"Tyranny is so generally established in the rest of the world that the prospect of an asylum in America for those who love liberty gives general joy, and our cause is esteemed the cause of all mankind. Slaves naturally become base as well as wretched. We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature. Glorious it is for the Americans to be called by Providence to this post of honour. Cursed and detested will everyone be that deserts or betrays it."
Benjamin Franklin (ca. 1776/1777), quoted in The First American, The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, by H. W. Brands
Texts
Recorded
New Weather: III Bran - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington, John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens, Jayn Rosenfeld
The basis shifts at each new moment
Hypercool - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
slangiad
You Are My Joy - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]
wedding ready song
sheet music available in the gift
shop
Incredible - Madonna [from Hard Candy]
acting out a wish ritual
the words are part of the dance rhythm machine
Traces-Tapestry-Pinkfour - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]
a machine nears
internal processes
on timers
Gig Sup - Steve Layton [from Próxima Estación]
mechanical bounce game
Bare Branches (Soundscroll I (part 2) - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundscrolls: Lost Landshapes]
percussion piano and flute
sweep colors across a surface
Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 331 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
fills its space
like water flowing into pools
top to bottom
after the hinge
the tide floods inland
L'idée fixe, S. 395 (Andante amoroso d’après une mélodie de Hector Berlioz) [After H. Berlioz] - Franz Liszt - Feng Bian
transcription
is transformation
is translation
is discovery
Album for the Young, Part 2, Op. 68, 19-36 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
a romance is a story
with a before a during and an after
these pieces
are each
a little romance
in one
or a few
ponds
or
one could concoct
a connecting narrative
returning
characters and all
power moves
for strong young arms
these triadic harmonies
are not chords
they are voicings
in
motion or in stillness
Lyric Pieces, Book IV, Op. 47 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø
their lack of pretense
they don't sweat greatness
tying clever
knots
fond of variously decorated stepwise descending lines
Études de concert, Op. 57 #1 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth
focus on a single narrow figuration field
rarely straying much below
middle C
even after the possibility is opened
such straying
moments
function as articulation points
Sonata, Op. 68 (#9) - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
ambiguous motions
priesthood of practiced skill
refined taste
transgressive pleasure
stirred desire
this is a big piece
that reads as tiny and self-contained
Weather Bird - Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
sunny street
village life
downtown in fine duds
I Won't Say I Will (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
there are several reasons one might be interested in these false starts and
rejected takes
among them
a glimpse behind the curtains
at
the actual sound world
in which these songs were made
the reality
around
thems
as is
doing the making
Till There Was You - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]
presume George is playing guitar
so John must be relegated to shaker
or was he sitting it out
It Always Belongs to Me / It's Up to the Band / Rainbow of Girls / Shaking the Blues Away - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All by Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
possessions as point of American pride
this track is presented
as
a selection of individual items
no effort is made
to finesse
they join without arrangement
a rainbow of girls
no fraternization
Shut Out The Light - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
doing the story teller thing he does
holds it together through two
verses and chorus
the arrangement doesn't inflate suddenly
into a
stadium balloon
keeps it in the moment
solid
Nazi Driver - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]
grooving on paranoia
panic
committing to the bit
Moonlight and Roses [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Volume 3]
civic pride soundtrack
suddenly the sunny street
to strut along
vocal line is constructed around its words
like a decorated psalm tone
Hildegard von Bingenish
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]
cadenza at the end of each line
hitches up its tonal trousers
for
a new key
more brightly lit
more tinsel
The Fame - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]
within the set of my collection
of the names of recordings
there
is a quantity of albums
whose names are the same
as the name of a
song
contained within that album
the relationship
of eponymy
the gaudier the come on
the less likely the payoff
Forest of Thorns - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
a poetic image
is a way to be
the blues is a clown type
all the world's a cosplay convention
this is my new favorite YMSK track
Atalanta - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]
wizard of hands
conjures wisp after wisp
of ghastly creepies
they adhere like sychophants
nuzzle like limpets
SoundScroll VII, part two: Drones - S. Eric Scribner - S. Eric Scribner, The Hexaphonic Five [from SoundScrolls V - IX (Live)]
once upon a time
a drone was a peaceful musical focusing device
or
was it suspect from the start
power of immobility
to force compliance
What Kind of Fool Am I? (alternate take) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]
taking a stroll
through the kinds of music
this tune might like to
dress themselves in
intense pianism
Perfect Circle - REM [from Murmur]
file systems are fictions
is heuristic the right word?
God Part II - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]
standing on his porch
with his snarls and his shotguns
my yard is my parish
keep off the grass
La papillon et la fleur - King's Singers [from Chansons d'amour]
what's wrong with making a little valentine out of music
its
extravagance
Track 17 - Eckstein Middle School Ensemble [from Mach 6]
jazz band
elite
entry level
coolness training
The Meaning (Interlude)/Discipline - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]
sweet nothings in the ear
begs for punishment
not my kink
swipe whichever way swipers swipe
to dismiss
Coast to Coast - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]
albums are public journal entries
newsletters posted on the voidboard
I guess that's a no then
Interlude - (uncredited) [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]
a live moment
in a bar environment
Children of the Night - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
in their fancy clothes
on glossy paper
negotiating a commercial
economy
filling the space
saturating the market
Burning Up (12" version) - Madonna [from Madonna]
how many inches
are the other versions?
her come on
is that
she says
we're resisting
like
cowards
how many inches
of that 12
is padding?
Bess, You Is My Woman Now - Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]
spans of leaps
and their places
within the chord patterns
Elenan Timaru / Romania [from The World Sings Goodnight]
a pre-recorded lullaby
is a cheat
an ersatz comfort
21 Questions (feat. Nate Dogg) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']
another trope of suspicion
do you love me
or just the money
in the midst of a love bomb
Somebody's Everything - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]
extreme possessory
not just
to be owned
but
to abide
no other possessions
Track 5 - Red Ribbon [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
sound file:
the states of locations
in a matrix
indexed by
name
Cats Across The Way - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]
a pathetic romance
doomed from the start
Diabelli Recomposed, variations 6-10 - various (from a stream on May 11, 2023]
6
as though by Schubert
7
as though a waltz of the 1890s
8
as though by a shivering Scriabin
then
as though with
pinchy little fingers
9
now some francophile has got hold of it
10
and now
in arachnid tinkertoys
I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]
makes that piano
do his playing
tickles it under its chin
to
thank it
I'm Coming Home - T. Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]
straight ahead
country plea song
complete with biblical imagery
Where's The Loser - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]
manly tale
of manly legend
with break
for a bass guitar solo
All Apologies - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]
all the lines lead to the prayer
at the edge
Allure - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]
a paean
to living the good life (moneyed)
Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyoncé [from I am ... Sasha Fierce]
a sign of a pledge
social mnemonic
Flat Screen - Dead Bars [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]
always a pleasure
Medicine Man - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]
gospel message woven in
broadly ecumenical
The Quiet Way You Move Me - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]
each line a new inflection of tonality
wordless
but not without
composition
by vowel placement
the devil made me do it
by way of an apology
Ain't Goin' Home-HonkeyDoodle Town - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]
drinked hisself under the table
yet again
let's go pull tractors
Generals and Majors - XTC [from Nancy's Mix]
begging for spotlights
Bezrodna Nevezda - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]
vocal production affects our sense of intonation and interval
a
disciplined choir
Une jeune fillette (c. 1616) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]
of what does a song consist
that can be passed along
shared at
potlatch
or other social occasion
ornate lutering
Soundscape - Dan [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
growling dogs
peaceful frogs
heavy machinery
violent footfall
Piece of Your Mind - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
love among the household appliances
Rising - Blazzed [from Blazzed]
battle gear
on the move
warboys on their rigs
I See It - The Staples Singers [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Records Demos]
the repetition
is a coercive invitation to join
Shake a Tail Feather - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]
another member
of the dance craze craze
Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 6:30 PM (end) - John Cage - The New Performance Group, John Cage
the pointillistic isolation of events
from each other
asks of us
how silence responds
to each such pointillistically isolated
event
does it remain stone faced
and constant
or does it curve in event
space?
single impulse
single event
no spillover
there's a sound
that sounds new musicy
a random imaged texture
within narrow bounds of density
earmind
betrays our desire
for purity
from ego
I'm Amazed - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]
rumors spread of sickening deeds
Liebeslied - Fritz Kreisler - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
music for polite entertainment
suitable for ladies and gentlemen
of refined tastes
Colors: Khaki - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]
odd miniatures
grotesques
Burgess Shale Trip - Sam - Sacajawea Elementary Student [from Digital Dreams]
rolling through the factory floor
and around the corner
Valentine's Day - David Bowie [from The Next Day]
melody
as a rhyme of notes
within their stanzas
The Mermaid Set - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]
happy-go-lucky tales
of femmes fatal and vital
August - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]
the same sound might be described
as a discordant noise
or as a
particular texture of pitch feel
the voice
then
explores by means of singing
touching its
parts
Spiral II - Karlheinz Stockhausen
a mathematical construct
and a metaphor
and some wiggly electronic
sounds
meet
in the backrooms
of a radio cabaret
after
hours
sampling
what was left in the glasses
why yes
this is Sgt. Pepper's Stockhausen
a shot rings out
or a sharp slap
and a second
having a laugh
with the resident rodents
do I not hear Stockhausen's piece if
I fail to distinguish
either construct
or metaphor
in it?
and
if it
wasn't his piece
what was it?
Fly/Yoohoo - J. K. Randall, Matthew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]
this comes in
as though they had already been at it
for some
time
four musicians
place their sounds
on the head of a pin
fasten your seat belts
it can get crowded
but they hang on
the world outside the pin's head
has silenced
Inter/Play was a series of cassette tapes
distributed by J. K. Randall
(and then with Ben Boretz)
of the session recordings of the 80s
each cassette
had two sides
and for years
they were
arranged in my head
and in my cassette cabinet
as in the order
thus distributed
but
that order
does not match the order
in which the recordings were recorded
now
they are arranged
in a computer folder
alphabetically
and in my database
they are arranged
chronologically
by the date of their doing
in my head
they're humble jumble
in their idea space
Wild Leaves - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
this tune homes in on its invariant end tone
eyes locked
Transcendental Modulations - George Perle - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]
this has become quite the fun puppet show
with great sets
and
puppets of flowing silk
the plot blows tragical
Karl Rove: Announcing the War for Enraq - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]
the blind mice are enraged
Love Bade Me Welcome - Kia Sams - Prospect Choir
blend of mixed voices
each a human
Of All The Limbs to Cling To - Mikey and Matty [from Harbor Island]
covering a disaster
in pretty words
and jangly strums and strikes
Catchy Tune - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]
takes the stage
and proceeds to monolog something fierce
Remember - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]
floating on the harbor ripples
this music
is enwebbing you
in dreams
of past pleasures
past shames
Black Street In The Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]
delayed rhyme line
reference by primary source
fair use
...where murmurs die... - Bernard Rands - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]
a music of wisps
and broad colorful gestures
long lines
of
art deco reclining figures
this music has nowhere to go
which is realized
at length
it thrives in fetid swamps
Deep Purple - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
a melody that folds through itself
then a fine dance
a whole production number
costume changes and everything
Missa Tirnaviensis - Stanislav Surin - Trnavsky Komorny Orchester, Milan Krupcik
ceremonial and solemn
but not bloated
frugal
I've actually sung the Gloria
(and met Mr. Surin!)
as part of the
University Temple Chancel Choir
I think I even have a picture
he has an interesting ear for rhythm
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 28, 2026
Iddo - Keith Eisenbrey
June 30, 2026
Detritus 14 - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 33: Sabbatical Improvisations (part 4) 2014
In 2013 I had reached an inflection point in my big project, Études d'exécution imminent, and took a sabbatical (indifferently observed) from composing written-down music. I filled the time with various forms of improvisation, both "in-the-moment" composing, and sometimes puttering about with multi-tracking and other digitally applied effects. Here is the fourth bunch of them.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
