Preface
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
"As for describing the hunt, I own, fairly, I can't. I've been at a hunt, but what a hunt is - why the horses will go among the dogs and ride them down - why the men cry out 'yooooie' - why the dogs go snuffling about in threes and fours, and the huntsman says 'Good Towler - good Betsy;' and we all of us after him say, 'Good Towler - good Betsy;' in course: then after hearing a yelp here, and a howl there, tow, row, yow, yow, yow! bursts out, all of a sudden from three or four of them, and the chap in the velvet cap screeches out (with a number of oaths I shan't repeat here) 'Hark, to Ringwood!' and then 'There he goes!' says some one; and all of a sudden, helter skelter, skurry hurry, slap bang, hooping, screeching, and hurraing, blue coats and red coats, bays and greys, horses, dogs, donkeys, butchers, baronets, dustmen, and blackguard boys, go tearing, all together, over the common after two or three of the pack that yowl the loudest. Why all this is, I can't say, but it all took place the second Thursday of last March, in my presence."
from The Comic Almanack. 1st Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
December 6, 2025
In The Unknown Tongue - Jim Knodle - Keith Eisenbrey
Jim's score had been sitting on my piano desk for several months
and
after thus being pondered
I decided to write an arrangement
that
leaned in to its folk hymn oddities
metrical and syllablical
Madrigals, Book IX: Alcun non mi consigli - Claudio Monteverdi -
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
song allows poetry to rhyme
in multiple dimensions
aside from
phonemic
by which allowances
it can sit right up to the table
and converse like a human
Canzona in G Major, BuxWV 170 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
Buxtehude
more playful than Bach
who is all business
Höchsterwunschtes Freudenfest, BWV 194 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman
we pace out the extent of the grounds
the chorus gathers the excitement
together
everything in its place
speeches where speeches go
each of these four count bars
occupies their four counts
as a way
of moving voices around the parts of the figures
weights shift across cyclic duration segment positions
much of the intellectual heft
of the music
on the scale degree
functions
as they imply depths
behind the surface melody/tonality
Sonata in C minor, Kk. 303 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
music without moral instruction
or elevated purpose
Ouverture des Francs-Juges, S471 (from Les Francs-Juges, Op 3, by Berlioz) - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard
Liszt was a cultural amplifier
composer pianist uniquely suited
to
champion his century
by interpreting it
through his ear and hands
Kinderszenen: Kurioser Geschichte, Op. 15 #2 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
such care at phrase ends!
Etude in C-sharp minor - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
we are tossed about
in the tumult of this key
 |
| Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Skip The Gutter - Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
a stroll tempo
in flash duds
tight skirts
Get On The Right Track - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]
a pleading
Now Ye Muses Be Hushed - Johannes Brahms - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon
knowing my mom was conducting
and that these voices
are among my
earliest musical memories
adds a layer
to my experience of it now
Martha My Dear - The Beatles [from The Beatles "The White Album"]
doesn't try anything on the piano
he isn't capable of
given his
limited pianistical experience
Lady Grinning Soul - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]
a repertoire of techniques
in figuration form
Concerto for Piano, Flute, and Strings - Keith Eisenbrey - Thalia Chamber Symphony, Dean Williamson, Ellen Berkovitz, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded November 16, 1979]
oh the adolescent earnesticity
a bit clumsy but endearing
and you can tell I'm thinking
about how notes might go together
or
how pieces might go
to be piece shaped
Corpse of a Nation - The Trolls [from Bard Sampler 82-83]
literally my personal introduction to the bar band culture
was the
Trolls
as
the guitarist (Bruce Huber)
was a fellow MFA
student
and
I heard them live
at a bar
in
Annandale-on-Hudson
known as Up The Road
December 8, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 141 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [assembled August 7, 1988]
from Telepaths 20
combining an indoor space
our living room in
Seattle
and an outdoor space
the boardwalks at Old Faithful in
Wyoming
which was unapologetically windy
makes for a loud session
with quiet talk
in the indoor space
we discuss the louds and the quiets
we hear the bubbling of rock heated water
in a pool
the funmaker makes the quiet indoor space
much louder
we attempt grandeur
but collapse into the wind
the inputs take turns overwhelming each other
click wind click wind
click wind
don't like the ocean
because it won't stop waving
Jump They Say - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
stutter into the machined groove
In The Morning - Aretha Franklin [from A Rose Is Still A Rose]
tingly bells shimmer
decorated melodic syllables
brought over from
Gospel
to add some class and distinction
a form of dialogue
familiar within a culture
What More Can I Say - Jay-Z [from The Black Room]
the groove hangs in the middle of long loops
sung bit uses some of the
gospel prolongations
as above
Zither Film 31 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 29, 2008]
a signification
of clever
up to the fashion
in David Bowie
type pop
is the preparation riff
that introduces the groove
this starts there
and heads in the other direction
toward the
antigroove
these sounds seem to arise
at random spots
though I know
that their generation
was designed
to make it seem so
out of systems
that can only cycle
per a clock
the extended spectrum of grooviness
what might be the optimal
discriminative interval
to explain
or translate
the
spectrum
of grooviness
to a stranger?
Box Springs - Steve Layton [from The Composer Plays Revisited]
this
for instance
comes at groovy
from the awestruck angle
 |
| Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Gradus 338 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 3, 2018]
a simultaneity has erupted upon us
a registrally ordered pitch
mash
composition might be
the elucidation
of its contents
maximally mapped
experientially schematicized
fully
rotatable
wallowing allowed
alternate explanations undertaken
with gusto
what are the moments
of an undulating resonance
or
are we
trying to count
the flicker of leaves on a tree
in a soft breeze
a texture filled moment
an artifact
as it were
of the
natural world
sounds like that
because that
is what sounds
are like
as an experience
of an aural sensation
Pink Moon - Steve Layton [from Red Sky]
soft buzzy splashes
eerie light
an uncanny encounter
Stop Kidding - McKinney's Cotton Pickers [from That Devilin' Tune]
the arrangement is designed
to make it easy to understand
when
within the dance
one
is
but lively and amusing
I Concentrate 0n You - Judy Garland [from Judy In Love]
this arrangement
is bestrewn with Latin knick knacks
Judy sells it utterly
and takes a bow at curtain
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen [from
The Life Treasury of Christmas Music]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
like a Christmas Card
Pack Up You Sins (And Go to the Devil) - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin: All By Myself, Notable Compositions 1926 - 1933]
party time with the winds
the one in Hades (with ladies)
Snoopy's Search - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]
fun with those first synths
What You Gonna Name That Pretty Baby? - Laethe Elder [from The Art of Field Recording]
borned in a stall
a gospel in a story
5 Movements: November 17, 1983 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded February 6, 1984]
if
as here
one does not perform
an articulation
of the
threeness
of the groups
one loses
ones grip
on the
possibility
of matching
which group
is being played
to be in a pulsed
but meterless expanse
though
I was performing from the score
which
I was reading
aloud
as
these notes
I was playing
Scouts' Honor
straight off the page
the shape of the score
a sinusoidal cycle
is mirrored graphically
in the contours
of the pitch stacks
on the page
this
of the five movements
is the thorny hedge
which must be
struggled through
with inadequate protection
thin knives of distinction
shave off slices of pitch flesh
for
later microscopic inspection
Ben's piano had a crazy little extra to its tone
You Are The Everything - REM [from Green]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
a strong song
doesn't need the fancy arrangement
except to be
shiny as a record
Man-Size Sextet - PJ Harvey [from Rid of Me]
with jaw clenched
two beat lines
Blue For No Reason - Bonnie Raitt [from Fundamental]
off the rootsy end
of country blues
ways to signal finishing up
loosely unraveling
I Want - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix] [November 6, 2003]
to want
to need
to lack
to miss
demonstrating the difference
between the sudden song of 1985
and
the composed production of 2003
Crooked Path - Star Anna and The Laughing Dogs [from
Crooked Path]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
a blues stanza
has a trajectory
aims at its last word
The Letter (Don't Look Back) - The Swearengens [from Waiting On The Sunrise]
epistolary
says so right in the title
Black Out The Sky - Strung Out [from Black Out The Sky]
anthem pop for suburbaloids
December 10, 2025
AKU - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982]
purity
is compromised
by its domicile
within our noggins
and that
was a fabulously prepared entrance
for a new kind of
sound
Symphony-Concertante
from the Future
structural orchestration
room to sprawl
caught up in the whirl
of music parts
persistent diatonicism
scrutinized
in
the lab
it's a slog in parts
but
must be worked out
to
the end
its duration
is a part of its being
and part
of each of its
parts' beings
reaches out
into surrounding space
if an interval
is the effect
of one pitch
upon another
is that
what's happening here?
does a piece of music
need to seek
to enter
the lists of
renown
to still be strenuous music?
Blue Piano Stomp - Johnny Dodds [from Really The Blues]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
a lovely light touch on the ivories
a gleeful twinkle toes
this music is feeling good
Don't Sugar Me - Norman Monath [from Songs of The Pogo]
in Mae West slinky groove
Silent Night - Various Artists [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spektor]
he's trying to be a hip Lawrence Welk
for the next generation
is this what the young folks mean by cringe?
Oh, Sweet Mary - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Cheap Thrills]
interesting vocal arrangment
for that first stanza
I wonder whose
hands it was
going for symphonic scope
music to fill stadiums with
Come Take Me - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
she sure does come on strong
no stadiums
low ceilinged dimly lit
clubs only
strobes in use
Concerto for Piano, Flute, and Strings (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
muddy voice leading
trying to be dense like Brahms is
the tempos aren't well chosen
for this version
without a clear
idea of what all that density ought to be doing
Epicenter Wire Can - Doug Siedel [from Bard Sampler 82-83]
unity of affect:
transgress respectfully
though
I may have
simply mis-dissected the tape tracks
when I dubbed it
moving from affect to affect
how baroque
Banned Rehearsal 154 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [September 20, 1988]
we begin
by being people in a room
then
the what
that
might be music
steps from behind the curtain
or
there they
are
and have begun immediately
upon our attention
having
found them
we were
with them
just as
they had begun
there is no such
when
as
a pre-beginning when
our musical nature
is our nature
better or worse
playing the big red bag of rattles
the ghost saxophone
tells the
saxosaxophone
what to play
repeat after me
piano has a moment
so takes another
alarms are raised
bells are banged
minor second between big banged
octaves
then
a persistent note
really hangs in there
spewing dramatic declamation
up and down
planes overhead
while the tin can drum kit carries on bravely
to
the fife ftooting
our toy sounds
several ways to overpower the recording mechanism
beyond its optimal
fidelity to the signal
lemon scented tea
the plane is flying to the moon
quick
quick quawk
quick quawk
quawk quick
and so further
little bits of flavor
Supercharged - Black Cat Orchestra [from Dante's Inferno Live Score]
high brow
low theater
Track 5 - Students of Joan Schoepflin [June 9, 1998]
music to make the pianist feel good about themselves
or to make the
music believable to them
Blunderbuss - Scurvy Bastards [from Battle Born]
drum the decking
with heels a-stomping
Zither Film 32 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 30, 2008]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
slices of highway traffic
images flash past
we are aimed
out
of town
the traffic image flashes
thin out
unevenly
accidentally
as a project
though the project was always
a process
with a
particular goal
the preponderance of sound
associated with the
project
is not
the totality
of the envisioned goal's sound
but
the sound
of the intervening
constituent
pre-totality
steps
I find it to be instructive
as a fellow
who listens to lots of
music
to listen
as intently
to nothing at all
for
stretches of time
now and then
Dizzy - Lures [from Dizzy]
supermall secret agent man
with imposter syndrome
Banned Rehearsal 966 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 10, 2018]
we arrive like a fog
revealed at first light
we skitter across the
glassy surface
tiny winged creatures
on tiny winged business
we are less a band
than we are
an occasional ecosystem
 |
| Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park |
Mutes and Whispers - Tom Varner, Neil Welch [from Out of the Mud]
a quiet moment
Clarinet Marmalade - Ted Lewis [from That Devilin' Tune]
circus act number
arranged to be taken in
as an audience
as
opposed to
for social dancing
a slant
A Dear John & Martha Letter - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
meta-epistolary
with comments from the peanut gallery
more husky in the ferland
One Fine Day - The Chiffons [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
a note sent across a romantic divide
keep the sentiment simple
The Two Lonely People - Bill Evans [from Alone]
chopinesque
elusive polyphony
Morning Glow - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
the child star
is a kind of a freak show
public display
of
what is not intended
to ever sound
like a natural thing
for
a kid
to be doing
Lonesome Valley - Lawrence Eller, Vaughn Eller, Ross Brown [from The Art of Field Recording]
an old tune
with fine old bones
5 Movements: November 22, 1983 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded April 21, 2010]
this is the one
that is shaped like an eye
it roves restlessly
within a circumscribed pitch register
just a few places to
stand
fluctuations in the resonating pitches
follow curved paths
sensually present
A Christmas Medley [from Joy To The World]
medley:
a box of ornaments
for the properly trimmed
Better
Homes and Gardens
Tree
or
AnyCenter Mall
most Xmas rated
Xmas dreams
Back/This Time - Janet Jackson [from Janet]
Sourdough Ridge Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park
our personal remove
from the parts of the music
is to overwhelm
but
the parts
are individually interchangeable\
we dance
to our romantic troubles
with uncalled-for
operaticisms
is that supposed
to high up
its tone?
and theremin
or
the like
must have been quite the stage spectacular
as music
it tires
Sweeter Than The Flowers - James King [from Bed By The Window]
ancestor worship
remembrance
heaven
as the domicile of the
departed
long form epitaph
Hey Hey Hey - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Summer Songs/Winter Mix] [November 26, 2003]
each element
is in a place
strange to the others
the
mechanical part
is there to demonstrate
how
not
mechanismical
the other part is
Knee Socks - Tea Cozies [from Tea Cozies]
lines of observation
lines of analysis
Shouldn't Be So Easy - The Hunting Club [from Holiday Beach]
just as I am
without one plea
I plead
Army of Me - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]
my battle hymn of defiance
Book of Windows - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1982-1983]
the word
all
begins
with an intake of breath
and
in we plunge
my response
to Gertrude Stein's
Lucy Church Amiably
ingenuity
is a mode
of skill/art/craft/creativity
In Session at The Tintinabulary
December 7, 2025
Avon - Keith Eisenbrey
December 8, 2025
Gradus 424 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
except for the third B up
then
including the third B up
we
didn't have the first time
what is the relation
between the facts
of the announcement
and the facts
of the action
that ensues
a key is struck
and a note ensues
if the piece is designed
as a design of notes
possibilities for
keypresses
then
is the luscious shine
of harmonic moil
not
part of the design
and thus
not part
of the
same layer
of what the piece is
as
the design of
notes?
or
is the design
a means
of optimal exploration
of
that harmonic moil?
the lines press the dough
into the bowl
December 11, 2025
Anvik - Aaron Keyt
oh so close!
just a few little things I want to do differently
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 29:
Figure Studies 2015-2018
Autoheterophony
2016
***
In this volume is collected the latest in a series of solo piano improvisations made between 2015 and 2018, as well as a 2016 hymnody project in which I engaged with four hymns that have been familiar to my ear before I knew what music was.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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