Playlist

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Preface

"Magical operations are time-span forms: like musical performances or poetic texts, they compose the very time of their enactment - a time that encloses not only their composition but also their reception. But receptivity is an inalienable part of the act of composition: the internal feedback that simultaneously accompanies each gesture of making. The artist's (or magician's or alchemist's) management of the degree to which this is so is an essential ingredient of his or her art. Too much self-consciousness derails the performance. Inattention utterly wrecks it."

Charles Stein - "The Light of Hermes Trismegistus"

Texts

Live

May 25, 2023

Ann DuHamel, Prayers for a Feverish Planet
Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Ann plays quite well
but
throughout this concert I was frustrated
by the way in which
what each piece was
or might have managed to be
was occulted
nearly entirely
by its "subject matter"
and by the "theme" of the night 

I'm sure I'm an outlier on this issue
but I simply don't understand
how a music can be about anything
outside of itself
except
by verbal assertion
which assertion
among other things
unfailingly leaches all possible internal musical ambition
out of the piece in play 

but the attitude that music must be about something else
has become
in our culture
a dogma and is not to be challenged

Solipsismo - Erick Tapia

local
at least
texture-register invariance
concert hall dramatic

Forgive Them Not, For They Know What They Do - Karen Lemon

figuration texture
expands from the top down
exhausted
it wafts from the middle
into Scriabinland

Heat Island - Frank Horvat

plangent sonority building
dissipates into the upper octaves

Air - Laura Schwendinger

figures compounding concentrate
then wash away

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

Trees of India, II. Jacaranda - Chris Williams

old school evocative
balanced phrases are still balanced
even if smudged a bit

Stop Deforestation! - Darío Duarte

big sonority blocks
within which
figuration nearly vanishes

White Parasol - Ian Dicke

tri-figured
tri-registered
a fourth register-figure
breaks the ice

Perforation - Alex Burtzos

simultaneity figures
a rhythmic motto

What We Can Say - Robert Adámy Duisberg

prelude
fugue
interlude
and double fugue
wistful nostalgifications

Landscape of Shadow and Light - David Evan Thomas

fulsome
sonorous
late 19th Century sentimental

Our World So Freely Given - Vanessa Cornett

hymnal homophony

Recorded

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 20, 2023

Pavana "Delight", Fvb. 277 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

modal
in the sense
that every move
is part of a negotiation among modes
or
perhaps
that diatonicism
had come unstuck from its modal origins
to float freely
within a newly configured pitch world

Mazurka in E Major, Op. 6 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

each phrase
the expression on a face
enjoying the dance
in its own way

Lied ohne Worte in E Major, Op. 38 #3 - Felix Mendelssohn - Edmund Battersby

when it gets in trouble
it flaps emptily
to light on more solid footing

Song 4 - Charles Ives - Kia Sams, Russ Warner

its about the weather
impressionist moody

Over in Glory Land - Sam Morgan's Jazz Band [from Goodbye, Babylon]

stanzaic musical rhetoric
the first part of each line
is the subject
the answer part of each line
predicates it
(fact, attitude)
or places it
colors it
gives it a vector

Love Is The Strangest Game (take B) - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]

it's a balance among its three functional parts
the boom chick bass
the melody and its figurations
and the glitter and other effusionary fills

My White Knight - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]

what she's looking for
or so she says
must be the end of the act

You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]

the studio chorus is so smooth
match the violins

Good Times - Aretha Franklin [from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You]

celebrating the pleasure of musical sociality

Judy Is a Punk (Live at the Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]

the onslaught thrill ride rush

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

I Was Just a Stupid Dog to Them - Nina Simone [from Fodder on My Wings]

a busy Caribbean style groove

Playground - The Outfield [a Rescued Record]

the stray long notes that introduce
are there so that
when the song proper begins
it's not a cold open
but fills in
to an already present sound world
going for that big venue sound

The Long Goodbye - Bruce Springsteen [from Human Touch]

drums open the door
good enough tune
good enough groove
good enough changes

Dear John Letter - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]

multiple voices
interleaved
or underlining
words carefully arranged rhythmically within the groove

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 21, 2023

Gradus 124 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 6, 2007]

so let's listen to some notes
that we needn't valorize as music
the flip-side of the Cagean assertion
that noise is music
is the question
of whether and why
we might need it to be
we call an experience music
if we presume
that "as music"
is the highest and best way to understand it
or to accept it
the experience of listening to Neal play these three A-naturals
doesn't need us to take it in as music
the need
if there is one
is within us
but
what is it we need
when we need an experience
to be an experience of music
one might make the same observations and queries
regarding language
what is it we need
when we need an experience
to be an experience of language
possibly
as a mode of access to our fellows
in both cases
music and language
different modes of access
possibly for different aspects of our fellows
"our fellows" here
being regarded as expansive enough
to include at least our own personal selves
as many have discovered
we write or speak or compose
in order
to know
what we think in those particular modes of thinking
that we can bring our writing speaking and composing
to uncover or elucidate

Jesus Christ - Ian Bell, John Teske [from Embers of Discontent]

every movement
in these states
feels it necessary
to abscond with Jesus
for their punching dummy

Banned Rehearsal 940 - Pete Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 31, 2017]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 940 170731

respiration flows amongst us
and the sound of traffic
we take the evening air
we give the evening air
session characterized
by
the mix of instruments in play
rather than
in how well or potently we are playing them
how the sounds mix
is what they are
the mix of us
as we go about our sounding business
with the rest of the audible arena
as it
goes about
its

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 22, 2023

Galiarda, Fvb. 278 - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

scales
reptilian
overlap voices
allow fluid motion

My Heart Keeps Singing - Elder J. E. Burch [from Goodbye, Babylon]

rough and ready harmony singing
robust cast iron
whop to the head

I Wished On The Moon - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distingué Lovers]

pattern of instrumental inclusion
stanza to stanza
keeps it lively

Enfant - Ornette Coleman [from Ornette on Tenor]

surface of the road
as we whiz along on it
path through the world
in a tunnel now
back in the open
we have arrived

The Black Angels Death Song - The Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground & Nico]

2nd generation beat(nik) rap

Bullet The Blue Sky - U2 [from The Joshua Tree]

a machine is activated
it will do its thing
while Bono presumes to say something about America

What? - A Tribe Called Quest [from The Low End Theory]

nada nada nada not a thing
a series of Jeopardy responses

Basket Weaver Song from the Wanapum People of Eastern Washington - Johnny Moses [from When The Humans Thought They Were People]

healing by snake pit

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 23, 2023

Keep This For Me - The Hope [from In The Deep]

the figure and the harmonies it expresses
the melody
and the words that ride the figure
accumulate strings and a drummer
the words accumulate specificity of application
while expanding possible extensions
into us
it all fits

321 North - Cowgirls, The [from Compilation]

the right kind of crackle
intent on particularity of the sound
of particular sounds joined
in a plainness of beat
that's so heavy

I Met Krist Novaselic - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live in The Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

subject matter of text
report of a life event
and its immediate fantasy
dirt level aesthetics

Sonata in G Major, Op. 2 #1 - Cecilia Maria Barthélemon - Seattle Baroque Orchestra [streamed October 2, 2022]

galant era and style
gracious manners for an ordered world
or
a world in an older order
much missed
or soon to be much missed
chaste wit for social delight

Miserere, Fvb. 279 - John Bull - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a twig on a stream progresses irresistibly
chaotic
inexorated downstream

Can't Put A Bridle On That Mule This Morning - Julius Daniles [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

the eternal struggle between man and mule

Then You've Never Been Blue - Judy Garland [from Alone]

deflected cadence
it doesn't deceive
it just misses
with style

Softly Say Goodbye - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

transformation of an event into a movie moment
to jerk the tears

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

All Along the Watchtower - Bob Dylan [from Before The Flood]

sneaking into the song via the scribble door

Kassandra - Iannis Xenakis - Philip Larson, Steven Schick

comes on like a beat
an announcement or pronouncement in pitched tongues
theater percussives
ceremonial

May 24, 2023

Did You Do It? - Madonna, Andre Betts, Shep Pettibone [from Erotica]

banking on provocative

Hilary Billary - Dubious Duo [from Children of Siberia]

a rough patch
gimcrack bridge
just holds
whew

Banned Rehearsal 724 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 13, 2007]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 724 070813

make a sound
let it go 

strike a light
let it fade

extend duration
let it go 

tintinnululate
placidating 

type up the report
enter the sparkly grotto 

keep typing
shake the rattle pans 

bong
the bong 

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

we may have reached a place in which a chorale can be played upon the piano
let it go 

the moan tubes
moan their moans

each sound transforms
without obscuring

Song 1 - Peterman [recorded live at The Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

shake the cobwebs off
you hear it all baby

Steam Train Mix - Keith Eisenbrey [August 6, 2017]

Karen's recording looped
and mixed with mine
just for fun
renders the chatter largely incomprehensible
all to the good

Worms - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]

wiggly squirmy

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 25, 2023

Tell Mee, Daphne, Fvb. 280 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a motion answered at a new speed jostles

The Church and The Kingdom - Elder J. E. Burch [from Goodbye, Babylon]

preaching on a raised tone
answered by a hymn
as might be applause

So Blue - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]

it is not necessary
for purposes of bringing off a song
to match the mood of the music
to the apparent mood of the lyrics
matching the ironic slant of the word play will do it

G Waltz (Live at The Village Vanguard) - Bill Evans [from California, Here I Come]

tempos within tempos
riding the tops of tempos
sneaking about tempos
slapping around tempos

Their Equinoctal Habits - Benjamin Boretz, Anna Dembska, Linda Smukler [from Inter/Play]

made just a few months before I arrived at Bard myself

we beasts
move about
bellowing into the wind 

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

the ear
is where we are
the beasts wander where they go 

the goal
as it developed
was not a music/performative one
so much as
a hands-on workshop in social organization
how might music be made
together
without competition
or other murderous intent 

not about making it go
or do
but hanging in there
with the activity of being in its space
by
being a full part of the being of that space

a voice
briefly
up to the microphone
like a curious wild critter
nose to the camera lens 

the wind is left to itself among the parting bells

Alec nade mna Wenus - Mikolaj of Krakow - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of the Krummhorn]

motet shaped

Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore - Giuseppe Verdi [from World's Greatest Choruses]

well hammered in

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon

May 26, 2023

Loves Embrace Interlude/Loving Me - Christina Aguilara [from Stripped]

vocal over vocal
to provide multiple readings of any moment
non-vocal music is the stage and the shiny lights

Walk To You - Rachel Harrington [from The Bootlegger's Daughter]

first time to the hook
to help make the ambiguities clear
lap steel guitar?! 

effective use of vocal dissonance against the harmony

Well I Swear I Heard That Train Whistle Blow - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at The Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

a strum and a song
no more needed

Do The Snub - The Snubs [from Witness Protection Program]

a song is a personal statement
for collaborative invention
do the funky snub

Cozy - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

competitive sexiness 

imaginative play of the textual delivery rhythm

In Session at The Tintinabulary

May 22, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 1076 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1076 230522

we gathered on the patio and thus joined the evening sounds

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1994

Playlist

Preface

"The poem fronts for alternative grammars finding their material moment,
Otherwise and inevitably language hides its hungry ghosts.
And the cup swirls interiorily and no limit in folding."

George Quasha - Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole

Texts

Recorded

December 17, 2022

Little Wonder (Junior Vasquez Club Mix) - David Bowie [from Earthling]

a song
being more than its definitive published version
might also be
a collection of parts for varied reassembly
collaboration invited

Gradus 22 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 6, 2002]

fourth A up ca 220 Hz
a signal in constant vigilance
responding to acts of indication
we play notes by pointing at them
patient
for its next indication
indictment
indicatement
indictatement
dictator
indicator
indictator
indicement
the finger points
and in pointing speaks
potentate
potentater
puissant spud
one hammer for three strings
efficient but bludgeonly
space left for silence
evidence of payment of a debt
a receipt
room left
for the master to pass between

G**** Biker - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]

telling one
who that one is
celebratory taxonomy
taxonomination
into glory

Assembly Rechoired 54 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

we touch objects with objects
sound
character of touch

intimate conversation
and public discourse
differ
in personal anatomy of the other
not their genitalia alone
but
the interior shape of their selves
as well
intimate
addressed to the whole of self
public
addressed to the public of self
only

some tiny twanger
has been amplified
its broken wooden parts
have a voice
easily busy

Idiot Orange - Red Ribbon [from Freaks Only]

solid
does not budge
not a inch
implacable inertia 

drummer and bass are strong

Roosevelt Station 220730 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Roosevelt Station 220730

for some few weeks
the escalators sang
like canids to the moon
do not harass the escalators

December 19, 2022

S'elle m'amara - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe

follow this pattern exactly
we'll meet up at the end
I promise

An Almain, Fvb 200 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

the bones of later forms
a balance of dance phrases

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 212 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

scales quick and slow
and gradations between
balance of dance phrases
expanded
embellished
ramified
and let loose

Impromptu in A-flat Major, op. 90 #4 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

figurational mensuration
exact sizes
a multiplex
variously joined
ABA
with contrasting affect
a model of personal irony
polite and cheerful
on the outside
passion and moodiness
on the inside
feather the passage paths between

Keyhole Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

tells a thing
aimed at the end of the statement
as baseline

Three Pieces for Choir: The Main Deep - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey

harmonies slipping down a window pane
sough hush

Forget If You Can (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

Handsome Hal and his tintype gal
a gentle slow dance
for quiet cheek to cheek

Another Hair Do - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]

wiggly butterfly float
but staring in the eye

From Folio: December 1952 - Earle Brown - Michael Daugherty

sudden aggressions
birdlike singular attacks
icy

The Ray - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]

doing a little Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis thing on the keys there
nice sounding recording
the players all sound real
studio for sure
but a real believable room

That Lucky Old Sun - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]

a lamentation and a prayer
interesting substitution
of troubles for sins
that are washed away

Dear Landlord - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]

stuttery piano figure
part of a generic arrangement
with drum and bass
a plea

John Lee - Fairport Convention [from Meet on the Ledge]

the singer has a pronounced accent to my ears
from where? 

applying a commercial sound
to non-American roots music

some neighborhood of London

Hate and War - The Clash [from The Clash]

a confessionary preacher
does a lot of indicting

Living for the Depression  - Flipper [from Generic]

in the states
punk rapidly became self-parody

Valse - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 19, 2006]

so sweet
but full of doubts and worries

Tannhäuser March - Richard Wagner [from World's Greatest Choruses]

pad the intro
it's a big chorus
and we all want to see the costumes
the glory of our German forepaternalists

December 20, 2022

Praying Mantis: Shroud - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]

pulse of industry
metronomes and timing belts
regulators
and quartz crystals
applied colonialism

notwithstanding such
this is really pretty

Seeds - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]

isolated
as on a slide
repetition encloses
severs
in from out
left one open
and it escaped

Grass Stain - Waxahatchee [from American Weekend]

explanation
not to be sent
ever
perhaps
authenticity markers

Jerseyville Illinois (demo 3 of 3) - Your Mother Should Know [recorded June 15, 2017]

emphasis
on IS a house
it DOES exist 

sugar plums and tinkerbells

Lavender Haze - Taylor Swift [from Midnights]

removed from ordinariness
aspirational problems
fungible persona

Corranto, Fvb 201 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

social decoration
personal expression is not a thing in this
it exists for its clarity

Who's You Tellin? - The Pebbles [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

likeable
easy
porch sized

Exactly Like You - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]

this music would not fit on a porch
requires a stage
tables
and a dance floor

Nobody In Mind - Joe Turner [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

tinfoil piano
everybody talks back at the blues

It Might As Well Be Spring - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]

sung in French
for all the boys
that came back home

He's My Star - Little Richard [from The King of the Gospel Singers]

production value
strings harp organ
if he needs an extra syllable in Bethlehem
he adds it
no problem
even chimes

Fixing a Hole - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]

George rescues this one
adds ironic commentary
to the self-absorption

Ego Rock - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

conversation in blues
twisting around an inverted sex brag

A Solo Requiem - Milton Babbitt - Nina Berman, Steven Beck, Eric Huebner

spoken from the other side
the persistent aggregate formation doesn't bother me
I can't count that high
that fast
so it leaves me lost
but endlessly distracted
like Bach 

gestures need not match
to converse
rhyming couplets
caught in brambles

Cowboy - Bow Wow Wow [from Love, Peace, and Harmony: The Best of Bow Wow Wow]

but not a bullboy? 

too many movies
objectification of the male human
turnabout
fair play

Paradise - Bonnie Guitar [from Dark Moon and Other Country Favorites]

December 21, 2022

pretty much the same thing
more or less
straight from cowboy country its own self

Die Dreigroschenoper, Cannon Song - Kurt Weill - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]

theater and its music
demand an immediacy of surface to sink through

Gradus 23 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 13, 2002]

underline for oneself
return to focus
re-centering
minimize mind wobble
inscription by ordeal
scarification
the what one is doing to oneself
as a performance
the experience of witnessing
as one might
an execution
removal from commerce
so that
a neural lattice might break free
and open up outside

Wild Turkey - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Kitchen Recordings]

a snippet of libation pouring
in likeness of a spot ad

Banned Rehearsal 821 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 821 120924

the critters emerge on the forest floor
tribes of snoring
from villages of dens
a longwinded reedy blatherer
dancers up from stage traps
night howls
industrialism blunders in
microphone
as the alien's ear
who hears
the whole
from a different vantage

while playing an object
we engage with the whole of it
to reveal a voice from within its whole
when listening to that voice
we only hear the whole of what the voice says
immediately
not the whole of the object 

industrialism
rinky dink presets
provides for us
what it wants us to want
pollution 

drumming rains on the roof
time for the shift change

D Line to the Stream Line - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 5, 2017]

journal in the moment
past from the present 
tense issues

Banned Rehearsal 1056 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 1, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1056 220731 0801

Banned Rehearsal 1056

Alman, Fvb 202 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

I admire the clarity of the presentation of every little thing

Jonah in the Belly of the Whale - Rev. F.W. McGee [from Goodbye, Babylon]

part of the point
is the shuffling of the story elements
the moral presented
is a non sequitur

When My Dreamboat Comes Home - Bob Pope [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

the explicit topic
by text or title
of social music
is romance and all pertaining

December 22, 2022

Amazing Grace - Mahalia Jackson [from Goodbye, Babylon]

every syllable ornamented
or nailed firmly
all in one thought

Two Bass Hit - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

playing tug with a lab on a beach
you can make the game even
but you have to focus entirely on the game
the lab will not waver

My Funny Valentine (alternate version) - Bill Evans, Jim Hall [from Undercurrent]

extra time
so let's dink around with one we already did
just for fun

All Tomorrow's Parties - Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground & Nico]

creating the concept of high brow pop
or
using the language of pop for alternative ends
mass produced aestheticizing gaze

I Think I Can Hear You - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]

sound
as stationery
rag content
color of cream
consistency is essential to its purpose

Pulled Up - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 77]

music follows text
provides the grid
within which
the poem alternates verse to chorus
like a little lap dog

Heroin - Moe Tucker [from I Feel So Far Away: Moe Tucker Anthology 1974 - 1998]

escape as adventure
heroin
to hero
or heroine
desperately seeking Major Tom

Untitled - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 19, 2006]

broadway stutter anthem
I think I could have taken it at a slower tempo
let it breathe a lot more

I Can Explain - T. Bone Burnett [from The Criminal Under My Own Hat]

a certain sneer in the deep back of his persona
rubs wrongly
leaks through the arch ironic presentation

Col - Emily Doolittle - Seattle Chamber Players

growth
step by step
from seed
to meadow
to tangle
to flower
to bursting pod

Pattis Parlour Pieces 4-8 - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]

1
dancing lazily and sentimentally 

2
melody floating every which breeze at once 

3
magic costume change 

4
a bit of sparkle dust

Nic Nac - Black Plastic Clouds [from Electroplate]

steering between self-expression
and dude-bonding
and being the noise in a dive bar
that binds the crowd together
and holds back the dark

Banned Telepath 56 Anchorage B - Aaron Keyt [June 18, 2017]

toy piano plunks
firm and gentle
conversation among tiny registers

Pitch Collection 1 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Atoneide]

quantity affects result
but is not a feature of it
some of them
may be the same as some others
after all
and counting
inside a sealed chamber
is a guess at best
why bring it up
order
vertically
likewise

break
move to a new place
in which
to hear
from the old
anew
they throb through a virtual space solidly 

break
move to yet new
than either place was

break
move
land hard
hold firm 

break

December 23, 2022

Corrant, Fvb 203 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

rhythm and contour coupled tightly

My Old Dad Got a Brand New Way To Love - Cooksey Leecan [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]

well oiled

Swingin' at the Cat and Chew - Original Yellow Jackets [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

slung low
arms close to sides
long hoods
close to shiny pavement

Sad and Disappointed - Big Maybelle [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

staccato single syllables

You Ought to Have a Wife - Sarah Vaughan [from In a Romantic Mood]

ah shucks
you dolt
it oughta be me 

a strange play for Sarah
straight up 50s pop

In Session at the Tintinabulary

December 19, 2022

Banned Telepath 95 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

December 20, 2022

Banned Telepath 95 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt

Banned Rehearsal 1066 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1066 221219 - 20

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1991

Playlist

Preface

"Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here
The various off'rings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.
This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The Tortoise here and Elephant unite,
Transform'd to combs, the speckled, and the white.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux."

Alexander Pope - "The Rape of the Lock"

Texts

Live

November 1, 2022

Cristina Valdés - Preludes and Etudes
Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater (Meany Hall), Seattle

Trois Préludes pour piano - Henri Dutilleux

big Debussyan pieces

color

imagery

transportation

Four Preludes, Op. 33 - Alexander Scriabin

scraps of ideas about how a key might be evoked

and what it might be after all

they fold in upon themselves

Transfigured Etudes - Huck Hodge

more color

theatrically virtuosic

Piano Preludes 1, 5, and 6 - Ruth Crawford-Seeger

internal spaces

Estudios entre Preludios - Gabriela Ortiz

telling us stuff

while cooking

Sketches of an Anniversary Prelude - Cristina Valdés - with Cuong Vu, trumpet

familial

at home in its family

Recorded

October 29, 2022

Lamb of God (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey 

midi plays the notes without fuss
one hopes
in a way to illuminate the design
by freeing the performance
of any stray expressive rhetoric
not that rhetoric is evil
but
that it can
if allowed
be overbearing
hearing it plain is instructive
the plainer the better

Monument - The Tripwires [from Makes You Look Around]

firmly rooted energy
fills the track
no slop

I Don't Know (take 1, edit) - Your Mother Should Know [August 2, 2012]

broadway show tune in a piano lounge

I Never Thought It Would Come To This - Sun Dummy [recorded live at the Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

sung statements mutter off
into a humming
decorative wiggle

Banned Telepath 89 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 4, 2022]

six of us on the patio
facing North
keep it low
an enhancement of the neighborhood sounds
rather than an overlay
we'll let the fireworks be distant
we are breeze
drums beneath the jet lanes
we usher them across our sky
a windup and a melodic sneeze
repeat
a music can be associated
with a social macro-group
such as
"show business"
or "church"
or a "circuit of dive bars"
or
as narrow
as a backyard gathering
which do we choose
when we wish to speak without pretense
six of us on the patio
noisemakers in hand
mostly being pretty quiet
old uncle horn
says humph humph hm
and we discover
he is snoring

Watkins Ale, Fvb 180 - Anonymous - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

advert jingle
the question of tone quality
as a thing that keyboardists need to consider
even when there is no direct control over it
or so it is said
comes down to listening to the whole sound
as it hangs in the ear
and not just
how it sounded when struck
but durationally
as experienced over time

Sonata in F Major, Kk. 205 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

the resonating body of the harpsichord's sound
is further removed from its immediate strike
than it is on piano
that is
the ratio of impact noise
to resonating time
is greater in amplitude
and lesser in duration
no matter where you jump in
he's always doing something interesting with repeats

October 30, 2022

Wild Man Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Allen Lowe's Really the Blues]

he plays both the complaint
what would be the vocal
and the wry commentary
what would be the guitar licks
the seven take care of the steady bumps
as needed
no more
clarinet solo follows the same game plan

He's Funny That Way (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

one could almost forget she's singing
and not just saying

Don't Blame Me - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]

the thread of a melody is clearly traceable within the florid commentary
each note of which is precisely angled in relation to the said thread

Displacement - Bill Evans [from New Jazz Conceptions]

an alternate music taking place on a separate plane

Novara - Earle Brown - Harro Ruijsenaars, Harry Sparnaay, Earle Brown, Govert Jurriaanse, Ton Hartsuiker, Emile Elsen, John Floore, Gerrit Oldeman, Jaring Walta, Roelof van Driesten

insight:
how open form is capable of comprehension:
if the performers are listening carefully enough to each other
their concentration and intent
is where the experience of the piece lives
not in its notes
or sequence
nor its plot
recorded intimately
so that we sit among them
each page composed
so as to activate
that concentrated listening
and exactness of intent

Bridgett Flynn - The Irish Rovers [from The Unicorn]

marriage as a negotiation between families

Peace In The Valley - Carol King [from Rhymes and Reasons]

words applied to a situation
from a village of speakers
more than one monolog in the world
just ask everybody

Be My Wife - David Bowie [form Low]

two sides of a proposal
why
and
what

October 31, 2022

Drifting Moment - Orbaneja [from Orbaneja]

keep it cool
like Miles
then kick it into gear
but so briefly
better off just keeping a low profile
some unfortunate wobble got into the mix
too many dubs
may have taken some liveliness off the top of the sound too
the instruments mostly sound generic
un-present
definitely Memorex

Banned Telepath 12 Seattle - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [June 24, 1987]

not much going on
so we whisper then we sing hymns
O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing
from memory all
kitty is chasing a bug
Anarchy or Amnehitabel
from the first part of the pre 1989 UM Hymnal
lots of kingy hymns
a hymn tune ought not to end too finally
since it isn't intended as the sort of thing that ends
but a thing that goes back to the beginning
the customary plagal cadence
is a marker of endingness
otherwise pointless
the phone rings in the middle of Joyful Joyful
Paralyzed Veterans of America
and our table grace
and our bedtime carol
somebody is messing with the left channel
a cat
now  it's back
then our repertoire of comic songs

Don't You Push Me Down - Woody Guthrie and Family [from Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs]

skip together to the pretzel house

Wind Your Spring (Japanese) - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]

stanzas divvied into four segments
of four to five syllables
chorus divvies differently
but not in kind of divvy

I'm Scared - Ice Cube [from The Predator]

a public question
open for discussion

Gradus 114 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 26, 2007]

the 7th A
a signal sings
sings signal times singly
evidence from an other sphere
out there
unoccupied by any
but it
intentful broadcast
occupied with the content of its signal
shifting within  being
singular
with the dampers off
the sound flares out
a tea kettle is rattled 

Joy To The World - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Smokey's Stocking Stuffers]

referencing the well-known melody but only as it suits the moment

Gradus 311 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 15, 2017]

quite a few notes to choose from for each rung
As Es C-sharps and Gs
is the requirement
that each note
that is part of the rung
be played
as part of the rung
a necessary stricture
limit
or requirement
for each of those rungs that include more than just a few notes
Neal makes himself  a mnemonical score
essentially a list of the notes to be included
does the program of learning to play piano one combination of notes at a time
limit one's concept of playing piano
to only allow one to play rungs of them
and
as lists of notes
disallowing a generalizing leap of logic
outside of its limits
in that
although any piano piece
can be considered as an iteration of a rung
it can't be played
except as such an iteration
allowing and disallowing at one moment
if the content of the rung
is all of the rung
to what purpose is the performance
its unleashment of utterance
from within a stricture

Side 1 - Steve Layton [from Mandala]

oceanic
at depth
surrounded repletely
wreckage sinks past
immovably
never where we have always been
the temple band raises their alarum
as the ground shifts from below

November 2, 2022

A Gigge - William Byrd - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a placid tempo
perturbation in meter
outside of bar-line regimentation

Royal Garden Blues - Bix Biederbecke and His Gang [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]

bass or baritone sax taking on the oomp part
but gets a nice solo too
big band party time

Wreck of the Old 97 - Vernon Dalhart [from Evans 78s]

faded clipping
his voice is just about lost in all that noise
there's the train whistle
and there's the Vernon whistle
some melody instrument in back is in there too
saw or fiddle perhaps

Pomus Blues - Doc Pomus [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

inside out blues
with comic overtones
very nearly rock and roll 

or completely 

hair's breadth from  Blue Suede Shoes

Dancing on the Ceiling - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]

Peggy's on top of her game
not sure about the intro on the strings though
right in my ear
out of place
I'm glad they don't stay there
the fade-out is kind of weird too
keyboard player is excellent

Hammer and Nails - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]

structured lesson
with style

Pow R. Toch - Pink Floyd [from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]

get a beat going with mostly vocals
the drums and keys do a thing
then the crazies take over
dinking around in the studio
giving the Beatles ideas
when the talent infiltrates
both sides of the board

Bye, Bye Baby - Big Brother and The Holding Company, Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

each verse trajects a journey
returns to start again

It's so Obvious - Wire [from Pink Flag]

it's in four

Overpowered by Funk - The Clash [from Combat Rock]

a way to move
words are there
to serve a syllable count
and dance pattern
any iamb in a storm

Don't Be Cross - Carl Zeller [from 100 Greatest Classics]

dreamy sentiment waltz
would fit right into The Sound of Music

Show Business - A Tribe Called Quest [from The Low End Theory]

all business-like

E.S.P. (Japanese) - Shonen Knife [from Brand New Knife]

formula pop
how the songs go
is less material than the projected persona
and the dance
and the fashion

Lamb of God (take 1) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at Jack Straw Productions, Seattle, May 10, 2005]

I must have played a few wrong notes
the setting is a reflection of Stravinsky's The Owl and The Pussycat
by giving the words an abstract projection
the hope was
to cleanse them of individual expression
to let the words mean what they mean 
no thumb on the scale

Left Hand - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]

hit the hook heavy

I Don't Know (take 2 edit) - Your Mother Should Know [August 2, 2012]

there's something about this style of piano pounding that bugs me
it seems thrown away and careless
rather than considered and treasured

D Line To The Streamline - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live at the Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]

diary entry

Banned Rehearsal 1054 - Jennifer Chung, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [July 2 and 4, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1054 220702 - 04

matching our breathing to the jets of the sky
friendly fireworks
and a Dungeness bell clang
stepping outside of music
to hang with sounds
is our mind a free for all
kings and provisional hills
our self
a desperate ploy
to bind a mind
within our onrushing moment
our daily backyard life
the Dungeness bell
clangs periodically

November 3, 2022

Pipers Paven - Martin Peerson - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

for what purposes might we attend to old music
have we not progressed beyond
or
do we seek ancient wisdom
or
simply an otherwise inaccessible frame of mind
a window
to another
however obscured it may have become in the interim
any composition
in whatever form it has been transmitted
is a thought of another
relatively precise
and relatively independent of its performance practice
though attention to what we know of past practice
has been shown to be illuminating on occasion
here
the model for what music and thinking might be
is based on corporate choral multi-voiced expression
the learned voice
is a voice that speaks in many voices
relatively impersonal
what we speak is shared by all
even here
where one performer imitates that choral expression

Deep River - Paul Robeson [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]

with recordings we gain access to voice and practice
but
the goal is still access to what is not otherwise ours
here
the model is the sole petitioner
speaking for themself
and
we gather
for the people with which they identify

Honeysuckle Rose - Count Basie [from The First Recordings He Ever Made]

nearly a Thelonious Monk bend he gets there
keeping spirits high

New Mississippi River Blues - York Brothers [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

relaxed meter
image of lazy
and being carried along
ready to kick back

Slippin' and Slidin' - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]

following the money if you can
it was all the rage
while the kids had cash

Run Run Run - The Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground and Nico]

similar in vibe
in the comparison of VU to the R&R of the time
to
The Clash and the R&R of its time
the city the bites back
at the suburbs
and
at a remove
country
tribal attitude

Peace Like a River - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]

I guess it's riparian theme night
the voice is personal and intimate
but veers into speaking for a population
when the verse turns its head to speak
to you
who can't outrun the history trains
rivers and trains
in American song

Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy - Ramones [from Leave Home]

urban again
a music from hard straight streets and square corners

Eminence Front - The Who [from It's Hard]

it's as though they weren't engaging with each other at all
going through some motions
it could be danced to
but does not demand to be
or really even invite it

Entos 1 side A - Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer, David M, Marcia Z [June 27, 1987]

a hum
and some explanation
as to what it is
I hope it's helpful
since I have no idea
hypotheses and proving (in the sense of testing)
1
music making
anybody can do it who wants to
2 understanding of text John 1:1-18
anyone can enter into it
and can respond uniquely
my re-interpretation
3 relationships and personality
un-stateable hypothesis
our relationships to others
are based on Luke's
the Kingdom of God is entos (within and/or among) you
a corporate permeation
outer and inner
created in the image of God
the Holy Spirit
music
Genesis
creativity
created in the image of creativity
Holy Spirit
the further gift
a shade of distinctness
but why do we want to make masterpieces
attend the hum
know the silence
their skills in silence
attention
letting go
the will
missed the word
and there we are back at John Cage
a witness from David M
of a performance on a NY street of 4'33"
I believe
and I have found empirically
direction of work
work should have love (Dempster) 
is social
scores with curvy lines
can a piece be good
Stuart Dempster our referee
a direction of love
good will
letting go
trying to systemize the categories
listen
let go
and there's the knee jerk anechoic chamber
one can hear only one's own
mechanically produced
self
listening for someone in particular
for their benefit
in their direction
posture and breathing
I find
listening myself
now
in the curious position
of someone listening
and taking notes
on a recording
of four people listening
but not making sounds
I hear only a recording
of what they heard
overlain
with a hum
and subsisting within the sounds that surround me
here
in my listening space
Wir können noch ein Dimension tiefer gehen
as the saying goes
four cunning oxen demons on the fir goon
air getting pushed around

November 4, 2022

Two Headed Fight - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]

the guitar break after each verse
continues into the guitar solo verse
at a leisurely psychedelic tempo 
largely static and narrow

Tonight's The Night - Janet Jackson [from The Velvet Rope]

such a production
to gloss over trepidation
textually
an imagined conversation of seduction
musically
all candles and incense
Hollywood glitz romance

Things You Say - Whitney Houston [from Just Whitney]

public private conversation
an open letter
the main vocal folds its statement into the backup vocals
without irony
a unified textual message
she has something to say and she's saying it

Banned Rehearsal 715 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 5, 2007]

repetition varied
in wandering obtusely
to the thrust of Cage's poetic assertion
a snare taps
and small whistles warble
flatline mantra
in making such a statement
the statement made
becomes a falsehood
a logical game
such as

I am lying and I am incapable of truth 

a draw game
start over
self annulling
logically
a clever falsehood
it is only at the level of textually internal reflection
that both statements must be false
for the whole to be a true statement
but
on another level
forcing a meta theory
the statement pushes outside itself
breezy gray damp day here today
air must pass through our throat pipe
long suspended cymbal roll
very quiet
some thumping
stops

Land, Love, and Liberty - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from River Rats and Pipelines]

addressing one's country
as an other
as a lover 

a tense discussion
kitchen table between them

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1990