"[Barnstable Bear (in blue pants and a red and black checked cap)] FOR MY NEW COMIC STRIP 'LI'L' ORPHAN ABNER,' THE THING FOR ME TO DO IS WORK HARD. DILIGENCE! TWELVE HOURS A DAY AT THE DRAWING BOARD . . . TWELVE HOURS MORE AT THE THINK-TABLE . . . TWELVE MORE DRINKING COFFEE . . . TWELVE MORE WRITING MYSELF FAN MAIL. WORK! WORK! WORK! I'LL MAKE PUBLIC SPEECHES! I'LL ENDORSE THE CHEERFUL CHARLIES . . AND ALL PUBLIC GOOD WORKS! I'LL PUT HONEST TOIL INTO MY CREATIVE LABOR . . . I'LL SCHEME . . I'LL PLOT . . . . I'LL SWIPE OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS . . . EXCELSIOR!"
- Walt Kelly, from "Pogo - Clean as a Weasel: the Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume 6"
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
February 1, 2022
I Learned That From You - Denise Glover [from Dreams of the Butterfly]
circles around its story
from the image in
the 2nd verse
same trajectory as the
first
instrumentals revolve in reverie
{a Sara Evans cover}
February 4, 2022
Eight - Tom Swafford [from 12.15.19]
work out on the overhead wires
flips and spins
Cherry Orchard Theme - Melissa Dunphy [from The Cherry Orchard]
incidental music for a production of the play
perfectly plausible as such
poignant
busy
unstable
if by land you mean sea - Josef K [from the natural articulation of things part zero]
syllables of sound
volumes of vowels
filling to the top
the can rings
somewhere distinctly near
in your ear
where wave meets wind
in the rhythm
space of cars
on a wide bridge
we remove to the chatterbeach
so many birds
Amok! 1 - Evan Zaporyn - Gamalan Galak Tika [from Gamalan Galak Tika]
the notion of downbeat slips off its pedestal
something about the way the
meter shifts go by
reminds me of the keyboard part of Book of Windows
it's quieter inside should you prefer
Given a Sign - Loma [from Don't Shy Away]
care taken of the songwriting
after the manner of Bowie or Eno
but there's
more than a little Laurie Anderson as well
composing with wordstruments
Streaming
Soundbox 1 - Marino Alberto, Omar Willey, Carlos Snaider, Leanna Keith, Heather Bentley
I was not able to catch the original stream
so I listened later
1
we open with an invocation
worship the ancestors
pantheon call
semiprofundities of accusation
2
from the linqua franca de facto of chords
||my theory about that:
working
hypothesis:
the musical lingo of self-styled civilized Europe
(art music
church music court music bourgeois music common practice tonality)
that is
my
native language
and the only one I play in fluently
is a dead language
Beethoven beat it to a pulp
and it expired long and lovely over the next
century
I play a dead language
thus
as a composer
I am compelled to invent my own
from what is left over
a new lingo arose in the Americas
(blues jazz country
rock folk pop etc.)
all dialects of a common set of assumptions
all based on
rhythmic and harmonic structures
that do not match anything like those of my
native tongue
except in the most superficial ways
3
between them is a Chinook of sorts
4
a diatribe vituperative
5
outside the language issue outlined above
a personally negotiated
cooperation
6
a waltz riffing in our louder culture
7
another diatribe vituperate
Recorded
January 29, 2022
The Jewish Mother (A Yiddish Mamme) - Itzhak Perlman [from Tradition]
fill-in-the-breaks arrangement
orchestra fits its activity
under the violin's
held phrase ends
a staple of song writing
an image of supportive cooperation
melody's helpmeet
Banned Rehearsal 308 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 16, 1992]
hands
cheeks
head
down
chair
piano
guitar
drums
autoharp
variously resonating
variously pitched
new words for John
intent loosely defined
as what we thought we were up to
sounds are being made on instruments
and other times
which don't cooperate with themselves
or with each other
to build anything bigger than that
while a toddler tries out words
from inside that same intent
making a family life music
music that is like family life
nursery play
goal or hope or postulated outcome
a new sort of music
in a new sort of context
not marketable in any known arena
a social experiment
as much or more than a musical one
an infant music
has got to start somewhere
I sloganized this at the time thusly
take music out of the marketplace
and put it back in the family
where it belongs
there's that monotonal radio preacher again
o hum te deum
o hum te deum
we shall put all these sounds in the same box
the way out
is far more out
our scribbled praxis
forge anew
forge a head
Gnot as a mock myth
drums and the peals of bells
Oozingbrain of the Gauche Garde
 |
| my journal entry of May 15, 1995 |
Looking for Satellites - David Bowie [from Earthling]
bisyllabic lines as rhythm generator
Song for Yvonne and David - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, Febraury 23, 2002]
my setting of the well-known passage from Ruth, composed for Karen's sister's wedding
a nicely turned setting
the basic idea of its arrangement
is the old
fill-in-the-blanks as above
You'll Be Comin' Down - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]
a smothering embrace of a sound
January 30, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 812 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
we poke around in hopes that our poking sounds will reveal something
mostly we
just poke or rattle
Neal peals out thunders
goes nowhere
arrives safely
settles
in makes improvements
How'veyoubeenNukI'vebeenfinethanksThur
Witness Protection Program - The Snubs [from Witness Protection Program EP]
the chord changes serve memory
how the players keep track
and we with them
Banned Telepath 80 Theremud - Steve Kennedy [January 17, 2022]
for Banned Rehearsal 1043
throbbing electric drone
from on high descending
whistles chirp
drumming going in or out
revving up or muttering
tones erupt
brightly gentle billows of electric drone sounds
inhabited by swiftly flying
swallows
and bugs
an occasional landbeast roaring in the distance
our camera
does not move from its field location
we see what comes by
the odd radio
gentle timing
there is a strangeness
to hearing the sound of someone
turning
off the recording
we are hearing
Pauana dolorosa and Galiarda dolorosa, Fvb. 80 and Fvb. 81 - Peter Philips - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
movement is by straight line
countermotions in other straight lines
commentary
and discussion provided
and shared among the straight lines
is any single voice coherent with itself
in anything like the way
that the
whole is?
presuming the whole is
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 164 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
the voices count the beats
each different in its number pattern between
motions
Symphony in A Major, Op. 92 (#7) - Ludwig van Beethoven - NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini
explicit and inexplicit subdivisions
then left adrift
ideas move through the
orchestra
each part talking to each other part
Arturo gets the rowdy right
the
subdivision of the measure in 2
is shared between inexplicit and explicit
each
informs the other
perturbations are inflection points
articulating larger
groups
squeeze box trio
step kick step kick
a list of subdivisional strategies
Impromptu in G-flat Major, Op. 51 - Frédéric Chopin - Artur Rubinstein
structured melody
with aberrations and detours and distractions
the figuration
enforces a flexibility of the substrate
in order to clarify the structural
integrity of the melody
Dead Man Blues (take 1) - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers [from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, Chicago Days]
the minstrel hokum that starts this cut
an open-eyed comedic gesture that cuts
into the future
I Ain't Got Nobody - Art Tatum [from Classic Early Solos]
there is a sweetness in his playing that gets lost
or hidden inside a
fireworks
tip o' hat to the Rhapsody in Blue
out
I Found a New Baby - Charlie Parker [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
steady strum on the guitar and drums
almost stern
like a dance floor
this
music faces inward
Laura - Lead Belly [from Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a Lead Belly Legacy]
squeeze box and mouth harp make a train
an industrial age rhythm
Ain'ta Bump in the Road - Roy Hogsed [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
put the chains on Mother?
all the problems with cars and roads
bouncy rhythm
not a train chugging
more springy
1
starts chirpy gets shrill
whatever it is he's dancing on it's hot
then
hotter
like a newsreel of his career so far
clown man
2
distinctly old-fashioned
the old days
poignant-idyllic
3
party game
getting shrill
always more
faster
brighter
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]
doing his Guthrie imitation
I heard this from Green Pastures of Ivy League
This Is My Song - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]
all the glitter
all the glow
aiming for the old money
When You're In - Pink Floyd [from Obscured By Clouds]
a film cue barely moves
long fade
Kurt's Rejoinder - Brian Eno [from Before and After Science]
in the lab
inventing industrial music production
Next, Please - Orbaneja [from Orbaneja]
technical display of metrical prowess
throwing in regular extra beats
Assembly Rechoired 17 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Loretta M [March 7, 1987]
clavichord coffee can drum and other light percussion
the process of recording
and amplifying
dis- and then re- embodying the sounds
of these little
instruments
transforms them
hyper-particularizes them
is their new-found
invisibility
also a part of the medium's transformation?
music boxes harmonica
other toys
music box playing Joplin
harmonica playing Amazing Grace
allamerican
band
take me out to the old ballgame
on the Schoenhut in the Greenwood Big
House
we played in the front room
life with Keith and Karen
if you came over
you made a tape with us
we found the mystery chord
if you want to invent a
music from the ground up
you've got to start pretty low to it
and the
Aaronsbundler on clavichord
accompanied ably on monochord
by Karen I think
February 2, 2022
Grande Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion - P.D.Q. Bach [from Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion]
the problem with this
is that it's only as funny as it needs to be
never
turning on itself
to invent a new way to be music
at least the operas work as spoofy theater
Banned Rehearsal 463 (side b) - Isaac E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 29, 1997]
cases are opened
a high note is plucked
and into the swamp we go
thrashing
about
a sudden flower
commentary paused for tight squeezing
thin paths
of sound
from perch perilous
to perch pointed
ponderous pounds
radio lands
nearby
the daily family life
magic transformations into neverwhere
the
Kingsbury was pretty new to us then
may have still had the original
keyboard
too many sharp edges
we approach with solemn care
oh dear Isaac's a
fuss
Neal does a fine imitation of
Ben-on-Crumar
in the last few seconds
riff repeated three times
varied for the fourth
separate section
2 and 2
or at
least clearly different in pattern
songwritten punk
expulsion of frustration
Consider the Birds 8 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 3, 2007]
only 3 seconds long but full of event
Song 1 - The Tailenders [recorded live at the High Dive, Seattle April 6, 2012]
the steady place has soft spots
careful where you step
recorded by me
back
when Karen played out with Your Mother Should Know
also on the bill
I brought
my DAT
and a small stereo microphone
now defunct
Don't Black Out - Your Mother Should Know [from Demos recorded February 23, 2017]
starring the cymbal
trademark sound
I Dig Everything - David Bowie [from Toy]
fill your room with sound
alternate affects
push release
a note
the beginning of an elaboration
can be redefined
as itself
containing
only the memory
of its former self
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band 1, Prelude and Fugue in A-flat Major - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccotett
for me the up-down-/high-low-ness of figure
is a different sort of thing
than
the up-down-/high-low-ness of register
or
harmonic updown is different in kind
than melodic
and the difference persists through numerous levels
curse that engineer with his too quick fades!
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 165 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
never shy about showing what he's doing
rather than compose a specious
continuity
he signals his segment boundaries
one voice just will continue heedless
of the implied modulations all around
Symphony in F Major, Op. 93 (#87) - Ludwig van Beethoven - London Symphony Orchestra, Edouard van Remoortel
big square blocks with motion inside
alternate with
linear builds
then
combined
dramatic events are plural in essence
these van Remoortel recordings
of 7 and 8 were either poorly engineered or poorly transferred from vinyl or
both
murky and distant
Impromptu in G-flat Major, Op. 51 - Frédéric Chopin - Alfred Cortot
the characters reveal so much
in their hesitations and back-trackings
scene
ends
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 6 (continued) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [from his live stream on October 17, 2021]
... Auntie Providence
for there no men clatter
11
no blank ye
to put it all
the more plumsily
as the gates may be
swordswallower
the endswell of man
temporarily wrapped in obscenity
outing both
A the limits of the horizontal
moment and
B the obscurity of its depths
his everpresent toes
as none of you
knows
Javanese
ex audi facts
a pentium of parsacks
the stream that would be a
river
silken horse
gather behind me satraps
twodimensional of you
the rhyme on
my raisin
might have been a happy evening
answered
volleyball
she tried
all thee winsome ways
all her winds had taught her
the mooks were not
amooksed
I see she said . . .
Fantaisie Négre in B minor (#4) - Florence Price - Lara Downes
not that far from Art Tatum
to be honest
but less coy about its own inner
sweetness
not that far
in the way it exhibits its core melody
inside its figuration
plays with a careful distinction
of what the titular tune is
and what it isn't
up to the solo
Sweet and Easy to Love - Roy Orbison [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]
sweeter than easy
per the backups
bop bop de wadda wadda
Yellow Jacket - The Ventures [from Walk Don't Run]
after anything sweet
guard your root beer
Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
a brag with a thicket of nos at the start
in harmony no less
but what about
the mashed potato?
no?
In Session at the Tintinabulary
January 31, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 1044 - C, D, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Ahava K, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Neal was narrowcasting from Outpost Lake City, Department of the Tintinabulary where C, D, and Ahava wandered through, Karen and I were ensconced in the Tintinabulary itself.
February 4, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook 3x3 (transpositional) D A B - Keith Eisenbrey
Joshua Tree Prelude 2 - Aaron Keyt
Prelude in A minor - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
more doodles from 1987
