Preface
"Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge.
[...]
It is
intended by the Company to supply the present enormous mental appetite of the public with a full feed of science and literature in a series of sixpenny
bits, or bites. To prevent the appetite from become cloyed by too continuous a
fare of any one kind, the bits will be so intermingled and diversified as to
keep the biters always expecting and never satisfied. Thus, the biography of
Bacon will be relieved by a bit of the history of Greece; a bit of Astronomy,
by a bit of Brewing; a bit of Roman History, by a bit of Algebra; a bit of
Chemistry, by a bit of Commerce; a bit of Physiology, bit I., will be probably
followed by a Treatise on Probability, from the study of which the reader may,
if he please, try to find out when he is likely to see Vegetable Physiology,
bit II. The whole will thus form, in the mind of the student, a most desirable
complication of the Novum Organon, Athens, Malting and Mash-tubs, the Cæsars,
Logarithms, Oxygen, Tariffs, Telescopes, the Arian controversy, the Building
of St. Paul's, Cellular Tissues, and Reversionary Interests."
from
The Comic Almanac, 1st Series 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Piano Sonata in E-flat Major - John Field - Benjamin Frith
1
this music has heard Mozart and Clementi
almost over-galant
nigh to shy
a sheltered life not devoid of feeling
a well
tended garden
2
children
skipping games
most pleasant frolic
Album d'un voyageur, S. 156/R. 8, Book I, "Impressions et Poesies": VI. Psaume (de l'eglise a Geneve) - Franz Liszt - Ashley Wass
an honest chorale
opens to the skies
bathes the land
lifts
into heaven
Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 144 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl
1
lovely voicing in the chorale
2
the thread
is truly caught in this tangle
3
ferocious tempo yikes!
whew!
4
stiff headwind
5
domestic peace
6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: III. Idylle - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner
characteristic humorisms
Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 4, Halling from the Gnome's Hill - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø
effective dance music
must be about the noise it's making
its tool
for controlling
the rate of motion on the floor
but also
the sad rooms in the back
Of Thee I Sing (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
the microphones had become
{in the 1950s}
remarkably good at
capturing
every nuance
of a voice
and singers took advantage
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Birthday - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]
dance track with codetta
for the DJ's signal to move on
West of the Fields - REM [from Murmur]
deliberately loading the words
at the front half
of the chord
block spans
Papa Doesn't Love His Children Anymore - U-Men
riff built on a kickback echo
features a metrical modulation
part of the compositional image
is the protracted repetitions
that
don't obviously count in twos and fours and eights
as to iteration
count
torn page ending gambit
Wenn Ich in deine Augen seh - King's Singers [from Chanson d'amour]
a choral arrangement of the Schumann Lied
the dialog between voice and
piano
becoming one between groupings of voices
The River - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
acoustic opening
hearkens back to pre-industrializations
amplification signals modernity
Easy Ride - Madonna [from American Life]
bathed in unguently voluptuous string wash
the ambitus of her tessitura
is comfortable for me
at her
octave
composed dance production ending:
a repeating stanza
finish back in
unguence
Paper Gangsta - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]
amplified piano
more percussive
its attack envelope within
human psychoacoustics
is much sharper
loud attack sounds
get louder than sustained sounds do
under the
same gain
the best way to play it
is to bang it
anything more subtle will be
lost
{see doodle}
August 10, 2026
Duet - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
enacted within the fingers' placements
and the bow's impersonations of
both duet parts
Threading The Channel - Steve Layton & Sound-In [from The Many Voices In Our Heads]
maker
collector
distributor
of sounds
made
a
curatory art
I Got Plenty O' Nothin' - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong [from Porgy and Bess]
razzle dazzle from heaven
With You - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
such a sweet talker
Pink Cadillac - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
an elaborate euphemism
goes around at least one too many times
Mudride (Demo) - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]
giant robots of distorted guitar
electrorockemsockem
Molly On The Shore - Percy Grainger - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
the particulars of a local dance type
dressed up in its festival garb
Queen of All the Tarts (Ouverture) - David Bowie [from Reality]
a bit of meter play sneaks in
Diva - Beyoncé [from I Am...Sasha Fierce]
power politics for dancing to
Happiness - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]
sagging heavily over the lines
I'll Keep On Trying - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/50s Music]
determination
a hymn of its time
Bad Life - Bad Hug (w/ Bree O'C) [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have to Be Cool]
taking stock
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
You're Gonna Hear From Me - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]
shape of song audible
within its sheer flowing garment
Carolina Shout - The Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]
an arrangement
depicting an arrangement
removed from its original
demotic urgencies
Lady Be Good [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]
music as an audible costume
to seem authentic
The Hands of Time - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
music for an aging clientele
This Is What It's Like - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
notes to self
a journal song
Black Magic II - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]
ad copy
Circles - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]
kiss off
with production value
Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - various [streamed May 11, 2023]
43
poking around in Schoenberg's junk drawer
44
as a moody naiad
45
whack-a-mole
46
tipsy we stagger
lamppost to postbox
44
(pause for preparations)
we see what's left of it
lying
around in the innards
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
we are taught the tune
from more angles
than we had thought it had
One Minute of Silence - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]
white noise
with some studio clatter (distant)
and occasional
electronic popping
Myung O. Hahn - Korea [from The World Sings Goodnight]
sung into institutional empty space
Claude et Eric - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]
rough road
but the moon buggy bounces on big tires
the path
smooths out some
picking up speed
Emjayernai-Tom - Sacajewea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
music doesn't care what shape it is
Track 8 - Peterman [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]
dive-bar music
as vent for pressure release
Must Be Nice - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]
frustration spewing
Lullaby - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]
a machine is switched on
and continues
is shut off
and back
on
its sound is examined
in the light of select sung pitches
linguidental fricatives (voiced)
a right sharp little piece
that keeps its focus stalwartly
96 Tears (Unreleased Version) - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]
zero sum love game
Don't Believe The Hype - Public Enemy [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and the Beat]
its rep is its matter
rep is the matter
Animal - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]
size and power
music as mech suit
Life's on the Line - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']
antagonistic posture
Zim - B'Shnorkestra [from Go To Orange]
some musics
are concerned with their own goingness
as music
sometimes
in the context of
or in consideration of
a
population of musics
in the same way
that some persons
are
concerned with their own goingness
as a person
in the context of
or in consideration of
a population of persons
Baby Born In a Stall [from Unmarked Christmas Album]
some music is smarmy
but this has it beat
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
Respect Yourself - Mack Rice [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]
listening to another culture's music
can be a way to explore those other
cultures
and to better understand cultural interactions in general
Maria Walks Amid the Thorn - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon - December 1968
listening to a music
from one's own past
(such as this)
can
be a self-exploration
Rebonds B - Iannis Xenakis - Rob McEwan
a study in articulated steady states
listening to a discovered culture
ostensibly international
but only within a thinly distributed
population
Whose Lion Is This? - Participants [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
a radio drama about a lion surgeon
doing brain surgery
predictable
results
Telling Some Lies - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]
building a stanza from tempo up
demonstrating regions of other tempos
in relation to the root
San Francisco - Whitney Ballen [from You're A Shooting Star, I'm a Sinking Ship]
epistle poem
In His Own Voice - Milton Babbitt - Nina Berman, Steve Beck
after the manner of a cultural critique
Cello Set 2 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]
a poem in the shape of a squeaky hinge
Younger Then - Star Anna [from Go To Hell]
epistle to a parental unit
Overdrive - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]
draping poemlines across a regular rhythm
rhymes where it needs to
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
1
announcement
make yourself comfortable
this spreads itself
vastly
follows every ripple to the shore
2
lectures in dance
minutiae
furious scribbling of
notes
3
an ancient evening peace fills our hearts
4
long yearnings
haunt these halls
insatiate
weary
5
macabre skipping games
War Failure Deluxe - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]
heavy machines on the move
with siren windup
Little Ghost - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]
message to an inner experience
Questions for the Angels - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]
neighborhoods of grooves passed through
Enchanted Prelude - Elliott Carter - Da Capo Chamber Players
followed closely
it leads
to where
we
hadn't
thought
we
had got
The Night I Met Maria C_____ - Chris DeLaurenti
we'll take a walk with Chris
as folks talk with Chris
looking for
a party somewhere
with a marching band
takes a leak and a level
scenes from an event
or series of same
Together - Bass Violin [from Bass Violin]
loosely looped pizzicato
and ground
Fever Doggs - Slothrust [from The Pact]
scenes from an unsatisfactory life together
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
'Zoon - Bruce Huber
Bruce was a fellow student at Bard
when I was there
he sent me a tape
with some synth pieces on it
in 1988
including this one
I'm not sure what he was using
but it might be early digital
or
some sort of analog device
Loretta's Flowers - Swearin' [from Surfin' Strange]
a musical unit
(among other things)
is a token of personal and
cultural exchange
for my purposes
in this regard
it is its personal voice
that
takes precedence
that is
how it is
between its maker and me
is primary
to how it is
between its culture and mine
and certainly
between its culture
and any more general
culture
Giving Me Life (feat. Slick Rick) - Mariah Carey [from Caution]
which may explain
my general problem
with the broad cultural aim
of industrially produced music
which leans into its generic
signifiers
in order to confuse the fewest audients
Poem for Sixtext - Benjamin Boretz - Benjamin Boretz [from Open Space 56]
when the token of exchange
is one made
by one personally known to
me
and
when the totality of generic signifiers* in play
can
be dismissed on a few fingers
the status of that token's broader
cultural value
diminishes to vanishing
not that such a value might
not exist
but
that it is radically irrelevant
to my
experience of it
*that it is a piano being played
in the usual way
for instance
is superseded
by the fact
that I've played that piano myself
in the usual way
the image of the person
to whom this music is addressed
is
singular
for me
it is clearly addressed
to me
(of
course
it need not be true
that such was the intent
of the
one making it
exactly)
this music is not outfitted with modernist gadgetry
or even supposedly
de rigueur musical piece-forming rhetoric
 |
| Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA |
a music such as this
is comfortable in its clothes
and what they
signify
it wears them matter of factly
and adroitly
Metaphor or a Mishap - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]
some musics
for their realization
rely
on a collaboration of
cooperating agents
a common set of musical assumptions
is a social lubricant
easing
such collaboration
this is not a problem necessarily
if
as in this music
those
assumptions
are generous enough
to allow a specific music to
emerge
Sentimental Journey/The Way We Were - West & Wheeler
a coworker of mine in the 80s
gave me this tape
made by her and a
high school friend of hers
who had been known to sing duets together
back in the day
so
they got back together
for an anniversary
and reprised
their gig
singing along
to a music-minus-one-type orchestral
accompaniment
for what it is
it is creditable
they have pleasant singing voices
that blend well
Is This All There Is - Swingset Showdown [from Cymbal of Appreciation]
what more was expected
left unspoken
Wild Mountain Thyme - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]
porch singalong native
In Session at The Tintinabulary
August 9, 2026
Lockport and Coda - Keith Eisenbrey
August 10, 2026
Banned Rehearsal 1157 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscript
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 34: 2024-2026 Arrangements of Shape Note Tunes (Part 2: Common Meter)
Hymnals find me. For decades I had been wondering how I might make use of all those notes. In July of 2023 I decided that each Sunday morning I would make short piano arrangements of each tune in the oldest hymnal on my shelf, The Christian Minstrel, from 1846, which arranges them metrically. Since mid-2024 I have been working through the "Common Meter" (86.86) tunes, and am happy to share them with you now. Part of my discipline is to spend no more than an hour or two on each one, from first transcription of the tune to finished recording. When I got to the 100th tune in the book I amused myself by writing its arrangement with exactly 100 notes.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream.
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