"'O my wife, we've both had our fill of troubles:
you in this place
grieving
over my homecoming long-delayed,
And I - Zeus and the
other gods
held me back in sorrow
from coming to my native land
though
I was eager for it.
But now since we both have come
to the bed we
longed for,
you must take charge of the property I have in the halls.
As
for the sheep the arrogant wooers have wasted,
I shall replace them with
booty,
and the Achaians will provide me with new ones
until the
sheepfold's fully replenished.
but I must go to the farmstead thick with
woods
to see my good father in grief on account of me.
And on you, O
my woman, I impose this charge,
though I know you're of sound
understanding:
At sunrise the word
that I have slain the wooers will
spread abroad.
Go to your upper chamber with your handmaids.
Stay
there. See no one. Ask nothing.'"
Homer - from "The Odyssey", translated by Charles Stein
Texts
Recorded
Souvenir de Vienne, Impromptu pour le pianoforte, Op. 9 - Clara Schumann, Susanne Grützmann
complete with the old imperial anthem
it is politic
to flatter the
man
Chansons sans Parole in A-Flat Major, Op. 795 - Carl Czerny - Martin Jones
as promised
quite believably song-like
and no words are heard
you could make up your own if you like
Album für die Jugend: Melodie, Op 68 #1 - Robert Schumann, Eric Le Sage
for teaching purposes
thinking vocally
balance
touch
phrasing
Sonata in F minor, Op. 5 - Johannes Brahms, Julius Katchen
1
fanboy of the Romantics of the previous generation
big
brash
ambitious
moody
haphazard
big canvas
2
tender
lovely
the falling figure that opens
knocks
me out every time
3
vigorously muscular and manly
contrasted to piously earnest and
thoughtful
4
back to my falling figure
but this time with some living under
its belt
less dreamy
more stern
dark
5
hard work and determination
sudden enraptured flight
interrupted by moral thoughts
of a New Nation
now we'll
really get to work
we'll get it done for sure
everything here is to support the vocal line
the piano's part surrounds
the voice
eases it toward its next articulation
binds its breaths
into a single trajectory
as a piano-voice piece
this is far more esoteric a thing
than in
its incarnation
as an orchestra-voice piece
its arena is smaller
allowing a more detailed image
we hear it closer
less room
for rhetorical obfuscation
Murmures de la forêt - Franz Liszt - Michael Rudy
and a Wagnerian forest at that
phrases that go and go
Concerto in A minor - Edvard Grieg - BBC Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis, Stephen Bishop
back in the days of vinyl
it was rare to find a recording of Schumann's
concerto
that wasn't backed up by a recording of this on the flip
so
I have several inadvertent copies
acquired because I was
interested in some pianist's Schumann
but this was the first recording
of the Grieg I remember
a sequence of melodic episodes
each of which is fabulous
the
little transition bits
are kind of ordinary though
a pity
I remember liking this pianist's playing
I still do
Eugene Onegin, Act I - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Boris Khiakin, Yevgeniy Belov, Sergei Lemeshev, Galina Vishnevskaya, Larisa Avdeyeva, Valentina Petrova, Yevgeniya Verbitskaya, Ivan Petrov, Andrey Sokolov, Igor Mikhaylov
opens to a small stage scene
genteel country life
a garden with
sisters
talking over each other
music is heard from outside the
stage
out in the surrounding world
the quaint country customs of
social life
among the serfs
(when were they freed? {NB 1861}
it couldn't have been too distant from the time of composition
{NB
just a decade or so prior})
the orchestra follows the dialog closely
somewhat in the manner of Verdi
the clues it provides to the drama
unfolding
are limited to the immediate matters at hand
he loves his ensemble numbers
a singers' opera
and for
orchestrationists
Husitska Overture - Antonín Dvořák - London Symphony Orchestra, István Kertész
from the era of national mythologies
this one is rather fun
a
prototype of the Golden Spinning Wheel
Psyche, Poeme symphonique - César Franck - Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim
knockout opening
a melody appears over a hush
this version skips
the choral numbers
but the performance is fine otherwise
Ave Maria - Josef Anton Bruckner - Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Eugen Jochum, Wolfgang Schubert
a single thought
never veers
an idée fixe
runs headlong
into a leitmotivic hedgerow
representation and depiction
one nation's use
of another nation's literature
cross-colonization?
literature as the inventor of a language
as an image in the
world-mind
Quixosis is a mode of ecstasy
implication
a mode of meaning
every event
an adventure
Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 30 - Alexander Scriabin - John Ogden
we have floated off the latter end of the century
into a dark new world
if we can make just a few thousand lightning quick calculations per
second
we might have a chance
4 Etudes, Op. 7 - Igor Stravinsky - Paul Jacobs
I think he may have heard some Scriabin
the crazy cross-rhythms in the
second etude
project a separation of voices
along a plane
distinct
from that
of the three Fuxian motions
contrary
similar
parallel
Le Festin de l'araignee - Albert Roussel - Orchestre National of the ORTF, Jean Martinon
so picturesque
but the light keeps changing
to something more
devious
music for stand-alone ballet
novella sized
half an evening
like a one-act drama
separates itself from being an adjunct to Grand Opera
narrative through-line
repetition outside of local events
is not
made crucial to following how this is going
costumes though
absolutely
Death Where Is Thy Sting - Arthur Collins [from Really The Blues]
a comic song
for the common stage
complete with cringey minstrel
clowning
Nigun No. 2 - Ernest Bloch - Itzhak Perlman, Janet Goodman Guggenheim
one strand of late 19th Century post-Romantic composition
got mired in
national identities and folklore
String Quartet No. 4 - Béla Bartók - Juilliard String Quartet
1
undisentangleable
the strands cling
with quasi-molecular
bonds
2
nervous messages
perilously ciphered
3
hidden living
4
sneaking about
5
a brutal altercation
Sonata for Clarinet - John Cage - William O. Smith [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, May 25, 2012]
points and lines
local vectors only
Pavanne (from Symphonette No. 2) - Morton Gould - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, Jeffrey, Silberschlag
orchestrates like an arranger
effective
but each passage is
treated as a separate whole
the sound doesn't develop over the course of
anything
it just is what it is
at any particular moment
Symphony No. 2 - Walter Piston - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz
1
worried song
for worried times
factory production
Shostakovichian Desponds
American Style
2
our prairie faith
he uses brass as an alternate string section
or as an organist might
3
in the thick of the struggle
and resolve
Conteyodjaya - Olivier Messiaen - Klara Kormendi
how like an automaton we can be
unyielding machine
a big c
Composition
in the big r Rhetoric
of big m Music
or
is
it that only sometimes?
assembled as discrete units
the path may be jagged
but there's
only one of it
robotic
{journal comment from the past (November 22, 2005):
marvelously figured
keyboard writing}
Grande Nuit Especial - Iry LeJeune [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
this has a Gulf Coast vibe to it
harmonium?
polished vocals
a sound that made transistor radios sound good
Walk Like A Man - The Four Seasons [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
more of the above
but the production values had increased
Quartet in D-flat Major, Op. 133 (#12) - Dmitri Shostakovich - Fitzwilliam Quartet
a motion passes from voice to voice
trends toward falling
strings
imitating a wind choir?
eerie
a great deal of shouting
and
slogan battles
Chain of Fools - Paul Revere and The Raiders [from The Legend of Paul Revere]
following the times
is a thing you can do
riding the height of
fashion
Le Freak - Chic [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
consumer-culture celebratory urban decadence
calling e.c. - Betsy Jolas - Claudia Stevens
at first
finding ways
for a pitch to persist across times
Pop Song 89 - REM [from Green]
putting out a commercial product
Banned Rehearsal 318 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [January 15, 1993]
John must have decided to be asleep
new Christmas toys
moan tube
and little chirper
perhaps a new ocarina
rubbing sounds
separate tempo for each drum
that is
found sounds
like
we got rats
the coat hanger
vigorously fights for its life
whomp! whomp!
||: big! drum! bang bang bang! :||
bwuh!
we each wander from instrument to instrument
at our own pace of
attention
we keep trying things
and whomping others
Aaronsbundler appearance
||: future :||
determined to be actively noisy
famous prefaces
The Thousand and
One Nights of the Round Table
{journal comment from the past (December 6, 1997):
tweaking the machine
small putterings
resonant drum
small
three tempi
and the du in a fourth
with big drums
a spaciousness
rats?
airheads?
lifting off the floor
some great
sounding flute entrances
with drums and cymbals
this tape
up
and down
fits and starts
the machine gets noisier
but
working better perhaps
it goes
Future Nine Bloom Birds
a
session
in which
we occasionally manage to dip into it}
Intro/The Last Ones - Lauryn Hill [from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill]
roll call
showcase for varieties of speech
and modalities of
language projection
id est
relatively spoken
to relatively
sung
24 Preludes - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [assembled from recordings made 2006-2022]
played with sensitivity
to the drama of each one
I may not always
get it right
but I always try
one could lump the various preludes
into camps
lyric
dance
sentinal
return to the opening material
in later preludes
is a kind of
reset
Intermezzo in midi: Special Music for Jack - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]
figures pop out of an orchestra box
upon release of a spring
Banned Rehearsal 827 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [January 7, 2013]
the clay drum really pops
even when played quietly
precise
coordinates
within the speakered sound
a fact can project an image of its factness
that obscures the image
of the role of that fact
within the virtual
or hallucinatory
image
of the music
light percussion dominates
brass accents
low piano tones
interlope
we are
foraging critters
turning up what we find
Watercolors - Craig Pepples [from Open Space 47]
discrete particulars
decay
as a particular discreteness
decay
reveals space
Banned Rehearsal 1068 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [January 16, 2023]
we begin in smallness
so that a quiet sound
can be big
but
still quiet
elements enter conversationally
an instrument
that is capable of
becoming the whole of everything
must be treated with great care
one wants to inhabit a world
not fill it
melodies across the klangfarbens
systems provide homogeneity
a kind of coherence
Mentre Madonna Il Lasso Fianco Posa - Carlo Gesualdo - Delitiæ Musicæ, Marco Longhini
application to a divine being
Beati estis - Peter Philips - The Choir of Royal Holiday, Robert Gough, The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
a corporate application
for all gathered
for all participants in
applying
Selig sind die Toten - Heinrich Schütz - La Chapelle Royale, Phillipe Herreweghe, Agnes Mellon, Greta de Reyghere, Monique Zanetti, Howard Crook, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Herbe Lamy, Renau Machart, Peter Kooy, Peter Lika
squeezing every drop of blood out of the line
as it goes
the line
is
its wringing out
Jesus dulcis memoria, BuxWV 56- Dietrich Buxtehude - Purcell Quartet, Suzie LeBlanc, Dame Emma Kirby, Clare Solomon
I got lost in there
time stopped.
David et Jonathas, Act V - 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
violation of a rule of construction
is a violation of homogeneity
that is
of a type of coherence
music is that part of experience
that coheres
as it
in
earmind
that it does
is evidence
of its social value
an image of internal verisimilitude
the outside is a projection of inner
veritas
what counts as believable
we suspend our need to regard
the show
as not being real events happening
acted out is sufficient
Concerto in A Major, BWV 593 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Stanislav Surin
within a cohering system
such as the homogeneity of Bach's tonal
practice
other independent systems of coherence
can be manipulated
additional homogeneities
within the automatic coherence of being
music
Concerto in A Major, RV 82 (also know as Trio in C Major) - Antonio Vilvaldi, Chamber Orchestra of St. Petersburg Philharmony, Vladimir Altschuler, Marco Tsessos
hierarchically conceived
a top-down ordered living
all proceeds
according to the plan
any contingency provided for by custom
Keyboard Sonata in B-flat, Wq. 65.9 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi
figures are examined
picked up
weighed
turned
tasted
considered
traversing an ancient bridge
with caution
the structure is frail
with age
La Lanza - Jacques Duphly - Christophe Rousset
moves from place to place
by careful choreography
voluminous
skirts must be considered
all eyes follow in a train
interesting temperament
some of those intervals
are clearly not
Perfect
in the same way
that some of them
clearly
are
dramatic verisimilitude creeps in
the singer can be singing words
that tell the other characters things
addressing them
as
fellow actors
not merely
as singers
who aren't singing at
the moment
but then
the voice is also treated as a device
for imitating keyboard figures
elaborate melismas
Symphony in B-flat Major, K45b(A214) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroder, Christophe Hogwood
terraced activity levels
dynamics orchestrated in
Sonata in E-flat minor - Johann Christian Bach - Bart van Oort
an instrument
is not just the sounds it makes
but also the space
it takes up
its native proximity bubble
the distance its music is
from us
Toccata in B-flat Major, Op. 11 #2 - Muzio Clementi - Howard Shelley
virtuoso display
for gaudy times
extreme social competence
Sonata in E Major, Op. 14 #1 (#9) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Wilhelm Kempff
lovely use of register
patiently counting all the steps
between
extremes
damper pedal
articulates the spaces
the sounds are
allowed to spread into
spaces in spaces
inwardly expanding nested
hollows
Concerto in D Major, Op. 6 - Nicolo Paganini - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dorati, Salvatore Accardo
in a sense
an antipode of his contemporary Beethoven
for the generation of those
then in their tender years
Pag
the epitome of virtuosic technique
Beet
the epitome of
virtuosic imagination
the exposition before the soloist enters
is a self-parody
of
pompous pretension
this music
is
what the violin is doing
period
nothing the orchestra is doing
would be out of place
in a cheap theatrical
violin as pied piper
ultra charisma
though for all the low-brow
orchestra part
the violin part is pretty awesome
low brass is
value added
held close in a tonal net
development in straight stepwise lines
a
respectable bourgeois home life
obedient silent servants
no Paganini in this household
not here
not admitted in this club
this stuffy club
Rondo à la Krakowiak, Op. 14 - Frédéric Chopin - Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Kazimierz Kord, Garrick Ohlsson
slow intro
but then Chico has some time to play his shtick
but
then its time for exciting adventure
but then some maneuvers with
fingers
Allegro Agitato - Fanny Hensel - Beatrice Rauchs
a character piece
stays in character
In Session at The Tintinabulary
March 31, 2024
Federal Street - Keith Eisenbrey
April 2, 2024
461 Grosser gott, wir loben dich - Aaron Keyt
464 Lobt froh den Herrn, ihr jugendlichen Chöre - Aaron Keyt
April 4, 2024
470 Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe - Aaron Keyt
483 Himmelan, nur Himmelan - Aaron Keyt
Postscripts
Drops
Keith Eisenbrey 15: 2014
Early 2014 found me completing the first part of Études d'exécution imminent - the project that would keep me busy into 2021. Another was written for Ben Boretz, in celebration of his 80th. J was composed while thinking about the late J. K. Randall. The six movements of Another are Sphinxes, Scarabs, Pools, Potions (first batch), Potions (second batch), and Smoke, which movements can intermingle in performance and sometimes do, and so I include here three quite different versions for your enjoyment - two on clavichord and one live version on piano.
J and the second version of Another were recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, The Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, in 2016; the other tracks were recorded at my home in 2015.
Prior volumes are available at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com
All are free for download.
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
listening journal doodles from 2021
