Playlist

Preface

"Taking a vow of clarity I didn't know it needn't pass the gate of understanding.
Learning a poet's language speaks the mind other.
Direct blows can strike from unknown angles."

George Quasha - Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole

Texts

Recorded

December 31, 2022

Assembly Rechoired 32 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Wally Shoup [August 20, 1987]

Keith Eisenbrey · Assembly Rechoired 32 870820

with an experienced guest we settle in quickly
even case snaps are intent to join 

we root around and pull out sound
the multitudes of posterity have no business in these parts
fame firmly abeyed
this discussion is private 

several times this week we had as many as 20 robins in our yard at once
lifting leaves for bugs and worms
plus the usual assortment of juncos and squirrels 

important but not earthshaking
I'm guessing Wally on the fipple flute
neither Karen nor I can tongue that quickly 

sounds like we're getting a parade together
Karen's drumset newly ensconced in the living room of the Greenwood Big House
down to rock and bone

the yard critters seem to have tucked themselves in for the night
friendly nursery sounds prevail
thumb piano bells kittens
the bells excite distortion in the recording mechanism
analog
the good kind of distortion
night rooters
raccoons and possums
be alert for cats and coyotes
and the occasional owl
tambourine voltage zaps

Book of Dreams - Bruce Springsteen [from Lucky Town]

a valentine sentiment
does anybody use baby
as a spousal term of endearment
outside songs and movie scripts?

Little Wonder (Danny Saber Dance Mix) - David Bowie [from Earthling]

as ingredients are added to the pot and stirred
they have interactions with results in the final sauce
weirdling populace

The Remainder - Sleater-Kinney [from One Beat]

start a rhyme with math facts
we'll have a lesson
from the dark underbelly of number theory night life

Preludes 5 - 8 - Lockrem Johnson - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, March 17, 2007]

5
spirit is right but needs space
6
same
a slower tempo could work just fine
7
two clowns do a mirror dance
8
this one is going to take some serious thought
I'm hurrying through it here

January 1, 2023

A Much Married Woman, Chapter 2 - Nancy Cole Silverman - Adam Verner

first class ticket for a corpse
wealthy miners and gamblers
sack of potatoes
two dead husbands

Banned Rehearsal 937 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt [June 19, 2017]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 937 170610 - 19

adding acoustic spaces
can open up a space between them
it helps if the spaces going in
are fully characterized
not scrubbed of their placeness
it's a different effect
than of playing one signal into the space of another
there
one signal shrinks
here
they both mix as in a solution 

|| 

parading on the backs of turtles
moving but not quickly
nor even as fast as leisurely 

|| 

since memory does not always serve
to recollect which sounds appear on which incoming Telepath
a solid attribution
of the where
that a sound comes from
is loosened
is it prior knowledge that does this?
prior knowledge
of how this sound was produced

which sounds heard which sounds?
unanswerable 

|| 

among the side effects of electronically expressed music
is the electro-mechanical manufacture of virtual acoustic spaces
be that as it may
I think that that vociferous bird
made those vociferations
in Anchorage 

|| 

that drum roll may have been accomplished with a ping pong ball
the veil is lifted
then the other one

Rage & Reason - Robber's Roost [from Rage & Reason]

dynamite
how much will we need
his guitar playing has matured

January 2, 2023

O rosa bella - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe

as an instrumental
presumably two gambas
although we are led to a new place at every note
we are never uncertain of our being

Worster Braules, Fvb. 207 - Thomas Tomkins - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

playful going up
playful going down

Sonata in D Major, Kk. 214 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

simple motions of intricate parts

Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 7 - Ludwig van Beethoven - Paul Badura-Skoda

1
all about that new fangled repeating action
some of the rooms he peeks into shout back
go away!

2
the plainness is a ploy
an index point
from which to strive
a baseline

3
if it won't balance on its own
he'll force it into compliance
and if it won't cadence nicely through the front door
he'll force a window

4
such a pleasant day today
stop to chat with the grumpy fellow with the cart
and go on with the pleasant walk one is having
memory of storm tossed trees
but today is right nice

Impromptu in A-flat Major, Op. 142 #2 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

smallest nudge
and destiny has changed
melody has become bent
and wanders into perilous lands

S.O.L. Blues (excerpt) - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]

precipitous tumbles

January 3, 2023

Three Pieces for Choir: The People, Yes! - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey

a crack is opened
and motion slinks through
quiet infiltration 

to whom is the text of a choral motet addressed? 

a crowd is telling us a thing
each individual of which has plausible deniability
as to what was said
very like a firing squad

Having Myself a Time (take 2) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

a song
and a countersong
to give it body

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

sweeps right in and gets to work
I presume this is the modern jazz
they try to play too darn fast
but which
otherwise
they got no kick against 

it is a challenge and a direct one too

Always - Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine [from The Irving Berlin Songbook]

or at least until the curtain falls

Red Sails In The Sunset - The Beatles [from First Live Recordings, Volume 2]

the one you've come for
guitar struts its stuff

Call On Me - Big Brother and The Holding Company [from Big Brother & The Holding Company]

the backup track seems even louder than the solo line
but
it sounds like Janis is also doing one of those harmony parts

Day Dreaming - Aretha Franklin [from Young, Gifted and Black]

weird introduction and coda
an oversized frame for the song proper
match the color of the color accents within
and off they drift

The Commercial - Wire [from Pink Flag]

a track made entirely of standard figures

I Shall Be Released - Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, The Band  [from Before The Flood]

straight up gospel testimony

Who's That Tapping at the Window - Mike, Peggy, and Penny Seeger [from American Folk Songs for Children]

question and answers
fill in as you please game

The Best Things In Life are Free - Morgana King [from This Is Always]

stylism
the use of music for social decoration
setting tones to fit the intended clientele
décor
et cetera
music as a well cooked dish 

perfectly plated

Banned Rehearsal 642 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 6, 2002]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 642 020906

pushing back some at our first principals
I'm on piano
Neal on cornet
and Karen on drums
all instruments at which we have some degree of skill
can we still be what we are?
but also
at some temporal remove
touching bases with our proto-selves
that is
what are we now
as
what we chose not be then? 

we have developed a radio leak
nope
the outside world is still nothing at all like ours
radio damage stains acoustics permanently
we recover
and revert to our combo
we spend some time getting all spacy and thin
finding harmonies among the pot lid gongs flute and cornet tones
held long and quiet

Indiana -Antique Scream [from Sink the Sun]

hard armor strut

Ask Your Question - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at the Blue Moon, Seattle, October 4, 2012]

socially
a ticket to a kind of cachet
coolness
and in-ness
a bonding activity

Laser Beam - Porn Bloopers [from Blooper Reel]

these guys sound like they're having fun
the purpose of this music
anymore
is not to be new
nor to get anywhere new
but to belong

January 4, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 1058 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 29, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1058 220829

ear segregates sounds and layers
each having a presumptive provenance
flute
banjo
drum
bird
car jet
et
cetera 

aesthetic ear seeks reconnections
and disregards provenance 

to some extent
the transformation of sound A
by sound B
is a reconnection relationship
transformative bundling

sound producing ears
are engaged in composition/listening
at a primal level
and respond to everything
whether the response is made explicitly
in any way
including
especially including
imitation
the most obvious response
from the outside
but
transformation is a more exciting response
when it clicks or gels
it is due to transformative synthesis
the reconnections come alive
in collaboration ear space
the originary segregated sounds and layers vanish
pulled inside the synthesis

Fantasia, Fvb. 208 - Giles Farnaby - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

a rising figure divided by an ornament at a specified point
points to both a metrical place and a pitch-structure place
independently workable

Sugar - Blackbirds of Paradise [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

melody starts at a high
and descends slowly
differently
each time
the steps are the same
but the dance is different

The Glory of Love - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]

party dance
made a tune
making the rounds
what the tune is
has more to do with the commercial popularity of the occasion
its with-it-ness
than with the development of the music
they were making
through it

Come to the Savior - Blue Sky Boys [from Goodbye, Babylon]

this music is faced outward
addressed directly to us
without obvious internal interaction
beyond making it project
music without internal discussion

Sincere - Meredith Wilson [from The Music Man, Original Cast Recording]

barbershop belted toward doowop

Hear My Call, Here - The Staple Singers [from Hammer and Nails]

a stage play
soloist as inquirer
chorus as the church door
parabolic
primitive stereo separation

I Wasted My Tears - Dolly Parton [from Hello, I'm Dolly]

strident vocal production
each verse sung exactly the same

Kozmic Blues - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

communique on the verge of desperation
the wild song incarnates from within
and will be heard
body willing or not

Police and Thieves - The Clash [from The Clash]

social criticism
an essay
stereo production play
as structural marker
some of a lick is over there
some is over here
and you can dance to it

Real Child of Hell - X - [from Under the Big Black Sun]

because of my listening procedure
each track is itself
and also a token of music of its time
in a more or less chronological sequence
representing a time
within a history

this
is
a what the hell music
rather than
a music of happy spirits

January 5, 2023

Assembly Rechoired 33 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [September 12, 1987]

Keith Eisenbrey · Assembly Rechoired 33 870912

just a young couple scraping by
on guiro and snares
the bass drum is full of Amnehitabel
Karen crawls under the piano to answer the door
how Dickensian
Keith whistles off somewhere
but returns and clangs the dinner triangle
apparently recorded
and played back
now at low speed
or
is this something else since forgotten
it does sound like that old Telepath X 16
with the coat hanger
suspended from the microphone
by a string
clearly
I'm playing with the reel to reel
which was working back then
but what I was doing
I have no idea
stressing the motor no doubt
full to the brim with glorious cruddy sound
a din
he sat in the sun
and listened to the scent of the flowers and the trees
the river was flowing ducks mostly
the willows dipped into it too

When The Circus Comes - Los Lobos [from Kiko]

the contrasting bit
that comes between the verses
to break up the regularity
of verse verse verse
and
to allow it to end
has some nice guitar playing in it

David Watts - The Jam [from The Sound of the Jam]

fast
but nearly square
off beats 

any swing
tightly bound
held in

January 6, 2023

Gradus 116 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [March 26, 2007]

a sequence of anything
can't sound random
only
relatively unpredictable
generated algorithmically
or whimsically
both have personalities and limits
for instance
we can predict
that within a certain amount of experienced  time
a range of notes will be heard
which range
is dynamically plastic
and updated constantly
surprise
is not the point
nor novelty
but
consistency and inclusion within a class 

an open class
is still a class
id est
not defined from outside 

our construction of it
by means of our apprehension of it
exploring the class
opening that class inside itself
extension inward

are such classes constructed designed or grown?

actual provenance is immaterial even if effective

I Ain't Crazy - Freddie & The Screamers [from I Ain't Crazy]

rhythm section
structure of the dance
guitar and vocal
sexual politics of the dance
behavior above the feet

Gradus 314 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [June 26, 2017]

many notes in this one
immersive class
exploring external limits
and discovering internal extension
at once
here
the situation is more tense than it was 

|| 

objects that make sound
are images within the sound
music is such an object
it is an image of an object
within our experience of sound

claim
all the sounds are part of the music 

rebuttal
no they're not
not to my experience 

political position
I disallow anyone to tell me what the image-object I am experiencing is
because they can't know what that is
they can't make any distinctions for me 

||

the explorer discoverer
reveals their person
in the manners of their discovering explorations
we understand their thinking
because we're hearing it happen
which
is how thinking is
and can be
understood

Colors - Steve Layton [from Colors]

auroral, a venue
to the center
a journey with a bridge in it 

anything might be music

In Session at the Tintinabulary

January 2, 2023

Banned Rehearsal 1067 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1067 [230102]

January 6, 2023

Prelude in F Major - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 23 Prelude In F 111010 [230106]

Prelude in D minor - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 24 Prelude In D 110518 [230106]

One more to go and I'll have a complete recording of my revised versions

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1991

Playlist

Preface

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

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

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

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

Charles Dickens - The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club

Texts

Recorded

December 26, 2022

Freight Train Blues - Bob Dylan [from Bob Dylan]

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

Backlash Blues - Nina Simone [from Sings The Blues]

singing from within
rather than desperate to enter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a plea
to the powers that be 

seems curtailed as a song though
half a thought

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

music as a tool we grasp to seize a common time

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

wheels in wheels
cyclic alignment and flux
counting within counting

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

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1057 220815

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

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

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

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

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

December 27, 2022

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

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

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

momentum spills over
into accompaniment
at phrase ends

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

austere
paired with ornate
partake
a moment
spun together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

comic
sort of
were it not
so wicked

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

without apparent fancy singing
relies on the expression of saying

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

wordplay
a bebop hiphop connection

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

overtelling it like it is

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

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

Sunny - Morgana King [from Gemini Changes]

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

Half Moon - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

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

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

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

December 28, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

extruding noodles

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dama v rychliku - Stanislav Surin

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

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

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

drumming privately on the porch
and guitars for crows

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

texture is persistent
unsettled
constant
disresolving
dabbing paint dots 

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

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

I'm That Girl - Beyoncé [from Renaissance]

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

December 29, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Medley - Elvis Presley [from Elvis' Christmas Album]

but is it just Silent Night
yup 

a medley of one song

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

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

packed into a tube
pringled

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

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

Ferguson Road - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]

anybody's cool sister
reports on her adventures

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

attitude meet and greet
London trashes the Big Apple

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

comedy routine
bad ol' boy brag

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

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

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

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

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

the accent is on graw
the rebound is on doose 

is this that I am hearing well or fully formed?

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

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

what does the struggle impart to the mark?

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

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

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

respond aloud
response allowed 

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

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

viscous
confined
beset
heavy

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

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

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

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

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

Humbuggy - Keith Eisenbrey [August 19, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Humbuggy 220819

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

December 30, 2022

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

the horizontal lines come loose
from within the blocky texture

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

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

no sirree

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

parts add to other parts
jump from attachment to attachment

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

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

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

in country mode
big scoops on world
more
door 

piano tremolo stands in for a yodel

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

all the combo sounds
crammed together
in a booth

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

by the book brass arranging

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

scolding blues
behave yourself you clod
hootenanny tempo 

California Sun - Ramones [from Leave Home]

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

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

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

In Session at the Tintinabulary

December 2, 2022

Sinfonia 5 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 05 Sinfonia 5 221202

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

December 29, 2022

Prelude in B-flat Major - Lockrem Johnson

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

Prelude in G minor - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 22 Prelude In G 110430 [221229]

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

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1991

Playlist

Preface

"The poem fronts for alternative grammars finding their material moment,
Otherwise and inevitably language hides its hungry ghosts.
And the cup swirls interiorily and no limit in folding."

George Quasha - Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole

Texts

Recorded

December 17, 2022

Little Wonder (Junior Vasquez Club Mix) - David Bowie [from Earthling]

a song
being more than its definitive published version
might also be
a collection of parts for varied reassembly
collaboration invited

Gradus 22 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 6, 2002]

fourth A up ca 220 Hz
a signal in constant vigilance
responding to acts of indication
we play notes by pointing at them
patient
for its next indication
indictment
indicatement
indictatement
dictator
indicator
indictator
indicement
the finger points
and in pointing speaks
potentate
potentater
puissant spud
one hammer for three strings
efficient but bludgeonly
space left for silence
evidence of payment of a debt
a receipt
room left
for the master to pass between

G**** Biker - Bruce Springsteen [from Magic]

telling one
who that one is
celebratory taxonomy
taxonomination
into glory

Assembly Rechoired 54 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy

we touch objects with objects
sound
character of touch

intimate conversation
and public discourse
differ
in personal anatomy of the other
not their genitalia alone
but
the interior shape of their selves
as well
intimate
addressed to the whole of self
public
addressed to the public of self
only

some tiny twanger
has been amplified
its broken wooden parts
have a voice
easily busy

Idiot Orange - Red Ribbon [from Freaks Only]

solid
does not budge
not a inch
implacable inertia 

drummer and bass are strong

Roosevelt Station 220730 - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · Roosevelt Station 220730

for some few weeks
the escalators sang
like canids to the moon
do not harass the escalators

December 19, 2022

S'elle m'amara - Johannes Ockeghem - Blue Heron, Scott Metcalfe

follow this pattern exactly
we'll meet up at the end
I promise

An Almain, Fvb 200 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

the bones of later forms
a balance of dance phrases

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 212 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

scales quick and slow
and gradations between
balance of dance phrases
expanded
embellished
ramified
and let loose

Impromptu in A-flat Major, op. 90 #4 - Franz Schubert - Alfred Brendel

figurational mensuration
exact sizes
a multiplex
variously joined
ABA
with contrasting affect
a model of personal irony
polite and cheerful
on the outside
passion and moodiness
on the inside
feather the passage paths between

Keyhole Blues - Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven [from Hot Fives and Sevens]

tells a thing
aimed at the end of the statement
as baseline

Three Pieces for Choir: The Main Deep - Johanna Beyer - The Astra Choir, John McCaughey

harmonies slipping down a window pane
sough hush

Forget If You Can (take 1) - Billie Holiday [from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia]

Handsome Hal and his tintype gal
a gentle slow dance
for quiet cheek to cheek

Another Hair Do - Charlie Parker [from The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes]

wiggly butterfly float
but staring in the eye

From Folio: December 1952 - Earle Brown - Michael Daugherty

sudden aggressions
birdlike singular attacks
icy

The Ray - Ray Charles [from The Great Ray Charles]

doing a little Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis thing on the keys there
nice sounding recording
the players all sound real
studio for sure
but a real believable room

That Lucky Old Sun - Aretha Franklin [from The Electrifying Aretha Franklin]

a lamentation and a prayer
interesting substitution
of troubles for sins
that are washed away

Dear Landlord - Bob Dylan [from Biograph]

stuttery piano figure
part of a generic arrangement
with drum and bass
a plea

John Lee - Fairport Convention [from Meet on the Ledge]

the singer has a pronounced accent to my ears
from where? 

applying a commercial sound
to non-American roots music

some neighborhood of London

Hate and War - The Clash [from The Clash]

a confessionary preacher
does a lot of indicting

Living for the Depression  - Flipper [from Generic]

in the states
punk rapidly became self-parody

Valse - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 19, 2006]

so sweet
but full of doubts and worries

Tannhäuser March - Richard Wagner [from World's Greatest Choruses]

pad the intro
it's a big chorus
and we all want to see the costumes
the glory of our German forepaternalists

December 20, 2022

Praying Mantis: Shroud - Jarrad Powell [from Natural Selection]

pulse of industry
metronomes and timing belts
regulators
and quartz crystals
applied colonialism

notwithstanding such
this is really pretty

Seeds - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]

isolated
as on a slide
repetition encloses
severs
in from out
left one open
and it escaped

Grass Stain - Waxahatchee [from American Weekend]

explanation
not to be sent
ever
perhaps
authenticity markers

Jerseyville Illinois (demo 3 of 3) - Your Mother Should Know [recorded June 15, 2017]

emphasis
on IS a house
it DOES exist 

sugar plums and tinkerbells

Lavender Haze - Taylor Swift [from Midnights]

removed from ordinariness
aspirational problems
fungible persona

Corranto, Fvb 201 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

social decoration
personal expression is not a thing in this
it exists for its clarity

Who's You Tellin? - The Pebbles [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

likeable
easy
porch sized

Exactly Like You - Count Basie [from The First Records He Ever Made]

this music would not fit on a porch
requires a stage
tables
and a dance floor

Nobody In Mind - Joe Turner [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

tinfoil piano
everybody talks back at the blues

It Might As Well Be Spring - Blossom Dearie [from Blossom Dearie]

sung in French
for all the boys
that came back home

He's My Star - Little Richard [from The King of the Gospel Singers]

production value
strings harp organ
if he needs an extra syllable in Bethlehem
he adds it
no problem
even chimes

Fixing a Hole - The Beatles [from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]

George rescues this one
adds ironic commentary
to the self-absorption

Ego Rock - Janis Joplin [from In Concert]

conversation in blues
twisting around an inverted sex brag

A Solo Requiem - Milton Babbitt - Nina Berman, Steven Beck, Eric Huebner

spoken from the other side
the persistent aggregate formation doesn't bother me
I can't count that high
that fast
so it leaves me lost
but endlessly distracted
like Bach 

gestures need not match
to converse
rhyming couplets
caught in brambles

Cowboy - Bow Wow Wow [from Love, Peace, and Harmony: The Best of Bow Wow Wow]

but not a bullboy? 

too many movies
objectification of the male human
turnabout
fair play

Paradise - Bonnie Guitar [from Dark Moon and Other Country Favorites]

December 21, 2022

pretty much the same thing
more or less
straight from cowboy country its own self

Die Dreigroschenoper, Cannon Song - Kurt Weill - The Canadian Brass [from The Essential Canadian Brass]

theater and its music
demand an immediacy of surface to sink through

Gradus 23 - Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 13, 2002]

underline for oneself
return to focus
re-centering
minimize mind wobble
inscription by ordeal
scarification
the what one is doing to oneself
as a performance
the experience of witnessing
as one might
an execution
removal from commerce
so that
a neural lattice might break free
and open up outside

Wild Turkey - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Kitchen Recordings]

a snippet of libation pouring
in likeness of a spot ad

Banned Rehearsal 821 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 821 120924

the critters emerge on the forest floor
tribes of snoring
from villages of dens
a longwinded reedy blatherer
dancers up from stage traps
night howls
industrialism blunders in
microphone
as the alien's ear
who hears
the whole
from a different vantage

while playing an object
we engage with the whole of it
to reveal a voice from within its whole
when listening to that voice
we only hear the whole of what the voice says
immediately
not the whole of the object 

industrialism
rinky dink presets
provides for us
what it wants us to want
pollution 

drumming rains on the roof
time for the shift change

D Line to the Stream Line - Alone in Dead Bars [recorded live at The Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 5, 2017]

journal in the moment
past from the present 
tense issues

Banned Rehearsal 1056 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer [August 1, 2022]

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1056 220731 0801

Banned Rehearsal 1056

Alman, Fvb 202 - Traditional - Claudio Columbo [from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]

I admire the clarity of the presentation of every little thing

Jonah in the Belly of the Whale - Rev. F.W. McGee [from Goodbye, Babylon]

part of the point
is the shuffling of the story elements
the moral presented
is a non sequitur

When My Dreamboat Comes Home - Bob Pope [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

the explicit topic
by text or title
of social music
is romance and all pertaining

December 22, 2022

Amazing Grace - Mahalia Jackson [from Goodbye, Babylon]

every syllable ornamented
or nailed firmly
all in one thought

Two Bass Hit - Miles Davis [from 'Round About Midnight]

playing tug with a lab on a beach
you can make the game even
but you have to focus entirely on the game
the lab will not waver

My Funny Valentine (alternate version) - Bill Evans, Jim Hall [from Undercurrent]

extra time
so let's dink around with one we already did
just for fun

All Tomorrow's Parties - Velvet Underground [from The Velvet Underground & Nico]

creating the concept of high brow pop
or
using the language of pop for alternative ends
mass produced aestheticizing gaze

I Think I Can Hear You - Carole King [from Rhymes & Reasons]

sound
as stationery
rag content
color of cream
consistency is essential to its purpose

Pulled Up - Talking Heads [from Talking Heads: 77]

music follows text
provides the grid
within which
the poem alternates verse to chorus
like a little lap dog

Heroin - Moe Tucker [from I Feel So Far Away: Moe Tucker Anthology 1974 - 1998]

escape as adventure
heroin
to hero
or heroine
desperately seeking Major Tom

Untitled - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded October 19, 2006]

broadway stutter anthem
I think I could have taken it at a slower tempo
let it breathe a lot more

I Can Explain - T. Bone Burnett [from The Criminal Under My Own Hat]

a certain sneer in the deep back of his persona
rubs wrongly
leaks through the arch ironic presentation

Col - Emily Doolittle - Seattle Chamber Players

growth
step by step
from seed
to meadow
to tangle
to flower
to bursting pod

Pattis Parlour Pieces 4-8 - Ken Benshoof - Keith Eisenbrey [recorded live at University Temple United Methodist Church, Seattle, March 17, 2007]

1
dancing lazily and sentimentally 

2
melody floating every which breeze at once 

3
magic costume change 

4
a bit of sparkle dust

Nic Nac - Black Plastic Clouds [from Electroplate]

steering between self-expression
and dude-bonding
and being the noise in a dive bar
that binds the crowd together
and holds back the dark

Banned Telepath 56 Anchorage B - Aaron Keyt [June 18, 2017]

toy piano plunks
firm and gentle
conversation among tiny registers

Pitch Collection 1 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Atoneide]

quantity affects result
but is not a feature of it
some of them
may be the same as some others
after all
and counting
inside a sealed chamber
is a guess at best
why bring it up
order
vertically
likewise

break
move to a new place
in which
to hear
from the old
anew
they throb through a virtual space solidly 

break
move to yet new
than either place was

break
move
land hard
hold firm 

break

December 23, 2022

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

rhythm and contour coupled tightly

My Old Dad Got a Brand New Way To Love - Cooksey Leecan [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]

well oiled

Swingin' at the Cat and Chew - Original Yellow Jackets [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]

slung low
arms close to sides
long hoods
close to shiny pavement

Sad and Disappointed - Big Maybelle [from Allen Lowe's Turn Me Loose White Man]

staccato single syllables

You Ought to Have a Wife - Sarah Vaughan [from In a Romantic Mood]

ah shucks
you dolt
it oughta be me 

a strange play for Sarah
straight up 50s pop

In Session at the Tintinabulary

December 19, 2022

Banned Telepath 95 Tintinabulary - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey

December 20, 2022

Banned Telepath 95 Toad Hall - Aaron Keyt

Banned Rehearsal 1066 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1066 221219 - 20

Postscripts

Skaldmud's Doodle Gallery

some listening journal doodles from 1991