'm Stepping Out - John Lennon [from Milk and Honey]
still in workshop
Assorted Fancy - Keith Eisenbrey [February 25, 1988]
playing with tape speed:
my question was
how
the long-term
rhythms
and tonalities
sounded
sped up
and the only
way to do that
with tools found around the house
was using tape
speed
(record at slow speed
play back at high speed
rinse
and repeat)
of my Sonata in 2 Movements (1988)
I made
several iterations
(wouldn't you?)
and it gets pretty silly by the
end
also
a certain Xenoic format:
each iteration
half the length
(more or less)
of the last
motive construction
those big chords
sound like clanging cymbals
in the end
kind of a blast
in fact
In Session at The Tintinabulary
Gradus 410 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
in which
we are introduced
to the last F-sharp
a wee little
titmouse of a note
words
are they symptoms of meaning
not its payload
nor its
carrier?
though the same finger
and the same three strings
pitch
need
not match
the old aged A
from the A cellar
9 + 12x semitones
x=6
72+9=81 semitones
keeping each note
in recent memory
a terrain
March 4, 2025
Archdale - Keith Eisenbrey
March 7, 2025
("...my chart shines high where the blue milks upset...") - Benjamin Boretz
I still need to control my tempos better, but it's coming along
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 23: 2020
16 Clavichord Improvisations (from Wayward in
Limbo)
One of the shining lights of the local music scene during the pandemic lockdown was Nonsequitur's Wayward in Limbo series: 134 commissioned recordings of new work by local musicians. I was honored to be asked for a contribution. The essential intimacy of the clavichord seemed fitting for the occasion, and I offer this series of short improvisations for your enjoyment.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
