"'Old Man, you say these things
in accord with the way things are.
But
now,
cut out the tongues
and mix the wine,
pouring libations to Poseidon and the other
immortals,
so that we may to bed, for it is the hour.
The light has
gone down beneath the darkness,
and it is not fitting for us to sit
at
the feast of the gods
but to be getting along.'"
Homer - from "The Odyssey", translated by Charles Stein
Texts
Streaming
 |
| Star Anna |
Love Shades - Star Anna
Star Anna put together a set of songs about love, both good love and bad love, for Valentines Day.
Recorded
February 11, 2023
Corrente, Fvb. 226 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
imitation shifts along the slant of just intonation
L'Euridice, Scene VI - Giuilio Caccini - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Matteo Bellotto, Anna Simboli, Marco Scavazza, Monica Piccinini, Raffaele Giordani, Silvia Frigato, Mauro Borgioni
this music finds itself with no need for a stage or sets
much less a pit
for the orchestra
attention is all on the sung line
as it sits
among its accompanying fellows
and with a happy ending chorus
in
proper enlightenment fashion
drama on the page only
Sonata in A Major, Kk. 220 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
second subject mostly in a minor frame of mind
first subject carefree
and whistle-y
enters through a crack in the cadence of the first
after the big repeat it pulls itself back through the same fissure
tonal-color coding
String Quartet in F-sharp minor, Op. 50 #4 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet
1
premeniscient of the opening figure of Beethoven's C minor
Symphony
and also
another nearly monothematic movement
2
gracious politeness was this whole thing
above all do not
disturb the noble's equanimity
now we are in a troubled state of mind
it's all better now
false alarm
spoke too soon
but we
may get out of this yet
all moods woven together
a whole spirit
3
a dance between two
one of whom is decidedly gruff
with
sudden flashes of passionate glance
just enough to keep it interesting
now we hear the dance from over here
in the room of rumors
4
this sounds learned
lots of imitative entrances and sequences
oh dear
we may never
there is no
1
this rocks back and forth
like a wagon might
on a country
road
see the doings of neighbors
as we plod forward
if one
should meet oneself
going the other way
on a narrow pass
who
yields?
goodness wot's all this then?
ends up being quite the cart
ride
2
tending a garden with firm resolve
we have a grumble and a
grievance
looks at us with suspicion
Gruff Grievance meets
Talkative Fellow
who goes on and on
we just nod and hm
keep
our heads down
here bad magic
spirits hang out
here
here's the very spot where the deed was done
attend it
fear
it
3
barnyard drama told in four bold strokes
4
we rock along further
supper soon
subject to wild thoughts
not a good conversation to have in a city full with spies
extraordinarily sophisticated keyboard writing
the lyric moments sing
Single Girl, Married Girl - Carter Family [from The Anthology of American Folk Music]
first we demonstrate the chords
then we add the song on top
the
form teaches its own construction
One O'Clock Jump - Count Basie [from The First Recordings He Ever Made]
his tunes are little puppets
doing a tap dance
Diane - Erroll Garner [from Erroll Garner on Dial]
what every lounge pianist in the world ever wanted to play
Just One of Those Things - Billie Holiday [from Songs for Distinqué Lovers]
she says it the way she intends to mean it
and can't help but sing it
and here's how all these cats would say it
Kansas City / Hey Hey Hey - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings, Volume 1]
vigorously danceable
even got a shriek
O Come All Ye Faithful - The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble [from Festival of Carols in Brass]
Christmas carols
feelgood nostalgia
for a Romanticized Christendom
All the King's Horses - Aretha Franklin [from Young, Gifted and Black]
celeste!
follow that voice and you will be lifted
tastefully
tasteless
long fade
follow the guide lights to the inner chamber
where we hold still
are held still
February 13, 2023
Fairest Lord Jesus - Christopher Parkening [from Simple Gifts]
straight
fancied
lullaby
codetta
Assembly Rechoired 37 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [October 14, 1987]
we must have decided to take a walk
a little walk around Bard
found some muck
tourist sites
such as
the library
and cemetery
set the body down to rest a spell
she ain't
died yet
read the inscriptions silently on tape
and say hm
the strife is o'er
the battle won
some people get a foot
board
black eyed flowers
we find the big new building
that
we had heard such talk of
one of those colors that architects choose
some Bob Dylan song went by
walk down there
where the sun is
whatever it was
we banged upon it to excellent effect
stay
on high ground
or it will get gooshy
what a jerk
owes you nothin'
recorded image is of a bar band
bass drums and some guitars
Downstream - the Humidiflyers [from Blue Ducky]
settle into an atmosphere
for the spoken word introduction
with
chorus
as we drift
stray thoughts done up all poetical
to be
soulful
the problem I have with spoken word
is that it seems so
oblivious to its pretensions
so strange that a singer with such unerring
rhythm
when singing
should become so ordinary while reciting
forgetting how rhythm might go
Maple Leaf 4:55 AM - Keith Eisenbrey [May 30, 2007]
bird sounds
some proto-social
some (crows) actual social
they hear each other
for a bird kind to thrive among us
do
they need to be relatively immune to our motored din?
its presence must
be new to them as a species
what is our din selecting for or against?
some populations keep up a constant racket
solidarity
as now
do we
some birds get riled up there for a bit
our cars don't
listen to themselves or others
their sound is a social waste product
how far can crows hear other crows?
the chorus subsides or departs
to more distant yards
some twitters become individuals
that
sounded like a paper being delivered
whop
on a driveway
Song 2 - The Tailenders [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
dive bar music in its native environment
an element of display
as
in
this is what I do and can do
if you need someone for a band
that does what I do or can do
Tear Shaped Bruise - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
more of same
harmony singer
against nearly pitchless shout
~------~-----~~--~-~~~--~~---~(Rojahn Remix) - Lost Chocolate Lab [from (Previously) Clean]
happy being in this space long enough to find its loose boards and uneven legs
the sun passes along the floor and up the wall
time for tea now
Alman, Fvb. 227 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
balance is established
extended
disturbed
and restored
elaborated
completed
Traditional was a sophisticated
composer
Big Bend Gal - Shalor Family [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
play it once on the instruments
sing a verse
play it again
extends the song in a clear pattern
and protracts the dance
My Blue Heaven - Teddy Weatherford [from That Devilin' Tune]
here's the lick
so I'll give you time to savor it
then we jump
right in
its piano pounding time
Perhaps - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
never lands but always springs new from the ground
her orchestra is repeating her phrases almost ironically
New Born Soul - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]
composition lesson:
detail
offsets
Treatise (Excerpts) - Cornelius Cardew - University of Washington Modern Music Ensemble, Cristina Valdés [recorded live stream April 23, 2021]
a nervous activity quivers around the snarish drum
once indoors
lights out
moments drift by
as in a carnival ride
extension:
development (for advanced study)
at what point
and to what extent
might it be usefully considered
not to be
derived from its whole?
from the beginning backward?
or not?
Barangrill - Joni Mitchell [from For The Roses]
a certain particular mix of short and long
that avoids
then
finesses
where one is
the downbeat
isn't
down
Strange - Wire [from Pink Flag]
transformation of a song
in a different alley than jazz
recompose
its entire universe
Walk The Dog - Laurie Anderson [from Big Science]
as though spoken word were poetry
too busy being hip
to mean what
anyone might say
after all these years
LA rubs me in the same
wrong way they rubbed me back in the day
even their emptiness is vacuous
Is This All There Is? - Los Lobos [from By The Light of the Moon]
not here
to answer questions
are we
The Crafty Clerk - The Young Fresh Fellows [from It's Low Beat Time]
personal history
I first heard The Young Fresh Fellows at the University
of Washington Hub Ballroom in '84 or '85
they opened for The True
Believers and Los Lobos
by the time Los Lobos came on
I
unaccustomed to how loud these sorts of shows were
was completely
unable to hear anything
This could be the soundtrack to a comic morality
play
Gradus 32 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [December 3, 2002]
three sets in prep for Seattle Composers' Salon performance
notes
exchanging identifications
each other's shoes
nomenclature:
a single instance of a note:
a moment-note
a set of
moment-notes
et cetera
as opposed to the abstract concept of
for instance
A natural or A 440 or A above middle C
as
distinct
from the set of such notes
produced by a particular key
on a piano
Gradus
in its entirety
is a structure made of
notes
produced by keys on piano
realized in sets of particular
key-notes
by particular moment-notes
which
upon their
instantiation
excite the space into a vibratory state
that we then
hear
the piece in its conceptual sense
begins with the general and
works inward to the particulars
any session or moment of a session forms
itself in the other direction
or starts at the sound and goes elsewhere
entirely
When the red sun bites the mountain - Jarrad Powell - Jessica Kenney, Jarrad Powell [from Stonehouse Songs]
a free reed device
and a clarinet
and a voice
trace a
descriptor laden text
|
| Gradus 214 |
Part 2 - The Seattle Phonographer's Union [from Georgetown Steamplant]
our industrial roar and breath and grinding vertebrae
lost bird
clumping beast
cleanup crabs
dragon
bear
bowel
bellow
hollow howl
chain drag
Banned Rehearsal 1062 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [October 24, 2022]
open with sounds
develop along lines of obsession
low flight
fast
blank people
eyes forward into night
clang realm
radio scramble
crosswise through frequency
latch on
let go
move horizontally to intent
skitter the scatter
pull a dong bong
keep on clicking
eyes down
vector
onward
dark lands
lakes and forests
monastery time
as
we are onward
chitter critters
wooden bars
a battle
was once
awkwardly audible
as the will be
the tone
the
time
descent
slipping stepwise
and here we land
weather indeterminable
whim shift
communal
out of that
and so
fade done
pt
Corranto, Fvb. 228 - Edmund Hopper - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
we say it here
we say it here
we say it here
where we are
to say it
so
say it
we say
and here we were
wait out here
and here we are
Man Trouble - Jaybird Coleman [from Really The Blues]
says it once
says it twice
disparately
voice and mouth harp
that any of these old recordings survive is astonishing
God bless
the compilators
Little Maggie - Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
say it with fiddle
say it with voice
tone to begin
pattern
of tones to end
rhyme scheme
little sweet thing
pretty stars
was made to shine
was
to serve the plural
Our Delight - Bill Evans [from New Jazz Conceptions]
continuing through
from
||:piano to bass:||:piano to drum:||
drum piano drum piano
and so
it was
we say
it
did
Coo Coo - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]
legend blues
she's a cruel bird
a true love says goodbye
too
short by two thirds
they don't know why
but they hope and try
NB the language thing
within classical tonality
I understand the relations
among
pitches notes voices and harmony
within this music
what is going
on
is so different
that the notion of pitch
isn't
commensurable with my immediate understanding
without translation
February 16, 2023
Loud Mouth (Live at the Roxy) - Ramones [from Leave Home]
anti-inoculant
Baby Out of Jail - The Knitters [from Poor Little Critter on the Road]
pictures from the grimy podunk jurisdictions of the near present
Assembly Rechoired 38 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [October 15, 1987]
|
| Assembly Rechoired at Brook House 1987 |
we may have been at Brook House
some quiet location
with a
gone-to-seed piano
perhaps two
out of our home environment
behaving like musicians making sounds in an empty room
an
out-of-tune note on a piano
is often several strings
each with its
own idea
the ear-mind takes it in as an entity
bundled at the
start point
timbre adjacent
and chord adjacent
but neither
Words - Madonna [from Erotica]
quality product
the best in modern engineering
for your dancing
experience
Through The Eyes of Love - Glenn Tate [from Some of My Favorite Love Songs]
quintessence of piano bar
Banned Rehearsal 721 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 4, 2007]
piano electric guitar and a tapping
work at adding more starch at the
bottom of the pot
thicken it up
rise on its haunches
a murky
wetland with large beasts prowling
snakes bugs birds bears behemoths and
panther
stuck with
the unpromising
fecundifies
on its
own
Song 2 - Youth Rescue Mission [recorded live at The High Dive, Seattle, April 6, 2012]
early in the evening
before 10
few seem to be listening
some
folks having beers and chatting
the music is largely background
atmosphere
a warm up for the headliner
the whole notion of which
is icky weird to me
folks go to shows
for the band they want
to hear
and mostly regard the other bands
as the other bands
to politely applaud
Something of Mine - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 15, 2017]
one of Karen's songs from St. Rage
a song about giving blood
Bwana - Steve Layton [from Moving Bodies]
a beat presented
then taken apart
we are shown inside its odd
corners
Fantasia, Fvb. 229 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]
a group of adjacent notes in a pattern
five or six will do
fit
with its alterations
reveals elaborations
crystal growth
takes us for a ride
and sets us down somewhere
Georgia Crawl - Henry Williams, Eddie Anthony [from Really The Blues]
fiddle guitar two vocals
the fiddler is wonderful
no fussier than
need be
the near monotone harmony vocal also
Sinner You Better Get Ready - Monroe Brothers [from Goodbye Babylon]
we loved hell fire
as we have ever been quick to condemn others
guitar
banjo?
two vocals
I've Grown Accustomed to His Face - Peggy Lee [from Dream Street]
in the voice of one of Balzac's ideal virtuous women
but
as though
it were a horror
she has vanished
I'm so grateful he's a man
and so easy to forget
the hidden knife
Interview / Lord Randolph - Mary Heekin [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]
I wrote it
because I wanted to remember those people
who sang
those songs
all the next day I could hear this music
Soldier's Joy
The White Cockade
what have they fed you my handsome young one
you have been poisoned Lord Randolph my son
fain would lie doo (to
you?)
a rope from hell to hang her
Something Fishy Goin' On - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]
novelty song
Sugar On My Tongue - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 77]
mostly wanted to sing
tongue
with the elongated ng
I Sing Just To Know I'm Alive - Nina Simone [from Fodder On My Wings]
this music knows how to party
Exhuming McCarthy - REM [from Document]
80s engineering production
all the parts sound the same
the
perfection overwhelms the song
Battle Hymn of the Republic - Julia Ward Howe (arranged by Steffe) [from World's Greatest Choruses]
it is stirring in a horrible way
yikes
now with goose-steps
now
in half time
for alto
apparently
God has
been conscripted
yet again
and now the crowds cheer them on
to triumphal heights
taking as a cue the utter bare bones opening of my Slow Blues
the
first bit of this
is the set of all the notes on the piano
that
are pitch classes 12 and 14 (mod 17)
and thus contain all the intervals
between all of them
of mod 17 pitch intervals 2 and 15
there was a
system composed
to generate the pitch classes
in each of the other
bits
but
other than each of them exhibiting the said transposition
by 2 or 15
I can't remember it
and couldn't figure it out when I
looked at it recently
so:
small sets of pitches
related by
mod 17 pitch-class interval 2
in some sense then
related to
Corollaries from my Études d'exécution imminent
after all the versions there were of this piece
partly improvised
and with added percussion
at its heart
it is a solo piano
piece
everything else gets in the way and softens it
the three
blind mice bit
is internally made out of interval 2 too
funny how
this piece comes up on my 64th birthday
the day on which my age becomes
more repletely divisible by 2
then it ever will be again
am just
now
having a clever idea
about a possible approach to my next
Sinfonia
In Session at the Tintinabulary
February 13, 2023
Banned Telepath 96 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Banned Telepath 96 Tucson - Steve Kennedy
Banned Rehearsal 1070 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
February 14, 2023
Foundation Pouring - Keith Eisenbrey
the construction project next door was pouring concrete most of the day
February 17, 2023
Prelude in B-flat minor - Keith Eisenbrey
When I was recording these Preludes over the last year or so I'm pretty sure I did this one as well, but at some point it disappeared, so here it is.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
some listening journal doodles from 1992
