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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
"Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a very strange, enigmatical object, which you would have seen there, lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers. Not the wondrous cistern in the whale's huge head; not the prodigy of his unhinged lower jaw; not the miracle of his symmetrical tail; none of these would so surprise you, as half a glimpse of that unaccountable cone, -- longer than a Kentuckian is tall, nigh a foot in diameter at the base, and jet-black as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg. And an idol, indeed, it is; or, rather, in old times, its likeness was. Such an idol as that found in the secret groves of Queen Maachah in Judea; and for worshipping which, King Asa, her son, did depose her, and destroyed the idol, and burnt it for an abomination at the brook Kedron, as darkly set forth in the 15th chapter of the first book of Kings."
Herman Melville, from Moby Dick; or, The Whale.
Texts
Recorded
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
You Really Got a Hold On Me - The Beatles [from With The Beatles]
text and tune inseparable
not even
with a ten dollar toothpick
Who Can I Turn To? (live) - Bill Evans [from Another Time: The Hilverson Concert]
if a music seems to be asking a question
throughout its span
how
then
might we correlate that
to the linguistic modes
of
question formation?
I've See That Movie Too - Elton John [from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road]
an
I'm on to you
riposte
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
name dropping
the landmarks
of decaying industrial environs
tracks and roads
and porches and wheels
and hoods
towns full of losers
Intermezzi 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 16, 1983]
in anticipation of then an upcoming performance
I was playing them at a
much faster tempo
than I had originally
so
this was part of
that process
proof of concept
telling a different story
with the same notes
in the same
order
long pauses
very slow through here
cutting through violently
lots of time to think after each one
swimming through
fluidly
weariedly
carefully
a study
in the Fuxian motions
this presentation
puts the rhetorical weight
on number 6
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Desire - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]
sung on a straight line
one of Bono's better performances
though
it loses focus in the wordy bit
Black Tie White Noise - David Bowie [from Black Tie White Noise]
with vinyl surface
for that warm airy flavor
the poetry here
is a part of the scaffolding
of the stanzaic
syntax
of the chord changes
Every Lil' Bit Hurts - Aretha Franklin [from A Rose is Still a Rose]
negotiating personal rapprochement
talking it out
back up singers are the straight words
Aretha sings what's between the
lines to read
Banned Rehearsal 658 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 20, 2003]
improvisationally collaborating
to straighten out the distances among us
or trace their contours
establish locations
nexuses
lines of optimal flow
a virtual neural network
occurring
before
and within
our very earminds
a social phenomenon
that happens
in making this music
a lovely depth
in this soft soft sound
every gesture signifies
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Number Six - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]
establishing a groove
is making an invariant frame of reference
in my own practice
I want the malleability
of the frame of
reference
to be on the table
and to actively participate
creativity
along
a long
straight
line
Try Try - Interlude I (Drum Solo) - Juniper - Jesse Canterbury, Tiffany Lin, Brian Cobb, Paul Kikuchi [from Crosstalk]
nervous
caged
restlessness
pushed along
Zade - Taylor Ho Bynum and Mark Dresser [from THB Bootlegs Volume 4]
two strolling together
their conversation pulled taut
Sonata 1979 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded April 27, 2007] [from Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981]
composed without recourse to pitch class
the page represents
unpartitioned registral space
and the passing of time
from
left to right
concerned
with an image of attenuation
the isolation of tokens
Madrigals, Book VIII: Mentre vaga angioletta - Claudio Monteverdi, Rinaldo Alessandrini
they sink slowly
through small intervals
play with antiphonals
and parallel melismas
Toccata in F Major, BuxWV 156 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
long pedal tones
all meals come with a fugue
sometimes two
or even more
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| maple snag, Seattle |
the wordless voices
spirits among us
the bass line keeps it flowing
the whole world
is nothing
but a hospital
strong words
forcefully declaimed
baritone
plays the part
of the abject sinner
rending clothes
pouring garbage
upon his head
icon of despair
turning
to repentance
and here comes God's mercy
with flutes a-piping
and bells a-jangling
bass line
still in charge
chorale celebration
Sonata in D Major, Kk. 299 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
clearly
these figures don't occupy
commensurate metrical schemes
and yet
there it pounds away
in threes
and yet
pockmarked
with hemiolae
Novelletten, op. 21 #8: Sehr Lebhaft - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
this music swarms with critters and contraptions
very lively
indeed
how many entrances
can be piled into a phonebooth?
Schumannian polytonality
each of these pieces
is a cycle of pieces
in its own right
suddenly
we are on a windswept moor
suddenly
a wild night's coach ride
now
a drawing room
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
as for a music box
in its containedness
Etude in D-flat Major, Op. 42 #1 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
it all goes down in the sparkles
Old Country Stomp - Henry Thomas [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
drum the ground
Yesterdays - Art Tatum [from Piano Starts Here]
there was a song thread in there somewhere
I know it
Hot Rod - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles at Newport]
cookin' down the road
for the wind and brass
to get their licks
in
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]
chimes and shakers and glockenspiel
Here She Comes Now - The Velvet Underground [from White Light White Heat]
some albums are collected
from a working band's set list
some set lists
are designed
together with their albums
and
tours
and merch
and clothing lines
Le Lis - Billy Cobham [from Spectrum]
for the suave edge
of fashion menswear
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 6 - Douglas Adams - BBC Radio Workshop
I play a book
on the radio
or a wall
or the moon
or a
box of shoes
ravening princesses
Borrowed Time -John Lennon [from Milk & Honey]
blingy production value
is there a song behind the bling?
Banned Rehearsal 148 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [July 28, 1988]
drums and sax discuss matters
piano supports each from the back
is free improvisation an oxymoron?
we do what we wish
not
what we are free to do?
{are we free
from our wishing?}
do we say
free conversation
in the same
anything goes
attitude
are we free enough
in our conversation
to question
what we
mean by that?
or:
all choosing
all the time
Kierkegaard's repetition
we become revealed
by speech
joining
and parting ways
going
gone
I am suddenly remembered
of the room we made this tape in
the
living room
of the Greenwood Big House
where my piano was
and Karen's drums
in the bend
I don't recollect
where
I set the microphones
the big move
to trombone and toy accordion
-[wrong! the toy reed
organ]-
the old ball game
the beat
is a process
and takes time to accomplish
there it
lies
panting on the floor
sax poeticizes
piano provides rain and thunder
in the
distance
o pussy cat
what do you see?
you're looking through the window
and yawning at me
our 80s sound
complete with Schoenhut
and tape bleed ghosts
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| maple snag, Seattle |
articulate
inarticulate
elided speech
parts
of the
articulate words
are given
a half a chance
but only half
Lover's Will - Bonnie Raitt [from Fundamentals]
overheard
at a bar
for the jaded
re-tempted
Track 4 [from Eisenbrey 2003]
sounds
suspiciously
like it has
a national character
in its closet
cartoon nations
Zither Film 25 - Keith Eisenbrey [November 14, 2008]
climbing steadily
left in a null space
can an object
be sound
but not music
and
still
be about
what music is?
vast gaping voids
for trying patiences with
High Roads and Hard Shoulders - Smokestack and The Foothill Fury [from High Roads and Hard Shoulders]
the road is a useful metaphor
among traveling folks
Interview Question - Keith Eisenbrey [August 6, 2018]
as though on the radio
the well-prefaced interview question
yeah
kinda
needs no answer
Totem 24 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]
within the whirring disks of industry
energetic discharges
as
poles flip
and motors turn
deep in its bowels
elbows plunged
in the magnetospheric slime
How Long Is That Train Been Gone - Roy Evans [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
early one mornin'
I woke
I was hungry
and broke
throat warble blues
quite the trick
dead aim yodel
Man's Best Friend - Norman Monath [from Songs of The Pogo]
doth warm the winter day
New 'Frankie and Johnnie' - The Brothers Four [from The Brothers Four Cross Country Concert]
this one has Annabelle Lee
and not Nellie Blye
Marcie - Joni Mitchell [from Song to a Seagull]
poetics
of the left behind
sad people
beautifully
photographed
In The Meantime - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]
living in the moment
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Reiche: Fanfare "Albeson" - The Canadian Brass [from High, Bright, Light and Clear]
music for public ceremonials
complexity avoided
Pléïades II Métaux - Iannis Xenakis - Red Fish Blue Fish
this music is located in a fish bowl
or lagoon
in changing
weathers
Six Intermezzi - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at Bard Hall, October 17, 1983]
finding the music
between music
time blunders ahead
music
in conversation
with conversation
seeking break-through
fixed
in the idea
that
what we say
and play
matters
personally
a tonality
invented
by
exploration
shaped
by the paths
of seeking
it
out
Dance, Dance, Dance - T Bone Burnett [from The Talking Animals]
costuming a fantasy
as a horror
Cold Mountain Songs 7: A Dream - Robert Morris - Deborah Norin-Kuehn, Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]
pitch class saturation
all voices have a say
at all times
a music
might find room
in the shapes
of their continual
reconfigurations
Track 4 - Students of Joan Schoepflin [from Spring Piano Recital 1998]
brevities
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
our evening's penance
is read out
we are still
on a diet of As
only
the pitch
of a moment
is not to be confused
with a
possibility
of its inclusion
in a class
hear it
without a name
are we capable
of willfully
refraining
from deciding pitch matching
or
is that part
of what
pitch is?:
a predisposition to match
or not
but
not
neither
that is
not innocent
of having made a decision
is the sense I make of it
due
to the names
or is it
prior?
hearing
is a tool we use
to determine objects
in the space
we inhabit
as is sight
touch
et cetera
hearing
determines things
things have durance
the durance of a heard thing
is its match
do we make too much of piano key strikes
as atomic elements?
they
can also be a means
of sustaining a pitch
as a wind player would
with breath
or a string
with a bow stroke
a sound
that can only be created
with the picket fence
of repetition
of keystrokes
on its perimeter
replenished singing pitch
and then
the dampers can be deployed
with many results
Brambles - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]
a wordy endeavor
Hilton Hihat - Bad Cop, Bad Cop [from Wings of Techno]
this hihat
apparently
uses a dial
I do not wish
every
hihat
did
clever use of settings
within a precision pulse groove
for where
one dances
dipped in irony
November 13, 2025
Wait No. Wait - Josef K [from Found on the Stone Path]
shipping lanes
behemoths
long passages
fog and uncertain
distance
stasis
Sonata 1980 - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded May 14, 2009] [from Keith Eisenbrey 1: 1979-1981]
think out each move
measure carefully
pause on command
interruption within interruptions
such a lot of noise
broken on the floor
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| maple snag, Seattle |
music to get the hips to swaying
in sleek outlines
C'est si Bon (It's So Good) - Stan Freberg [from The Very Best of Stan Freberg]
how I learned French
one of these days
pow
right in the orchestra pit
A Very True Story - Chris Kenner [from Land of 1000 Dances]
dance of nodding heads
it can be done while seated
I'll Oilwells Love You - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm A Woman]
playing on a southern pronunciation
oil is well that ends well
Euphoria - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
selling it like perfume
Serenade for Guitar and Percussion - Lou Harrison - David Tannenbaum, William Winant
percussion connects guitar to bedrock
or earth
or delight
these movements are in separate rooms
we go to them
Annapolis Suite - Robert Starer - American Brass Quintet, Nancy Allen
competently starched
presentable
Banned Rehearsal 134 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 6, 1988]
we rumble the floorboards
grumble into our beards
roaring harumphoderms
somebody called on the phone
in 1988
to ask
if we were
interested
in purchasing
any major appliances
where one cannot predict
one cannot be surprised
pouring our presence
unto magnetic tape
our:
we
were
here
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| maple snag, Seattle |
tastefully played
Tall Pines - James King [from Bed By The Window]
at the ends of the lines
the banjo will fill the gap
with a
traditional end of line lick
Gnome, Noam, 'Nam - Christian Asplund [from Brainstun]
keeps it narrow
knows its way
In Session at The Tintinabulary
November 9, 2025
Hermon - Keith Eisenbrey
three voice a canon at the fifth above and the fifth below
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
