Playlist

Preface

"Tyranny is so generally established in the rest of the world that the prospect of an asylum in America for those who love liberty gives general joy, and our cause is esteemed the cause of all mankind. Slaves naturally become base as well as wretched. We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature. Glorious it is for the Americans to be called by Providence to this post of honour. Cursed and detested will everyone be that deserts or betrays it."

Benjamin Franklin (ca. 1776/1777), quoted  in The First American, The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, by H. W. Brands

Texts

Recorded

June 27, 2026

New Weather: III Bran - Edward T. Cone - Mimmi Fulmer, Jeffrey Farrington, John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens, Jayn Rosenfeld

The basis shifts at each new moment

Hypercool - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

slangiad

You Are My Joy - Aretha Franklin [from So Damn Happy]

wedding ready song
sheet music available in the gift shop

Incredible - Madonna [from Hard Candy]

acting out a wish ritual
the words are part of the dance rhythm machine

Traces-Tapestry-Pinkfour - Andrew Young [from Inkplaces]

a machine nears
internal processes
on timers

Gig Sup - Steve Layton [from Próxima Estación]

mechanical bounce game

Bare Branches (Soundscroll I (part 2) - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundscrolls: Lost Landshapes]

percussion piano and flute
sweep colors across a surface

June 28, 2026

Sonata in B-flat Major, Kk. 331 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

fills its space
like water flowing into pools
top to bottom 

after the hinge
the tide floods inland

L'idée fixe, S. 395 (Andante amoroso d’après une mélodie de Hector Berlioz) [After H. Berlioz] - Franz Liszt - Feng Bian

transcription
is transformation
is translation
is discovery

Album for the Young, Part 2, Op. 68, 19-36 - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

a romance is a story
with a before a during and an after 

these pieces
are each
a little romance
in one
or a few
ponds 

or
one could concoct
a connecting narrative
returning characters and all 

power moves
for strong young arms 

these triadic harmonies
are not chords
they are voicings
in motion or in stillness

Lyric Pieces, Book IV, Op. 47 - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

their lack of pretense
they don't sweat greatness
tying clever knots
fond of variously decorated stepwise descending lines

June 30, 2026

Études de concert, Op. 57 #1 - Agathe Backer Grøndahl - Sara Aimée Smiseth

focus on a single narrow figuration field
rarely straying much below middle C
even after the possibility is opened
such straying moments
function as articulation points

Sonata, Op. 68 (#9) - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

ambiguous motions
priesthood of practiced skill
refined taste
transgressive pleasure
stirred desire 

this is a big piece
that reads as tiny and self-contained

Weather Bird - Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

sunny street
village life
downtown in fine duds

I Won't Say I Will (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

there are several reasons one might be interested in these false starts and rejected takes
among them
a glimpse behind the curtains
at the actual sound world
in which these songs were made
the reality around
thems
as is
doing the making

Till There Was You - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

presume George is playing guitar
so John must be relegated to shaker
or was he sitting it out

It Always Belongs to Me / It's Up to the Band / Rainbow of Girls / Shaking the Blues Away - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin, All by Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

possessions as point of American pride
this track is presented
as a selection of individual items
no effort is made
to finesse
they join without arrangement 

a rainbow of girls
no fraternization

Shut Out The Light - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

doing the story teller thing he does
holds it together through two verses and chorus
the arrangement doesn't inflate suddenly
into a stadium balloon
keeps it in the moment
solid

Nazi Driver - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]

grooving on paranoia
panic
committing to the bit

Moonlight and Roses [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Volume 3]

civic pride soundtrack
suddenly the sunny street
to strut along

These Days - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

vocal line is constructed around its words
like a decorated psalm tone
Hildegard von Bingenish

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Whitney Houston [from One Wish: The Holiday Album]

cadenza at the end of each line
hitches up its tonal trousers
for a new key
more brightly lit
more tinsel

The Fame - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

within the set of my collection
of the names of recordings
there is a quantity of albums
whose names are the same
as the name of a song
contained within that album 

the relationship
of eponymy 

the gaudier the come on
the less likely the payoff

Forest of Thorns - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

a poetic image
is a way to be 

the blues is a clown type 

all the world's a cosplay convention 

this is my new favorite YMSK track

Atalanta - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]

wizard of hands
conjures wisp after wisp
of ghastly creepies
they adhere like sychophants
nuzzle like limpets

SoundScroll VII, part two: Drones - S. Eric Scribner - S. Eric Scribner, The Hexaphonic Five [from SoundScrolls V - IX (Live)]

once upon a time
a drone was a peaceful musical focusing device
or
was it suspect from the start 

power of immobility
to force compliance

What Kind of Fool Am I? (alternate take) - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

taking a stroll
through the kinds of music
this tune might like to dress themselves in 

intense pianism

Perfect Circle - REM [from Murmur]

file systems are fictions
is heuristic the right word?

God Part II - U2 [from Rattle and Hum]

standing on his porch
with his snarls and his shotguns 

my yard is my parish
keep off the grass

La papillon et la fleur - King's Singers [from Chansons d'amour]

what's wrong with making a little valentine out of music
its extravagance

Track 17 - Eckstein Middle School Ensemble [from Mach 6]

jazz band
elite
entry level
coolness training

The Meaning (Interlude)/Discipline - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

sweet nothings in the ear
begs for punishment 

not my kink
swipe whichever way swipers swipe
to dismiss

Coast to Coast - Waxahatchee [from Cerulean Salt]

albums are public journal entries
newsletters posted on the voidboard

A No No - Mariah Carey [from Caution]

I guess that's a no then

Interlude - (uncredited) [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

a live moment
in a bar environment

Children of the Night - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

in their fancy clothes
on glossy paper
negotiating a commercial economy
filling the space
saturating the market

Burning Up (12" version) - Madonna [from Madonna]

how many inches
are the other versions? 

her come on
is that
she says
we're resisting
like cowards 

how many inches
of that 12
is padding?

Bess, You Is My Woman Now - Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

spans of leaps
and their places
within the chord patterns

Elenan Timaru / Romania [from The World Sings Goodnight]

a pre-recorded lullaby
is a cheat
an ersatz comfort

July 1, 2026

21 Questions (feat. Nate Dogg) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

another trope of suspicion
do you love me
or just the money 

in the midst of a love bomb

Somebody's Everything - Dolly Parton [from Backwoods Barbie]

extreme possessory
not just
to be owned
but
to abide
no other possessions

Track 5 - Red Ribbon [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

sound file:
the states of locations
in a matrix
indexed by name

Cats Across The Way - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]

a pathetic romance
doomed from the start

Diabelli Recomposed, variations 6-10 - various (from a stream on May 11, 2023]

6
as though by Schubert 

7
as though a waltz of the 1890s 

8
as though by a shivering Scriabin
then
as though with pinchy little fingers 

9
now some francophile has got hold of it 

10
and now
in arachnid tinkertoys

I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

makes that piano
do his playing
tickles it under its chin
to thank it

I'm Coming Home - T. Bone Burnett [from Truth Decay]

straight ahead
country plea song
complete with biblical imagery

Where's The Loser - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

manly tale
of manly legend
with break
for a bass guitar solo

All Apologies - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

all the lines lead to the prayer
at the edge

Allure - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]

a paean
to living the good life (moneyed)

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyoncé [from I am ... Sasha Fierce]

a sign of a pledge
social mnemonic

Flat Screen - Dead Bars [recorded live at The Comet, Seattle, March 5, 2013]

always a pleasure

Medicine Man - Denise Glover [from Gaps In The Stories]

gospel message woven in
broadly ecumenical

The Quiet Way You Move Me - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

each line a new inflection of tonality
wordless
but not without composition
by vowel placement

Don't Hold It Against Me - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

the devil made me do it
by way of an apology

Ain't Goin' Home-HonkeyDoodle Town - Scurvy Bastards [from Piranthology]

drinked hisself under the table
yet again 

let's go pull tractors

Generals and Majors - XTC [from Nancy's Mix]

begging for spotlights

Bezrodna Nevezda - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares 2]

vocal production affects our sense of intonation and interval
a disciplined choir

Une jeune fillette (c. 1616) - The Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'n'Roll]

of what does a song consist
that can be passed along
shared at potlatch
or other social occasion 

ornate lutering

Soundscape - Dan [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

growling dogs
peaceful frogs 

heavy machinery
violent footfall

Piece of Your Mind - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

love among the household appliances

Rising - Blazzed [from Blazzed]

battle gear
on the move
warboys on their rigs

I See It - The Staples Singers [from Written In Their Soul: The Stax Records Demos]

the repetition
is a coercive invitation to join

Shake a Tail Feather - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

another member
of the dance craze craze

Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music 831211 6:30 PM (end) - John Cage - The New Performance Group, John Cage

the pointillistic isolation of events
from each other
asks of us
how silence responds
to each such pointillistically isolated event 

does it remain stone faced
and constant
or does it curve in event space? 

single impulse
single event
no spillover 

there's a sound
that sounds new musicy 

a random imaged texture
within narrow bounds of density 

earmind
betrays our desire
for purity
from ego

I'm Amazed - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

rumors spread of sickening deeds

Liebeslied - Fritz Kreisler - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

music for polite entertainment
suitable for ladies and gentlemen
of refined tastes

Colors: Khaki - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

odd miniatures
grotesques

Burgess Shale Trip - Sam - Sacajawea Elementary Student [from Digital Dreams]

rolling through the factory floor
and around the corner

Valentine's Day - David Bowie [from The Next Day]

melody
as a rhyme of notes
within their stanzas

The Mermaid Set - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels] 

happy-go-lucky tales
of femmes fatal and vital

July 2, 2026

August - PJ Harvey [from I Inside The Old Year Dying]

the same sound might be described
as a discordant noise
or as a particular texture of pitch feel 

the voice
then
explores by means of singing
touching its parts

Spiral II - Karlheinz Stockhausen

a mathematical construct
and a metaphor
and some wiggly electronic sounds
meet
in the backrooms
of a radio cabaret
after hours
sampling
what was left in the glasses 

why yes
this is Sgt. Pepper's Stockhausen 

a shot rings out
or a sharp slap
and a second 

having a laugh
with the resident rodents 

do I not hear Stockhausen's piece if
 I fail to distinguish
either construct
or metaphor
in it?
and
if it wasn't his piece
what was it?

Fly/Yoohoo - J. K. Randall, Matthew Rosenblum, Marjorie Tichenor, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]

this comes in
as though they had already been at it
for some time 

four musicians
place their sounds
on the head of a pin 

fasten your seat belts
it can get crowded 

but they hang on 

the world outside the pin's head
has silenced 

Inter/Play was a series of cassette tapes
distributed by J. K. Randall
(and then with Ben Boretz)
of the session recordings of the 80s
each cassette
had two sides
and for years
they were arranged in my head
and in my cassette cabinet
as in the order thus distributed
but
that order 

does not match the order
in which the recordings were recorded 

now
they are arranged
in a computer folder
alphabetically
and in my database
they are arranged
chronologically
by the date of their doing 

in my head
they're humble jumble
in their idea space

Wild Leaves - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]

this tune homes in on its invariant end tone
eyes locked

Transcendental Modulations - George Perle  - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

this has become quite the fun puppet show
with great sets
and puppets of flowing silk 

the plot blows tragical

Karl Rove: Announcing the War for Enraq - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

the blind mice are enraged

Love Bade Me Welcome - Kia Sams - Prospect Choir

blend of mixed voices
each a human

Of All The Limbs to Cling To - Mikey and Matty [from Harbor Island]

covering a disaster
in pretty words
and jangly strums and strikes

Catchy Tune - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

takes the stage
and proceeds to monolog something fierce

Remember - Tom Baker Quartet [from Begin Again]

floating on the harbor ripples

Symphony 8 - Roger Sessions - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

this music
is enwebbing you
in dreams
of past pleasures
past shames

Black Street In The Hour of Chaos - Public Enemy [from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back]

delayed rhyme line
reference by primary source
fair use

...where murmurs die... - Bernard Rands - American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein]

a music of wisps
and broad colorful gestures
long lines
of art deco reclining figures 

this music has nowhere to go
which is realized
at length 

it thrives in fetid swamps

Deep Purple - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

a melody that folds through itself
then a fine dance 

a whole production number
costume changes and everything

Missa Tirnaviensis - Stanislav Surin - Trnavsky Komorny Orchester, Milan Krupcik

ceremonial and solemn
but not bloated
frugal 

I've actually sung the Gloria
(and met Mr. Surin!)
as part of the University Temple Chancel Choir
I think I even have a picture 

he has an interesting ear for rhythm

In Session at The Tintinabulary

June 28, 2026

Iddo - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 156 Iddo 260628 [260628]

June 30, 2026

Detritus 14 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Detritus 14 260629 [260630]

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 33: Sabbatical Improvisations (part 4) 2014

In 2013 I had reached an inflection point in my big project, Études d'exécution imminent, and took a sabbatical (indifferently observed) from composing written-down music. I filled the time with various forms of improvisation, both "in-the-moment" composing, and sometimes puttering about with multi-tracking and other digitally applied effects. Here is the fourth bunch of them.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream

Playlist

Preface

"'Mr. Allen,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'what is the matter, sir?'
'Never mind, sir!' replied Mr. Allen, with haughty defiance.
'What is it?' inquired Mr. Pickwick, looking at Bob Sawyer. 'Is he unwell?'
Before Bob could reply, Mr. Ben Allen seized Mr. Pickwick by the hand, and murmured, in sorrowful accents, 'My sister, my dear sir; my sister.'
'Oh, is that all!' said Mr. Pickwick. 'We shall easily arrange that matter, I hope. Your sister is safe and well, and I am here my dear sir, to - '
'Sorry to do anythin' as may cause an interruption to such wery pleasant proceedin's, as the king said wen he dissolved the Parliament,' interposed Mr. Weller, who had been peeping through the glass door; 'but there's another experiment here, sir. Here's a wenerable old lady a lyin' on the carpet waitin' for dissection, or galwinism, or some other rewivin' and scientific inwention.'
'I forgot,' exclaimed Mr. Ben Allen. 'It is my aunt.'
'Dear me,' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Poor lady! gently, Sam, gently.'
'Strange sitivation for one o' the family,' observed Sam Weller, hoisting the aunt into a chair. 'Now, depitty Sawbones, bring out the wollatilly.'"

Charles Dickens - from "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"

Texts

Recorded

February 17, 2024

Two Slants: Duty, Vita - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush

stomps the end of Duty
lingers at the end of Vita

Serial Diatonicism - Carson "Carsonics" Farley - Keith Eisenbrey 

the thickest of the chords are a challenge to play clearly on clavichord
but I think I managed pretty well
the tempo shifts work (to my ear)
an interesting challenge

Her Gown Was of Vermillion Silk - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo

the text is in the past tense
the word painting is in the present tense

Punch Drunk Lovers - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

offset sound plates
edges not trued up nor trimmed

Nature's Way - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush

a comforting sentiment

Grimoire - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

dark foreboding
Fafner proximity warning
it seems he may have smelled the blood of that Englishman after all
grumpiness level high

From 'The Incantation' - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich

etched filigree presents this text

Two Minds Inside - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

playing an echo game on a schematic board

An Election - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo

comments overheard on the street

Persephone - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

far below the bellows of beasts
a sequestered realm of stillness
and nanoincremental accretion
hollowing out the chambers above
to clog the chambers below

February 18, 2024

At Sea - Charles Ives - William Sharp, Steven Blier

a fragment song or aphoristic
extends beyond its horizon

Go Go Dynamo - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

for dancing
turn the groove this way and that
the hips the feet the shoulders the hat
reset the rhythm ball
move where the moves now fall
aerobic and fun
you'll grin a ton

Flag Song - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo

Country and God and Manly Determination
square jaws and ready fists

Gold In a Gray Land - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

pebbles in a pool of many dimensions
each with its surface and depths
each pebble descends true
through its discovered pool

Far From My Heavenly Home - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich

a prayer

First Autumn Day - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

the hemisphere of the biosphere
begins its necessaries to survive the long dark
winds and current shift
life pulls back into itself

The Last Reader - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush

that scarce remembered lay
there's the schoolbook cadence
and there's the oh so modern waft of scent

Deah - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

shaman
calling a power out
reaching toward it to speak to it

The Greatest Man - Charles Ives - Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo

cute

Baila - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

I'm being acquired point by point
(oh gee he's up to my knee)
one two three four
increments of engulfment

The Housatonic at Stockbridge - Charles Ives - Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich

the use of "at" or "on" in geographic place names or descriptions
an East coast thing? 
I think here we would say "in" or "near" Stockbridge

When I Was a Child I Lived By the River - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

menacing but placatable
if properly feared

Resolution - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Phillip Bush

a quotation pulled from its surrounds

Lucky You - Steve Layton [from Lucky You]

a happy walking hum
with which we say
ta ta to Mr. Layton
'til we pick him up again in the next cycle
and now lucky me
a marathon of Ives songs

Two Little Flowers; Evening; Immortality; Yellow Leaves; Ann Street; Peaks; The White Gulls; 1, 2, 3; Majority; Remembrance; The One Way; The Rainbow (So May It Be!); The Side Show; A Sea Dirge; In the Mornin - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Philip Bush; Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich; Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo; William Sharp, Steven Blier

thrice repeated clauses
plangence
plainness
ding dong bell
what are art songs for?
to give singers a music more suitable to an intimate space than is allowed in opera
and to sing in different tenses and characters
than would generally come up on the dramatic stage
interesting
these seem to benefit from not being isolated from their own kind
several of them together lifts each individually
they are all and each
not the all and all
but rather
a part written in stones
ragtime photographs of moments
the music of a time
the color if its time
point at the map
name the streets
to his credit he doesn't obscure the affectual dissonances of the poem

February 19, 2024

Ich Grolle Nicht; Widmung; We Melodien; There Is a Lane; Elégie; Evidence; Berceuse; Rough Wind; South Wind; No More; On Judge's Walk; A Night Thought; Song of the Dead; Where the Eagle; Tolerance; The Love Song of Har Dyal; Omens and Oracles; Those Evening Bells; Frühlingslied; ein Ton; Marie; Song; Memories; Waltz; Songs My Mother Taught Me; Son of a Gambolier - Charles Ives - Dora Ohrenstein, Philip Bush; Mary Ann Hart, Dennis Helmrich; Paul Sperry, Irma Vallecillo; William Sharp, Steven Blier

so
these can function effectively as Preludes do
in sets of the same
they set each other up and off
or
like variations
the mix of them more alive
than any one of them as an individual thought 

pre-19th Century it is my understanding
 that songs were written to be intersticed
as part of a longer musical event
 one might be included between movements of a symphony exempli gratia
the arrival of song cycles
was part of change in the social circumstances
in which music was shared music
became part of bourgeois home life
these offer a picture of domestic life 100 years ago
and of what was appropriate within its confines
texts that could be printed in a respectable periodical 

man's hearthstone
build my own 

for all Ives's reputation as a modernist
the vast majority of these are not so far out as to be modernistic
kazoos notwithstanding
surely that sort of thing was seen frequently on the vaudeville stage

the old dance ground

***************

{NB: And so we begin a new cycle, composed of those tracks I have indexed to years ending in "3" or "8".}

O Quam Mirabilis Est (Antiphona) - Hildegard Von Bingen - Sequentia, Barbara Thornton

voice illuminates space

Baci Soavi E Cari - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini

voice confers with voice
long lined phrases

A Suite of Dances - Anonymous - David di Fiore [from The Grand Organ of the Castle Church of St. Catherine in Kremnica]

David played these for us many times at services over the years
I remember that his voicing on them evolved over time
experimenting with rhythm and color

Benedictus Deus noster - Peter Phillips - Royal Holloway Choir, Rupert Gough, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble

voice populates space
full of glory

February 20, 2024

Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christ, Op. 3 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

ornate reading
even setting the title
do I have the same trouble with word-painting here?
not so much
it seems to be more in the nature of a sensitive declamation
than in a clever
look-at-what-I-did there
the music amplifies
they are gesticulations in the character of the declaimer
part of their person and demeanor
I think our choir did at least a part of this many years ago
perhaps even under Chuck Peterson
back when we were ambitious

Schoenberg was not the first to set the voice of divinity in multiple parts
including the voice of Mary

this is a setting of the Johannine resurrection story

Ich habe Lust abzuschieden, BWV 47 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet, Suzie LeBlanc, Dame Emma Kirby, Clare Solomon

bass lines with lives of their own have business below and above

David et Jonathas, Act I - Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Pinchgut Opera, Antony Walker, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Dean Robinson, Paul McMahon, David Parkin, Andrei Laptev, Anna Fraser, David Greco, Cantillation, Anders J. Dahlin, Simon Lobelson, Richard Anderson,Sara Macliver, Ashley Giles

we wanted the stories to be enacted within our behold
it needed to be writ large
music in the service of making things larger than life
opens with royalty's conference with sorcery
which has power over the spirit of Samuel
interesting

sound effects!!
thunder and hooves! 

balance between the phrases of voice and the remarks of the orchestra
pay mind when they join forces
basso profundo divine authority figure
must be Samuel

this here is ceremonial and pomply
a chorus is an opportunity to reset
change the mind scene
metrical accelerants
big screen biblical epic

Liebster Jesu, wir sing hier, BWV 731 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Stanislav Surin

the increment between activation of the key
and the speaking of the pipes
varies with rank and pitch and space
blurring synchrony

Allemande de Laborieuse - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

grace filters down from above
the fount and the echo box
clarification signals conclusion

Acis and Galatea, Act I - George Frideric Handel - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Kawn Kotoski, David Gordon, Glenn Siebert, Jan Opalach, Seattle Symphony Chorale

this music goes about its business certifying the preparations
dusting the chandeliers 

tableauxers take their places

presented as though on too big a stage
if it's worth singing
it's worth repeating
the characters are picture book illustrations
trouble with the sheep
placid and pastoral
enjoy the picture book
and our conversations too
there're those happy happy happy wes
everybody's happy couple

Hipocondrie a 7 concertanti - Jan Dismas Zelenka - Camerata Bern, Alexander van Wijnkoop

the depictions of worry and miscertainty
following darker paths
an unstable affect
or
the affect is of an unstable sort

February 21, 2024

Noel 10 'Grand jeu et duo' - Louis-Claude Daquin - Marie-Claire Alain

celebratory dance with doubles and variations
music for a large space
we sit back and observe from our seats

Sonata in A Major, Wq. 65.10 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

sets up shop in one's head
a short study in chromatic progressions

Sonata in D Major, Kk.223 -  Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

no mind intrusion here
it intrigues
invites study

La Damanzy - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset

rings on every finger
frills at every seam

Three Scottish Tunes - James Oswald - Nancy Hadden

early folk adaptations
a sprightly Greensleeves

Ah, tu non senti, from Ifigenia in Tauride (Tomasa Traetta) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne, Antal Dorati

a number for another composer's opera
a dramatic recitative
orchestra plays
then the singer
et cetera
until late in the game
rhetorical structure employed for dramatic impact

Symphony in D Major, K45(45) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroeer, Christopher Hogwood

1
glittering
bursting with invention and contrast 

2
a methodical progression
wanders astray
but sticks to its procedures 

3
dancers line up
a dance is a structured conversation 

4
lively dinner conversation

Sonata in G Major - Johann Christian Bach - Bart van Oort

the top line melody is the hero of its own tale
fingery figures shaped for the hand

Sonata in A Major, Op. 10 #1 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley

1
clarity and grace
post repeat
behind the scenes
pump the servants
pull the strings of society 

2
cobbled together
irregular
loves to find the dark corners of phrase endings
the three meter complicates itself 

3
spinning machinery
mechanical toy wonder
the era of the virtuoso has arrived

Sonata pour le Clavecin où le Forte-Piano in G Major, WoO, C.40 - Johann Ladislaus Dussek

1-A
a refined gentleman with genuine passions that erupt in his handsome breast so noble
1-B
a rough and noisy character with true tenderness in his broad chest 

2
let's see how they do at the dance among their fellows
or amid the chatter of an evening at dinner and cards
but wanders into dangerous territory

Concerto in B-flat Major, Op. 19 (#2) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Boston Symphonie Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, Rudolf Serkin

1
use the most unlikely hinge
it will be unmistakable on its return
a fixed point
from which to survey the dance of motions in concord or in opposition
Ludwig muscles in on the virtuoso scene
is that Beethoven's cadenza? 

2
a phrase is an adventure full of plot points
big R Romantic
back when it was an intellectual posture 

3
rollicking fun at the local Bierhall
switches from looking back at the music
to simply playing it
ha! fooled ya!

Sonata in C Major - Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Constance Keene

1
the assertion is questioned
discussed in its presence
has a clever figuration game
irrepressible
hey
do you remember that assertion we were discussing 

2
ok let's take this thing apart shall we
but first we'll breakfast on the veranda
an important conversation being had
in which the assertion figures heavily 

3
a great twittering is heard in the domestic labyrinth
 perhaps the assertion solved itself
its commerce fulfilled
all settled

Sonata in G Minor, Op. 13 - Friederich Kalkbrenner - John Khouri

1
the stormy part of passion
he becomes a bit of a bore about it 

2 
whew! now what?
forcing the music to get bigger
a constant pressure of espressivo utterance 

3 4
golly they all sure do start with a loud bang

February 22, 2024

Caprice in E Major, Op. 1 #1 - Niccolò Paganini - Salvatore Accardo

virtuosic flashpoint
next stop Liszt

Die Schöne Müllerin - Franz Schubert - Gerard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin

each page a poem
each poem an illustration
master of the passing shadow
or change in the weather
music
the stage setting props and drops
no hurry getting around to what might be a plot
wandering involves many scenes to be believable wandering
and there she is right on cue
stations of the mill a
sequence of rhymed soliloquies
piano part moves effortlessly between being a piece in its own right and clearly playing a supporting role to the voice
two roles
harmonic support and lyric foil
as in blues guitar playing
such as Mr. Johnson's
the pianist has an excellent touch 
microscopic attention to shades of affect
somebody got his dander up
gets dark indeed
shades of the Werther of Young Sorrows

Gran Capriccio in C minor - Carl Czerny - Martin Jones

a caprice follows thought
playing registers off each other
the keyboard is a puppet stage
this one shows melodramas nightly
matinees on weekends
and a post melodrama fugue for the aficionados

Introduction and Bolero in A minor, Op. 19 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

a tour through the measures
singling out particularly significant pitch places

for northern Europeans
did the Bolero as a dance type
appeal
because of its sultry
fantasy inciting
Spanish origins?

Les nuits d'ete - Louis-Hector Berlioz - Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim, Kiri Te Kanawa

loves his scenery
lusts after the opera stage
a magician with his orchestra
or
instrument is a sound to be applied where needed
these scenes are not static
things happen in them

O Weh des Scheidens - Clara Schumann - Dorothea Craxton, Hedayet Djeddikar

private communication
direct address
mixtape

Ouverture-Manfred - Robert Schumann, Boston Symphony Orchestra - Wilhelm Furwängler

there it is right there
forever slipping from our grasp
and here comes that astonishing
name that tune
final chord

Variations on a Hungarian Song - Johannes Brahms, Julius Katchen

for piano two-fists
the fists dream of one day becoming real hands
fully intertwinable 

try to force their way in
through fierce counterpoint

Richard III, Op. 11 - Bedřich Smetana - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann

early appearance of tune-bird
cinema spectacular
royal ceremony
pomp and costumes
horse chases in the dead of night
thrills and chills
all our favorite bits
complete with kettle drums to make it all kingly
a bit of a trip

Rhapsodie espagnole - Franz Liszt - Stephen Hough

laying the whole keyboard wizard thing on pretty thick
now down to business
these puppets are big and scary
but wear rhinestone shoes
and a sparkly jacket
and there are candelabras 

modulation by tossing the threads into the air
and finding where they fall to

Fatum, Op. 77 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., Antal Dorati

a scarlet thread
invisible if not suspected
doing its work
high and low
in court and field
and town and village
forces are gathering
there's gonna be a blow-up
he's telegraphing it big-time
pull back
to the furtive opening
find our happy place
nope sorry
Mr. Stomp is here to stomp

In Session at The Tintinabulary

February 18, 2024

Hingham - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 33 Hingham 240218 [240218]

February 19, 2024

Gradus 392 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

an energized location in space
a grouping thereof
is an attitude of that space

a fulcrum in the earbrain
between
being a part of a vertical (momentary) sonority
and being part of an horizontal (sequential) figure 

occupy the fulcrum 

a preponderance of root position triadic harmonies
skews the balance toward the momentary (vertical) sonorities
as a primary consideration 

more transparent texture
skews it toward the sequential (horizontal)
separates the voices 

reverberation space and pitch space
reverberation space
is an artifact of physical objects in physical space
pitch space
is a virtual space arising out of perception of aspects of a sonic environment 

at the fulcrum the dimensions shift easily one to the other

February 23, 2024

Psalm 119 - Aaron Keyt

Ein wahrer Glaube Gotts Zorn stillt - Aaron Keyt

Postscripts

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 13: Music as Film (part 2) 2008 - 2009

Volume 13 completes my Music as Film project, in which I built up textures from snippets of sound. "Zither Film" is just that process and nothing else. "Improvising a Framework for Composition so as to Compose My Thoughts about Improvisation" uses layers from the earlier "Lids Film" in conjunction with texts both original and found. "Torch Song" is all about its found texts. It may not properly belong in the project's remit but it tagged along anyway. It certainly doesn't belong anywhere else. 

Volumes 1 through 12 are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com

All are free for download.

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

listening journal doodles from 2020

Playlist

Preface

"'My friend Mr. Snodgrass has a great taste for poetry,' replied Mr. Pickwick.
'So has Mrs. Leo Hunter, sir. She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have met with her "Ode to an expiring Frog," sir.'
'I don't think I have,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'You astonish me, sir,' said Mr. Leo Hunter. 'It created an immense sensation. It was signed with an "L" and eight stars, and appeared originally in a Lady's Magazine. It commenced --

"Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
can I unmoved see thee dying
         On a log, 
         Expiring frog!"'

'Beautiful!' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Fine,' said Mr. Leo Hunter, 'so simple.'
'Very,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'The next verse is still more touching. Shall I repeat it?'
'If you please,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'It runs thus,' said the grave man, still more gravely.

"Say, have fiends in shape of boys
With wild halloo, and brutal noise,
Hunted thee from marshy joys,
         With a dog,
         Expiring frog!"'"

Charles Dickens - The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club

Texts

Recorded

December 26, 2022

Freight Train Blues - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]

face pressed tight to the surface of the song
tight pressed into every pore 

Backlash Blues - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]

singing from within
rather than desperate to enter

Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby) - Aretha Franklin [from Young Gifted and Black]

breaks into the blue sky
only to fade
commercial song as single motion vector
a part to place within a set or album
rather than a rounded off completion

The Secret Life of Arabia - David Bowie [from Heroes]

the fascination with the 1001 Nights
fantasizing the fantastic
into the fantasy realms
of an imagined fantasy

Hymn of Christian Joy - Gordon Young - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]

religious branding
inflicted upon baroque fan-fiction
doesn't improve the experience

All That Heaven Will Allow - Bruce Springsteen [from Tunnel of Love]

a plea
to the powers that be 

seems curtailed as a song though
half a thought

Snake Baked a Hoecake - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from Animal Folk Songs for Children]

uses a piano counterpoint
that I suspect was at least based on Ruth Crawford's arrangement

Gradus 24 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 20, 2002]

got stuck on the fourth A up
our cues of completion
of restart
of continuing
are all inscribed
on the signal
by the ear
in an image of an agent
that produces the signal
which image
includes
a template
for thoughts
such as we might expect
such an agent
to be projecting thereupon

so
what it comes down to
is our desire
as to what inscriptions we wish to make
upon the experienced signal
and
the amount of control
any of us may have
in that regard
or
the worth of the experience
might be the content
of what listening
to through or against it
is able to reveal of ourselves
of otherwise unavailable aspects of ourselves 

do we have it within ourselves
to listen innocent to our past inscriptions
would there be a reason to do so
or to attempt it
or
would we be necessarily hijacked unawares
better perhaps
to take our past as a given
but
to question it on all points

The Big One - Curtains For You [from Heaven's Waiting]

locally
a reference to the prognosticated major earthquake along the Seattle fault
it's happened before
so there is no reason to suppose it won't repeat someday
tomorrow or in many hundreds of years

Gradus 215 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 1, 2012]

proximity within temporal flow
sequence within temporal flow
both strong determinants of grouping
but
which can group differently
thus eliciting multiplex times
and floating plastic geometries
to accommodate them 

why is it forward
that we say time goes?
the metaphor is based on our personal mode of going 

to the extent time goes
exactly
at all
surely it goes in a strictly timewise manner 

if time continues to go
why is it still here?
has it ever been here?
did we miss it ?

music as a tool we grasp to seize a common time

Track 2 - Arbor Towers [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]

wheels in wheels
cyclic alignment and flux
counting within counting

Banned Rehearsal 1057 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 15, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1057 220815

sound produced by an object existing physically within an environment
is inevitably permeated
by the acoustic properties of its location within that environment 

sound produced by a signal through a speaker
also
but
the signal producing that sound
as such
is not the signal of the sound
it is impervious to
or opaque to
that acoustic environment
in which the sound we hear is heard
verbalization within such a signal
is even worse
the verbal content is opaque to transformation 

personal fact
I would rather hear a drum or flute
than a speaker producing a recording of a drum or flute
the drum is a different sound than a flute
in a way that the sounds of them produced on a speaker
are the same 

the transparence of layers of production
is crucial
the fewer layers the better
the more present to the present occasion 

it isn't just the loss of information and addition of noise

December 27, 2022

Mort, tu es navré - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe

a song set on top of another
lines spill over their ends
fill the reservoir
and spill over the stanzas
separated by ample space
no reason
dramatically
to move on
no reason
dramatically
not to go on
we go on
without reason

Corranto, Fvb. 203 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

momentum spills over
into accompaniment
at phrase ends

Sonata in D minor, Kk. 213 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

austere
paired with ornate
partake
a moment
spun together

Sonata in F Major, Op. 10 #2 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda

1
the big structural cadences
are a place to get to
through thick and thin
opens by interrupting polite conversation 
plays the am-I-repeating-or-not game
will we ever adventure to a conclusive cadence? 

2
the upsurging
rounds into melody
as it emerges into a new timbre

3
builds until it can hold no more
then bursts
again again again and again

Impromptu in F minor, Op. 142 #1 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

fluids hemmed by outbursts
carefully diverted
led to partly shadowed lands
bends past the hill
into pleasantness
but
finish in shadow

S.O.L. Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

clarinet brakes the tempo
romantic/economic partnership
in it for the bucks
taunt
kiss off

Three Pieces for Choir: The Composers Forum Laboratory - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey

comic
sort of
were it not
so wicked

If I Were You - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia ]

without apparent fancy singing
relies on the expression of saying

Bluebird - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]

wordplay
a bebop hiphop connection

A Fool For You - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles]

overtelling it like it is

Sweet Little Sixteen - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings Volume 1]

presumably the original took a while to get to England
so that The Beatles could imitate it
make it big
and feed it back to us

Sunny - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

nightclub orchestration
for the more sophisticated crowd
such as might be hanging out in Vegas
and other such watering holes

Half Moon - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

fill me like the sea
takes it at quite a clip
so that the drift-off at the end spreads out over the flats

Musical Activity in Mexico - Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Amirkhanian [from Conlon Nancarrow Speaks with Charles Amirkhanian]

getting rid of the performer
an idea of this generation's time
long before midi made it accessible to the masses

December 28, 2022

Let X=X - Laurie Anderson [from Big Science]

a series of flat-toned empty-ish stray statements
who is this for?
the too cool for school?
the aspirationally hip?

Banned Telepath 12 D.C. - Aaron Keyt [August 9, 1987]

stubborn doors shouldered open
stay open dammit
find a location
make its noise
wander away
repeat 

its obsession
its return
one part static
another mobile as accompaniment
and tune
sweep it away
chase the bats out
fill the glass with happy bubbles
fill the sink
the tub
the whole pool 

static states
vamping patter
a bell in the distance
chimes
patterns can change into a new pattern
or as complexity increases
can reveal forms from within their workings 

extruding noodles

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - Ralph Vaughan-Williams - English String Orchestra, William Boughton [from Meditations for a Quiet Night]

exoticism of the pious past
lush it up
keep the fire going
effuse at intervals
more legato than my tummy can hold

These Are My Insides - The Humidiflyers [from Humidiflyers 2002]

open door to a magic room
but then spoken word
with chorus
self glorification
cut short

Liebeslied Amended - Benjamin Boretz, Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]

the opening is the best part of what I amended
though I play it too fast here
far too slavish to the explicit rational values of the notated rhythm
not breathing with the phrase

Dama v rychliku - Stanislav Surin

somewhere between pop and art-song
European art-pop-song 

centered on text elucidation
these words clearly mean specific things
and are sung to make that clear
should one happen to speak Slovak

Banned Telepath 56 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy [June 19, 2017]

drumming privately on the porch
and guitars for crows

the porch is an interesting acoustic
partly inside partly outside
sounding just like a room with a wall and a half missing

texture is persistent
unsettled
constant
disresolving
dabbing paint dots 

music as a quiet but busy place
present as the weather on a nice evening

a roll trills away
under the pressure
of a stick
on a drum head

I'm That Girl - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

constructed of parts
not clearly a song in song form
though that might be there behind it all
or not
assemblage
through-line not clear
production value maximized

December 29, 2022

Corranto, Fvb. 205 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

well formed and fully
but what manner of thing is it
that it should be so well formed
and so fully formed
is there a model of something else behind it
does that model arise from within music itself
or from something else
dance
poetry
song
all and more?

You'd Better Mind - Pace Jubilee Singers [from Goodbye, Babylon]

also well and fully formed
here we are clearly being preached at
instructed
but also
an image of being instructed
by an individual and by a society
in the guise of soloist and chorus
a theater

Caravan - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra [from Ken Burns Jazz]

more exoticism of the East
a land far from Europe's
hang-ups
a film score
atmosphere cue

Half Step Down - Coleman Hawkings [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

turns around on its own practice
detail of doing
become structural basis
for a new doing

Medley - Elvis Presley [from Elvis' Christmas Album]

but is it just Silent Night
yup 

a medley of one song

Jet Flight - Sun Ra [from The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra]

from when such a thing was shiny and new
so hopeful and stylish
more concerned with being going
than with being formed fully or well 

packed into a tube
pringled

Turn Out The Stars - Bill Evans [from California Here I Come]

forms itself around a song and its continuity
but
within a cultural model
of how an activity
can form itself around a song and its continuity
even when
the song may never have existed
outside that culture

Ferguson Road - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]

anybody's cool sister
reports on her adventures

New York - The Sex Pistols [from Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols]

attitude meet and greet
London trashes the Big Apple

The Call Of The Wreckin' Ball - The Knitters [from Poor Little Critter On The Road]

comedy routine
bad ol' boy brag

My Melody - Eric B. & Rakim [from Paid In Full]

studio production swallows song whole
persona as commodity
music structure follows text structure
advertisement and competition
selling selling
commodified commodification
droids making droids
how perverse

Paper Money - Wayne Horvitz - The New York Composers Orchestra [from First Program in Standard Time]

in the notes
a reference is made to a clocklike cadence
which is interesting to me
in the use of the word cadence
what is being referenced
is more in the nature
of what I would call
a figure
or motive
a cyclic tick tock pattern that pervades
a bit like Beethoven's 8th Symphony
but here
we're waiting on time
rather than being pushed along by it

Gradus 25 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 3, 2002]

the accent is on graw
the rebound is on doose 

is this that I am hearing well or fully formed?

ordealism
submitting to a regime
by self or other
and here I am listening
that's my ordealist role 

an artifact that arises by means of struggle
artifact
token of skill
evidence 
trace result
scratch
inscription
mark 

what does the struggle impart to the mark?

any score is such a regime
any score is an ordeal in waiting
the question is
to what extent the ordeal stimulates a stimulating response
reverberant stimulation

a stimulus need not be well formed
to be genuine or reverberant

the praxis of music
is to maximize reverberance to stimuli
to become an instrument
an open tool 

respond aloud
response allowed 

Gradus
in this
is a reverberant response
to the infinite's yawp into the void
we yawp
and listen for response
is the void anechoic?
are we yawping clearly and loudly enough?
are we competent to hear the response?

The Diagnosis - Peter Fedofsky [from The City Of Good Neighbors]

viscous
confined
beset
heavy

Sound Check - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Blue Moon, October 4, 2012]

does it still persist?
can we hear what we are doing? 

the stage
being the most difficult place in the whole joint
from which to hear oneself
over the din one is making

A Walk In The Dark - Anxious Arms [from Never Was]

step out the door
the city bursts through you
into your face
pounding your chest
beating your head
slamming your hips
invading your groin

Humbuggy - Keith Eisenbrey [August 19, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Humbuggy 220819

we had just purchased an electric vehicle
which as all do
by Federal regulation
makes noise at low speeds
inside it
one can't really hear it
so
I made a recording of Karen backing out of our driveway
it goes by right to left
into the general noise of day
humming

December 30, 2022

Daunce, Fvb. 206 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

the horizontal lines come loose
from within the blocky texture

Sweet Story of Old - Bela Lam and His Greene County Singers [from Goodbye, Babylon]

singing in three parts
strictly consonant
mostly open
none of that fancy
old world
dissonant stuff for us 

no sirree

Blue Rhythm Fancy - Teddy Hill [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

parts add to other parts
jump from attachment to attachment

So Easy - Dexter Gordon [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

blues changes
that accelerate harmonic rhythm
to roll around
to the start of the next verse
and apply the brakes

I'm The Guilty One - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Rare and Rockin']

in country mode
big scoops on world
more
door 

piano tremolo stands in for a yodel

Bam - Stevie Wonder [from The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie]

all the combo sounds
crammed together
in a booth

We Three Kings - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]

by the book brass arranging

Git It Up Or Let Me Go - Bonnie Raitt [from Give It Up]

scolding blues
behave yourself you clod
hootenanny tempo 

California Sun - Ramones [from Leave Home]

if you ain' got that do re mi
but the streets are paved with gold
and the girls are the most

D.M.S.R. - Prince [from 1999]

composition by assembly
leaning into the clean 80s engineering
to push an image of virtual music
twisting around
to engage with its artificiality
now all you ladies scream
so the scream track is spun
a virtual response

In Session at the Tintinabulary

December 2, 2022

Sinfonia 5 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 05 Sinfonia 5 221202

I finished this piece earlier this month, but wanted to read through it a few times to check the score for errors before making this midi realization.

December 29, 2022

Prelude in B-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson

I finally got this one to bubble along satisfactorily. Lockrem's centenary is coming up in a few years and there is some exciting news coming on that front soon. I  had a long conversation this week with Lockrem's cousin, the guitarist Doug Rice. Plans are afoot and things are happening.

Prelude in G minor - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 22 Prelude In G 110430 [221229]

I have three more of these to record: F Major, D minor, and that pesky G-sharp minor. That latter is close to being ready. I've been working on it for months.

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1991