Preface
Texts
Live
June 20, 2026
Mark Hilliard Wilson, guitar, with Peter Nelson-King, voice
Prospect
Congregational United Church of Christ, Seattle
Mark played a selection of pieces old and new that he announced from the stage, so I will not attempt to list the program
musics shaped by the interactions
between the hands
and a
fretboard
and an arrangement of strings
the polyphonic voices
associate themselves
with particular
congruencies
of finger and string
and location
within the
finger figures
the practiced sound of the instrument
is almost impossibly lovely
and it features a pleasant and grounding set
of extraneous sounds
(fingers on wires)
keeps it real
this was a most pleasant afternoon recital
June 25, 2026
Neil Welch, Scott Robinson
Wayward Music Series, curated by Haley
Freelund
The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center,
Seattle
Neil Welch
pitch is an identifier of sound groups
we use it
to say
this
sound
and that sound
a piece that arises
from thoughts
concerning underground mushroom
forces
eruptions from below
where most of them lives
last piece
with the big bass sax
sounds must be coaxed
from
its underbelly
with some piano tones
and hanging rattles
endings are gently massaged
Scott Robinson
brief high cries
descent into lower registers
these breaths
became pitch events
leading ear
through its space
the
thoughts are clear
blatant Hungarian quasi-clarinet
(taragato)
finding two cornets in one
must be a device
that switches
from straight bell
to a built-in mute
and three different saxophones
including an obsolete C Melody Sax
and bass with range to die for
Together
and together
Neil on soprano
and Scott on bass
Recorded
Uprising - Steve Layton [from Bedtime Stories]
we count in location
we recount in relocation
inexorable
alternation
the potion brews
molecules bond
and rebond
it drains off
but count remains
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 330 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
another on fortepiano
used less as a contrast device
than as a means of articulating the
shapes of phrases
Two Hungarian Recruiting Dances, S241 - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard
elegant affairs
for the officer class
early early Liszt
so still in an essentially Galant style
with the
merest hint
of dark Schubertian shades
the pretranscendant Liszt
Album for the Young, Part 1, Op. 68, 1-18 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
touch
as contrast among
and common aspect among
(heh heh)
a sequence of articulated groups of phrases
distinguished by their varieties of touch
a primer in how to do so
by the master his own self
for beginners
sparing of the power moves
available to a more fully grown hand
the pedaling required
is not Scriabin fancy
Wilder Reiter
touches accents
as the pieces progress
their gradual expansion of scale
instructs
prolonged concentration
Lyric Pieces, Book II, Op. 38 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø
amusement
Ken Benshoof admired these pieces
I think he was fond
of how focused they are
they don't move on
to new material
that isn't nearly
not new
the only real complaint
I
might have
is that they don't break new ground
as a music
they are content and settled
all debts paid in full
but they sure are pleasant to hear
status quo unchallenged
6 Idylles: I. Allegretto leggiero, Op. 24 #1 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth
this one wanders close to moody shades
and lingers
2 Preludes, Op. 67 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
murkier portions settle
in a low mist
moves smoothly
upon many swiftly vibrating legs
Save It, Pretty Mama - Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five [from Hot Fives and Sevens]
decorative
gussied up
stanza forms
I Won't Say I Will (incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]
this album
includes a bunch of outtakes
She Loves You - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]
I have a consistent inability
to pick up the downbeat in this song
until I'm several measures in
Blue Skies - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]
Broadway trope
hey there folks
suddenly I'm in love
Johnny Bye-Bye - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]
song report
addressing the immediate past of song
a sketch demo
My tocher's the jewel (Ruubra) - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]
lots of Scottish snapping
Alabama Jubilee [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Vol. 3]
sunny day
trouble free vibe
with banjo scrubbing
Queen Gasoline - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]
warning
against a risky person
to engage with
contrasting dynamics
stanza by stanza
Haul Away Joe (live in 2000) - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]
talk like a pirate night
at the local pub
Snohomish Mash-Up Piece #3 - S. Eric Scribner [from Odds and Ends]
a music full of sounds in relation
performing selves
on a common stage
song
(broad sense)
as a party game
keep it lively
Ace - Rawn Jawn [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]
the vocal microphone
has an unfortunate ringiness to it
It's All Right With Me (incomplete) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]
at some point
there's no reason for a record company
to not
release
all of the sound they've recorded
even edited for clarity
and to protect the innocent
here's Bill thinking a thing through
Hula Hoop - T. Bone Burnett [from Proof Through The Night]
verbal imitation
of the Sun Records echo effect
Untitled Hidden Track - REM [from Green]
this song
tells us what it is for
like labels on vitamins
U.S.A. (Ogalala Sioux Indian) - Jerry Gartett [from The World Sings Goodnight]
premise:
all peoples sing infants to sleep
possible
perhaps
even plausible
yet unconfirmed
ill-defined term "peoples"
Intervention - Madonna [from American Life]
hard edges to the tracks this is made of
they are not in the room at all
not making sound?
you are erased from existing
I Will Forever Hate Roses - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]
romantic disappointment
is a curse
upon a memory
bump the key up a fret!
Black Jesus + Amen Fashion - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]
at the heart of what fashion sells
is a command to conform
Black Cloud - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star - I'm A Sinking Ship]
anxious sensitivity
to vibes
emanations
the creepies
all the congregation of them
another bivalent dynamic
stanza
to stanza
Lie Flat - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Worldless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]
a poem
in lines of pitches
Marie Antoinette - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]
post war coolness
nouveau suave
or urban social aspiration
politely sophisticated
nouveau Galant
shaken not stirred
Respectable Street - XTC [from Nancy's Mix]
in the original Nancy's Mix
the compilator skipped the introductory bit
that sounds like a dictaphone recording
My Baby's Gone - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]
writing a song
to a microphone
and related equipment
the
sound
is
the score
they read
I guess
she's gone
away
C.R.E.A.M. (a capella) - Wu-Tang Clan [from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)]
rhyme as accent
The Closer I Get To You (with Beyoncé) - Luther Vandross [from Dangerously In Love]
a delicate negotiation
My Prolix Verses Fade - Christian Asplund [from Viola]
the edge of sound making
scrutinized
the business end
of
scraping strings with strings
an activity
of making sound
this music
seems to eschew
the tool
of unity by common
referential framework
or generation
Did Your Mama? - Holly Palmer [from I Confess]
bivalent dynamic stanza differentiation
seems to be a situational
conceit of nurse to patient?
Freaks Only - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]
I'm an idi-idiot
Top Of The Mountain - The Staple Singers [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]
from gospel
the dialog between lead singer and backups
also the
counsel and witness
Killer Joe - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]
broadly cartooned figure
of late adolescent culture
Piano Player - J. K. Randall, Matthew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]
peering through cloudy glass
lengthy segments
with pauses
quite pronounced
between them
then
sneaking in
their edges
as though
the soundful segments
were
negotiating a path
through a forest
of pause segments
as though
they they had been pre-arranged
this is the room
of moving slowly
Crumar and sax
like
gulls
what
in the music
stands for
the player's sharing a
communication event
where do we hear it happening?
in the shaping
of each sound
to each sound
with trust among
them
why should such a conversation
need
to be a music
even
if it is?
Crumar chuckles low in the belly
antiphonal
Lake of Fire - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]
rural backwoods vocal delivery
Soundscape - Val [from Jack Straw Cultural Center: Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]
sounds as a thing
to be kept
saved for later
Other Side of the Morning - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
symptoms in a list
O Sapo - Camarones Orquestra Guitarrística [from O Curioso Caso da Música Invisível]
a real
hair twirler
hip swaggerer
René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]
memory poem
Remember - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]
this place grows on you
seeps right in
It's Not Easy - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]
the old trope
of the everuntrustworthy female
Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 630 PM (continued) - The New Performance Group, John Cage]
punching buttons at prescribed times
which button
isn't crucial
that it be pushed
is
but only exactly
at the
prescribed times
these sounds represent objects
not nodes within a statement
or
shared communication event
none of that!
though
surreptition abounds
play on!
shhh
they're listening
back to the buttons
Vamos (Surfer Rosa) - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]
tightly wound
threat posture
guitar solo time
New Weather: II: Blemish - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington,John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens, Jayn Rosenfeld
the care
with which pitch
lays out its cards
Colors: Green Grass - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]
a score is a stimulus
a prompt
Boom Synth - Michael - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]
not unplayful
Pretty Wicked Things - Dawn Richard [from Goldenheart]
sci fi fantasy witch queen vibe
dance song
end to end consistency
abuse of machine regularity
looping can change linearly
but not
transform or generate
Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - Various [from Diabelli Recomposed streamed by Claudia Bigos]
2
this one daubs paint upon it
3
exclaims over the exquisite detailing on the stitches
4
a lecture upon it is given
at quickened pantomime pace
such as before talkies
5
this one came apart in the box
Goldstaub (continued) - Karlheinz Stockhausen
these sounds inflict themselves upon each other
human
hooman
hoomann
who mann
one moon
hoo!
man
awakened in the middle
a lesson to anyone
what might be passing by
or
to no one
or
to someone
but not to you
big bass blat
ensemble exits
tingling their bells
into the lobby
or the
distance
we chanced upon
some hippies
in a wood
As The Night Goes By - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]
fine grained sensibility
giddy love
Une jeune fillette (1576) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]
we picture costumes and sets around this music
a line of melody
and a delivery
that belongs to our image of the
past
Infraction Against The Homeland - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]
constructed from disparate source materials
Thanks 4 Nothin' - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]
a dance spotlight
spots moments
of the spinning situation
First Song - Hope Wechkin [from Leaning Toward The Fiddler]
poem declaimed
by means of song
or prose
so declaimed
Sexy Vampire - Black Dresses [from Hell Is Real]
fantasies of youth
I Inside The Old Year Dying - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]
a line from a sonnet
sung in a paralleled interval
Ferdinand The Imposter - The Band [from Music from Big Pink]
character sketch
fellow at the bar
I can catch a few words
now and then
Night of The Living Baseheads - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]
busy with episodes of intrusion
Liebesfreud - Fritz Kreisler - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
musicians and their markets
this sounds
like a silent movie accompaniment
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon - David Bowie [from Reality]
the conceit here
is that each stanza
adds to the story
oracularly
Under The Big Top - Rachel Harrington [from City of Refuge]
aerial act metaphor
devotion of partners
Land, Love, and Liberty - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]
testament and challenge
quite the strummer and picker on that guitar of
his
Crystalline Thunderstorms - Triptet [from Slowly, Away]
evocative
illustrative
with tech specs aplenty
intercrystalline probes
into the weirdness
of crystal math
it is
out
precisely
there
Seven Psalms - Paul Simon [from Seven Psalms]
this segment eases into its tonality
from out of its prior
tonality
the greater song takes it into itself
now a new time is there
to
catch us up
new movement
the Lord is my engineer
some interesting sounds now and then
deeply human
doesn't try to
overwhelm
with gewgaws
a comfort sermon
Think -Aretha Franklin [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
plea for recognition
Dopeman (Remix) - N.W.A. [from Straight Outta Compton]
rules of the game
veering toward self parody
Lord, If I Got My Ticket - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]
pretty fancy arrangement there
In The Blue of Evening - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]
have the voices
that sung these songs
in shows
passed
beyond memory?
drowned
by a legion
of lounge pianists
in tuxes?
Look Unto The Sun - Achil - Prospect Choir, Kia Sams [from Prospect Congregational Centennial 1908-2008]
tightly made
Unicorny - Bad Cop, Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]
when loops congrue
our world shrinks to a pinpoint
Old Fire - Kara Hesse [from Sojourner]
weary old love
lost sadness
Emax II the Max - Pete Comley [from The Paintronic Project - Paintronics Vol 5 - Glowing Orb Of Even More Paintronic Electronics]
throbbing closer
throbbing higher
a pitch
of uncertain
solidity
respiration wheezes
crud bubbles from below
potion
master
checking readouts
and adjusting settings
levitating
a standing wave
Nocturne in E-flat Major (#1) - John Field - Benjamin Frith
thinking vocally in one hand
and lutishly in the other
great care
taken toward each
Infant Joy - William Blake - Allen Ginsberg [from Holy Soul Jelly Roll]
using music
as a stand-in
for Blake's illustrations
Duck Alert - Marley Marl [from In Control Volume 1]
goofing off
amid the tracks
of sounds
collected
by
sound collectors
In Session at The Tintinabulary
June 21, 2026
Fair Haven - Keith Eisenbrey
Postscripts
Drops
Music by Barkin and Others
another collection of musics that have found their way into my fingers over
the years
music by Elaine Barkin, Anne Gorrick, Neal Kosály-Meyer, Carson
Farley, Doug Palmer, Kam Morrill, Leanna Keith, Richard Johnson, and Emily
Doolittle
Keith Eisenbrey, piano and clavichord
Neal Kosály-Meyer, voice
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
