Preface
Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA
"I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it.
II. A Loose-Fish is fair
game for anybody who can soonest catch it.
...
What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus struck the Spanish standard by way of waifing it for his royal master and mistress? What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India to England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All Loose-Fish.
What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the world but Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?"
Herman Melville, from Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Recorded
September 27, 2025
Brain Fever - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]
pirate themed musical cosplay
sing with a growl
Zither Film 18 - Keith Eisenbrey [October 18, 2008]
shattered bits across the time plain
radii from onset
impacts
splayed
debris field
no signified final
it ends when there
are none left to be found
Aura - Lady Gaga [from Artpop]
all cycles reducible to twos and fours and eights et cetera
not to
confuse the writhing on the dance floor
Banned Rehearsal 962 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 2, 2018]
slow pitch motions contain their quicker parts
the continuity we intuit
to it
embraces all within it
co-transpiring continuities
inclusion regimes
assertive
continuities problemetize mutual transformation
preformed occlusions
pretend openness
prolonged agony
Gentle - Steve Layton [from Red Sky]
kaleidoscope warm and mellow
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
Madrigals, Book VIII: Su, su, su, pastorelli vezzosi - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
to ask a poem to dance
any passage reveals its tonality
with the
same delaying reticence
as its poem's respective passage
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, BuxWV 221 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
composed to impress
with gravitous comportment
and learned
locutions
Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV 77 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
the conjointure of disparate rhythmic emphases
arising from offset
polyphonic voices
guides attention from voice to
voice impressing
us
with an image of a constant general flow
the final chorale is strangely curtailed
no clues are given that it has
ended
until it is gone
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 293 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
fountain of playful splurts
goeduck-bed organ
Noveletten: Aussers rasch und mit Bravour, Op. 21 #2 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
long strings are pulled in the back chambers of the palace
protected
within the heroics of the A Section
the tender heart pines in paternal
care
intrigue and whispers
whatever shall we do?
hazard all
be brave
Consolations, S. 172: II. Un poco più mosso - Franz Liszt Beatrice Berrut
notion:
that music might serve the same comfort
as words of
consolement presume
or
to instruct on the proper pitch of ardency
to be experienced
Prelude in D Major, Op. 39 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
compressed affects
heightened proximity
Touch Me Light Mama - Geoge Bullet Williams [from Really The Blues]
the harmonica doubles the voice
in instant conversation
Tea For Two - Art Tatum [from Piano Starts Here]
skitter toes across the floor
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonatas XIV and XV - John Cage - Boris Berman
played with a gentle innocence
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
The Man I Love - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
the introductory couplets
followed by song proper structure
comes
from musical theater
like opera's recitative-aria
this one
could be
just before the Act 1 curtain
Roll Over Beethoven - The Beatles [from With The Beatles]
a song
the point of which
is to instruct listeners
to
publicize the song
Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun - Pink Floyd [from A Saucerful of Secrets]
showpiece for weird keyboards
and light show
Friday On My Mind - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]
workweek cyclic blues
Easter - Patti Smith Group [from Easter]
stanzas begin with obvious rhymes
and bland content
the expressive
weight
is toward the later rhyme-tuplets
Improvisation - Jill Borner, Keith Eisenbrey [September 6, 1983]
sitting on my doorstoop
guitar and bass and endless crickets
the crickets were not a part of our session
because the sounds they were
making
went about the private cricket-sound business
but
on
the recording
their sounds become a part of the session
simply by
virtue of their being produced
by the same speakers
processed
music
but not ultra-
our instruments have a friendly chat
modulation of cricket space
occasioned by the advent
of a nearer
band of crickets
Incident on 57th Street (live) - Bruce Springsteen [from A Springsteen Miscellany]
story telling with movie lights
telling the movie's story
acting
out their favorite scenes
heroism of the downtrodden
interminable
credits in wee print
Anytime You Need a Friend - Mariah Carey [from Music Box]
the chorus comes out of nowhere
there is no sense of their presence
within the space
unless they are singing
stop singing
and
they vanish
My Beautiful Leah - PJ Harvey [from Is This Desire?]
thinking to oneself
self life narration
as though one were ones
self
Gradus 50 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 18, 2003]
nameless pitch matching
nameless pitch class feel matching
can be aught be thought
without names for things?
acoustic inclusion and extension:
are the further harmonics
relevant to the compositional flow
at the same level as the
primary harmonics are?
that is
if all is made of As
then the
harmonics beyond 2:1 exist
in pitch universes
outside that of the
pitch universe
arising
from the mechanically struck tones
anominative logic?
this is an anominate logic
an anominate anemone
animated ammonites
anonymously
anochronominater
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
A Housewife's Lament - Rachel Harrington [from City of Refuge]
boredom and isolation
Gradus 238 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 2, 2013]
the time Gavin came over to listen
in anticipation of a performance
on the coming 14th
each iteration reminds us of its pitch
elusive fundamental
down there somewhere
at the bottom
of
our experiencing
of the note
a ghost
behind the timbral glare
learning to enter a headspace
vis a vis the piano
can Cagean silence
survive the matching of pitches?
Hopeful Debonair - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]
part of a music theater
weaving narrative dialog soliloquy and action
among its songs
this song
is the setting of the story
so we know the situation
Sinfonia 5 (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey [August 11, 2023]
figurations circle warily
lest their eccentric paths
should trod
the other's toes
Stack O'Lee Blues - Boyd Senter [from That Devilin' Tune]
trading solos
a structure from informal jamming
a music game for get togethers
I See Two Lovers - Morgana King [from Sings The Blues]
a screenplay alone
I stand beside the sand
Boa Constrictor - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross-Country Concert]
a great favorite among the boys choirs I was in
Watch Dog - Etta James [from Tell Mama]
dance to ones complaint
Jamaica Jerk-Off - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]
a bunch of brits in Jamaica-face
Twin Stars of Thence (alternative mix) - Sun Ra [from Languidity]
the bass line hinges on the fourth beat
Savage Breast - The Stranglers [a Rescued Record]
production enabled
camp Throbbing Gristle
industrial psychedelic
Finnegans Wake Chapter 1 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 19, 1988]
seemeth me a dragon man
euphonio saxo?
old grizzly grousely
cool and ebb they requiesce
whizzard of all the whirled world
this sound seematory
here
is vice king's grab
in this
aleph bed
miscegenations upon miscegenations
when old head in
clouds walked the earth
bellicose figurines
an all for a bit
quite a peculiar interest
what a meandertall tale to unfurl
Cold Mountain Songs: Home - Robert Morris - Deborah Norin-Kuehn, Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]
these words sit uneasily on their page
Banned Rehearsal 516 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 12, 1998]
to my right
as I sit listening
my piano
stands
so that
if I lean forward
just a bit
I can peer down the
keyboard
my piano
and I
hear the same music
the better to know each
other
a voice
and a flute
flow between each other
big clang across the plow wheel
a carillon fanfare
we move forward by hand
settles at last into a spacy passage
 |
| Walla Walla,WA |
in a narrow nervous confine
wiggling soprano from outside
a
glimpse from otherness
what is that?
12 minutes in
still
small
circumscribed
the unchanging tape
is squeezed in
ostinato on guitar
has the effect of further constriction
as
though it were a thread
tightly wound to bind the sound
20' in:
still constricted
but now more sloppily
from habit
Anna must have just got...
no not so deep a sound as her djembe
I wonder if the narrow playing
isn't exacerbated
by the near mono
sound
everything seeming to be squeezed into a single source
one
of these tapes was missing an original channel
could easily be this one
only the sin waves of feedback overcome the grip
winding more and more tightly
sped-up tape sounds unraveled
tightening past endurance
past
tolerance
into a different place
still tight but somewhat more
transparent
the radio helps
takes along time
but hard work
finds a payoff
in a space no less narrow
but livable
spinning fast enough
to be a new image
(change changes
changing)}
& (And) - Greg Sinibaldi [from Nuclear Frog Pond]
not sure what the drummer adds to this chorale
which is pretty nice
and would be so without it
I wonder
don't get me wrong it's fine drumming
Zither Film 19 - Keith Eisenbrey [October 19, 2008]
each blip a point
indexed as to many dimensions
a starfield
My Destiny is Known - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from Lone Buffalo]
our cussed independence to go it alone
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
Gradus 335 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 8, 2018]
another rehearsal
for another impending performance
any enactment
of Gradus
is a headspace
a deliberate configuration of earmind
striving to make no sound
that perturbs
that deliberate
configuration
who was the guest?
I wonder if I was even there
given the date
I
think not
The Alternate Universe - Tom Varner, Neil Welch [from Out of the Mud]
in a field of two sounds
is the possibility
that their pitches
match
a red herring
or an open door
Walkin' The Dog - Hoagy Carmichael [from That Devilin' Tune]
the styles of music in the dance halls
shifted
along with the
styles of motions dancers did
The Happy Monks - Peggy Lee [from Sea Shells]
could be popped up Gottschalk
I Like It Like That (Part 2) - Chris Kenner [from I Like It Like That]
a few go rounds of the chorus and a fade
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - The Who [from Magic Bus]
music hall sing song delivery
To The Women in My Life - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]
the record was warped when ripped
and this track
has the pitch
wobblies
Welcome Home - Carole King [from Welcome Home]
addressing the listener directly
or
the singer
positioned
as the listener
Improvisation 1 - Keith Eisenbrey, Ann McLellan [October 2, 1983]
Walla Walla, WA
a reading from Wittgenstein
the logical nature of the event
must
be a piece of nonsense
man is the microcosm
What More Can I Say - Audio Two [from What More Can I Say]
hip hop vocabulary words
apex
dance to the cross rhythms of
dialects
Procession of the Sardar - Empire Brass [from Class Brass on the Edge]
from some opera or other
I would guess
suitably exotic
She Came Along to Me - Billy Bragg & Wilco [from Mermaid Avenue]
a thinking to one self politically
Banned Rehearsal 655 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 8, 2003]
re-personifying sounds
exposes the liquid natures
of their
respective characters
engaging in cross-chatter
the subject has
changed
with the guitar's new approach
xylophone moves to wood
drum
snare rattle continues
its simultaneity
is off somehow
Fromage a Trois - Antique Scream [from Antique Scream]
an instrumental intro
production
to demonstrate competence
multiple verses
unsupported by decipherable lyrics
Gradus for Fux, Tesla, and Milo the Wrestler (beginning) - Neal
Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance
Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, December 14, 2013]
Walla Walla, WA
the sound of the audience being ceremonially locked in
before I give
them a little lecture
as absolute a silence
as can be imagined
a hidden assumption
that there is only one piano
that
a
particular configuration of keys
on one
consists of the same notes
as that particular configuration
on another
even though
they're not the same physical note
(nope
that note's over
there
on that other piano)
once again
I would appear to be listening to nothing
but
I
am listening
to a recording
made in a room
full
of
people
listening
to nothing
the fundamental
is the sound image
of the entire length of wire
as amplified by the soundboard
Gaps In The Stories - Denise Glover [from Gaps In the Stories]
political feel good food
Sinfonia 5 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded August 30, 2023]
crossing the wires
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
Keep On The Sunny Side - Carter Family [from Goodbye, Babylon]
the rhythm of the chorus words
fit the tune
whereas
that of
the verses
almost
{fit the tune}
a homespun feel
Deed I Do - Ray Charles, Milt Jackson [from Soul Brothers-Soul Meeting]
that format of verses trading solos
born
I'm guessing
out of
musicians getting together
to socialize for each other
is
perhaps
hard to sell
as a product
since
it is an
activity
first
Feed it a Memory - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]
sings as though reading haltingly
Sweet Thing - Van Morrison [from Astral Weeks]
the string and wind parts
could have been left out
with no loss
this is a guitar song
the production enhancements
just bloat
it
Game Is My Middle Name - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
a come on as a dance
(power move)
Prelude and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H - Johann Sebastian Bach - Canadian Brass [from High, Bright, Light, and Clear]
lip service
Rock 'N Roll High School (Ed Stasium version) - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]
spreads his mouth around his vowels
celebration of this moment only
Finnegans Wake Chapter 1 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer
[July 19, 1988]
Walla Walla, WA
'till all the horrors eve
sons of sod
I quizzed you a quid and for
what
closeth thereof
the moveables are marching in motion
lace at night
at another time
the old terror of the Danes
violet indigo nation
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose (1576) - The Baltimore Consort [form La Rocque'n'Roll]
ancient music
as a micro-niche
modern pop
it's not about
practice
but intent
if intent
is not part of practice
what is?
Banned Rehearsal 517 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 26, 1998]
the space is immediately invaded
by the hum of a device
we groove
on in behind
a grim procession
angry drums
angry plectra
this music
is stressed out
through the long dark forest
we insist our way forward
musical pathology
prognosis
depends upon desired outcome
blowing off steam
inefficient evacuative venting
waxing gibbous through the clouds and window
have we arrived
at a plain
a place to rest
what a struggle
that was
and yet
we plug along
wearisome fortitude
drums do not easily resist drumming
drums are not a problem
drumming is a problem
every march
has its detractors
weariness vanquishes fervor
a truce of sorts
forced by the three big toms
flutes and brass of
campground
the patient is oblivious
 |
| Walla Walla, WA |
the approach of a tiny circus
heralds mummery
the air is taut
the friction of pulse-streams
differences can be worked on
by insisting upon them
goal?
breakthrough?
we shall see
at issue
is the common
realization
acknowledgement
that the enterprise
is ours
not mine
it truly must be the new djembe}
Dance of The Hours - Brave Combo [from Box of Ghosts]
playlist derived from albums
hocked on VHF
in the wee smalls
we blame Arthur Fiedler
In Session at The Tintinabulary
September 28, 2025
Chelmsford - Keith Eisenbrey
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| Kirkwood House, Walla Walla, WA |
Gradus 421 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
here we have a counterexample
rather than one pitch class
(A)
we have two
(G-sharp and B)
(one instance each)
all the combinations of piano keys
is a large number
but pales
with the quantity
of combinations
of all the combinations
of piano keys
does acoustic inclusion
have any but extremely distant relevance
to the flow of pitch classes in play?
inimical ammonites
intimate interminable anteriors
a minor third
oh how
now
to avoid
going cuckoo
October 3, 2025
Passacaglia (after Boito) - Keith Eisenbrey
In July of 2024
I had dropped the needle
on the third act of
Boito's Mefistofele
and decided very quickly
that I needed
to write a passacaglia
on its opening bass line.
I've been working
on it since then,
and made the last small changes this week.
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
