Preface
Walla Walla, WA
"But this occasional timidity is characteristic of almost all herding creatures. Though banding together in tens of thousands, the lion-maned buffaloes of the West have fled before a solitary horseman. Witness, too, all human beings, how when herded together in the sheepfold of a theatre's pit, they will, at the slightest alarm of fire, rush helter-skelter for the outlets, crowding, trampling, jamming, and remorselessly dashing each other to death. Best, therefore, withhold any amazement at the strangely gallied whales before us, for there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men."
Herman Melville, from "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale"
Texts
Recorded
September 13, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 143 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 13, 1988]
this file is mis-labeled
{NB: the participants on the cassette are
only Karen, Aaron, and me}
that is Anna
and that other might be
Neal
and it sounds clearly like there were telepaths involved
oh
well
and unfortunately
my 50 year-old Sanyo tape deck
has
apparently
decided enough is enough
so
I can't check
the original
end of an era
there's Karen and me singing hymns
difficult to determine
but that may be Aaron on the piano back
there
 |
| Walla Walla, WA |
but not from July of 1988
this may be Banned Rehearsal 118
assembled form Telepaths 12
but
that is quite possibly incorrect
fascinating
it seems I may have named the same file twice
and neglected to correctly bring 143 into the digital age
oh well
118 and 143 share a cassette
providing an opportunity of a confusion
between them
dull billows of sound clog clarity
low mumbles
proximity to a recording microphone
has not the same effect
as it
would
on a stage microphone
where the idea is
to only pick
up what's in front of its diaphragm
{NB: confirmed - this is Banned Rehearsal 118, mislabeled}
September 14, 2025
Peter 4:3 - The Kent 3 [from Blood on the Flat Track Soundtrack]
micro fiction
first person
set at an urgent seethe
The Changing World - Sun Ra [from Monorails and Satellites]
short insistent figures
Banned Sectional 25 - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 1, 1998]
electric guitar and saxophone
repeated on a playback machine
the
regurgitated past
dealt with
as the present
not
a
memory of the past
but
an insertion
of a signal
from
the immediate past
complete with its linear trajectory
unspooled
within the present's experienced trajectory
quite different in kind
from the presence of our memory
of the immediate past
within
our present experience
of trajectory
the first case:
the presence of the past's signal
offers itself
for our transformational ministrations
the second case:
the past
is
as a whole
present
as the memory portion
of our present experience
it is
how
we got
to now
but
is not
now
{journal entry of November 12, 2006:
electric guitar and sax
altogether very consistently engaging play
and echoed by minitape playback
teeny tiny us}
Shopping Cart Awareness [from Jack Straw Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
a public service message
friends don't let friends steal shopping carts
Banned Rehearsal 744 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 8, 2008]
high reed tones on the harmonica
a low tone on the piano
and mid
scratchings on the guitar
we move about
to sample other configurations of sounds
getting some nice sounds
out of that amplified harmonica
unless
its one of our little accordions
constructing a physical bell reverb mechanism
for amplification
listening
to others
listening out loud
I play a piano solo
over the amplified scraping
and brush
drums
an amplified sound
is always
also
the sound of the amplifier
September 15, 2025
Do You Remember - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]
introductory stanza mood
then the rhythm section comes in
for the
song proper
pull back into the intro mood
for a wind-up to the
close
Banned Rehearsal 960 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 5, 2018]
 |
| Walla Walla, WA |
with no objections from those assembled
we keep low profiles
move as a herd
plenty going on
but
rarely solo
a tiny speaker
is shouting in a corner at the back
perhaps they're being tortured on a loop
a desire
to be less than as articulate as one is
that is
playing stupid
when one ain't
a report on ones activities just past
Pushy People - Steve Layton & Sound-In [from The Many Voices In Our Heads]
efficiency culture
keeping up with the assembly line
churn out at
scale
enforced coherence
Madrigals, Book VIII: Introduzione e ballo - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
repetition structure of the opening sinfonia
cleverly flirtatious
returns to articulate the stanza breaks
so perhaps a ritornello?
Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren, BuxWV 215 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
the play of meter across the two tempos
the joy of metrical modulation
Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe, BWV 167 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
the figuration does not divulge its fulcrum easily
duet in canonic
repetition
we hear the lesson
voice one
we echo in our head
the lesson
voice two
communication passage
Sonata in E minor, Kk. 291 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
stepwise motions
taken carefully
along selected segments of the
diatonic collection
intervals are the matter here
Mazurka in B minor, Op. 33 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
the muzurkal snap rhythm
used as a device
to differentiate among
the speaking roles
or
within a role
the direct and aside
speech
little scenes up close
Album für die Jugend: Schnitterliedchen, Op. 68 #18 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
sharp scissors
La Lugubre Gondola I - Franz Liszt - Arnaldo Cohen
the punt to the underworld
transformation of self
by the
transposition of the cosmos
uncanny modulation
 |
| Museum of Unnatural History, Walla Walla, WA |
the evening waxes dreamy
such pulchritude!
sudden complete passion
swept away
from off tripping toes
live
or in
slumberous dreams
Papa's About To Get Mad - Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
comic song
ready for its animated short
Sonatas and Interludes: Fourth Interlude - John Cage - Boris Berman
an interlude is a passage
from from
to to
Parsnoops - Norman Monath [from Songs of the Pogo]
record producer
comic song department
Don't You Know - Stevie Wonder [from Recorded Live The 12-Year Old Genius]
the sound of the time was bright and forward
something almost Little
Miss Sunshine about this
Very Early (live) - Bill Evans [from Another Time: the Hilverson Concert]
quieter mood for the bass's solo
between Babbitt and Evans
two
modes of what sense means
if we make it
Sail Away - Etta James [from Etta James]
twisted satire drips ironic subtext
with no obvious tell
The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy: Episode 01 - Douglas Adams - BBC
the theme music of Firefly
bears a significant similarity
to the
Guide's theme music
long episodes of narration
interrupted by dialog set-pieces
with a
few sound effects
the Reader's Digest has a page for people like you
gleaming new motorway
there goes planet earth yet again
voice acting enhanced with digital effects
Intermezzo 6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded September 2, 1983]
music resilient enough
to survive the degeneration of its medium
a challenge to the pitch matching propensity
same pitch
despite its wild internal wobbling
gloriously
hideously
wild
Stone - Cecil Taylor & Louise Moholo [from Remembrance]
music with mass and patience
Indonesia - Cyrus Fidelus Sigdjabat [from The World Sings Goodnight]
lullaby
a ritual act
of transition
to sleep state
Oaks - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]
guitar and penny whistle
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 (050517 final) - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 17, 20025]
composed
as though it were an arrangement of a folk song
 |
| your blogger at Kirkwood House, with display hat, Walla Walla, WA |
4 Minutes (feat. Justin Timberlake) - Madonna [from Hard Candy]
speed seduction
Interview (continued) - Betty Eisenbrey, Carl R. (Dick) Eisenbrey, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [November 30, 2013]
the place was packed with old people
there's that clock chime
the
mystery of the flannel shirt
the last time my cousin Clint was ever
smaller than me
documented information
58/59
Mom's first
season with Lake Washington Singers
(through 1974)
the reel to
reel suitcase
hidden under the stairs
at Teronda West
and
the mystery
of my bedside table
(a Teac reel-to-reel machine)
where it came from
Yellowstone - Keith Eisenbrey [June 11, 2018]
walking the boardwalk
in what I recall
was quite a stiff breeze
(hang onto your britches dear)
wood clanks upon the hollow earth
near Old Faithful
Duke Street - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded July 30, 2023]
finding the tonic triad
without resolving anything
Little Blue Riding Hood - Stan Freberg [from The Best of Stan Freberg]
transporting goodies without a license
strawberry shortcake
played a hunch
Right or Wrong - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]
cooks right along
for swing dancing
Just a Gigolo - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings]
with great firmness
Money - Pink Floyd [from Dark Side of the Moon]
ironic psychedelic money sounds
in your face
for showing off
guitar solo
cruisin' for bruisin'
It's A Long Way Back - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]
music as an aspirational attitude
persona projection
what one
would want to be
Criminal World - David Bowie [from Let's Dance]
here we aspire to the high end life
its brutal pleasures
 |
| Museum of Unnatural History, Walla, Walla, WA |
the ritual actions
are for the benefit of the celebrant's focus
was I accompanying by banging rocks
(or perhaps just some loose
sounds)
at that time
he was reciting it
in a book voice
the speakers
of the text
have not yet been brought forth
ringsome on the aquaface
what are
all
and each of the stories
behind
ere were sewers
the livers by the so and so
crest of hooladry
Under the Old Lightbulb - Fastbacks [from Zucker]
cartoon bubble poetry
Banned Rehearsal 513 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 7, 1998]
we are a trudge
the frustrations of the times' stresses
we are
packed into ourselves
we wail and flail
and we trudge on
retracing the heights
downward
have we modulated yet?
difficult to say
a lecture on intervals
in
an all interval tetrachord
transposition
is not modulation
interlocking webs
of the parts of diatonic collections
we have made
perhaps
a truce of sorts
back to the lecture on intervals
big old scary tremolo
we are weary
and marginally non social
long list of technical errors to avoid
Opening - Bradley Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Bradley Hawkins & Jesse Canterbury]
finding skin to touch
Banned Rehearsal 745 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 6, 2008]
the rumble of hollow plastic balls in a bucket
we amuse ourselves
in the sound world
made possible
by hollow plastic balls
Vacant - Lures [from Vacant]
retro-surf ennui
caring less
Phillipsburg 180613 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded June 13, 2018]
 |
| Museum of Unnatural History, Walla Walla, WA |
microphone in the window of our hotel room
on the second floor
no elevator
but
did have a dumbwaiter
they seemed quite fond of
the ground floor
was a gift shop
I bought a t-shirt
the town of Phillipsburg
boasts
the Montana Law Enforcement Museum
where
can be viewed
a dispatcher's microphone
a jail
made of metal
and many confiscated homemade handguns
there was also a fairly nice restaurant
several gemshops
a place
that sold fancy knives
and lots of old store fronts and back streets
occasionally paved
we stayed in the heart of the old town
where cars might come by every
few minutes
that bird
is chirping
in a varied selection of repetitions
Merlin says
it's an American Robin
they were full of chirps
that evening
somebody revs up a hog and roars off
Hidden Track - Dead Bars [from Sinkhole]
not one itself
but
about one
That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly and The Crickets [from The 'Chirping' Crickets]
a pop song must overuse the title of the song
so that
the kids
will remember to buy the 45
Nightingale - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [recorded April 16, 1963]
from among the tapes discussed
as excuse for an interview
{NB see
above and below}
Twist and Shout - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kinsgmen]
an exuberant rendition
stagy theater
Weekdays - Carole King [from Fantasy]
second thoughts
about their chores of a week
High On Rebellion - The Patti Smith Group [from Easter]
rabble rousing slam delivery
Intermezzo 5 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 25, 2010]
here's a question I never asked myself:
what exactly is this piece?
my blogpost
concerning itself
with my experience {at Bard}
as a whole
culled
from letters and journals and notes
piled in neat little stacks
the sad state of organization
among my thoughts
there must be some Banned Rehearsal or other
playing in the background
I wonder why?
jottings to myself
so that
I could recall what it was
I had been thinking
class notes
 |
| winery near Walla Walla, WA |
Primeval - Girl Trouble [for Hit It Or Quit It]
guitarist's song
with novelty lyric attached
Song of the Whale - S. Eric Scribner [from Pianosphere]
this is lovely
corollary
if environmental sound
is part of music
then
it can be composed with
(fair game?)
(to what end?)
(colonization?)
(program {depictic} music's ultimate end)(?)
Track 5 - Richard Rorex, Reid Merryman [from Mood for Richelle]
music allows for many kinks
even those for pretty guitars
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 050517B - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle, May 17, 20025]
I'm quite proud of that bass line
not fancy
but effective and
singable
death and I talked immortality - Solvents [from Manfred Castle]
our modes of musical thinking
are guided by the limits we place
on
what counts
or could count
as music
what is music doing here
with us
in our selves
 |
| Walla Walla, WA |
we scour each other's memories
Ranger
built a cabin
worked
for Lasme
building superstructures on the beach
build a raft
and then wait
for the tide to come in
ones parents' work experiences
how'd you guys meet?
(quickly:)
"at Wesley Club"
(too
quickly)?
"Dick would come and have breakfast with his girlfriend
. . . who wasn't me"
Feeler - Anxious Arms [from Feeler]
big drums
guitar sound has distinct parts to it
projecting a
perturbation
into specific registers
or regions of the audibility
field
lots of shouting
effectively
a-lexically
Banned Rehearsal 1081 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 31, 2023]
we make our sounds for the benefit of the summer evening
skin of a drum
roll around
the spiders
are not hard of
hearing
so we needn't amplify our sound
wander in the weeds and
wilds
stalking felinely
we pull the evening
into our sounds
Present Joys - Alabama Sacred Heart Singers [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
another kink
is singing in chorus
Only the Lonely (Know How I Feel) - Roy Orbison [from For The Lonely]
a few different instruments
and it could be a country hit
show off the high end
Solitude - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]
the noir smoke
hovers thick
trumpet
is having a moment back
there
Lady Godiva's Operation - Velvet Underground [from White Light/White Heat]
and the paper it's printed on
arch poetry reading
gets a bit silly
before it's done
We Could Be Flying - Morgana King [from New Beginnings]
Wagnerian horn call
hidden in the first flourish
the orchestration is overdone
camp dazzle
 |
| Walla Walla, WA |
I'm Yours - Prince [from For You]
metronomical precision
stands in
for togetherness
(musical
ensemble)
music as a clock
Party Girl - U2 [from Under a Blood Red Sky]
using the title
as a lyric hiccup
a song without a reason
or
a sketch
for one
not otherwise written
Finnegans Wake Chapter 1 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded July 19, 1988]
a thousand and one stories all told
his howth felt heavy
a trying
thirstday morning
grace before glutton
even in our own night time
as he gets into the musey room
he picks up the character of the tour
guide
Willingdon by the splinters of cork
novel:
a created text world
Rub 'Till It Bleeds - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]
composing against a normative model of song shapeliness
follows the flow
of its lyric
Banned Rehearsal 514 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 21, 1998]
I interrupt a quiet room
with a slowly spoken amplified text
change changes changed
with enunciated "ed"
a past piped in
where
in our experience
is muisc located?
upon what basis
do we distinguish one music from another?
is
that distinction being made
in a location
distinct
from our
experience
of the location
where the said musics transpire?
interesting
this session turns into an example
of the statements'
obsession
gesamtstuffthrowninabucketwerk
as an essay
my words are used
with me
changes changing change
change then and now
now and then
I am being reconstructed as we speak
sol ill equipped
hypnautical
 |
| player piano, Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
change changes
change changed
change changing
is changing
was changing
change involves
two
A B
Before
After
Then Now
Then
and then
after
before
bifurcation
change
a relation
between an imagined memory
of before
and an imagined membering
of now
or
between
an
imagined memory
of before
and
an imagined memory
of
another before
change
as a bifurcation
between
an imagined
and an
imagined relation
between imaged
and image
change changes
changes the changes
the changes of the changes
of that piece
the changes
of that song
change
a
relation changes
relations
between imagined iterations
changes
relations among then
now then
being a memory
now
changes being
relations among members of now
and members
of then
equal
as episodes of conscious experience
changes
the changes
chord changes
the chord changes
of what we refer
to
members of experience
and the dialogue
or ontologue
between
and/or
among
members of moments of experience
change changes
other othering
changing others
we experience memory
remembering then now
or change
changing
an unfolding
or
an involving of now
then
involving a relation
or relating
an activity
of doing
relating
of our members
change changes
changing changing
changes change
changes
changing
change changes
changing change
change change
as now then
fucking
then and now
then and now
our experience
mingling
then and now
our experience
of changing
mingling
changes then and now
our
experience
changes change
our experience
mingles now
and then now
 |
| Adam West Room, Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
chord change
chords change
chords
changes
experience involves a relation
among our image
of being now
and our image of being then
and
our image of continuing to
be
a then
and now
and
each relation
between each
of them
then
and each of the others
change other
change others
changes others
changes other
change chord
now then
before and after
after then
being now
or
before now
we experience change
we
experience
changing
we experience
chord changes
exchanges
then and now
before and after
changing
change
changes change
changing others
changes others
changing others
changes others
other othering
other
other
other other
other other
now then
and then
we change experience
othering others
we other change
experience others
experience now
change is changing now
change is changing now
before is now
before changes now
before after then
is changed
now
changes now
is
exchanged
for a member
of then
experience
wants
experience
experience
changed
then experience
changes
experience
now then
now then}
Wonderful - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]
the chord changes that open
are arresting
 |
| square piano, Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
this was the version I made for a video (DVD)
this evening
is full of my words
talking back at me
factoid:
the list of expressions
is composed
from the list
of French expressions
found
in the Peters Edition
of
Scriabin's Sonatas
translated into English
one could compose a cycle of musics
based on the lot of them
a mode of translation
(polymedial)
the music of two timestamps
and multiple monologs
Glissades - Cornelius Dufallo, Patrick Derivaz [from Bass Violin]
a music thing
and a mountaineering thing
I have enacted each
but not both at the same time
as best as I can now recollect
this music might be inside both
from some other observation point
Banned Rehearsal 961 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 18, 2018]
on the porch to celebrate the Bannediversary
more or less
18-84=34
the local croakal
accepts us
the highway's sound
is more present from the porch
than it is now
from the patio
Sonarchy Dec 2008 Part 1 (Prerecorded Parts Only) - Pete Comley [from Experimental Radio]
to enter this sound world
is to be in an immediate elsewhere
were every sound
to broadcast indefinitely
one might curate ones
finds
sound combing
radio broadcasts across space
recording narrowcast into the future
beasts in dungeon cages
the sound
is raining
put all thoughts out of your mind
now
open your eyes
and turn your record over
In Session at The Tintinabulary
September 14, 2025
Irish - Keith Eisenbrey
is this project self-indulgent? yes
do I have a voice leading kink?
yes
does that worry me? not much
September 18, 2025
Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La - William Byrd
I've been working this piece up for several years now. This recording is far from exactly how I would like to be able to play it but it has its moments and I'm ready move on.
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 27: Figure Studies 2010 (part 2)
More from a series of solo piano improvisations
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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