"The word uses up the thought for the moment; then stores it away.
It
gets my mind off the hook. No stories apply.
It converts to magic by
releasing its intrinsic ability to change what it touches."
George Quasha - from "Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole"
Texts
Recorded
December 23, 2023
Étude pour le pianoforte d'apres les caprices de Paganini in E Major, Op. 3 #2 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
not just a transcription
but
a mimesis
of the sense
of
the voice
of the person
of the original
(that would be
Paganini
or his stage persona)
Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 30 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
through the curtains
into the inner chambers
draped in satins
and
to the center of the ball
glittering lights
all
an airy wish
alas
Harpalus - Charles Ives - Erid Trudle, Lielle Berman
ascends the steps to frantic
twice
April In Paris - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
every misstep
rewarded
glorified
Rip It Up (take 6) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
||:X It Up:||
direct repeat
of balls-on performance singing
a question of vocal technique
Teardrops in My Heart - Ray Charles [from Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music]
some notes in this melody
take their time to ripen
others pass
between them
setting them up
get an assist
Under Control - Bob Dylan [from A Tree with Roots]
doing while in seclusion
workshop
brought to light
by the
rabidity of some fans
and the cupidity of others
Deep In The Night - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan with Michel LeGrand]
epistle to a distant lover
Off Night Backstreet - Joni MItchell [from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter]
subject matter
a first person life
Interstellarism (Interstellar Low Ways) - Sun Ra [from Celestial Love]
living within a song
to learn its ways
Oh, Oh, The Sunshine - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from American Folk Songs for Children]
behind which
Sally has a red dress
buttoned behind
song person
is in conflict and pain
The Rising - Bruce Springsteen [from The Rising]
lines descend
at their ends
following a typical speech pattern
to obscure the singingness of it all
anthems arrive at full volume
on schedule
Storsjön Sommaren - Steve Layton & Improv Friday [from Summer Mirages]
reedy noodles
fade back
for reverby keys
a lake
with
birds and bugs
merges into evening
no disturbances expected
Elm - Greg Sinibaldi [from Ariel]
guitar speaks the words
from which the ewi* sounds emerge
from the
wings
enter the drums
into the solemn dance
we come to rest
here
*electronic wind instrument
Quartet 2 - Sascia Pellegrini [from 7 Percussion Impossibilities]
moves as a body moves itself
polypedal
wary
confident
Bang Bang - David Bowie [from Never Let Me Down]
fragments of americana sludge
we can dance to our worst urges
ferocious
never ever together
the sounds of v
and of th
are sung
so as
to sound
nearly identical
a true rhyme
Guys on the Grand Coulee Dam - Fire Company [from Roll Columbia]
the muscle men
who made the dam
with names and all
recruiting song
La Reina - Christian Aguilera [from Aguilera]
whatever it's about
is quite involving
Latino gospel?
A. r. "Hommage à Ravel" - Iannis Xenakis - Ahi Takahashi
homage
worship
obsequies
fealties
pledges
oaths
kneeling
with sweeping
cockadery
Cactus (Pixies) - Prom Queen [from Covers]
on a cement floor
(wishin')
But In Dreams - Lures [from There's No Pressure]
is the larger rhythm
built from the smaller
or
does it
enclose them?
each stanza
with the same weary lassitude
but
even such
can rise to their own hero height
from all corners
the past importunes
coopts attention
all
intent
to reach
the tippy top toptimost toppiness
Audite Nova - Orlando Lassus - Tielman Susato Krummhorn Gesellschaft [from The Glory of the Krummhorn]
announcement music
ceremonially useful
it is
a thorough
introduction
a full briefing
Gleeful Surrender - Black Plastic Clouds [from Electroplate]
long instrumental opening
:(will there be a vocal?):
yes
there will
a small poem
for the profundity of its frame
so righteous
an
accent
an advertisement
Fade - Waxahatchee [from Out In The Storm]
naked came we into this world
came here with nothin'
You're So Civilized - Star Anna [streamed from Fiddler's Inn, March 7, 2022]
strumming energy
muted or deflected
into the song singing energy
Elementary - Boogie Down Productions [from Criminal Minded]
all about the dance
placement of statements
regimented
Pra Inglés Ver - Camarones Orquestra Guitarristica [from Live in Natal]
the larger blocks
are formed of the smaller
and
do not
enclose them
down to a point
or several
depending on the level(s) of
abstraction in play
I'm Fine - Chastity Belt [from I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone]
the guitar sound
has elements
that are at odds with each other
a narrow tension field
Thique - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]
full length production
complete with costume changes
Walter's Theme - REM [from Dead Letter Office]
if not his theme
then
at least
his fashion statement
Glass Strings - Tyrannosaurus Grace [from Much More Than a Story]
trying out production chops
try to get into the biz
one way or
another
Queen of England - Gaytheist [from Let's Jam Again Soon]
rhetoric strictly limited
loud but limited
like a stiff puppet
with only a few poses
Sensing - Jessica McCann - Re:Naissance Opera [from Music from The Apocrypha Chronicles]
we've all returned to the open hearth
passing pipes
grooving all
together
Adore - Prince [from Sign O' The Times]
salutations
oh baby
payload
elucidation
including
erasures
and betweens of lines
spilling off the edges
the duet
between the voice of the epistle
and the inner voice
of the epistle's recipient
while reading
slow dance tempo
for those tender moments
Emu Lunaire - Bruce Hamilton and Friends [from Mash Hits Volume 1]
robotic manufacture
of intricate parts
next!
It Can Wait - CEP [from Drawing The Target Around The Arrow]
respiration cycles
Abstract Emotions - Steve Peters [from With My Back To The World]
:an emotion that has been named:
being here
is sufficient
society of friends
when music arrives
it is set in a sufficient society of friends
saying is sufficient
packaging is extraneous
::||::
recording is the translation
into an object
of an abstraction
of an experience
lingering resonance
throbs as it recedes
the bell clock
tolled twelve
Crashing - Swearin' [from Swearin']
the groove has hollow gaps in it
Still Life With Sylvia - Tomten [from Cremation Songs]
pop piano style
too much arm
too stiff in the wrist
Strengur (Mirjum Tally) - Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir [from Strengur]
continuing our slow descent
miles below
Cherbourg to New York Harbor - St. Paul de Vence [from St. Paul de Vence]
squeezebox hymn
not a lick of luck
paints her scene
from the character out
eyeing your turkey hands
with the legs
Safe-ish - Tom Swafford [from Rough Spaces]
as though the notion of tonic
had died
and left us suddenly bereft
of a goal
|-|
goal gaol
gal lag
log gol
lago loga
alg glo
lo go
al ag
aa ao
oo ll
lg gl
|-|
It's A Jungle Out There - Freddie and The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]
and now a word from our strutting performative Machismo-lander
parading
fear
Cherrybomb - Klondike Kate
recorded without special attention to the vocal
but
likes to hear
the guitar
part dominant mix
learn to play guitar
with
Klondike Kate
furnitureless
emptied
swept clean
Midnight Roads - Low Hums [from Low Hums]
counting off
to establish common tempo
imprecise
by the
widths of the words
one two three four
incipit
center
or accent
whereeverin the word
that is
and yet
it kinda works
Mittelalter Music Aus Seben - Carson Farley
presented as a groovy automaton
Track 10 - The Tailenders [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
making use of musical means
to act out a part
a ritual action
a superstition
activity engaged without supporting evidence
we were the Tailenders
What Did I Ever Come Here For - Brandi Carlile [from Bear Creek]
tied to a place
without so willing it to be
Fine Lookin' Woman - Tyrannosaurus Grace [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna (?)
on this one
but duzzee?
complains a lot
introducing the band as a chorus
that individual
who is most like most people
in most possible
ways?
(not this)
(then)
the man of the ordinary myth
I wanna be a mythematician
ultra-intuitionist mythematics
Circus - Swingset Showdown [from Short Bus Ruckus]
you've been recruited
to the deviant realm
Track 11 - Nancy Cole Silverman - Adam Verner [from A Much Married Woman]
spats and top hat
a morning wedding
Billy Bligh
Mr. and Mrs.
still no Billy
how could she explain
bigamied again
the
cashbox, empty
sit down
a sheer genius
gotta business to run
horse out of
the barn
Track 10 - Curtains For You [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
cabaret bump
Weimar grind
small stage
dingy curtains
The Deepest End - Karin Blaine [from Modern Day Living]
anxiety
concerning being found out
and imprisoned
romanticized resistance memory
rhapsody on glory days
Spain
in the 30s
Buddy Up to the Bully - Shannon Stephens [from Pull It Together]
gang loyalty
suspicions
shaky ground
Love Spent - Madonna [from MDNA]
banjo and cheesy synth
match made in heaven
I'd Like To Take This Chance - Rachel Harrington [from Makin' Our House a Honkytonk]
for the hokey word play
title (say it)
to say
(title) say it
Infinite Psychobabble - Yuni in Taxco [from Prizes]
experimenting with guitar sound
soups and sauces
slowly
accumulating accretion
putting it together
for later disassembly
and reconfiguration
feeder streams
to meander streams
alluviating the landscape
New Ragtime Revolution - Song Sparrow Research [from Song Sparrow Research]
an advertisement for the titular events
season tickets $20
there's
a whole slide show that goes with it
One More Time - The Ancients [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
everybody jumps aboard the boat
at the same time
all must do it
right
or they all must take a swim
The Bike Riders - Andrew James Robison [recorded live at The Rat and Raven, Seattle, August 9, 2012]
call of the wild side
for chafers at bits
and other sad tales
Bipasha - Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant [from Bollygood Volume 1]
producer:
commercially employed composer
they come with their
equipment
become their own tool box
Lockdown - Fit For Hounds [from Live from Soundoff 2012]
introducing himself
to the stage audience
we get the whole hero
event tale
encreaturing the surface of a space
music built
as a story board
is built
new scene
sans plot
(ne'er a thought)
cold
scene
iron stillness
intense listening required
to ignite
the score
to make its music
all in
for the duration
Peterman-Demo - Peterman
voice riding on the guitars
drums deep in the back
J. K. Randall Interview Part 4 - Scott Burnham, J. K. Randall
self-consciously antagonistic
peculiar C Majorish
tonal music
still breathes
that did not be any means exhaust the landscape of the
12-tone of propaganda
able to talk in an even-handed manner
from a
civilized standpoint
fighting notion
conforming to laws of the
universe
reach out there
for nature and convention
generates each interval
with unique multiplicity
the primary
features
within a set of instructions
the payoff of them
as
basic composition
and pre-composition
elegant and indirect
in calling myself a pitch freak
fatal
it's mickymousing
and we hate that
This Christmas Is For Us - Shelby Earl
put all the work aside now
there was a fault copying to digital at some point
sound badly
compromised
we recite scripture
as though it were an authority
not to be questioned
the interdenominational
and
internondenominational
translation battles
Whatever I Can Get - Red Ribbon
mood mongering
Étude pour le pianoforte d'apres les caprices de Paganini in C Major, Op. 3 #3 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig
addressing a pitch
then readdressing it intently
packing punches
a multiply readdressed collection field
formed while you hear it
Mazurka in A-flat Major - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson
tiny knots of tonal thinking
figures of ambiguous meter
hesitation
above three (of three)
for finessed cadences
the prize
The Innate - Charles Ives - William Sharp, Steven Blier
this tonality rarely looks outside
though it sometimes looks into church
Off Minor - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Blue Note Recordings]
an ordered set of figures
strolling the sidewalks
of a hopping
scene
greeting all neighbors
passing by
no tying things up
with any bows
She's Got It (Alternative Version) - Little Richard [from Here's Little Richard]
truncated song parts
except the hook chorus
where the groove lives
In Session at The Tintinabulary
December 24, 2023
Wakefield - Keith Eisenbrey
a two-voice arrangement of a tune from an 1846 shape-note songbook
December 28, 2023
Gottes Sohn ist kommen - Aaron Keyt [from 40 Hymn Arrangements (2019)]
Aaron sent me a score of his arrangements of old German hymns, set for field organ, but which I'm hoping will all work pretty well on clavichord. This one did
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 9: 2002-2005
This volume finds me exploring both mod-17 and mod-12 environments (sometimes simultaneously).
Keith Eisenbrey 8: 2001-2002
A serendipitous mash-up and more mod-17 shenanigans.
Keith Eisenbrey 7: 1995-2001
During our years of chaos (parenting), keeping my hand in the game writing short pieces - and one big break-through.
Keith Eisenbrey 6: 1988-1994
Working with narrative forms, both explicit and implicit, playing games with memory, and finding ways to set texts.
Keith Eisenbrey 5: 1984-1988
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
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
Written in Red Hook, NY, and Malabar, FL, as I was beginning to think about thinking about music.
Keith Eisenbrey 2: 1981-1982
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
Keyboard works I composed while an undergrad at the UW.
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2015
