"What if, with a different music-intellectual mindset, I think that some phenomenon of music 'has a story'? Is 'having a story' just a type of 'having a structure'? Is a 'story' just, really, a 'structure' with attitude?: Say some 'Fibonacci Series' story - attributes attitude, maybe, but without particular affect, right? Certainly exudes attitude - can't imagine what its charm would be bereft of the air of having uncorked some special esoteric number-combination emanations scoring it some big-meaningful-idea cred, which gets built in on just the grounds of logging in as a Fibonacci story. Or a tuning story or an exotic-scale or ritual-mode story; got to have the exterior story or how would the sound get to register correctly for the unpreinformed? And, let's see: if a story is a blow-by-blow account of something in terms of something else, correlating a sequence of music things with their private logics to a sequence of other things' otherwise-logic as if either they were the same logic or that the skewness of the logics to one another is somehow super-illuminating or at least entertaining, for the benefit of the music-logic; isn't that just 'having a structure' except with the affect and/or attitude framing and driving the structure-logic logic?"
- Benjamin Boretz - "inside in, outside out"
from "inside in . . . / . . . outside out" Open Space Publications, 2020
Texts
From Recent Arrivals
January 7, 2022
Harrow Down The Clouds - Tom Swafford and Zachary Swanson [from Scythe Paths Through the Nettles]
handfuls of hail
waken
thrumbody
Come Pick Me Up - Star Anna [from Soundtrack]
story is told
in terms of
a plea
for what?
abuse?
ironic
or non?
The Elements of the Sun Broke Into Song - Melissa Dunphy - Matthew Curtis
Baroque era approach to word painting
updated contrapuntal language
but essentially Handelian
on the stone pitch - Josef K [from found on the stone pitch]
stands right up and shouts
Prog!
choral and architectural
which are nearly the same things
synthetic on both fronts
a
synthetic chorus
within a synthetic architecture
Confusion - Crystal Beth, Alex Anthony Faide [from Episodic Memory]
we get to know it as it constructs itself
armor on!
this creates a
cinematic space for itself
3D
by means of suspension of disbelief
In That Bright World - Jody Diamond [from In That Bright World]
interesting acoustic things happening up in tinwhistle register
something about the small ensemble of voices
combined with all those
gamelan bells and gongs
is more than a little Partchian
fascinating tempo shifts
some of those shifts are similar to what
in Western music
usually
signals: end is nigh
this has
another sensibility
slowing
to be in a different region of the
music
more like entering a small bay or cove
a sheltered place
Recorded
Symphony in F Major, Op. 93 (#8) - Ludwig van Beethoven - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
1
blasting into heroic grandeur
cutting back down to size
reblasting
even the simple countryside is open to the skies
and all they have
contained
2
Waiting for Maelzel
theme song for a thumb-twiddler
I think he would rather be outside
3
such as here
we are now strolling with an open heart
4
robust good cheer
slam the stein upon the board
Bier
her!
the dark
heading home
a worry
then courage gathered
there's Maelzel again
Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 30 #4 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy
starts like he's trying to acquaint himself with what the notes do
he
puts his keys
(the tonal kind)
in distinct locations
within
the registers
that one falls off
there is some playful thinking in this
The Chant (take 1) - Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers [from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, Chicago Days]
fanfare for all the clowns
all the juggles
let's get this circus
started!
similar to ragtime
in the sense that
it's a dance more than a song
Liza (take C) - Art Tatum [from Classic Early Solos]
the root of this style is lounge piano
but of course that's just the
root stock
who knows what hybrid cuttings have been applied
What's the Use of Getting Sober - Louis Jordan [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
this could be a ventriloquist routine
Ray Charles played a similar game
with a similar conceit
see
Let's Go Get Stoned
Billie's Bounce - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]
what are the chord changes for?
a social convention for harmonious
living
Strange Things - Henry Green [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
an efficient accompaniment on guitar
he picks the melody as a part of
his singing
minimal breaks
and even more minimal checking in with
the lower strings
true and fine
Move - Miles Davis [from Birth of the Cool]
tuba!
or baritone sax
but it sounded like a tuba to me
the command of the title
is addressed to your earbrain
it has got
to move to keep up
Blind Plowman - The Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon [April 10, 1962]
when it comes down to it
the choral art song is an odd sort of genre
whose is the voice?
to whom is it addressed?
A Woman in Love - Bonnie Guitar [from Dark Moon and Other Country Favorites]
a recipe for one
the melody moves upward stepwise
as the lines are
added
the ingredients are also added
with the hook as a goal
simple but effective
The Width of a Circle - David Bowie [from The Man Who Sold The World]
intro
the band finds where the song is
for us
if we tag
along
sounds like he's doing Dylan
then we go to another room for a Beatlesish moment
new scene new song
part of the appeal of early Punk
was that
it was a music nearly
anybody could learn to do
The Ramones
specifically
specialized in clear minimal arrangements
there is no slop
Sally Improv - Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [from A Cassette Player]
scarabs!
I'd know them anywhere
I think they found some pools
or perhaps pots
for potions
One Time, One Night - Los Lobos [from By The Light of The Moon]
a story about a story teller
and other stories
a Chuck Berry
gambit
road house bar stool tales
January 3, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 304 - John E, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt [September 13, 1992]
John says uh oh
took a bad step
but gets over the fuss quickly
whistles drums
toy squeezebox
toy piano
toy cacophony
windups winding down
pluckers
rain stick
speaker of
the house
something is making a wonderfully crudded up loudspeaker sound
ring around the rosie
new tune
with children in the session
our collective attention span is pretty darned brief
funmaker in
fine form
yellow drum stick tip
a room of sounds
such as
happen to be there
in interaction
with those who happen to be
there
to be with its aural and musical value
is
for me
chiefly in the immediate sound of it
20 or 30 seconds on either
side
is not frequently pertinent
the immediate sound
being
the entirety of the relevant universe
one can pontificate freely
as the application of any universal statement
is limited in
pertinent extent
powerwash with funmaker rhythms
all together top speed maximum volume
slowly slowing
something fell over
put them back
where
you found them
where they belong
{from my journal entry of April 10, 1995:
gleeful toddler laugh with flute: sudden fuss: sudden fun. bright percussion - slithery flute underneath rattles. drums. (small) and plucked strings. funmaker enters gently. rather alarming speaker of the house bass}
a gentle deep spirit
cheerily compassionate
in no hurry to move on
patient to observe a space for a full round time
so we get to know
it
the players in the composed ensemble
are wonderfully humane to
each other
piccolo violin viola cello
I can attest that this
aspect is a true feature of Ken as a person too
Gradus 5 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [February 18, 2002]
The two lowest As
paired in proximity of time
and thus
ordered
each has its associated roil constellation
and
together they have a joint account
my intent
is to raise my Ebenezer
on new
alternate
creative ways
to write about
talk about
and think
about
what music could be
for us
if we allowed it
no
part of music
is off limits
it is some comfort now
to me
that I know he never broke a string
while performing this
not yet anyhow
at the time I was forever on
edge
my old Yamaha
especially
had a problem with that
our tools have shaped us
if music is our tool
it also has shaped
us
parts of notes speak at their own time
Told You So - The Capitol Steps [from O Christmas Bush]
Florida's first to go
let it go let it go let it go
Never Get It Back - Broken By Clouds
studio cleanliness
composed so as to be sure we notice its
studio
cleanliness
First Kiss Day - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the High Dive on April 6, 2012]
pretty solid
no studio cleanliness here
My Spirit's Gonna Sing - Sarah Pasillas [recorded live at Victory Lounge on April 17, 2017]
a strong voice
perhaps in the mezzo range
though she hangs down
low a lot
the power-up into the upper pipes
has some bite to it
accompanying herself gently on guitar
no more than necessary
a bit of a world-weary cowgirl vibe
Banned Rehearsal 1042 - D, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Ahava K, Neal Kosály-Meyer [January 3, 2022]
from within life in progress
all those years ago
pulling in radio
waves
now Neal joins us
over a similar mechanism
cellwaves
with similar modification to its qualities
Neal has joined the
radio chorus
would you pass me the remote?
studies
not in
continuities
but aside from
perhaps
wholly gentle
we
have mellowed
but not given in
we gnaw like termites
unmindful of any greater structures of the music business
that
might loom
in the world beyond our gnawing
a composition
but also a species of journalism
a sound picture
like an engraving
of a cathedral
chiming tempo
is tied
to meter
as subject
to king
metrical hemiolae
Die Wohltemperierte Klavier, Band 1, Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - Christiane Jaccottet
what follows
shoves
what was
aside
any relaxation afforded by sequence
is hijacked to increase the tension
up up and tighter tighter
conflicted fugue
I sure wish the engineer would let the last notes ring to the end
sheesh!!
Sonata in C Major, Kk. 156 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
his figures evoke a complex of ambituses and vectors
any are fair game
Concerto in F Major, Wq. 43/1 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Melante Amsterdam, Bob Van Asperen
1
genuinely playful
in full confidence of any direction it might
go
2
when 1 gets lost
it is forlorn here
3
knows where it is at last!
an orchestration primer
especially: matching instrument sizes
the huge modern (Mahlerian)
orchestra
is usually a bad idea to say anything with
1
consider the slow Haydnesque intro to the first movement
as a
thing unto itself:
what is its "key"?
(established more by being
forced into a corner
than anything else)
the rest of the movement
is its accomplishments
once released
into its proper sphere
OK
the intro is the past
the body is the present adventure
to which the past has forced us
2
however!
(a magnificent disjuncture)
[NB I just went to Goldbergesque lengths to spill the last few sips of my tea]
the furtive fugue
all set
to explode all over the page
3
again with the high power howevers!
those trills are keyboard derived
the low horns in the trio do it for me every time
4
and furthermore!
behind all this rowdy
is an image of
balance
without that
it would evaporate
rather than
force one's ear to the edge of its seat
he's not through with you yet
siddown!
Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54 - Frédéric Chopin - Vladimir Ashkenazy
that image of balance is still there
though badly fractured
somewhat trampled
often overlooked
often fondly
nurtured
transitions are moments of potential
they could clearly go upon any of
many paths
but once chosen
there is no innocent return
Sam The Accordian Man - George Olsen [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
a character study
his dreamy chords
remind you of heaven
quite the production
big band and male-voice vocal group
Phonograph Blues (SA-2587-2) - Robert Johnson [from The Complete Recordings]
polytonal
polymetric
poly in general
a multiplicity crammed
in tight
Missionary Sermon - J. H. Terrell [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]
pulling the word out from the dregs
salvation by main force
Who's To Blame - T. Texas Tyler [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
c'mon porky
at which
the guitar does some fine strutting
in
the middle of a country sound
the singer really grinds the occasional heavy syllable
the week
as a loose frame for a verse structure
(like balance?)
What Is This Thing Called Love - Charlie Parker [from The Cole Porter Songbook]
the big band arrangement is rowdy as hell
Marie's The Name - Elvis Presley [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and the Beat]
syllables and lines are doled out carefully
to slow and speed the flow
atop the Bo Diddley bounce
Soldier Boy - The Shirelles [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
before things turned sour back home
Clarinet Quintet - Bernard Herrmann - David Shifrin, Theodore Arm, Eriko Sato, Walter Trampler, Warren Lash [from American Chamber Music from Chamber Music Northwest]
the opening sequences are solo showcases
melody and accompaniment
the group lets members take turns speaking for them
to that extent
this isn't chamber music
rather
it is orchestra music
for a small ensemble
i.e.
the voices are talking to us
not to each other
remembrance of old days
in the before times
dear old Vienna heart
of Empire
You Turn Me On I'm A Radio - Joni Mitchell [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
the industry's come-on
as a metaphor for romance availability
or
t'other way round
Joe The Lion - David Bowie [from Heroes]
somebody's theme song for the taking
uncertain about how to end it
From The Air - Laurie Anderson [from Big Science]
I remember when I first heard LA back in the early 80s
I was
perplexed
at what the big deal was
anyone who was with it
dug it
not being
with it
myself
and with no
particular ambition
to be so
it was
for me
a music
from an utterly foreign
and somewhat antiseptic cultural region
then I wondered
how one could possibly keep up
with being
with it
as an aesthetic practice
without
perpetually
erasing where you had been
of course
now
it's all in
the same midden with everything else
Assembly Rechoired 15 - Matthew Beckmeyer, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith
Eisenbrey [February 4, 1987]
begins with the ceremonial pouring out of the fun
from the big red bag
of it
violin
make-shift can drums
and toy piano
probably the now
wrecked Jaymar
I think that the last time Matt and I had worked together before this session
was for a performance of Lucas Foss's 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird at the
UW in about 1980 or so.
Last I heard he was a Pastor out in Montana
somewhere
part of the image of an instrument
is how it fills the recorded space
which is
a function
of it
the mic
the mix
and proximity
never presumes to be anything beyond play
certainly not trying to be anything beyond the instant event
when we lose interest in something
we just move on
no big deal
{from my journal entry of February 4, 1987:
Fun. And Our National Anthem. BOOMTH BOOMTH. Aaronsbundler on toypiany. Delicately stringed detail. A little liquid music box. stumbling stream. Lord of the stumbling dancDING! DING! Funmade. Electronics without Electricity!! violin becomes harmonica and the vice of verse. Numenous modes of conversing. Snare drum bolts rolling snare down headwards. Oh the wine has hit!}
Excursions - A Tribe Called Quest [from Low End Theory]
presents immediately
as a self-aware artist
cyclic bebop
connection
In Session at the Tintinabulary
January 3, 2022
Banned Rehearsal 1042 - D, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Ahava K, Neal Kosály-Meyer
(see above)
January 5, 2022
Anybody's Fingerbook, 2x2 (augmentational) A (A) - Keith Eisenbrey
January 6, 2022
Pressure - Leanna Keith
Leanna posted a new score on the socials and I thought I would give it a go. My first attempt, piecing together individually recorded tracks of piano and percussion, got out of hand, so I abandoned it to try again the next day.
January 7, 2022
Two-Part Invention in F Major - Gavin Borchert
Anybody's Fingerbook, 2x2 (augmentational) (A) B - Keith Eisenbrey
Pressure - Leanna Keith
This time I played it on clavichord, presuming nobody else would do that. Then I made a slide-show to go along with it.
Postscripts
Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery
the following are the doodles in my listening journal from early 1987
