May 25 - Picture This

Begin the orchestration of Elijah Rock: XI. Elijah (God and Elisha),



meet Karina at St. Mary's and take another brief jaunt on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail (west of the school -- shot from the end point last Friday),



lunch at China Moon (Marty's before-the-semester spot,



near Rheem Hill -- pictured from 1/7/09), doing Spring 2009 semester grades for Music and the Enlightenment, then another short stroll on the east slope of



Acalanes Ridge (heading towards DVC, photo of 5/20),



recording Elijah: X. May (Jezebel and Elijah) at the lab, and returning home for another orchestrated page of XI.

March 30 - Making the Grade

Morning class finishing up Handel (including three sing-throughs of Messiah: Hallelujah to recordings early, Mozartean, and Proutish), afternoon with dictation from Duke Ellington's Concerto for Cootie, lunch at China Garden finally catching up with grading, and another saunter on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail -- this time on the old railroad grade semicircling the last northern vestige of Las Trampas Ridge.



Home again, beyond Mt. Diablo, finishing the orchestration of The Death of Ishbosheth section of King David: XVI Before the Arc and beginning that of The Ark Dance.

February 19 - Blossoming Art

Ah spring, when men and women's fantasies turn, as usual, to matters creative, the flowers the flowers blooming unexpectedly, where they will (in this literal case, the corner of Nut Tree Parkway / Orange Drive and Nut Tree Boulevard, against the distant Vaca Mountains / Coast Ranges).



And some of us go on pilgrimage (after beginning the orchestration of Saul! Saul!: VI. Eldest Born of Hell), even if it's only to Diablo Valley College to bestow upon grateful Music Theoreticians Quiz 5 (an explosion of root position triads, with examples of Renaissance and early Baroque Music from Josquin des Pres's El Grillo to Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610), followed by lab work, as we say, recording S!S!: V. O Lord, how Merciless numb, and a quick wander on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail adjacent to Olympic Boulevard ("O-liva! O-sirus! What has happened to your nose?").



The sunny walk, through an old orchard toward the Las Trampas Ridge terminus




is a short one, from east O.B. trailhead to west, past oaks, sycamores,



and houses perched precariously over L.T. Creek near a lone redwood,



to backward views of both Mt. Diablo peaks.



Back in the car, on Route 24, thrusting through Orinda Canyon,



adjacent to Shakespeare Hill (nicely positioned for the "sidezoomers," acknowledged and appelated by the NYT a while back).



and soon we are over the Bay Bridge, looking north to San Rafael / Richmond span and



south to the San Francisco Peninsula.



The first rehearsal of our San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's Free-for-All (But for You, $15) concert (8pm Saturday, February 28, Old First Church, San Francisco, CA info at sfcco.org and soon at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com) is tonight at Lick-Wilmerding School (courtesy of Marty Stoddard),


itself a work of art and a refection of its surroundings:



the artistry of an SF interface of natural and urbane, including Daly City / San Bruno Mountain to the south,



the distant Oakland Hills and Mt. Diablo to the east beyond 280 and the hubbub hub of Muni,



and the Davidson Cross / Sutro Tower area to the north, beyond chaos of City College.



The evening's rehearsal, in a prehistorically facaded music building, is a full one,



including Davide Verotta's Yanitl (at right, with Erling Wold)



Phil Freihoffner's What Are You Going to Dream Tonight (featuring Clare Twohy, Rachel Condry, the composer, and engaging, evocative electronics),



John Beeman's Adagio and Dance,



Gary Friedman's Romance for Wind Sextet (utilizing several players above, with Marty Stoddard conducting, for the below)



Lisa Scola Prosek's Serenade for Trumpet and Orchestra (with soloist Eduoard Prosek, here with cellist Ariella Hyman),



David Sprung's Serendipities (conducted by the composer)



Erling Wold's Two Orchestral Waltzes for Lynne (ditto)



Mark Alburger's Sex and the Orchestra,




Michael Cooke's String Theory (www.michaelkcooke.com),



the David Graves / Clare Twohy Fireproof Winds,



and Loren Jones's February's Children.



Amazing creativity and diversity upon which to hallucinate while zooming through the Kubrikesque Yerba Buena Tunnel homeward...

February 16 - Working Vacation

Perhaps teaching at two schools means never having to say that you have a holiday, but it's delightful enough, despite the alternating torrents and shafts of gold, to spend time in a second week at St. Mary's, with our talented trio delving into an analysis of Henry VIII's Pastime with Good Company and making our way (finally) through most of the first week's material -- to the Sudanese Funj Sultinate and just about up to Thomas Tallis.



Back on the road again, taking leave of institution's namesake Ridge shedding bits of precip suspiciously whitish, we make our way back to the Lafayette-Moraga Trail,



with its vistas of the former's highlands,



sun hesitantly breaking through to this old railroad grade.



Short jaunt, barely long enough to appreciate the scrimmed views of the Las Trampas country adjacent to its Creek, before heading to a Chinese place for lunch, NYT, and paper grading (virtually everyone is doing quite well in the Diablo Valley Theory Class and at St. Mary's).




A brief stop at DVC to record Saul! Saul!: III. O early Piety! and IV. Fell Rage and Black Despair possessed Us before sailing up the slick roads back home, where Clare and Tisha have joined us, evidently for a 1920's revival.



Nothing to be done but orchestrate pages 3-6 of S!S!: V. O Lord, how Merciless numb (the title keeps changing), before succumbing to the numbness of nocturnal nostalgia.

February 2 - The Spirit Line Unfolding

The road goes ever on, until it doesn't, but today it leads back to St. Mary's College to drop off contract, followed by a brief visit with Marty Rokeach (checking out room and logistics, etc.), and a slightly-longer-than expected stroll on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail, heading from the latter to the former (i.e. north),


past the pure lines of Rheem Ridge,



complacent side valleys,



and the distant Las Trampas highlands, watching the light fade,



as it lamentably did for Lukas Foss, whose passing was announced in the NYT.



As for some of the quick, earlier in the day, the Theoreticians notate a bit of an even older forbearer (L.v. Beethoven, harmonized out-of-time in parallel fifths, although certainly not so ancient as what follows), sing a bit of supposed ancient Syrian transcription (now, that's getting back there, at least musically), and listen to a bit contemporary compositional inspiration from our talented classmates.



Even earlier (day-wise),while working on 21st-Century Music and the Music History text, discover that it is suddenly impossible to add further selections to the blogs, so, several phone calls with the angelic Erling (ever patient) and the ISP re music storage, and the problem is at last solved, not without eroding morning's worktime significantly, alas.



After Theory, a brief stint in the lab recording Babe Ruth: IV, then much later, return home briefly to Harriet and head out again to Davis, consulting the shade of a third past creator, that of G.F. Handel in Saul, for instrumental possiblilites in Saul! Saul!, Op. 67 -- the orchestration of which is just begun before the darkness of sleep intervenes.