March 11 - Seek and Find

After several more orchestrated pages of King David: I. How Long Grieving Over Saul, arrive at St. Mary's to a doubled class size on a high-school visitation day, and we are graced with additional talented students (pianist, clarinetist, oboist, and singer) for a discussion of Music in the Enlightenment from Frescobaldi to Lully Then it's the old Charles Ives Variations on America: Spanish Variation dictation routine (plus some Chopin, Bizet, and Satie) in DVC Theory, after which the orchestration of KD: I is finished (still a novelty working on music with the laptop at school) and recorded. Beyond is the Berkeley Hillside Club, to drop off the digital projector to Harriet and San Francisco Cabaret Opera for second dress rehearsal of The Marriage of Figaro, then a detour along the frontage road for views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands,



Bay Bridge, San Francisco,



and Emeryville's Pacific Park Plaza and



Watergate Towers, eventually reaching San Francisco for another Scola Prosek Soiree with music by Lisa, Ed, Loren Jones, Davide Verotta,



plus Saul! Saul!: III. O early Piety! and IX. Hide and Seek Ye.

March 9 - Tragicomedy Today

"The saddest tale told on land and sea..."

Well, perhaps the rest of the line is less relevant, but then again, one never knows.




And, like Samuel Beckett,

"The tears stream down my cheeks from my unblinking eyes. What makes me weep so? . . .

I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on."

[The Unnamable (1954)]



Off to St. Mary's, past Fairfield Vineyard Hill,



with Twin Sisters



and Buckhorn Peak as sentinels. Music from Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) to Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) in the morning class, then Frederic Chopin Prelude in E Minor dictation for afternoon. Extra quiz/composition sessions and lab time follow, finishing instrumental recording of Saul! Saul!: XIII.-XV. Nice long talk with Doug re current events, then home to Harriet with more of same, followed by writing the Jackie O review (accidentally discover how to paste-in gmail pics) and Quiz 5 for the Enlighteners, plus orchestrating another page of King David: I.

March 6 - Curious, Blue

Finish the orchestration of Saul! Saul! before heading off in the darkening light over the Vaca mountains to College of Marin, taking in, at the very last moment before the downbeat,



Michael Daugherty's Jackie O (1997), in what is evidently only its third production (Texas, Italy, and now California). Quite impressive in its inevitable collisions of cultivated and vernacular, elevated and tacky, with Act I dramatis personae including Grace Kelly, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis, Elizabeth Taylor,



Act II's totally-nonphilosophic/earthy Ari[stotle Sokratis] Onasis (who has the signature tango, I Am Curious Yellow towards conclusion of previous), Maria Callas, John Kennedy, et al. Review in a couple of days at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, in print next Friday in Commuter Times, and eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com.

March 3 - Mystic Turn of the Year

Happy Birthday, George! And many more!



Hope your day was less hectic than mine, which involved a dictation on W.A. Mozart's classic Sonata in C, intriguing compositions by Anthony Gurnack and Julian Lessin, marathon paper grading at Elephant Bar, the evening Music Literature class from Zarlino to G.F. Handel, and a mere one page more (4) of orchestration for Saul! Saul!: XI. Make an Offer.

March 2 - Somewhere Overboard

In the driving rain to St. Mary's for the Renaissance-Baroque transition -- Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612) to Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1642) -- then DVC for dictation/harmony based on the J.S. Bach Cantata 140 ("Wachet Auf"): VII. Chorale, with Chris Knight assisting at the board. In the lab thereafter, recording Saul! Saul!: IX. Hide and Seek Ye and X. Author of Peace. Then, in the car, over the past the rainbow-penetrated Mothball Fleet,



with clouds over the Sulfur Springs Mountains,


Chinese Wall, Dinosaur Spine,



Twin Sisters,


Vaca Mountains,


Fairfield Pyramids,


Poverty Hills,



to a clearing of the Lagoon



and North Lagoon Ridges, beginning the orchestration of S!S!: XI. Make an Offer (3 pages).

March 1 - Piece of Quiet

Home all day while the fertility Rite of Spring rain continues, as poor Harriet has to put in another 6-hour rehearsal for Marriage of Figaro.



Soon after she returns, orchestration of Saul! Saul!: X. Author of Peace is finished.

February 27 - Golden Gate Years

Finish the orchestration of Saul! Saul!: IX. Hide and Seek Ye before heading into the sunset of Alcatraz,



the Marin Headlands.



Mt. Tamalpais,



and San Francisco.



Then over the Bay towards



Coit Tower,



the TransAmerica Building



Sutro Tower, Twin Peaks,



One Rincon,



and the Peninsula.



Tonight, it's the dress rehearsal of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's Free-For-All (But for You, $15) show at Old First Church (concert 8pm tomorrow), including
Lisa Scola Prosek's Serenade for Trumpet and Orchestra,



Erling Wold's Two Orchestral Waltzes for Lynne, and



the two movements of Sex and the Orchestra (I. Happy Funeral Music and



II. Downfall).



It's also Harriet's birthday,



so a quick blitz to the Community Music Center (where the first dress rehearsal of Marriage of Figaro -- featuring Meghan Dibble and Eliza O'Malley) is being held, with cake, champagne, and flowers follows... and a good time is had by all.

February 25 - In Cumuli

Down the 680 corridor past the Sulfur Springs Mountains, Long Barn, Chinese Wall,



Eden,



Horse Farm,



Stone Wind Running Fence,



The Rills --



under clouds over the Benicia Bridge --



to the glare of a blooming St. Mary's with works from the Dublin Virginal Composer (b. c. 1540) to Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612), and DVC for dictation and harmony based on J.S. Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor, plus engaging compositions by Tyler Layne, Thomas Magleby, and Diocletian: Happy Funeral Music. Marin run, back to the classroom briefly, then home -- helping Harriet with Marriage of Figaro costumes and projections, finishing up orchestration of Saul! Saul!: VII.-VIII. Oh, Fairest! / Is There a Man? (12 pages total) and beginning that of IX. Hide and Seek (6).

February 24 - If It's Tuesday It Must Be Inferno

The sun rose on Henry Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas for Theory dictatation, whereupon Bruce Cooke, Jerry Kuderna, and I make deep-laid plans to fulfill new beaurocratic folderol -- the antidote being lunch at Elephant Bar. Still early enough in the semester (re paper grading) such that there's time to head to the lab and record Saul! Saul!: VI. Eldest Born of Hell and much of VII. O Fairest!


Evening class proceeds apace from the Early Renaissance with Johannes Ciconia (what kind of a name is that?) to the Late with Andrea Gabrielli and Claude Gervaise; followed by Left Bank with Doug, Owen, and one of the latter's old Theory students; and one more page of orchestration (now 10 total) of S!S!: VII.