February 14 - Happy Funeral Valentines

Here we are with Alix, Kat, Maria, Anne-Marie, Allison, Kim, Robin, and Indre, singing you a

"Happyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy"

Valentines Day, as part of Happy Funeral Music from Diocletian, which goes quite well in our third San Francisco Cabaret Opera rehearsal along with detailed attention to Great Diocletian, EIEIO Thunder, Country Dance, and Speak, Flame.



Raining off and on all day, so not much motivation to, say, head up the I-680 corridor again, beautiful as it nevertheless typically was on the way down, with vistas of the Sulfur Springs Mountains, Long Barn, Chinese Wall,


deciduous and evergreen broadleaf trees of Eden, and even a bit of



snow on Mt. Diablo, with its Kilimanjaro cloud cover.


Instead, spend an inordinately long time producing a revised piano-vocal score for Samson and Delilah: VIII. Death (The Lion) before the evening Fresh Voices Composer-Performer Get-Together,



with presentations featuring Skye, John Billota, Harriet, and talented new foks, plus S&D: X. Delilah, illuminated on a wall, courtesy of the new projector.


Upon return orchestrate another page of Saul! Saul!: IV. Chorus - Fell Rage and Black Despair possessed Us (The Death of Eli).

February 13 - Gaza Strip Tease

Harriet and I are home most of the day, working on grants and music, respectively, finishing off the orchestration of Saul! Saul!: III. O early Piety! (a total of 25 pages) and beginning that of IV. Fell Rage and Black Despair possessed Us (12 thus far).



Also produce an updated piano-vocal score of Samson and Delilah: X. Delilah (part of next years's Sex and the Bible) for presentation at the composer-singer get-together tomorrow at Chamber Arts.

January 14 - Have I Got a Deal for You

San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Board Meeting tonight, and we have a cordial, riotous time (robustly attended, with Erling Wold, Lisa Scola Prosek, Philip Friehofner, David Graves, Michael Cooke, Loren Jones, Davide Verotta, and Rachel Condry) -- taking the title of the concert Free for All -- But for You, $15 and running with it, whereupon Loren takes pictures including above (the red, however, my idea...), one of which is intended tol be photoshopped into some kind of smarmy used carlot scenario.

Before this, another Lisa soiree, with music by Loren, Lisa, and Eduard Prosek, plus three sctions of Samson and Delilah (The Frank Judges) that will be part of Sex and the Bible: The Opera (Part I).



VI. Downfall



VII. Daughter

X. Delilah

Previous to that, first faculty meeting of the new year, with Owen Lee at the helm and all the usual honored subjects, including Doug Michael, Mark Steidel, Rory Snyder, and Monty Bairos -- and shortly thereafter, generate a class list for attendance/grading, etc. and revise the online syllabus for first Music Theory class tomorrow (astounding that it is already time, and further that I'm pretty much ready almost 24 hours ahead of time).



Thereafter, in the lab, where I actually finish the orchestration for S&D: XIII. Disunity (which is likely to be the conclusion of Sex and the Bible Part I], and incidentally a first instance of writing music on the laptop while at school), email the midi over to my favorite lab desktop, and record in Cubase -- an amazingly fast turnaround time in my experience....

January 11 - Come On In

Harriet's off to the first rehearsal of W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and I'm in most of another sunshiny day (briefly visting the girls and boys at Kinko's -- the new CD covers look pretty great...), transferring first midi files from desktop Encore via email to laptop Sibelius,



expediting the orchestration of Samson and Delilah (The Frank Judges): XIII. Disunity, pages 6-9, which is strongly related thematically to the Sodom and Gomorrah story of Genesis, set as Lot in Life: II. Lotsa Luck.