Interview

KEITH EISENBREY RACHEL VANDAGRIFF: So tell me a little bit about your relationship to Perspectives of New Music. KEITH EISENBREY: I kind of grew up in the Seattle area and ended up at the University of Washington in 1980, or something like that. John Rahn was there. I took his theory classes, and composition with him, and sort of became acquainted with that publication, through that avenue. It was kind of, in a way, an eye opener, for me. Having grown up in Seattle, way off in the distance of anything happening, to find out that there was this big conversation going on, that I had very little knowledge of. So it was pretty interesting. As I got to know the people and John, John recommended maybe going to talk to Ben, and I ended up studying with Ben for a couple of years. I remember arriving at Bard in 1982 or 1983, or something like that, and it was just about the time that Perspectives was getting ready to move back to Seattle, from Bard. So I actually visited the “offices,” as they were, down in the 154 History of Perspectives basement of Brook House. I think that is where it was—on campus there—and finding out that really, it wasn’t much. For me, as someone who kind of grew up in a musical backwater, if you will, was really just a way to realize that there was a lot more going on in the musical world than I had been aware of. And that music theory and thinking about music can happen in completely different ways than anything I was aware of. I followed it for quite awhile, for several years, and tried to read a whole bunch of back issues and everything. After a while, having kind of been outside of academia for quite some time, and then family, and all of that stuff, I kind of lost track of keeping up with it. So in the last, I don’t know, ten, fifteen years, I have only been kind of marginally associated with that whole thing. VANDAGRIFF: Are there any articles in particular that you remember from all that you did read? EISENBREY: Yes. Actually, when I first became acquainted with it was about the time, or shortly after, the so-called “Red Issue” came out— back in the late 70s or early 80s (17/2 (1979)). As I recall it had “Language ,as a Music” (Boretz 1979), and J. K. Randall’s whole thing “Compose Yourself” (Randall 1972–1974), and all of that crazy stuff in there, which completely blew my mind, and really got me thinking in all sorts of ways. So that was the real thing that got me really interested in thinking about music in different ways from just regular school work analysis. VANDAGRIFF: Did that impact your own work in any way? EISENBREY: Oh, hugely, hugely. For one thing, it really connected me up with Ben personally. I studied for one year with John, during my last year at the university, as I was trying to decide what I wanted to do after that. He suggested that I write to Ben and ask if he had any suggestions. So I did, and John actually also wrote a nice letter to him. But then I just graduated and wasn’t really finding anywhere to go, and got a phone call from Ben! For a nobody out in Seattle, that was pretty great. And he invited me to come to Bard, where they were starting a graduate program. I wasn’t able to go that first year, but after that I spent from June of 1982 through June of 1984 at Bard. It really made a . . . Getting introduced to that world became very important to me, because my studying with Ben is a big part of what I am now. Practically everything I think about musically kind of stems from that conversation. Keith Eisenbrey 155 It is funny because, you know, John is a really, incredibly bright guy. The funny thing is that we never really could quite connect. John and I never quite communicated exactly. We tried. It wasn’t...