"The Goblin and the Sexton"
Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"
Texts
Special
Lockrem Johnson, March 15, 1924 - March 6, 1977, was a Seattle-based composer, pianist, publisher, one-time Coney Island Calliopist, and beloved educator who made something of a splash on the national stage with his 1951 one-act opera "A Letter for Emily" (based on an episode in the life of Emily Dickinson). He was a pianist for the Seattle Symphony, a teacher at both The University of Washington and Cornish School of the Arts, where he served as director of the Music Department in the 1960s. In short, he was kind of a big deal in the Seattle classical music world before his untimely death just shy of his 53rd birthday. I had the good fortune to meet him once a few months before that, in a long and treasured afternoon during which he gave me both a score to his Fifth Sonata and a welcome and timely boost to my teenage self-esteem. Since then I have performed his music on many occasions, especially his 24 Preludes, but also the Fifth Sonata, and the song-cycle Songs in the Wind.
Recorded
June 17, 2023
I Only Wanted - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
vocal in a nearly uninterrupted stream
for which
there are no
words edgewise
I'll Work For Your Love - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]
yet another song that would work much better in the small
he puts each
song in the same impenetrable box
Nothin' But An O-Thang - O-Face [from Shrug Life]
having a mellow
thoughtful
rainy afternoon
what passes for acoustic
Let's Get Astrophysical - Gaytheist [from Let's Jam Again Soon]
a pun I suppose
fills the room
sucks the air out too
shouting over ones own self
for fun and beer
Serious Sledge - Steve Layton [from Colors]
care taken
so that
each iteration is a unique event
by
addition
but
it never loses its transparence
Meridian Alman, Fvb. 291 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
If a phrase is an answer
it wouldn't just repeat the question
would it
that would be so annoying
neither should the answer
shut down the discussion
Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op. 9 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
it's the simplicity of the respective last note of each phrase in a line
that is lyric
in respect to the time scale that allows it
that is
all the other notes
are there
to exactly get
those last notes
to be exactly placed
there
in exactly that
simplicity
lyricism
placed out of the reach of Schenker and Co.
Song 8 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner
this song was impressionistic
before the rain got to it
and now
it's heavy and sagging
What Can A Poor Fellow Do? - Duke Ellington [from That Devilin' Tune]
his group
composed among them
a sound
that is classy and
sophisticated
they did it
under this name
but
it's the
group
with Ellington
as being
perhaps
simply
the
most essential player
that composed the sound
that is
no
voice individually makes or breaks the whole sense of it
except
Ellington's
Don't Worry About Me (Take 2) - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
master chord voicer
finds paths within the stacked chords
unexpected thin places
for an extra thought to come through
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| Neahkahnie South Viewpoint, Oregon |
Greenbacks - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]
within the comic conceit
the song narrator is apparently attempting to
pay for sex
with an ex-president who kept enslaved human beings
and the great emancipator
Polkadots and Moonbeams - Bill Evans Trio [from Moon Beams]
my piano teacher through high-school
drummed it into my head
think
vocally
over and over
think vocally
Bill had that shit down
also
a lyrically controlled differentiation between chords
played exactly together
and chords played with a subtle roll
just long enough to soften the attack
One For The Road - Bob Dylan [from A Tree With Roots]
gone on retreat
with a band and a back catalogue
played so that
they
the songs
sink into the permanent record
hence the
drunken tempos and heavy repetitions
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| My blog post for Let's Dance |
Third Symphony - Roy Harrison - Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies
Martinu's American doppelgänger
and it really is a kind of Americana
isn't it
muscular and idealistic
vast
but also open to all
of itself
not just the civic boosters of small town New England
immigrant Americana
where else would a blatantly chinoiserie
pentatonic figure
sound so cowpoke
the ingenuous Romanticization
of it
is Americana all over
there is a great deal in this music
that I could imagine myself pointing to
as serious aesthetic
problems
but
I have a harder time not enjoying it
set piece
construction
scalarly noodling ad infinitas
builds to big
moments that don't land
sempiternal shrovetide fair
but without
the puppet murder in the middle of it
picturesquely sweeping
flying low over the flyover lands
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
so
maybe the best way to look at these grab bag collections
is to
regard them as instructional
this is the part of the larger work
that sticks in most people's minds
study question
why might
we think that
this
for instance
is the heart-on-sleeve
passionate massed violin big tune with the big sweep
confession
I
dug this exact part in High School
and not that I don't still dig it
which I do
but why this
and not that other part
that I
also dig
this cuts off
just before Pyotr throws his sucker punch
fortissimo
She Won't Budge - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]
this sounds like a demo
clearly all played at once
captures some
of the mayhemic glee that they can exude live
Track 7 - The Humidiflyers [from Late Fall Unfinished Sketches]
jamming to gel
Prelude - Gavin Borchert - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]
such patient music
this prelude gives a methodical tour of its subject
key
millimeter by millimeter
top to bottom
strange registral
articulation points
are thusly manifest
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| Rockaway Beach, Oregon |
diary entry
or epistle among old intimates
so
what does that
make me
the listener
eavesdropper
one among said intimates
by proxy
forensicist
pathologist
I rather like the lively color of the arrangement
June 19, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 941 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 14, 2017]
the world passes by
we remain obscure
but comment anyway
some of these evening sounds
are
or may be
or may have been
imported through a device
is concern about words
a distraction from listening
or a door into
it
tapping a drumhead
at a rate
determined by motor impulse
might detach any one tap
from intentional note-ness
its
suchness
being contingent
on its inclusion
in the series
of motorically impulsed taps
the series
being
then
the object
does synthesis imply a higher order of understanding
or a crossroad node pulling in multiple directions
that is
does it enter conscious experiences
as a put-together thing
or as a unit
that we then analyze
as a put-together thing
could it be both
might our experience of an event
amend
itself
as that event passes through our awareness bubble
Bearing Witness - Nat Evans [from My Old Friend Death]
respiration
gentle
patient
sustained
stars and slow
clouds
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
a phrase
is the fallout of a first chord
a lived out explicit
relation
between beginning and end points
a composer is a
dressmaker
part of the fashion world
Changes - Paul Whiteman [from That Devilin' Tune]
sophistication light
so many babies he can squeeze
listen to him
press those keys
They' Can't Take That Away From Me - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distingué Lovers]
the instrumentals are anything but generic
they do not merely fill the
space
but share it
as does Billie
Consummation - Nina Simone [from Silk & Soul]
witness and prayer
string arrangement
from a similar era as
Eleanor Rigby
but whoever arranged this
wove it into the
song more boldly
 |
| Rockaway Beach, Oregon |
Duo 5 (Part 2) - Benjamin Boretz, J. K. Randall [from Open Space 54]
tempo
here
concerns itself
with the weights and durations
emerging within each event
as that event transpires
that are required
to transform each event's moment
and to be transformed
in
or out of
turn
Crumar meanders in Shostakovich
curves
while piano pokes it with sticks
all tumble slowly
downslope
amid some grumbling parts
regathered
vigorous
gnawing
regain place
a moment of quiet and tense calm
development
by overlapping
calm
soft
three burst
thoughts
protracted
bent
split
hollowed out
kicking stones down the road
in deliberately varied paces
modes of paces
Romance - Sarah Vaughan [from Brazilian Romance]
she may not have had the higher register
but she found a baritone voice
down inside
Beale Street Blues - William Christopher Handy - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]
arranged in four voices
bass mostly on one
or leading to it
trumpets hitting evenly on 1 2 3 and 4
a trombone speaking
and other brass talking back
brass players are perhaps overly fond
of the stripper grind tempo
Embraceable You - Glenn Tate [from Some Of My Favorite Love Songs]
chords in sevenths slip away
Have You Ever - Brandi Carlile [from The Story]
stanzas pack lines
between repeated lines
at beginning and end
the sort of line structure
that can easily be described in the
text books
and assigned as homework
02 168-90 (Or The Untimely Erection) - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]
middle school amusements
Hive Dream - CEP [from Drawing The Target Around The Arrow]
timing signal turned down slow
slightly out of phase
slows
on parts of the signal
Fine - Star Anna [recorded from the live stream at Fiddlers Inn, Seattle, March 7, 2022]
epistle to an intimate
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| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
lines tripping along the theoretical hand model
Willem Moore - Richard Burnett and Leonard Rutherford [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
not a marriage made in heaven
nor any of your polite society weddings
not with that banjo
nor with that fiddle
Tutti Frutti (Take 2) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
rhymes ready made
phrases in stock
Bike - Pink Floyd [from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn]
singing from the persona of an innocent
with an imagination
but structurally
very like Bluebeard
behind the last door
a room of musical tunes
and quacking ducks
on a loop
Afraid of Love - Toto [a Rescued Record]
safe
suburban
pop logic
meme ready
In The Time It Takes - X [from See How We Are]
a moment is a time it takes
this music goes down the roads
in
pick-up trucks
The Deer Song - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs For Children]
folk songs
through an odd corner of academic family cred
Slow Burn - David Bowie [from Heathen]
the two guitars do a dance number
in the middle
Sonata 1979 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]
this is the graphic score sonata
I could have looked at it
as a
score to compose within
instead of
as a score to play any
note
I like this realization
it's really pretty
the extended technique
bits work well
they come off
as the literal extensions of a
pianistic gesture
Gates Of Glass - Triptet [from Figure In The Carpet]
the standpoint
from which
this
puts itself together
 |
| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
I believe that
five minutes in
the pianist may have sat down
though it might have been merely the cashbox
enforced space
here he is
10 minutes in
Gradus
as a mindful piling of
wealth
each wealth item mindfully piled
this silence
is the
mindful contemplation
of the lack of the wealth item
it's the
piling of it
that makes it wealth
no piles
no wealth
4:33
for every 4 minutes of sound
thirty-three minutes of no sound
4--~~-~~---~-~-~~---~~-----~~-~(Rojahn Remix) - Lost Chocolate Lab [from (Previously) Clean]
I presume there is a history of Fripp in this
Chattanooga Blues - Allen Brothers [from Really The Blues]
a personal story genre
The Meaning Of The Blues - Miles Davis [from Miles Ahead]
those chords are in tune
in every particular
Do Right Woman, Do Right Man - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You]
sermonizing on behalf of her feminism
Don't Know - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, December 17, 1982]
we must have done this as a duet
that sounds like me playing piano
I don't remember well
I may be completely bonkers
it sounds
less and less like me
the further I listen
probably Dan his own
self
The Holy City - Michael Maybrick [from 100 Greatest Classics]
if it comes from Europe
it must be a classic
because the other
classics come from Europe
early Anglican Pop
hip hip hoorah for
kinginess
Peace - Los Lobos [from Kiko]
passable Lou Reed homage
news from the street
Track 12 [from Eisenbrey 2002]
clarinet and piano
not one I'm familiar with
sounds like an aria
type number
and a cell phone goes off in the audience
it truly was
2002
and a singer no less
there's another one
it goes on and
on
and a whole other song at the end of it
at least it's cheerful
 |
| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Frosty The Chairman - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from Smokey's Stocking Stuffer Christmas]
the intro established the key and sound
but the song enters in a new
tempo instantly
fancy strumming in there
he's got help for at
least the harmonica
Kill Data - Charms [from Human Error]
as industrial music becomes more and more machined
the machinery of it
becomes its own message
music industry
doing what it can
to
eliminate the people involved
until they might as well be machines
themselves
Pt. III - Alex Anthony Faide [from Particles Of The Infinite]
gentle meter game
using chords as tokens
and figures to fill in
the chords
cyclic in feel
if not in fact
Lady Montegle's Pavan - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a place to lose oneself delightfully
'Twill Be All Glory Over There - The Deal Family [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
somebody's pumping a reed organ behind the part singing
a foursquare
music for a foursquare cut and dried gospel
I Won't Dance - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]
heaven rest us
I'm not asbestos
European Son - The Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground & Nico]
an instrumental jam with some vocals tacked on at the start
Moe pushes
everybody a little faster than they're comfortable with
crash and burn
 |
| Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
must be British
they pronounce it gee zoo
If It Ain't Rought, It Ain't Right - Pete Rock & C. L. Smooth [from Mecca And The Soul Brother]
organized arrangement
the assembled beat
itself an organized
complex
the vocal solo
the vocals responsive
Unashamed - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]
the subject matter is oneself
defensive self empowerment
Fifth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, October 13, 2007]
some flubbed notes here and there
but it moves along and captures some
of its essential malformedness
Point of Egress - Chris Brokaw [from Stories]
no nonsense
clear songwriting
and delivery
Gradus 318 (part 2) - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, August 19, 2017]
composite activity
carefully sorted and arranged
activities within
activities
thoughts within
thoughts about
and thoughts
about thoughts within
new notes
new rung
these
notes
insist
then back off
Black Cloud - Doug Kolmar [from So Said Life]
he's talking to his generation
and among them
his neighbors
such wisdom as has been gathered
 |
| By-the-Wind Sailor - Arcadia Beach State Park, Oregon |
Galiarda, Fvb. 295 - William Tisdall - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
full of courtesy and florid grace
compliments and flatterings to the
betters
obsequiescent
Penn Beach Blues - Joe Venuti [from Really The Blues]
blues characters
the narrator and their double
straight man and
comic
or
each
but like Vladimir and Estragon
Great Balls Of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare & Rockin']
little to it
so it goes by fast
Prelude in B-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at the Tintinabulary, December 29, 2022]
rather a thorny little puzzle
getting it to both flow and breathe
Faith - George Michael [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo And The Beat]
churchy organ
precedes a non-church use of the word faith
Race You Down The Mountain - Woody Guthrie and Friends [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]
Coyote's Bratty Child - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought That They Were People]
turning the eyeballs around
to only look at themselves
sometimes she'd throw her stomach over her shoulder
Free Steps - Tom Baker Quartet [from Look What I Found]
each moment
carefully placed
into its slow placed
flow place
a moment is a process
7 Months - Red Ribbon [from Time Is Running Out]
sketch song
Plastic Pearls of Wisdom - the Deadrones [from We Are Watching]
rock and roll
a culturally acceptable
offramp
from
rebellions without causes of their own
Part 3 - Noisepoetnobody [from Perpetual Vs. Eventual]
power tool use rhythm
factory floor
grinding and pounding
cutting and welding
meanwhile
the happy robots hum to
themselves
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 19, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1078 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1995
