Now Music in New Albion

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Playlist

Preface

"April [1837] - Return from the Races"

George Cruikshank - from The Comic Almanack an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

January 18, 2025

Yankee Doodle - Old Thresher's Fife and Drum Band [from The Art of Field Recording, Volume 1]

preserving the roots of a meme

Mona - Bruce Springsteen [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo & The Beat]

making with the jungle sounds
to authenticate
what?
primitivist masculinity?

bar bragging

BAB KEE 830420 - Benjamin Boretz, Keith Eisenbrey [April 20, 1983]

having been somewhat embarrassed
by what seemed
my over effusive piano improvisations
in prior sessions
I decided
I would limit my activity
to the occasional tapping together
of two rocks
Ben puttered on some small percussion

my impression
after listening back with Ben
immediately afterward
which was part
of the idea
of doing sessions
was
that
I liked the result
but
that
it had been too easy

salutary
to be aware of ones needs
for intellectual
or otherwise
personal engagement
so that
they might be addressed
directly
unacknowledged needs
can fester
but
what is it a need for?
what lacks it?

the music
of what two rocks
tapping together
is capable
is not without its subtleties
but
might
still
be an inadequate music
for the person involved
in that activity
to be maximally
expressive unto themself
that is
is the activity capable
of expressing
the full import
of what one needs to express
(impart)
(communicate)
(pass along)
(share)
(contribute)

but also
I was engaged
quite deliberately
in the activity
of trying
to break some old habits
of thinking and doing
which habits
were feeling narrow
and confining
then
so
this session served
as a kind of fast
or ascetic exercise
a meditation
without some of
that woo woo vibe

but
back to those subtleties
what can they share

I am here
and I hear
you are here
and also hear
(a formulation
for a primitive musical interaction?)

now
I don't recall
who finally started playing the piano
toward the end
possibly me
but that piano playing
kept within the spirit of the session
just a few plunks
as though imitating an mbira
but
it sounds more like Ben's keyboard touch
than mine
so
I think
in the end
it must have been Ben

all that being said
this is still quite an enjoyable session
to listen back to
I still like it

January 19, 2025

Freezebomb - U-Men

an alternation
between a song
and an alternation figure

the song
part is ordinary
in comparison
with the alternation bit
which is rock solid

Banned Rehearsal 335 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [July 23, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 335 930723

jumping into a fully developed cacophony
to grasp it
the ear separates it
into distinct sounds
without
necessarily
including
an immediate count
of such distinct sounds
at play
thus
it immediately becomes
an image
of a cacophony
of unquantified individuals

we find friends
within the sound crowd
faces
are identified
the crowd
familiarizes itself
to its own behaviors
we learn ourselves
interactionally

squeeze box
twinkle little star

the guitar strings
carry on
with the twinkle tune

it's a k'tar daddy

a guitar with catarrh

tick tock
technological parity

with the 1930s

the Prussians play in tune
too

John the fish washer

a limerick was once well begun
it tripped winningly off of the tongue
but we added some salt
and it ground to a halt
and was never convinced to be done

{journal entry of September 13, 1998:

twinkle inkle
tender
laidback
big gûtar
milk in a tiny bottle
less failed
than thought before

we didn't have the StingGer:
Reverb
Velveeta Underwear

Does have a bit of the #12 about it...

my bonnie
lies over the ocean
does deteriorate
a landseascape
of resonant
single
[cordtones]
strung
among a conversation

the clarinet the clarinet:}

January 20, 2025

Ambaraba Ci Ci Co Co - Amy Denio - Die Knodel [from Tutto Bene]

delights
in ambaraba-ci-ci-co-colaturesquery

Banned Rehearsal 648 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 14, 2003]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 648 030414

drums and two electric guitars

loudness can be immobilizing
as can practiced actions
and established cultural signifiers

stray thought
not particularly apropos of the session

one guitar
has melted
into a pool
on the floor

grooves are mistakes
to be repeated

pools
are better
than grooves

Fifteen - Taylor Swift [from Fearless]

report from the floor
of suburban dream teens

Banned Rehearsal 833 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steven Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 18, 2013]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 833 130318

determined
that narrative should not proceed
without recession
struggling forward
through thickets of doubt
and morasses of backtracking

legend
in its circles

lingo
for gear
pieces

more like a footnote
modulated saw tooth wall of awesome
I haven't even heard it
but I can't get it out of my head

somebody
heard it
from down the street

Knacks and Skills - Wally Shoup, Paul Kemmish, John Seman, Ollie Klomp [from Wally Shoup 2x4tet]

twin double basses
drums
and Wally

the shit
as in
the shit, this is

moments of clarity
bestowals of grace

Sinfonia 6 (clavichord) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey

this one
considers the lengths and counts
of articulated strings of pitches
in contrasting time-rate experiences

Madrigals, Book IV: Sfogava con le stelle - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rossana Bertini, Claudio Cavina, Giuseppe Maletto, Marcello Vargetto, Cristina Miatello

caligraphating a poem
(it's a poem
because it makes a big deal about its words)
enunciates them
polyphonically

Geistliche Chor-Music, SWV 369-397: No. 6, Unser keiner lebet ihm selber, SWV 374 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

such kindly voices
instruct our thoughts
with words
firm and sure

Praeludium in G Major, BuxWV 147 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

clear some space
with a flourish
flatter the patrons
individually
and copiously

before we enter into the fuguework
of the solid
and the true

Gleichwie Der Regen Und Schnee Vom Himmel Fällt, BWV 18 (Appendix) - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman

a ground bass
contains multitudes of times
a sinfonia
with ritornello

a chorale
presumably in four parts
as can be correctly done

Sonata in D Major, Kk. 258 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

a dance
along a flight of stairs
elegant and witty
all must be arranged
just so
to get
just
the most joy

singularly focused
on what his parts
are doing
at all moments

Sinfonia in D Major, Op. 18 #4 - Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür

using coordinated dynamics
as a compositional tool
to articulate the figures

the purpose of this music
is to be decorous
disturbance-free

the links in the chain
are attended with assiduity

Symphony in B-flat Major, Wq. 182 #2 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Baroque Orchestra, Trevor Pinnock

decorum here
is stern and business-like
triplicates stamped
despatchedly

the family defers to Papa
in all things

sudden uproar!
perhaps a kidgoat
got loose
in the formal garden
must be set to right
at once!

Sonata in F Major, K. 332 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Lili Kraus

we are brought along
without willing
beguiled
by an innocent face
into play
and adventure
the bass
falls away
into a tender heart
poured out
a pious passion
enter the juggling jester
to amuse the nursery

January 21, 2025

Symphony in C Major, Hob. I/90 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, Ádám Fischer

1
let 'em wonder
what's going
then hit 'em
with the material proper
the exit is hard to find
but kick 'em out the door
as soon as it appears

2
inner sanctum
life at its most civilized

3
out in society
life at its least

4
adventure
in the wide world
civilization
at its liveliest
a whole other music follows
what fooled me
as to be
the ending
a surprise coda

Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - Gächinger Kantorei, Helmut Rilling

each note
starts the piece over
as does
each entrance
each continuation
in a new direction
all things
lead
to the end

music
for those
who hear it

credos
are placards
held up
to God
and man

credo
in a story
told
as an incantation
ritualized
receipt
of grace
goodness
floats to us
from above
(idea-painting)
metrical gossamer
incessance
there is no edge
to this Agnus Dei
as
there is no edge
to creation

prayer
battles
with battle glory

Der Atlas - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

I got them
I'm the Atlas blues

Nocturne in G minor, Op. 15 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Claudio Arrau

the meter
behind meter
stranger the deeper

Albumblätter, Op. 124 #10 "Walzer" - Robert Schumann - Florina Uhlig

a penchant
for patterns
of near repetition

Polonaise, Op. 21 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

soul of a patriot
an image
for the silver screen
to come

Preludes Book 2, #8 "Ondine" - Claude Debussy

tonalities
are abstracted
as pitch sets in time

Children's March "Over the Hills and Far Away" - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger, Lotta Mills Hough [from Percy Grainger Plays Percy Grainger]

keeping it light
for sunny America
two pianos too many

Odeon - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

a dance
over and over

Poor Boy - Gus Cannon [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

lifting ones troubles

Blue Interlude - Chocolate Dandies [from That Devilin' Tune]

into an aesthetically parsed activity

Tiger Rag - Jelly Roll Morton [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

ragtime rhythm
a mechancial image

Jeepers Creepers (with Benny Goodman) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

golly gee
when you turn those heaters on

and other show-off singers
as announced

Accueil Amical - Darius Milhaud - François Choveaux

quick sketches
to keep in practice
a hand here
an ear there
here a chin
there a nose
a dancing youth
a puppy's tail

Symphonie Concertante - Gail Kubik - Boston Modern Music Project, Gil Rose

1
a staged symphony
soloists duke it out
for the spotlight

lines
with flavors of contours

3
back to vigorous
good morning
on Main Street
shopkeeper's paradise

January 22, 2025

Volare - Dean Martin [a Rescued Record]

invitation
to a tawdry paradise
with vinyl noise
for that vintage mouth feel

Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]

yes'n'
to which query
is yes'n'
the response?
would no'n'
serve
as well
or
would that mess it up
and why?

The Best Man - C. O. Smith [a Rescued Record]

a little scene
among a triangle
this guy is full of himself

Ashes to Ashes - The 5th Dimension [a Rescued Record]

gone
with leisure suits
and earth shoes

Unchained Melody - Willie Nelson [from Stardust]

the parts of a sung melody
used
to inflect
a spoken statement
he does it as simply as he can

Galliard Battaglia - Samuel Scheidt - The Canadian Brass [from High, Bright, Light and Clear]

pre-valve brass music
leans hard
on its limited pitch content

Banned Playalong Playedalong 1 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [February 15, 1988]

from tape
into the room
we hear Aaron
playing jaw harp
Karen
plays the bug guitar
and I
play violin
occasionally
also
singing dronishly

improvising along with it
a method
of attention focus
as is journaling
sticking with it

a small group
meditation practice

Derivative of 8 - Dylan Hicks [a Rescued Record]

their heart isn't in it
they don't really believe
their own cosplay

Banned Rehearsal 496 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [Mary 30, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 496 980530

nobody wants to start
or waits either

on edge

a pause
to squeak

a session
of passings
in and out

sing in a can consort

one can't
intentionally
rid a sound
of prior aesthetic distinction
to do so
is
itself
a prior aesthetic distinction

lesson:
we are what we are
and hear what we hear

20+ minutes in
quite an interesting dialog ensues

we don't use fingering charts
we figure it out ourselves

we
are an experiment
in creative intelligence

somebody
(Aaron)
is killing it
on the Mighty Wurlitzer

dissolve to radio static

Fragment - Martin Supper - Hans Zischler [from Open Space 20]

words wander through
on wires
pulled
from outside experience
baffled signifier need

Zither Film 10 - Keith Eisenbrey [February 19, 2008]

quite entertaining
in its way
leaves quietly

Government Hooker - Lady Gaga [from Born This Way]

robotic erotic fantasy dance

24 Tonal Preludes: 17 - 20 - Greg Short - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center Seattle, February 24, 2018]

not a perfect performance
but quite brilliant in fact
to play these pieces
one must believe in them
absolutely
for the duration of the performance

No Place To Go - Peter Nelson-King [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 11, 2023]

boldly illustrated pages
of aphoristic syllables
pinballing
between poetic speech bursts
words
lose their meaning
amid these sounds
language
comes apart
these busy sounds
are
my wiggly puppet fingers

Prelude - Steve Layton [from No Mind]

squeezed tight
for space saving

January 23, 2025

Premier livre de clavecin: Triosieme Ordre (ut) : Les Laurentines - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

charmingly bedecked
as with any costume
it lives or dies
with its wearer
it is intended
to move
with a living being

Benvenuto Cellini, Act 2, Tableau 3 - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

composed
line by line
with the dialog
we are riveted
to the moments
in their headlong rush

El Sampedrino - Carlos Guastavino - Tersa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

we are told a story
in verse
the music
lubricates
the stilted verbal rhythms
pulls it further
from quotidian speech
to insulate it
from critical appraisal

Dallas Blues - Wilbur Sweatman [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

I'm not convinced this track is correctly labeled
{NB it was}
less Dallas than New Orleans
but I guess that's just the way that track goes

Loose Feet - The Georgians [from That Devilin' Tune]

social music
must be in a language
clearly understood
by its population
lingua francas
serve
a social purpose

I Ain't Got No Body - Sophie Tucker [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

a bold brassy voice
when did vocal amplification
become a thing
in nightclubs?

I Got Rhythm - Spirits of Rhythm [from That Devilin' Tune]

rides weightless
on its toes

Jivin' Woman Blues - Blind Boy Fuller [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

the entertainment payload
of the lyrics
is matched
by the guitar's commentary
and
is that a spoons player?

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 3 - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives Plays Charles Ives]

a pianist
dreams in his basement

What You Gonna Do? - Cavalry Quartet [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

conversion by threat
knuckle under or else

Rock House Boogie - John Lee Hooker [from The Legendary Modern Recordings]

the guitar
opens a door
into this other place entirely
this recognizably alien headspace

a brag
truth value
is distinct
from brag status

2 Musics for Lucas Foss - Benjamin Boretz - Joan Forsyth, Steven Beck [streamed from Music by Ben Boretz & Frank Brickle at Greenwich House Music School, December 4, 2024]

circus clown car

He's So Fine - The Chiffons [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

do lang do lang do lang

Slip Away - Clarence Carter [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

the function
of the guitar talk-back
to the vocalist
has been offloaded
to the rhythm section
the rhythm of it
is (would be)
more interesting
if it is
(were)
the same person
operating both

Side 2 - Pink Floyd [from The Dark Side of the Moon]

change box rhythm
choosing alienation

albums
composed like shows

one song
fades into another
with the lighting cue

unalterable album sequence
effaces
by familiarity

oh
the glory
of a well played
long spacy guitar solo!

new lights
new song

sudden anthemic shout out
to Syd

The Wind - Tapped Like a Tired Man - George Perle - Bethany Beardlsee, Morey Ritt

turns itself
inside
several outs

KEE DJS 830512 - Keith Eisenbrey, Dan Sedia [recorded at Bard College, May 12, 1983]

we wraith in
we wrestle
we relapse
wraithwardly

listening intently
to each twitch

a long slow chorale
found a tough spot
needs scrubbing
always a danger
of scrubbing
for the sake
of the scrubbing

bump in the ear

we inhabit
the innards
of a music box
mechanical lamellophone

the louder we get
the more tired we sound

the quieter
the more alive
to the moment

January 24, 2025

Rage Net - Stan Brakhage

fire stutter

Banned Rehearsal 336 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [August 6, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 336 930806

the guitar
is sadly broken

leaping plunge open

anarchy has fled
naught is left
but doom itself

furious activity
left to sort itself out

stubbornly continuing
against
an attention black hole

steady-state persistence

tall building
early use of a modifier

the history of guitar breakage
Mom
I broke the garage

around the conversation
a session
is making noises
fitfully engaged
the multitasking quality tax

it is salutary
in young adulthood
to raise children
as
one quickly realizes
nobody knows
what they're doing

a rough patch
one among several

Aaronsbundler banner
flown boldly

I have become dispossessed
of my theory
the theory
that I had

a nonexistent tail
and a dispossessed theory

anything at all
is hypothetically conceivable

{journal entry of September 14, 1998:

relaxing considerably
mostly conversation
about the broken guitar
and altering Aaron's pants

the theory about that}

In Session at The Tintinabulary

January 19, 2025

Albany - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 81 Albany 250119 [250119]

Postscripts

Drops

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

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Playlist

Preface

"This new edition of Lord Jim will be succeeded, we suppose, by the rest of Mr Conrad's works - those that are already published, and the many, as we hope, that are still to come. But will they all appear in the binding which disfigured The Shadow Line and now afflicts us once more in Lord Jim? Will they all be of a sad green colour, and sprinkled with chocolate-brown nautical emblems such as might be stamped upon club note-paper, or upon some florid philanthropic pamphlet drawing attention to the claims of sea-captains' widows? As a general rule we submit to the will of publishers in silence, but it is time to cry out when they ask us to disfigure our shelves upon so large a scale as this. It is not a question of luxury, but of necessity: we have to buy Mr Conrad; all our friends have to buy Mr Conrad; and that Mr Conrad of all people should be robbed even of a shred of that dignity and beauty which he more than any living writer is able to create seems quite distressingly inappropriate."

Virginia Woolf, from "Lord Jim [Lord Jim. A Tale (J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1917) by Joseph Conrad.]"

Texts

Live

January 16, 2025

Totems and Reflections Part 1
Mark Hilliard Wilson at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Reflections on a Glacier - Tom Baker

Totems - Pascal Sasseville Quoquochi

? - Diomedes Cato

? - Graeme Koehne

? - Josquin de Pres

The names of the pieces
were projected upon a screen
but my eyes couldn't make them out
I believe there was one called "Eagle"
and another called "Owl"

body of guitar
is held close
whisper close
the body's voice
sings
from an embrace
the tenderness
of the situation
is present
in the music
that reaches us
therefrom

trace
a careful line

Recorded

January 12, 2025

All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

to the extent
that the lyrics are opaque
as to their application
or reference
the whole
is designed
to attract some
to within the veil
and to repel others
out
from the circle

Something So Right - Paul Simon [from The Essential Paul Simon]

an epistolary poem
mixtape ready

There Came a Wind Like a Bugle - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt

the music of the sung line
describes the music of the piano part
which stands in for the lexical referent
of the sung words

Rely - Contempo & Treehouse [from Bard Sampler 82 & 83]

it lies there
with undeniable features
but is clearly half-assed in intent

Retrato de Euchababilla en la Noche - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

I have two files on the hard drive of this piece
one was ripped from the original cassette tape
and this one was ripped
from a copy of that tape
that I had made a bunch of
to give away
this rip
is notably muddier
and the original
is far from pristine

the sequence of pitches
the piano plays
was composed in 1986
in Port Macquarie, NSW
I used it later
as an experiment
in composing
with both mod-12 derived pitch sets
and mod-17 derived pitch sets
{my Toccata of 2002}

this version
is a good example
for me
of the mistake
of trying to accomplish an aesthetic end
by processing the signal
rather than
composing the signal
more effectively
to begin with

it has its charms
but there's an undercurrent of fraud about it

Group Variations II for computer - Benjamin Boretz (remastered by Paul Lansky) [from Open Space 5]

a sea of pulses
and their numbers
and their angles to each other
and their rates of flows
across their terrain

January 13, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 495 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 23, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 495 980523

we enter as it sleeps
collective slow breathing
a janglesome thump
and it stretches
and begins its quiet morning living

melody is shared among the winds

news of the day
brought to you on banjo

we engage in our chores
for the good of the order

feedback is aroused

{journal entry of April 17, 2006:

must have had the talk about transparence
and for all of that
the transparence is remarkable
even the sax playing is pretty good here
after Anna song
poke piano notes
play game
with presence/layers above
then
within
the banjo
it cumulates
with playbacks
and feedbacks}

Ericulation - Steve Kennedy [from State's Exhibit]

dense manufacturing sounds
we are hearing things
being done to things

Banned Rehearsal 733 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 18, 2008]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 733 080218

tip tap
ring a bell
biding time
the Wurlitzer
inhabits its uppermost tones
electric guitar
and zithers
are rung
and scraped
by various objects

the time was well bided
that led to this activity
of aural interest

Tempest Tossed - Dawn Clement [from Tempest/Cobalt]

fancy pitch work
without being all pretentious about it

January 14, 2025

Preludes 17 - 20 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, February 24, 2018]

the key is never lost sight of

The Gold Tape - Pete Comley [from Paintronics Volume 7]

that is some magnificent crud Pete!
it gouges its time
slow lathe
in the grooves of this record
stylus's eye view

Madrigals, Book IV: Anima mia, perdona: No. 2, Che se tu se ’l cor mio - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rossana Bertini, Claudio Cavina, Giuseppe Maletto, Marcello Vargetto, Cristina Miatello

song
as stylized poetry

Geistliche Chor-Music, SWV 369-397: No. 5, Gieb unsern Fürsten, SWV 373 - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

the Word
as a theatrically presented music
right there in church

Der Tag, der ist so freudenrich, BuxWV 182 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

solid and firm
in plain words
an assurance of authority

Was Mir Behagt, Ist Nur Die Muntre Lagd, BWV 208 - Johann Sebastian Bach - The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Ton Koopman

an image
of the secular world
mirrored back
a theatrical presentation
of stylized dramatic poetry
as a musical entertainment

a plot that makes sense
just distracts from the musical entertainment

the voices are dancing with their fellows
in figured motions
to amuse
those that could afford such extravagances
a wedding* perhaps
seems more likely
as we move along

orchestrated
so that
instrument groups
stand for the figures of the music
as they create it
among themselves
like Busby Berkeley

{*nope: birthday for the Duke-y}

Keyboard Sonata in F Major, Kk. 257 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

music presented
as a contraption

Sinfonia in D Major, Op. 18 #3 "Overture to Endimone"- Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hans Gmür

music
appropriate to an occasion of propriety
appropriate to
but not contingent upon that occasion
any will do

in certain figures
such as an appoggiatura
the two tones
are linked
as a single item
(with accoutrement)

in certain other figures
such as that
between the boundary tones
of two appoggiaturas
the two tones
are de-linked
they are not an item
and yet
structurally
a pair
a different sort of interval
paired
across
an articulation

Symphony in B minor, Wq. 182/5 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - English Consort, Trevor Pinnock

discontented
harrumphs about the house
barking orders

Sonata in F Major, K. 332 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Mitsuko Uchida

is it
with the overtly dramatic thrust
of Mozart
that we begin to feel
a certain impatience
with those first-movement repeats?

where the parts of the exposition
don't tell a story
it is easier to understand them
as places to be
rather than as a melody
to sing
in its proper narrative sequence
within a transpiration of events

contrast to
chairs in a room

it discomforts
to relive an event
but not
to sit
in the same chair

cadence within the prevailing figuration scheme
as neat as a little courtesy bow

String Quartet in G Major, Op. 54 #1 - Franz Joseph Haydn - Tatrai Quartet

Haydn's exposition parts
are definitely furnishings

this movement might be a window
through which we stare vacantly

some rooms and times are sunnier

Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner, Charlotte Margione, Catherine Robbin, William Kendall, Alastair Miles

this dub seems faded
as though heard through a scrim
the dynamic contrast
is flattened
turning it up helps some

Gloria's ending:
a cadence
within the prevailing figuration scheme
(and born of it)
(no longer such a neat little courtesy bow)

January 15, 2025

Abschied, D. 957 #7 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

on a fine day
a brave face

Impromptus sur en théme de Clara Wieck, Op. 5 - Robert Schumann, Eric La Sage

the image
of an improvising imagination
its written-down-ness
obscures the probability
that they were nearly
if not completely
transcriptions of improvisations
they certainly want to seem that way
a cultural obsession
with direct expression
intimate access
to the creative impulse

what are
the (our) cultural signifiers
of such direct access?

Prelude in A minor, Op. 28 #2 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

a patterned floor
of hollow spaces
upon which
the best that can be done
as sorry as it is
under the circumstances
is done

Abschied - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

neither such a fine day
nor so brave a face

Allegro Appassionata - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

the figurations
thrust and glide
through their tempo
as through a medium

a water ballet

Preludes Book II: No.6, General Lavine - eccentric - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking

one
who does
not
as others
do
does
as others
do
not

Walking Tune - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

desperately pulling flowers
from sleeves
ears
and pants

one trick pony

Coração Que Sente - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Batke

what music
is enjoyable
by the player
just for themselves?
or to share
among friends

parlour music

Die Driegroschenopr, end - Kurt Weill - Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg

demotic signifier
locution
syllable by syllable
each syllable
is
its final phoneme
ornamented
by its preceding phonemes

signboard musics
a theater of types

song
has it out
with speech

Weimarian Waltz tempo/mode

reading the entrails of a decaying world
(anthem patriotique)

Symphony in Riffs - Benny Carter [from That Devilin' Tune]

a showcase
for the players in the band

(throw money)

Sewing On The Mountain - C*** Creek Girls [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

moral propaganda
sewing and reaping

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 3 - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

there is a threshold
between the realms
of recordings of historical interest
and the science of sound recovery
(noise removal)
and
the crudsome filters of the noise artists
(a short jump to psychedelia too)

Quatre Petites Prières de Saint François - Francis Poulenc - Robert Shaw Festival Singers, Robert Shaw

plush
embracing
pure from the heart

I Heard About You - Charlene Arthur [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

I guess it's not her first rodeo

Istn't It a Pity - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan sings George Gerswhin]

a song
as a single utterance of sentiment
drawn out
over multiple stanzas

White Christmas - Darlene Love [from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector]

strange
how a music
can feel appropriate
to a time of year
music's seasonal aisle

never been such a day
in old LA
timely
in a horribly sad way

Aufwärts - Karlheinz Stockhausen

I trust
that few would sit down
to whatever these instruments are
in their homes
to play their parts in this
for their own enjoyment
or
to share with friends

it is
not to be enjoyed
but appreciated
worshiped
music
to impress
not express
after all
we are hard-nosed intellectuals here
performative seriousness

the isolation
of each player
becomes almost poignant

I wonder
if this is one of those improv sessions
he attached his name to

small sounds amplified
amid big sounds left alone

In Session at The Tintinabulary

January 12, 2025

Howard - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 80 Howard 250112 [250112]

January 13, 2025

Banned Rehearsal 1117 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1117 250113

Postscripts

Drops

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

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Playlist

Preface

"Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color, and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows - a colorless, all-color atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues, - every stately or lovely emblazoning - the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls all these are laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge - pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?"

Herman Melville, from "Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale."

Texts

Recorded

January 5, 2025

Still/Rapids - Joan Tower - Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller, Blair McMillen

the manners of impressionism
broadly hint
at depiction

the naming convention
confirms the hint

the course of a stream
the fickle face
of insensible waters

Preludes 17-20 - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepher Center, Seattle February 24, 2018]

these pieces suit me
because
they respond to niceties of touch

Ussers of Sleep Part 1 - S. Eric Scribner [from Ussers of Sleep]

sounds emerge with patience
a region of change is encountered
the emerged sounds persist
strengthened

we are told a tale

Cor mio, non - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Allesandrini

a poetry
in which
the lines of words and notes
are allowed
to consort
with each other
in immediacy

Johannes-Passion - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

imitative entrances of voices
models
the spread of the Word

the power of the music
is turned
to the service
of the vernacular unveiling
of the mysteries
sung clearly
in a public space

January 6, 2025

Praeludium in C Major, BuxWV 137 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

extensive self-announcement
the relative prominence
of the fugue subject
vis-á-vis Bach's manner
is interesting

Gleichwie Der Regen Und Schnee Vom Himmel Fällt, BWV 18 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Ton Koopman

alternating
a basso solo line subject
with
tutti orchestra treatment

Schütz sets the text
Bach sets the commentary
also
he sets us
reading the commentators
calmly and clearly
then
sitting back
to think it over
in the chorale

Keyboard Sonata in F Major, Kk. 256 - Domenico Scarlatti - Piete-Jan Belder

always restart
as cheery as you can
you may need its light
in dark places

Sinfonia in B-flat Major, Op. 18 #2 "Overture to Lucia Stilla" - Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür

effective use of the plainest devices
in the service
of establishing patterns
for expectations to latch on to
there is no disobedience in this music

"Vada adagio, Signorina" - Aria for "La Quakera spiritosa" (Guglielmi) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne, Antal Doráti

in the very best of taste
and also fashionable

Sonata in C Major, Wq. 55/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

this key
is scurrying along spiderishly
this key
settles in glumly
this key
is happy to show you its room
tell you its secrets

Sonata in C Major, K. 330 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Lili Kraus

such a happy carefree fellow
such good company
ages well too
into a well-regulated domesticity
with serious
and learned discussions
on serious
and learned matters
but now
back to fun and games

all tucked in
g'night
more adventures
on the morrow

Mass in D Major, Op. 123 "Missa Solemnis" - Ludwig van Beethoven - London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Colin Davis, Anna Tomova-Sintow, Patricia Payne, Robert Tear, Robert Lloyd

this music
moves through its prayer
across a multitude
an awful stillness
up and down
confounded

this hedge of polyphony
each figure
a composition
of figure parts

In der Ferne, D. 957 #6 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

alien of all
severed from home

January 7, 2025

Nocturne in G minor, Op. 15 #3 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

the order
in which a figure unfolds
problematizes the sequence
by which
both chord
and key
do so

in the standard practice
at the time of Chopin
and within that culture
a chord
could not be understood
prior to its role
within a key
and
a key
couldn't be established
without chords
(which
don't exist
as such
before the key is established)
in other words
a key
is an unfolding relation
obtaining
among pitches

chords
are just one way
to look at it

Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

the key
can slip awry
from any of its parts
holding it all together
is a task for heroes
post-Napoleonic

puzzling out the proper assembly
of improper parts

the rhythm of the figures
within the figures
affects the steadiness
of the rhythm
of the figures' modulations
within
the flow
of steadiness
articulating
the flow of phrases
from within the figures
of those phrases
the figures
sweep
through the music's flow

Selbstgeständnis - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

a song of secret doubt

Sonata in F Minor, Op. 6 (#1) - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev

the room was packed when we got there
we squeeze our lines in somehow

turmoil and all

so much drama
these slow chords
have lost their key
it is no more
they mourn it
such a lively key it was too
we will mourn slowly
in Schubertian wastes

Preludes Book II: No.5, Bruyeres - Claude Debussy - Walter Gieseking

line drawings of a music

Colonial Song - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

for the royalists in the house
slobbering into their gs and ts
o gawd
now they're all singing
full throated patriarchalism
they slumber into their booths
blimey
wotta sight

Xango - Heitor Villa-Lobos - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

representative
of a culture-nation

Shrimp Man - Moses Mason [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

an advert call
from the food cart
how 'bout it?
Burma Shave

Just Because - The Lone Star Cowboys [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

citing
the just because clause
in a cause of justice

specializing in comic tavern songs

Now They Call It Swing (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

rhythms have their seasons
a true swing
is unmatchable

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 1 (end) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

a magic wobble
as though heard through a ring modulator

filtering:
making use of a technology
designed to be faithful
to make an unfaithful sound
and call it new

Sally Mae - John Lee Hooker [from The Legendary Modern Recordings]

a complaint
what troubles are:
the blues

Symphony in E minor, Op. 93 (#10) - Dmitri Shostakovich - U.S.S.R. Symphony Orchestra, Yevgeny Svetlanov

the notes are placed with care
like grave-stones

nationalism
enforced by the State
which can't see all
nor hear all
as
it
is
not
a being
capable
of sight
or hearing
or:
the State
is
its agents

the shrill scream of propaganda
and military parades

this can only be shared
not to be imbibed alone
news assault
on 36 screens at once
infocacophony

meanwhile
in the mean whiles
and narrow streets
of dim lamps

January 8, 2025

Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

tooting one's horn
in third person

Duo for Violin and Cello - Edward T. Cone - John Whitfield, Cyrus Stevens

this music
has a task to accomplish
and matters to discuss
they go at it
with a right good will
the operation
is occasionally quite delicate
but
often
demands muscular exertion
a story
may have unfolded

This Is My Country - The Impressions [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

it was a moralistic time
so the music pulpit
figgered
statements
would sell records

Rosalyn - David Bowie [from Pin Ups]

proto punk
straight ahead

Don't Come Close - Ramones [from Road to Ruin]

urban sincerity
the back story
to be filled in
by the listener

KEEAK 830329 - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [recorded at Bard College, March 29, 1983]

synth takes a solo
piano takes occasional notes
they expose each other's weaknesses
but
work
at getting independent thought processes
working together

notes*
are actuated ideas
{*or musical sounds in general}

the pianist
is fond of throwing wrenches into the works

piano:
its tone is plain
but its touch is intimately malleable
::
synth:
its tone is varied
but its touch is generic

piano falls into a groove
which can't be escaped
without assistance
from the synth
the trick
is to think
in activity mode
rather than
making obvious sense mode
this session
is at its best
when one turns
to the other
and asks what the hell they're doing
but
much of it
is also
quite lovely

No One Has - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

a bass
to budge ones bowels
(with attitude)

we love being a hero
and identifying
with one being a hero

Banned Rehearsal 334 (B) - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [July 17, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 334 930717

it is Saturday evening
John
is pushing
a truck
across a drum
we blow
the polyptical reed
and John
laughs
we play
the hoot hoot game
Aaron
must have gotten a haircut
his head
looks different
Aaron's beard
(as in the Psalm)
no John
that does not toot
and does not belong in the mouth
negotiating
outcry
and lingual expression
the outcry
is perfectly honest
as is
the lingual expression
the difference
is modality
fine-tuning
ones behavior
to the prevailing
(telepathic)
norm

language socializes us
as does music

music can't specify what language does
any more than language
can specify
what music does
nothing
can specify
what song does
(old magic)

human expression
is unspecifiable
by recording
or
any other practice of inscription

we throw our thoughts
into all the uncertainties
of future times

we are a purposeful group

milk in a tiny bottle
I want it I want it I want it
repetition
is a structural gambit
learned
or arising
in toddlerhood
interesting
that
as language
is acquired
by our young
the rhythm
and pitch
of our language
is acquired
along with the lexicon and syntax
(does Chomsky include that aspect in any of his writings? hm)
no choice
but grow

the Aaronsbundler Allusion is summoned

I want apple juice
in five individually enunciated syllables
I want X
the ursentence
apple juice blues
a dog is barking on the tape
inscribed
in magnetized metal element fluctuations

potato potato
celery celery
broccoli and squash
and yams yams yams
and corn

|| NB there are two Banned Rehearsals labelled 334
I plead the effect of the decade of chaos
as to any defects in my indexing system during the 90s ||

Hans
kitty kit
cork is what I see
in the ocarina
why? well . . .

contextualist or formalist?
who knows?

Mystery Chord!
in scratched rhythm
can you hear birds?

{journal entry of September 10, 1998:
the amplifier
is a toy
we blow up our sounds
the intentional misbalance
of the old days
are back
we are a purposeful group
"I want it."
a study
in non-integration
on and off
"can you hear birds?"}

Track 2 - Richard Rorex, Reid Merriman [from Mood for Richelle]

hobbyist music
is often characterized
by a sort of bland competence
it has been taken up
as one might macramé
or military history
nothing wrong with that
but
for me
it fails to engage itself

Gradus 40 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 31, 2003]

[A(1), A(2)..., A(4)] (silly ellipses)

January 9, 2025

Contrapunktus XI.2 (in memoriam David Lewin) - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 22]

these notes
have to do with each other
across the board
decays don't linger here

Banned Rehearsal 834 - John Cage, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [April 1, 2013]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 834 130401

opening night
no doubt
what we do
transpires
within the hurly burly
of outside life's obsessions
radio
seeks
to overlay
the immediate world
with its own

we clear that overlay out
to wheeze and toot in peace

back to the game
in fits and starts
description and commentary

we ring our little bells
and bump our gentle drums

Blues Distended - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

bow talk

Sinfonia 6 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, October 17, 2023]

Keith Eisenbrey · 06 Sinfonia 6 230326 [231017] Piano

I was immersed in the Sinfonia project for so long
it is strange now
to be looking back on it

a set of solutions
to a pitch puzzle

Premier Ordre (sol) - La Milordine, Gigue - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

fine dancing
for dancing in finery

Benvenuto Cellini, Act 1: Tableaux 2 - Hector Berlioz - Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

each detail orchestrated afresh
rhythm rethought anew

the atmosphere
is thick with inscrutable cross-intentions

a French opera
about Italian opera
in the sense
that the music
of this French opera
concerns itself
with the music
of Italian opera

there is no place here
to take a break

very much
a number opera
(made up of individual pieces or numbers)
but the numbers themselves
are remarkable sophisticated compositions

this music borrows
the drama of the words
for its own purposes

Bonita rama de Sauce - Carlos Guastavino - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

for singing in social clubs
dining dancing drinking
part of the establishment

Sensation Rag - Original Dixieland Jazz Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

sheet music publication
and the recording industry
twin poles of the commercial music economy
as it exists today
(sheet music sales fell behind
but were crucial at the beginning)

Traverso - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

music
obsessed with its style
and national authenticity
keeps its feet in the streets

Don't Speak to Me - Lottie Kimbrough [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

radio-type dialog
as the song begins

concerned
with giving an impression
of a place
that this singer has come to
and inhabits

The Day You Came Along - Coleman Hawkins [from That Devilin' Tune]

slinky and smooth
in a curl of smoke

When The Sun Is Setting On The Prairie - Roy Rogers [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

sentimental
for cowboy days
nostalgia
the gentleman could sure yodel sweet though

Stardust - Roy Eldridge [from That Devilin' Tune]

sophisticated sleaze

My Old Flame - Charlie Parker [from That Devilin' Tune]

devious in its ways
I'm not sure
he ever lets on
what he's really about

Fifth Sonata - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, October 4, 2024]

I made one more recording of this piece a few weeks later
that's about as well as I'll ever play it
this was close
a couple of sloppy moments
and a noisy edit
but other than that quite fine

January 10, 2025

Before You Accuse Me - Bo Diddley [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo & The Beat]

not the best line
with which
to open talks
of rapprochement

Cantata for Voice, Voices, and Instruments - Stepan Wolfe - Robert-Schumann-Kammerorchester, Jürgen Kussmaul, Cornelia Kallisch, Lesley Bollinger, Ulrike Kamps-Paulsen, Carola von Schmettow, Helmut Clemens, Hans Christian Ziegler

figures count to four or three
each note
unto itself
no connections allowed
that are not composed into it

negotiating a protocol
between correctness
and musical image
a tense situation

In Session at The Tintinabulary

January 5, 2025

Antioch - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 79 Antioch 250105 [250105]

otherwise known as Joy to the World
this project amuses me no end

Postscripts

Drops

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

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Playlist

Preface

"January [1837] Last Year's Bills"

George Cruikshank from The Comic Almanack an Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips and Oddities, First Series, 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

December 28, 2024

Invention in G minor, BWV 782 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Edith Picht-Axenfeld

a force pulls the tonal sense downwards
the gravitational metaphor
would only be appropriate
if there were some other object
in a mutual relation
mass seeks mass

Keyboard Sonata in C Major, Kk. 255 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

a key
is a set of pitches
in a specific set of relations
to a root note

the root's pull
varies considerably

composition
as an art
of adjusting pulls
among pitches

Sinfonia for Double Orchestra in E-flat Major, Op. 18 #1 - Johann Christian Bach - Failoni Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmür

the clear light of reason
in fine clothes
exchanging bon mots and witticisms
dances well too

musique etiquette
for the pinnacle of civilization
in the best of possible worlds

L'infedeltà delusa (end) - Franz Joseph Haydn - Orchestre de Chambre de Laussanne, Antal Doráti

the relation
of orchestra to singers
is almost adversarial in this recitative

marking the rhetorical articulations of the singer

dramatic expression
matched
in musical expression

making
of the whole
a single image
of expression
neither strictly dramatic
nor strictly musical

multimodal expression
drama mode/music mode

nothing like a wild vocal cadenza
to re-attract attention

in this aria
the orchestra is quite supportive
and sympathetic

in this dialog
the orchestra is keeping itself out of the argument entirely
a neutral party

December 29, 2024

Rondo in C Major, Wq. 56/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Miklós Spányi

the art of retracing steps
and looking again

the internal segments of the Rondo
are each a fresh vantage

Symphony in D Major (2nd Version), K. 385 "Haffner" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Academy of Ancient Music, Japp Schroder, Christopher Hogwood

our hero faces unforeseen keys
undaunted
he works them all back out
to their happy place

all the trappings of theater
are unnecessary
for Mozart
to conjure
an apparent drama

Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Neal O'Doan

the theme is shown its weaknesses
right away
in variation one

voices
at the poles
of a fibrillating figuration

potent
as a moment of stillness
from where
within
any
and all
manner of motions
might flow

this molto adagio variation
is in no meter
except its

a poem
of a single long line

fingery figuration play
intricacies within intricacies

this one
is grave

the ornate floating melody
is an analog
of the violin solo
that floats above that late swath
of the Missa Solemnis

difficult questions are posed at any juncture

Aufenthalt, D. 957 #5 - Franz Schubert - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

firm beats pounded in

Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson

for all the florid ornamentation
not a note out of place

Kinderszenen, Op. 15 #1, Von fremden Ländern und Menschen - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

bednight tales for happy sleeps

Bei einer Trauung - Hugo Wolf - Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Daniel Barenboim

grief torn

Poem in D-flat Major, Op. 41 - Alexander Scriabin - Michael Ponti

slender arms
draped in diaphony

a brash suitor

an accommodation mutual

La Terrasse des Audiences du Clair de Lune - Claude Debussy - Paul Jacobs

a cityscape spreads out below us
toward the river
gardens and rooftops
avenues and streets
a city
full of places
endless
past the horizon

December 30, 2024

Zanzibar Boat-Song - Percy Grainger - Percy Grainger [from Percy Grainger plays Percy Grainger]

scenes from a charmed life of ease
all needs served
events kept away

Sarambeque - Ernesto Nazareth - Marcelo Bratke

ragtime in a new lingo
a homogeneous mood

Prelude 2 - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Jenny Lin

there's a whole Sonata compressed into this Prelude

Cold Iron Bed - Jack Kelly and his South Memphis Jug Band [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

old fellows
in chairs
on the drugstore porch
street observers
tale telling tempo
blues

If Dreams Come True - Billie Holiday (with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra) [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

interestingly structured sax lick to open
song structure
a winning shape

Four Transcriptions from Emerson (mid 1930's): No. 1 (beg.) - Charles Ives - Charles Ives [from Charles Ives plays Charles Ives]

even spaced apart
into separate weeks
these tracks
run together

a curious
and compromised document
concerned with music
without quite engaging as such

Good Night - Lockrem Johnson - Florence Mesler, Lockrem Johnson

regarding history
and our relations to it
we can usually place a music
within a broad culture-time
with its contemporaneous musics
or
we can extend that music
back
through our image
of a person
we have met
and imagining them
in their past
a continuous presence

String Quartet in G Major - Florence Price - Catalyst Quartet

which would not be out of place
a century before

I hate to say it
but this
(quite lovely)
music
has a hint of antebellum nostalgia to it

nevertheless
this is quite engaging throughout
mint juleps and all
waited upon hand and foot

Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves on The Trees) - Eddie Fontaine [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo's Milieu]

popularizing strategy
write poetry for singing
that tells stories
about the members
of the target audience

Times Five - Earle Brown

musics made of interswappable parts
no two performances the same
but
they are presumably all made of the same stuff

our paths through the garden
don't affect the geology underlying it

composed on a slab

organ harvest festival
live demonstrations
great fun

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - Louis Armstrong [from Disney Songs The Satchmo Way]

loves the word-play
and we do too

If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up - Betty Davis [from Betty Davis]

ritual come on
flashing red neon ad

I Know Some Lonely Houses Off the Road - George Perle - Bethany Beardslee, Morey Ritt

a recitation

December 31, 2024

KEEAK 830228 - Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [recorded at Bard College, February 28, 1983]

Aaron was at Princeton that year
and came over for a visit
he must have brought his synthesizer along
it spurts and blurbles in one speaker
me on piano
in the other

at the time
I was under an impression
that maximal stereo separation of parts
was a worthy aspiration
I have since changed my thinking

we start well
but lose focus midway
we trade music bits
then approximate a flat line

Kaval Sviri - [from Le Mystere Des voix Bulgares Volume 2]

no mistaking that solid sound

Banned Rehearsal 334 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [July 9, 1993]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 334 930709

the all night pajama store
John plays on
we can make this noise
and carry on a witty repartee
at the same time
one wonders
what conception
John had at the time
of what we were doing in this
what did
'on tape'
mean
to a 2-year old?

sound being inherently irrational
we make music of it
out of fear

this is really really jingly

why Ohio why?

daddy's doing

January 1, 2025

Aquemini - Outkast [from Aquemini]

language from an obscured scene
occults itself

Gradus 39 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 3, 2024]

announce yourself
episodes of musical silence
alternate
with episodes of musical sound

sound can cease
without impeding musical flow

Interface Chapel - Matthew Barber - Ossia New Music Ensemble [from Open Space/Perspectives of New Music 2]

a tuning
and a lingering
into a pitch patch
admirably straightforward presence
a chamber music sense
of intra-ensemble sociality
they play with each other
for us
and each other
a chamber-symphony
in many short movements

Gradus 222 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 11, 2013]

an ensemble of parentheses pairs
discussing their mathematics
there may be pairs of parentheses
that practice rogue possibilities
?)?(?
gloriously flagrant disregard
of stray out-of-rung notes

silence is approached reverently
sound respects silence
and silence respects sound

Carson Farley Comments about "Film Music" - [recorded live at Seattle Composers' Salon, January 5, 2018]

about being a composer
if
one imagines that
to be a profession

translate it quickly into a finished product

Gradus 378 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 20, 2023]

a list concluding with the sixth D
followed by another list

deep within this forest
you may find the sixth D

it is surely there
right where I put it

Ds don't disturb themselves
I reckon
way I figgers it

forest
has ways of distraction
from questing

where notes
lose their names

Madrigals, Book IV: Cor mio, mentre vi miro - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

a poem's voice
as a madrigal

Geistliche Chor-Music, Op. 11, SWV 369-397 (1648), Volume 2: XXIX. Du Schalksknecht - Heinrich Schütz - Capella Augustana

in Monteverdi
the beauty of language
in Schütz
the beauty of its import

beauty
as a metaphor
for truth and authority

Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BuxWV 76 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella

seeking relief
from the oppressions of the world
to rest
within eternity
with joy and gladness
I would hence

a moral contemplation
so be honest

Premier livre de clavecin: Triosieme Ordre (ut) : Les Pelerines - La Marche - La Caristade - Le Remerciement - François Couperin - Kenneth Gilbert

arms gracefully holding fabric out
for display
legs turned
so that
the fashion hosiery
is clearly discernable

the honing
of ones outward appearance

Benvenuto Cellini, Act 1, Premiere Tableau, Scenes 4-7 - Hector Berlioz Orchestre National de France, Chorus of Radio France, John Nelson, Gregory Kunde, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Laurent Naouri, Jean-François Lapointe, Renaud Delaigue, Eric Salha, Marc Mauillon, Roman Nédélec, Éric Huchet

extraordinary
recitative into ensemble
finale

January 2, 2025

Abismo de sed - Carlos Guastavino - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

emblematic demotic aspects on display

is the higher brow treatment
a boon
to those aspects
or an appropriation
for display?

Indianola - Wilbur Sweatman [from That Devilin' Tune]

a dance craze?
if
this is what I think it is
it is icky and racist

musically sophisticated or not

De Sejo - Heitor Villa-Lobos - Teresa Berganzo, Juan Antonio Alvarez Parejo

what is the business
this music is in?

America, Rhapsody for Orchestra; III. Future - Ernst Bloch - Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Gerard Schwarz

pro-capitalist industrial banner
indoctrination
industry gets tiresome
and dire
back to the prairie heartland
Art
as propoganda
social coercion
built in
at the end
the audience
is requested
to stand
and belt out
a jingoist hymn
primed
from that stand
to give themselves
a mighty ovation

(I had never felt so uncomfortable
at a concert before)

what's ovate about ovation?

(wave your flag dear)

Deep Elm Blues - The Lone Star Cowboy [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

songs among the guys
not for polite company

You Took Advantage of Me - Bud Freeman [from That Devilin' Tune]

for tapping to in taps

West Kinney Street Blues - Skoodle-Dum-Do and Sheffield [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

another red-light address?

Lost On The River - Hank Williams [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

his voice isn't pretending to be another kind of music
it is honest to itself

Shake a Hand - Faye Adams [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

seal the deal
all the while
the piano player
is shaking hands
all over the keys

Invention (midi) - Benjamin Boretz

bouncing pong-like against its bounds

Goodnight My Love - The Fleetwoods [from Come Softly To Me]

lovely electric keyboard sound
quite the come-on

Abraham, Martin and John - Dion

a somewhat sophisticated conceit

With a Child's Heart - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]

what a crazy way to grow up

Racing In The Street - Bruce Springsteen [from Darkness On The Edge Of Town]

the tough
refrain
from learning
from experience
too long

we pause
to allow you young toughs
to let that sink in

2000 Miles - The Pretenders

every sound has been expertly filtered
for purity of essence

this poem is really stupid

Retrato de Euchababilla en le Noche - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [realized February 13, 1988]

Keith Eisenbrey · Retrato de Euchababilla en le noche 880213

my interest in this process
(slowing down a tape of a performance)
was not merely sensual
I was also interested
in what latent musics
might emerge

to what extent
does expanse
affect our rhythmic perspective?

a long soliloquy
with percussion commentary
in the yard

is rather gloomy
and rather grand

Time Capsule - Dylan Hicks [a Rescued Record]

self parody
a la The Dictators
schlock TV
fan theme songs

you wouldn't want to put it in a time capsule
but did anyway

Banned Rehearsal 494 - Peter Comley, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [May 9, 1998]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 494 980509

taut to twang
at the thick of it

this music
is worrying its chewbone
intently

that sounds like Pete
is he on this tape?
{NB: not listed on the box hm.}

hiccups in the corner
released from the ultra-taut
we decompress slowly
to find the evening's sonority

{journal entry of April 15, 2006:

sparring
fade
development into quieter space
our each own muttering corner
but
material in general
is spat out
with venom
no finesse
but blatant
but also
not quite simply evacuation

Pete Comley must have been with us
hiccups
as we develop a face
guided by piano
and guitar
undulations
study in smooth and choppy
Wurlitzer pedal still working fine at this point
build again
lots of shout
& feeling
& release
in this one
a kind of
subverted rock-anthem energy
late-night in the bar
misbalanced
musicy
piano scribbling
not too off-putting
but definitely
upfront in the mix
right from the start
control grabbing
others try too
most notably the drums
which are wonderful
I wonder who?
Aaron perhaps?
or Neal?
more aggressive playing than Karen
more subtle touch than Aaron's usual
but it could be
. . . perhaps Pete?
the transfer was I think pretty darned clean}

Shouldn't We Talk II - J. K. Randall [from Open Space 19]

does the sharing of abstract properties
provide coherence
or allow it
or guide it?

Wash Day 080218 - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded at The Tintinabulary, Seattle, February 18, 2008]

Keith Eisenbrey · Wash Day 080218

homely sounds
could be music
but
do they need to be?

might there be
aesthetically regarded sound experiences
for which
musicality
is irrelevant?

we hear
a household appliance
running its mechanism
the sounds of
the motor
the rotating drum
the thumping clothes
and dishes being stacked
(different machine)
(different room)
perhaps some liquid burbling
among the clothes
somebody's calling on the phone
that rings
with Banned Rehearsal squawk
must be a rinse cycle
for the water runs
now we're at the shore
and begin to spin
so that
we can wear dizzy duds
now it pees interminably
new activity for the machine
all done