George Cruikshank - from The Comic Almanack, (1st Series: 1835-1843) an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities.
Texts
Live
November 15, 2025
Prospect Recital Series
Mary Riles, cello; Peter Nelson-King,
piano
Prospect Congregational United Church of Christ, Seattle
Selections from 12 Album Leaves, Op. 51 - Reinhold Glière
balanced
ostentatiously civilized
robust sonority
francophilic harmonic rhythm
4 Stücke, Op. 24 - Luise Adolpha Le Beau
an extended song
Schumannesque rather than Lisztian or Wagnerian
but perhaps Mendelssohn would be a more accurate touchstone
correctness and taste
3 Pieces - Nadia Boulanger
elegant lines
unwasted
means what it says
Lament - James Simon
not locked into fours
solidly heard
October Twilight - Henry Kimball Hadley
swelling but staid
set apart
Variations for Cello and Piano - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
I was turning pages for this
so I took no notes
my impression
was that it would sit comfortably
in the virtuoso concert
repertoire
of the late 19th Century
a concert of music
that has
to some several extents
been
left behind
as it were
from our collective awareness
whatever my personal favorites may have been among them
(Boulanger &
Simon)
one could regard this selection
as providing a glimpse
into our past's cultures
with the hope
of expanding our
concept
of what was going on
while
what we think of
as
having been going on
was going on
not an unworthy goal
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
An Emotional History of the Western United States
Volume 1: Maverick
Granddaughter - Kaley Lane Eaton, music and poetry;
The Idea of West
- Tom Baker, music; Lara Candland, poetry
The Plectrum Five; Strange
Interlude
The Wyncote North West Forum, Town Hall, Seattle
Kaley
as is her usual
assembled a superb bunch of musicians for
this concert of poetry set to music.
The general topic of the poetry
(and Tom's portion fit in easily)
was the experience of that internal migration to the West
in the
latter decades of the 19th Century.
For both Kaley and Tom
those experiences
are part of their own
family histories
which lifts the whole out of the merely academic.
For the most part
the instruments being played
might believably
have been stowed on a covered wagon
(less sure about the grand piano,
the harp, and the larger strings)
and the music itself
would have
rarely outpaced
that brace of oxen
we hear tell of in the
words.
And
I suppose
if I kept hoping for the music to take over
to
wrest attention from the poetical topic
and incandesce in its own right
then that is just my problem.
Not to say I didn't enjoy the
evening.
I did.
But
it raises questions in my own head
about what I need
from music
that might not be served
by a music
that seems to
so unironically
serve a
verbally explicable topic.
Again - my problem.
Recorded
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
Zither Film 26 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 15, 2008]
any hint of regularity
is occasion to construct a metrical
framework
if such hints absent themselves
sound bits vacate their common
space
is such a metrical framework/space
a linguistic mode also?
do they
spring from a common mental complex?
where poetry music and dance
join?
any soundbit
could be understood as
or be translated into
a
phoneme
or a motion
each occupies and defines
a moment
each
is an event
in that sense
a syllabic phoneme
within a song
is a qualia among qualias exhibited within an event
such an event
would be a polyvalently qualified event
and a
song
as such
might be an artifact of
or contain a set of
such
polyvalently qualified events
dance complicates things further
as would any other modality of event qualia
an event might be a pitched phoneme
or a phonemed pitch
depending
on ones path of inquiry
song works
because it occurs
at such a basic level of our
experience of the world
far more basic than linguistic reference
or musical contextuality?
Through/Spectrum 1 - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]
two ways to think of pitch
up/down (a spectrum)
or cyclic
(rational/acoustic)
Oak Harbor 180807 - Keith Eisenbrey [August 7, 2018]
I was up on Whidbey Island with my brother
a month after my dad passed
away
and we were working on finding a place
for my mom to
stay
Glen took the opportunity
of being out and about
to take his car
through a car wash
which sound
I recorded
when we were
done
I told him
that
he could come on out
from under
the seat
Song for George - The No Ones [from My Best Evil Friends]
our theories of linguistic modalities
and our theories of musical
modalities
affect
our analyses
of what phonemes are doing
as pitches
and what pitches are doing
as phonemes
but
might there be another
combined
modality possible?
a
modality of pitch-phoneme motion?
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
Madrigals, Book VIII: Ninfa che, scalza il piede - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
a network of connectional modalities
viewable as a whole
only from
within the experience of its passage through us
Magnificat Primi Toni, BuxWV 203 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
half cadence points
to exactly
where
the key
will
be
figurational noodles
between major segments of music
act
quasi-typographically
chapter headings (decorated)
Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens, BWV 148 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Helmut Rilling
no room in this for sin
to slither in
phonemes extended along strings of pitches
accompanied recitative
harmonic rhythm
clarifies the path the sentences take
in putting
themselves together
complete themselves
Sonata in A Major, Kk. 300 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
impeccable service
performative civility
significant elegance
Klaviersonate in G minor, Op. 22 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
it spills from the hole
opened by that first splashy chord
unstoppable
picture of the purity of prayer
emerging into ecstatic hopes
here's our loveable scamp
full of tales
phrases with ends that
disintegrate
rush
to the fiery conclusion
 |
| Wonderland Trail near Longmire |
its solemn grandeur
played for spectacle
Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 42 #2 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
hints and whispers
Old Country Stomp - Henry Thomas [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
pan pipe?
he's going back to Baltimore
An Empty Cup (And a Broken Date) - Buddy Holly and The Crickets [from The 'Chirping' Crickets]
just drove by
with another guy
just a few lines
a cartoon situation
instantly apprehended
The Way You See Me - Willie Nelson [from Here's Willie Nelson]
simple sentimental sincerity
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
Niki Hoeky - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]
one is swept right into the party
where bodies move
The Jean Genie - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]
one is pulled off the street
and thrust into the thick
of a scene
that's heavy, man
An Announcement - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
we're gonna take a break
KEEAK 831018 - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [October 18, 1983]
possibly this was in the Game Room?
on the grounds of The Oaks
we pause in thoughts
at intervals
Crumar and tongue drum
occasional extras
fipple flute for
firsts
wherever whatever
there is some solid listening going on here
continuously recomposing each other
now there are bells
I don't remember which of us was playing which instruments
but would
believe any solution
getting some great distortion on the fipple flute
now there are two of them
but only one pair of labials
forty minutes in we change the subject
shriek swooping around the space
good thing it had a high ceiling
 |
| Wonderland Trail, near Longmire |
use available materials
the tools at hand
Frais et Gaillard - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]
fanciful sequence of figuration episodes
most pleasant
When You Believe - Whitney Houston [from My Love Is Your Love]
comfort exhortation
to gather back strength
and persist
magical thinking adjacent?
pretty sappy but all in
Banned Rehearsal 659 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [November 3, 2003]
given commercial music's addiction to compression
it is difficult
anymore
to so much as consider the possibility
of a particular
room
having a particular sound to it
ones ears must adjust
back
to the arenas of personal space together
in an
a-hierarchical sound room
a gathering of individuals (as such)
(an sich)
(in the raw)
damn the systems
speak your piece
(in good faith)
falling unconscious at the beat
mesmerized
Constantinople!
Awake!
Intermezzo in midi: you were sleeping at the time - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]
Kovacsian toy symphony
what the sound is
is not as crucial
as what the sound is
what they get up to
when we pay no mind
to their to dos
Filling Up The Void - Swamp Meat [from Swamp Meat 7"]
scrawl poem
sprawled
lays heavy
Darling Deborah - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Skylark, March 1, 2018]
unamplified
behind bits of conversation
suddenly
we have
vocal
tingly tangly
KCBOL - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981]
based
in as many ways as I could devise
on a specific
reordering
of five tokens
(BLOCK reordered as KCBOL)
translated into integers
and set to rationalizing against each
other
as spans
population counts
contours
even
orderings
several quandaries
following a time
for their contemplation
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
I Got a Gal - James Cole's String Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
getting into tempo
with a balky clutch
I'm Hurtin' - Roy Orbison [from For The Lonely]
dum de dum de dum ooo yeah yeah
reverb glow
Without a Song - Stevie Wonder [from With a Song in My Heart]
what troubles me about this
is the apparent lack of personality in the
strings and winds
I presume they were hired to do just that
to be faceless in the final
mix
done what they were told to do
Corporal Clegg - Pink Floyd [from A Saucerful of Secrets]
to do with the residue of the war
a nation of damaged goods
Lay Back Daddy - Etta James [from Etta James]
bedroom talk
with a beat
Pléïades III: Claviers - Iannis Xenakis - Red Fish Blue Fish
a tone object
with a texture
made of hard bands of bumps
for all I know
it's all done with cowbells
Fat Arm - Doug Seidel [from Bard Sampler '82-'83]
music here
is between the flute sound
and its beat minder
Banned Rehearsal 150 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [August 25, 1988]
 |
| Wonderland Trail, near Longmire |
what we lack in skills
sesquicentennial
the word was spoke
for Texas and Miss Lily
as a punctuation
a notation of intention to articulate
o joy!
o ode!
o to!
echoed on dulcimer
and whangerbanger
spring drum and tin whistle
an heterophonical duet
the disease has spread to trombone
and now the old guy has his say
everybody joins the happy chorus
it wanders off
sesqui sent to Neal
it's a singalongplayalong
with the ninth
it went away
we retire to our workbenches
nicht diese Töne!!
Tina Turner!!
authentic broke ornamentation
cantata coffee
we're all using strong ingredients
then
step back to observe
results
adjust the mixture needs
for shrill clarinet and obo
roi
that's quite enough of that!
we'll start a cozy fire
and roast accordions
to the sound of
metapostmodernist piano pounding
our bulk is ponderous
rolls along uneasily
the dirt here is dark and duffy
the forest has many envelopes
bottom to top
we're all bout the percussion now
then to the winds
the bell of trombone
before the Bell of Legosi
let's get back to dulcimer
shall we
Sinding Suite - Nicholas Abrahams - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
swifter than rumor in a castle
quickly bowed bat flight
new scene!
dark
tormented by sorrow
and yearning
and regret
and hope
lit with mood
broad as pantomime
moral uplift
so inspiring
milked till its teats are dry
attending to
business
all the decisions
orders here
orders there
bustle
at last
upon the main street
greet the neighbors
a three scene melodrama
no step skipped over
happiness in
triplicate
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
heart to heart
Thinkin' 'Bout You - Bettye LaVette [from A Woman Like Me]
long distance steamy
Zither Film 27 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 16, 2008]
as threads of regularity vanish
our own sense of place within it does
also
each numbered layer
a meditation tool
similar in that
to
Gradus
Over The Next Hill - Peter Fedofsky [from False Ties and Nice Hoods]
kazoos in chorus
November 20, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 964 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 13, 2018]
if I ask myself
what musical purpose might be served
by regarding
environmental sound
as music
in whole
or as a part
I
must first decide
what I mean
by
a musical purpose
insofar as
it pertains
to the question at hand
they probably resolve
to the same question
in that
the
answer to the latter
would determine the answer to the former
if I propound
that a musical purpose
is that sound's efficiency
in social intercourse
between me
and it
the flow of
its communicative content
then
it seems to me
that
environmental sounds
are relatively impersonal
relatively
undirected
diffuse
in comparison
to the pluck of a ukulele
string
or other sound
seeming to have been made
as the
direct result
of an intention
recording technology muddies the waters
since a played back sound
whatever its origin prior to recording
is played back
with a
direct intention
of making sound
and becomes
to that extent
indistinguishable
however
earmind
is remarkably adept
at distinguishing sounds
as evidence of objects in a field
we don't even need to try
and I can distinguish
in this playback
for instance
the sounds of traffic
and those of zither
and though the
traffic sound certainly participates acoustically
with the zither sound
the zither sound
is clearly adjusting its doing
to the
traffic's
but not vice versa
music is sound with a face?
(that would include language)
someone had a firework left over
different than traffic?
closer to
music
as typically understood?
of course environmental sounds
have been part of our experience of music
always
it is the part we accept as being without intent
 |
| Maple Snag, Seattle |
the shape of space being searched out
by torchlight
dragon lair
Fireworks - Louis Armstrong's Hot Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
on cue BANG!
with intent to depict?
or to metaphorize?
Oleo - Bill Evans [from Everybody Digs Bill Evans]
first presentation
the figures trip into themselves
jump around
all over the table
drummer takes breaks in his breaks
Locksmith - Johannes Brahms - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon [recorded live April 16, 1963]
will fasten once for all
I Can't Reach You - The Who [from Magic Bus]
statement of frustration
round and round
stuck
The Entertainer - Scott Joplin - E. Power Biggs
a pedal harpsichord
rag is a music that works well for contraption-instruments
a music of
ingenuity
brings out its calliope soul
Assurance - Sacred Harp Singing Group [from The Art of Field Recording]
staring straight forward on the pounding beat
veering neither
Improvisation - Keith Eisenbrey, Anne McLellan [November 1, 1983]
positions are adjusted
then we intone at odds
pitches are adjusted
uncertain negotiation
some configurations thrive
on a point
of focus
with less bodily awareness
On The Bugged Tip - Big Daddy Kane [from Long Live The Kane]
my life
as a fantastic
big-living
hero
calling all
the shots
Amazing Grace - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]
the song reads the poem
as though played on a fiddle
Labor Day - Goodness [from 1995-1998]
teen dramatics into early adult life
adjusting to being oneself
 |
| Nisqually River, near Longmire |
the collective silence preceding a typical concert performance
or any
such collective silence modelling itself on that practice
a signifier of
attention getting
on the same page
all aboard!
same train
same route
multiple experiences
is the purpose of limiting the pitch material
to open to the ears
the variety and subtlety of sound itself
or
is it to expose
the underlying poverty of pitch?
its sensual evasiveness?
or
does pitch win
even with 84 hands tied behind its back?
the
roil within the sonorities
is largely the play of the pitch's partials
which
are
pitches
even sensuality is pitch-based
The Power of The Great - The Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]
the players take the stage
speak their words
make their gestures
invoke their powers
So Long - Acapulco Lips [from Demos]
for when enough is enough
and you're done
Dank Sinatra - Pity Party [from Are You Happy Yet?]
another victim of the loudness wars
sometoymes
17 Prepuntal Contraludes - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981]
beginnings
endings
no middles
unless it's all middle
peak ironic
In Session at The Tintinabulary
November 16, 2025
Heath - Keith Eisenbrey
I continue in my discipline of setting a shape note tune every Sunday. This is number 124.
November 17, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1138 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
Music of Gavin Borchert (part 1)
some piano pieces from 15 years ago or so, and a bunch of more recent two-part inventions (2020) played on clavichord.
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
