"Pogo: Now, what you doin'... Drawin' pictures?
Albert: I'm
showin' you how to become a famous cartoonist ... First, you thinks of
a catchy name... then you sits down an' writes a
half-a-dozen jokes...
Pogo: S'pose you can't think of any
jokes?
Albert: No drawback... you mere swipes 'em from your
pals... Actually, if you can't get up anything funny, then you
gotta learn to draw guns and/or girls!
Pogo: S'posin' you
can't draw?
Albert: No drawback! You makes
cartoon animals that talk...
Pogo: Gee, I dunno... Who'd believe
in talkin' cartoon animals?
Albert: No drawback! Who believes in
anythin' these days? Take the young, they believes in
very little...
Pogo: Oh, I dunno about that...they
don't believe in a lot of the old icons, that's for sure...
Albert:
No, I means they believes in very little... like do you ever notice
what them girls wear on the beach?
Pogo: Well, I've noticed what
some of 'em don't wear...
Albert: It's Sunday!
Pogo:
S'pose you can't grind out cartoon animal faces?
Albert:
No drawback! You learn to draw awful big balloons..."
Walt Kelly - from "Hijinks from the Horn of Plenty: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume 8"
Texts
Recorded
Intermezzo in B minor, Op. 4 #6 - Robert Schumann - Eric Le Sage
full boil figuration
stops here and there
to impersonate the
characters
moving them around on stage
Nocturne in B Major, Op. 32 #1 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
held together politeness
bursts out at the end of the third phrase of
four
opening up a range of elsewheres
certain to be worked with
a theatrical mantelpiece
suppression can't survive
At Parting - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo
borders on parody
so sincere and proper
Suburban Eyes (alternate take) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
rhythmic anomalies are cracks to explore
Long Tall Sally (take 6) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
rollicking fun tales
from the room that's hoppin' right now
you
could be here too
Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You) - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music]
report from the romantic trading floor
a hint of bump and grind in the
horn hits
I Hold No Grudge - Nina Simone [from High Priestess of Soul]
in the latter days of the sweeping violins
soon synthesizer would take
over
fewer contracts to pay
I Will Say Goodbye - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan with Michel LeGrand]
but if you want classy
you go for the shimmery glow of a movie orchestra
Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]
the hook is for hanging onto while free-associating your situation
with
a stray line or more higgle piggle in the verses
or
inventing one
for some fictional singer persona
why are the back-up singers two flights down the stairwell?
The Big Sheep - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]
a biggest whopper contest
performed in approved folk song style
nonsense words to cover any indiscretions pending
Can I Forgive Him - Paul Simon [from Songs from The Capeman]
many sided indictment
a man and a guitar
Natura Abolita - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]
percussive envelopes imply the striking of a surface or cord or lip
phonemic consonants dripping into the dark pool
absorbed
taken
bats and shriekbirds
this music is a space with sounds in it
Runaway - Head for the Hills [from Robber's Roost]
the old weird America
scrubbed up all clean and wholesome
That Wasn't Me - Brandi Carlile [from Bear Creek]
tempo and feel in the Let It Be camp
some of that is the plangent
two fisted piano chords
End Game (feat. Ed Sheeran & Future) - Taylor Swift [from Reputation]
divvy up each line
into a few words
in one spot
a few words
in another
line them up in a dance sequence
so that
the play of the parts of lines
with the other parts
reconfigures the sense
In Too Deep - Steve Layton and Sound-In [from Miracles and Wonders]
a tight space
rough passages to re-traverse
light may fail first
Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 25 - Paul Hindemith - Paul Hindemith
conversations had among the four strings
this would make an interesting
left-hand piano piece
an historic recording
ripped from vinyl
original was made in an
imperfectly quiet space
possibly in recital
in which case
a
pretty quiet audience
multiple iterations of ideas in succession
variations in register
size
end points
direction
old things in new places
or
objects regarded from various angles
puzzled over
Crazy - Willie Nelson [from . . .And Then I Wrote]
first two word statement
more spoken than sung
he turns on the
singing to complete his line
composes the melody to make the expression
of the words clear
O Little Town of Bethlehem - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
square little hymn tune with modern (for 1868) expressive punch
(as
hymns go)
Lightnin' Hopkins - REM [from Document]
a procession entrance
vocals from the back
to join the drums up
front
a portrait embedded
pressed in twice
Tales from The Riverbank - The Jam [from The Sound of The Jam]
theatrical song writing
that is
it is written as though for stage
Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer - Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
sort of
Red Hot Kinda Love - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]
more stage show
or songwritten with the director of the video as the
target
Your Old Clothes - Red Ribbon [from Freaks Only]
glorious DIY crud sound
closet rock
let it buzz
Pota - Sascia Pellegrini [from Epidemics]
mind bend time
hearing this as though it arose in prog land
and
not in academic land
though both are probably equally wrong
so
what is it?
there is certainly the element of gradual accumulation
of sounds
a prog land thing
but
it resists groove heroically
an academic land thing
neither is virtuous
we all know
there is no virtue in music
just community
finds places to
go
after maximal accumulation
dinosaurs on the short waves
and ray guns on the tube
fade out
definitely a prog land
thing
back to your regularly scheduled brain waves
Slow Love - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]
part of the kneejerk analysis habit
is defensive
how is this
attempting to do its number on me
part is inquisitive
is how it
attempts to do its number on me an essential part of what it is
does
this music attempt to clarify
or to obscure its methodology
Stripped, Pt. 2 - Christina Aguilera [from Stripped]
a quick apology and a fade-out
Pie in the Sky - Ian Bell and John Teske [from Embers of Discontent]
document of a tone-deaf preacher's message
Manic Panic - Prom Queen [from Doom Wop]
rhetorical questions
accumulating anxiety feel
Locarno - Jessica McMann - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]
long thunder
drops of rain and synthy percussion sounds
Glow Girl - The Who [from The Who Sell Out]
front end
a pair of not obviously connected song bits
with
smart-ass tail-off
Holiday Story - X [from See How We Are]
anecdotal situation
over-use of the hook
if it becomes the whole
song
Grafig 1 - Greg Sinibaldi [from Frieze of Life]
wiggling worm
little hat
little briefcase
bopping down the
street
Track 5 - Youth Rescue Mission [recorded live at the High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
dropping syllables onto the floor
slowly
singularly heavy rolling
a large lake
slow evening ponder
valiant efforts to pump it
up
Recite Remorse - Waxahatchee [from Out In The Storm]
witness to how it seemed
at an articulatory life event
halfway out
the door
out of my body
Panic Room - Star Anna [from Live at Rimbert Illustration]
also witness as above
social impact of our sorry history
King of France - Bob Dylan [from A Tree with Roots]
dredging the muck left over from the continental take-over
A Real Cool Time - Ramones [from Halfway to Sanity]
the friendly neo-50s dance band Ramones
Track 17 - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]
guitar opens with a sequence of notes in a quintuplet over the slow four
Track 5 - The Tailenders [recorded live at the High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
bass and drums with a baritone vocal
all the sonority mooshed up
together in the room resonance
a keyboard provides some relief
Crime and Punishment - Shallow Lenses [from War Poems]
solidarity anthem
comfort in troubling times
When George Bush Was Head of the C.I.A. - Amy Denio [from Chapel Sessions]
setting up a steady field
with anomaly traps
that prod it to
unravel
somebody found some cool new toys to play with
probably could have done
without the western strings to dress it up for western ears
Scene and Dance of the Little Swans - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [from 100 Greatest Classics]
such a struggle to climb those last few steps to the top of the tune
sink back into weariness
in comes the clean-up crew
Through The Rain (feat. Kelly Price & Joe) - Mariah Carey [from Charmbracelet]
self help pep talk
pile up the performance layers
a long rinse
cycle
Song 4 - Curtains For You [recorded live at the High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
life is hard song
getting by
by surviving
a celebration
Run Run Rudolph - Three Fingers [from Stocking Stuffers]
Rudolph
as the intermediary
for Santa prayers
Crushing My Soul - Emily Stranger [from Labor of Love]
here's my robot self
I'm trouble
and you'll be sorry
The Hebrides Overture - Felix Mendelssohn [from 100 Greatest Classics]
like the Pastorale Symphony but more touristy
Romanticized
fantastical
a land of ghosts in arms
and pretty countryside
here are my slides
difference between Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann:
if Schumann
had composed this instead of Felix
just imagine how weird it would have
been
don't get me wrong
this is Mendelssohn at the top of his game
but he will never pull the foundation out from your beliefs like
Schumann could
All The Things You Are - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]
talk about objectification
moods to order
I does this one
the showstopper
The Red Blanket - Robin Jackson and The Caravan [from Dust Diaries]
go-to cadential formulae
to mark the line rhymes that matter
And Then Nothing - Lures [from There's No Pressure]
the guitar sound was made with care
I like the engineering on this
everything is clear but not sequestered
sounds are designed to be
sounds within a sound
exquisite balance
nice job y'all!
Strengur - Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir - Davíð Brynjar Franzson [from Strengur]
a diary entry under possible attack
life goes on
well the Hebrides Overture it most certainly is not
not just
solemn
but solemn with great propriety and respect
Save the Brainforest - Pete Comley [from Lost City Music Vol. 2]
all sorts of strange beasts howl by
Festa dos Gatos - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Live in Natal]
energetic guitar front
highly competent
Strong Swimmer - Shelby Earl [from The Man Who Made Himself a Name]
encouraging self talk
Angry Brass, Angry Bells - Tom Varner [from Sound Vespers]
baiting
sniping
making it up under their breaths
now they've
had so much they're starting to snore
somebody's stomping in the back
parlor
night has sunk
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba - George Frideric Handel [from 100 Greatest Classics]
fountains of flowers flung fairly far
Evolution - Tyrannosaurus Grace [from Much More Than A Story]
is my hobbyhorse
but this song is about getting drunk
There Once Was a Muffin - Marjorie Palmer [from Make a Joyful Noise]
a silly recital song
Abeyance - James Falzone [from So Far So Still]
this melody is a clown act full of characters
Andante Cantabile - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [from 100 Greatest Classics]
handing favorite bits down through the string section
Wha Da We Got? - Karin Blaine [from Modern Day Living]
night of cousins!
Marjorie Palmer and I share a set of grandparents
and we both share a set of greats with Karin
Face The Music - Dead Bars [from Dream Gig]
embracing the inner slacker
for want of a better word
I admire the
flatfootedly structural use of notes throughout
Pt. VII - Alex Anthony Faide [from Particles of the Infinite]
action movie
fully armed
New York's In Love - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]
pulling words
from against the wall
onto the dance floor
From Your Lipps - Specyphi
heavy industry
big machines
must yell over the noise my yelling is
making
I'm Too Pretty for Jail - Strange Like Us [recorded live at The Sunset Tavern, Seattle, April 18, 2017]
attitude expression
anything further falls to the side
Break My Soul - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]
antagonistic to the man in charge
workplace rebellion
from within
an industry
that has plenty of drudge work to do
channeling the
frustration du jour
My Friend Ringo - The Young Fresh Fellows [from The Men Who Loved Music]
confession time
Cold November - Shannon Stephens [from Pull It Together]
the beat moves ahead in sudden increments
but only when it finally must
after strong reticence
Transsexual Girlfriend - Mud On My Bra [recorded live at The Sunset Tavern, Seattle, April 18, 2017]
melodies in words and guitar
follow the same lines
guitar adds
some stuttery syllables between
Songs of Sleep and Dreams: Houve um ritmo no meu sono - Tom Baker - Chérie Hughes, Brian Chin, Ben Thomas [from Deeply Lodged]
take the text apart
comment from the international café
but the
text is still apart
commentary notwithstanding
Madrigali: Six Fire Songs on Italian Renaissance Poems: III. Amor, io sento l'alma - Morton Lauridsen - Polyphony, Stephen Layton
fancy choral writing
Give Me All Your Lovin' (feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.) - Madonna [from MDNA]
advice for to pick up dudes
Song 7 - Sun Dummy [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]
the long intro makes sense in a dive-bar
it gives the song a chance to
soak in
before it properly begins
wouldn't want to startle anyone
by just bursting into song
voice aims between open strings
Brain Pig - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]
speaking in strings
how it is
resists straight lines
veers
the distinction between sample and sample-ready is a legal one only
Get You Some - Rachel Harrington [from Makin' Our House a Honkytonk]
slinky number
No Tattoos - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, April 27, 2017]
the stanza twice
then with woo ooo ooo
then with the words
again
Moss on Rock - Lori Goldston [from High and Low]
as though the drums were all inside the cello's body
Super Hoe - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]
nothing gets away
Wear Gloves - Yuni in Taxco [from Prizes]
we'll take the elevator up to the party
band in the back
vocal
echoes into itself occlusively
Its Obvious - Chastity Belt [from I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone]
weary subsuburban
why get out of bed
A Lazy Farmer Boy - Robin Holcomb [from One Way Or Another]
a quasi pastiche
a failed courtship
rural legend
pastoral
We Remain Faithful - Total Experience Gospel Choir, Pat Wright [from Bits & Pieces]
does any language promulgated about music
change it
is it possible
for it
to remain unviolated
is there anything inside the
topic of discourse
frenzy for spirit to enter
Virgil - Bigfoot Wallace & His Wicked Sons [from Virgil]
in the West
where things move from place to place
railyard to the
afterlife
It's Just Everything - Gaytheist [from Let's Jam Again Soon]
sound pressed to face
slows down to renew pressure
angry
constant
General Relativity - Robber's Roost [from Rage & Reason]
capsule highlights
science lecture notes
Carol of the Bells - London Symphony Orchestra [from Songs for the Holidays]
could be a threat
beware
Christmas this way comes
Devil Gets Her Way - The Swearengens [from Devil Gets Her Way]
not a downtown guitar style
nor a downtown roll to it
straight
shooter
Only is Gone - Charms [from Human Error]
the eradicatory equipment has arrived
and has powered up
song in
its wake
treats us to another power cycle
the beat persists
so we don't lose our bearings
and slip free
Lungs - Mike and Matty [from And It Came to Pass / Not to Stay]
a pleasant instrumental
fronted by mellow horns
Es taget vor dem Walde - Ludwig Senfl - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of The Krummhorn]
krummhorns with a vocal from the mid-Baroque (a guess) {NB: early}
Catapult - Song Sparrow Research [from Song Sparrow Research]
bobbing side to side
swivel from the top of the hips
Linger & Fade - Anxious Arms [from Never Was]
from incommensurable distances
in conflicting spaces
Pockets - Michael Bisio, Matthew Shipp [from Flow of Everything]
there is a sensibility to how vertical and horizontal elements work together
endemic to the common practices associated with jazz
chords are
objects within key fields
the directionality of internal voice-leading
elements
is relatively free of the structural role it plays within
European derived tonal practice
For The Love Of You - Whitney Houston [from Whitney]
slung low
loosely fitting
a classy date
Eboa Ocean - Brenday Byrnes [from Micropangea]
we witness
as tones emerge
jostling figures that quiver in the
flow
the effects of unseen currents
and excitements
it moves
not
we move not
an invisible cage
magnetic forces
Sasquatch Love - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]
just the basics
played with energy
no sense getting fancy here
Orphaned Heart - Doug Kolmar [from So Said Life]
impulse to share experience and stories and celebrations
Liebestraum in A-flat Major (#3) - Franz Liszt [from 100 Greatest Classics]
harmony figures dropping beneath the opening melodic notes
opening into
passionate effusion
spilling into pools of cascading figures
Lucy - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
movie-trope:
guy with a guitar singing his songs at a dive bar that is
full but openly ignoring him
I've never seen that in my experience
generally the solo guy plays first
when the bar is not yet full
but populated by some of the other musicians that will be playing
and hangers-on
they are about as attentive and supportive as any
bar-crowd ever is
Water - CEP [from Drawing the Target Around the Arrow]
make a sound
put it in a file
carefully preserved
for later
reference and research
Solitude - Steve Peters [from With My Back to the World]
open voiced triads bloom
intoned sonorities
Exit - U2 [from The Joshua Tree]
moralist preacher man
with a stage show and visual aids
Dead for Hire - The Ancients [recorded live at Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
theme song for adventure game allies
to be sung while being summoned
and stowed in your bag of allies
One Stop Shopping - The Deadrones [from We Are Watching]
pounding with full arm strength
or
from within a mech suit
Sachy - Stanislav Surin [from Ten Songs]
lively ironic
(stepped back from direct address)
opening verses
slow down to get serious
back to lively ironic
a lamenting vocal
explained by its underlying harmony army
Shrinking Violet - Swearin' [from Swearin']
the instruments are the singer's double
their team
their sibs in
arms
Dieter - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
the melody instrument has a spotlight
the band lurks in the dark
Edith Wharton: An Autumn Sunset - William Bon [from Quaking Aspen]
doom poem
poom doem
poom doom
poem doem
nay!
In Session at The Tintinabulary
October 22, 2023
Windham - Keith Eisenbrey
continuing my weekly devotional:
arranging a melody from an 1846
shape-note song book
October 23, 2023
Banned Rehearsal 1086 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt
October 26, 2023
Sinfonia 9 - Keith Eisenbrey
the process as it has developed:
once the array of pitches to be used is
calculated
I make a quick draft of a piece using an ad hoc tactic of
exploiting the pitch-set frames.
Later I'll workshop it on clavichord
at which time I will probably make some changes.
I'm enjoying the
midi robot-harpsichord though.
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 5: 1984-1988
This volume covers my first years back in the Puget Sound area, working with the experience of repetition and with relationships between the vertical and horizontal pitch realms.
Keith Eisenbrey 4: 1983-1984
This volume finishes up the music I wrote while I was in New York (state) under the ostensible supervision of the academic world.
Keith Eisenbrey 3: 1982-1983
This set of pieces was written in Red Hook, NY, and Malabar, FL, as I was beginning to think about thinking about music.
Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982
These are what occupied my time toward at the end of my undergrad days and in the year before I went east for a while.
Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981
These are the keyboard works I composed while an undergrad at the UW.
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2010
