August 30 - Flailing About

While Harriet's out meeting Alan Crossman and John McGrew re an opera proposal, four more orchestrated pages of John and Salome: V. Salome's Dance, to visions including the above by Armand Point.

What? Don't know Armand Point? We're in good company, as there's no English Wikipedia article on him. Here's one, however, automatically translated from the French...

"Armand Point, born in Algiers in 1860 and died in Naples in 1932, is a French Symbolist painter. He is the creator of a community of artists, the brotherhood Hauteclaire to Marlotte in the forest of Fontainebleau, which is in line with the movement arts & crafts.

Seduced by Africa North Point begins by painting oils and Orientalist subjects of such a bill rather realistic. Yet her inspiration evolves slowly towards an idealistic note Joséphin Peladan invited to the Salon of the Rosicrucian aesthetic. In May 1893, he made a trip to Italy with his companion, Helen Linder, who had a profound artist and it is resource among primitive and now advocates an art under the auspices of the tradition. Having reconstituted a method of painting with egg, it combines the technique learned in his symbolist inspiration. Guided always old, it is an artists' colony in the forest of Fontainebleau mingling painters, sculptors, spin doctors, enamel and silversmiths who create with techniques found, tapestries, jewelry and precious object. The circle called Upper intellectual Claire becomes a hotbed of symbolism that visit Odilon Redon, Oscar Wilde, Stéphane Mallarmé or Stuart Merrill in a studious atmosphere that Paul Fort qualify in his memoirs of 'court of love.' Few recognized by critics, considered outdated and accused of pastiche, Point feels for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the same admiration that Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites, for him, means to fight for the ideal through the revival of traditional values."

Amazing.



Eliza comes over after her Il Trovatore gig, and we both help Harriet, who doesn't miss a beat in the transition, learn the ropes of the new/old laptop, additionally reorganizing all the Stravinsky sound files and dining together.

June 21 - Heaven and Hell

Up reasonably early, perhaps in practice for tomorrow, importing class rosters; re-writing Music History syllabus online at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com; printing out piano syllabi; printing up first half of Piano: Beginning and Beyond at printers; re-organizing garage in preparation of the return of boxes (platforms), flats, screens, stairs;



accompanying Harriet to rent truck (there is a definite need for one larger than the van of a c. week-and-a-half past -- English Hills pictured, but looks like the driving is, too), returning to Kinko's to print up the rest of the books;



bouncing down I-80 (an adventursome ride in the rental, definitely more congenial, however, than the previous twice's van) past St. John Mine Hill Ranch; serendipidously meeting up with Cynthia Weyyuker again on the way to taking in



Peter Josheff's Inferno (libretto by Jamey Robles) -- quite impressive, compositionally, librettoly, stagecraftily (re lighting, set, and Harriet March Page's direction), with first-class dancers and pianistic fireworks, and a wow cast including Eliza O'Malley, Richard Mix, and a talented newcomer to the scene who has performed with John Kendall Bailey's Trinity Opera, among others.



Afterwards, more familar folks -- Douglas Mandell and Miriam Lewis, Alex Katsman, Janet Lohr, Ed Knight (up from Djerassi with his cousin, and now about to leave town after his month's residency -- ah the time...), Mary Watkins, Anne Calloway, Adam Broner -- and loading up the van (first collecting it on the other side of Live Oak



Park), assisting in the moving of other parts of the set (old tires, dead tree, somebody's really beat-up favorite old chair, five c. 1950's "antique" floor fans),



banging across town on Shattuck for the pizza, etc., cast-and-friends party at Chamber Arts, then home past



the Claremont,



Mt. Diablo,



and another Arco sunset. Thereafter, debrief with Harriet re the recent shows, and begin orchestration of The Opera of Daniel: II. Nebuchadnezzar's First Dream.

March 26 - Es Is Genug

VLADIMIR:

This is becoming really insignificant.

ESTRAGON:

Not enough.



Finish the orchestration of King David: XIII. The Lamentations of Gilboa, and record that plus



XII. March of David and the Philistines after class.



But first, have to get there, so off we go again to Diablo Valley College Music Theory, for Quiz 10, with excerpts from George Gershwin, Sergei Prokofiev, Anton Webern, and Louis Armstrong. Tutorial with a few students after, including Scott, set up with his reader adjacent to lab computer, which makes for an efficient use of time. Somehow there's also a sufficient interval to take in the sunshine from adjacent to Las Trampas Ridge and



Creek,



before blasting back to Marin, between San Rafael Hill and



San Pedro



Ridge,



over the Pacheco Grade for car maintenance, then home to gather instrumental forces for beginning of KD: XV. Feat Song.

January 30 - Infernal Sons and Daughters

Home most of the day, with the warm sun resonating, finishing up the encorporation of material from the Piero Weiss / Richard Taruskin Music in the Western World: A History in Documents, plus aspects of Marty Rokeach's repertory and syllabus, into the web framework of markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com. Out in the evening, with Harriet, for an intimate read-through of Peter Josheff's Inferno: Part I, with Eliza O'Malley and



Richard Mix additionally singing, then home for page 7 orchestration of Babe Ruth: IV. Daybreak Dance / Feria (Turn Aside).