February 5 - A Tale of Two Schools of Thought

Another beautiful day in Northern California, sheets of rain glancing in through sunlight, big billowy-hostile clouds,



the sky in rainbows, shall we say, all to enhance the atmosphere as we take



Quiz 3 in Theory (this is the endgame of the line which forms passing off the performance exercises each week -- today D Dorian, D Minor, and E Phrygian; with a simplified C-Major Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 "Ode to Joy" as keyboard-solfege).



Then it's off to Fry's to pick up a



digital projector for use at SF Cabaret Opera (libretti, other visuals) and



St. Mary's, where the classroom, wonderful as it is, would welcome the addition (will be bringing just about all that's needed:

Laptop
Ethernet, Visual, Audio Cables
Portable Stereo Speakers
Projector)



Fill out more forms required as part of the hiring process, take a brief trip in the gathering dark to the back part of the campus, where the road turns into a fire trail near the illumined cross on the hillock (picture from 2/4),



then home (Harriet at another Magic Flute rehearsal) to continue transferring files from desktop to laptop, and finish the orchestration of Saul! Saul!: I. (8 pages total) before collapsing.

February 4 - It's All a Mystery

But still we go on. Lukas Foss obituary editing in the morning, then Rex Coeli for the Theoreticians -- dictated, harmonized, sight-sung -- and fine new compositions by Scott Zhang and company. Then back to St. Mary's to pick up key to classroom, and test-drive situation... decide the purchase of a projector is in order. Pick up forms and step out again, briefy, on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail from the Lucille Trailhead view of oaky-skystricken Rheem Hill, to the declivity of



Las Trampas Creek and the Community Center at Lafayette park,



returning with views of the eastern ridges, and visions of page 3 orchestrated for Op. 67 Saul! Saul!

February 3 - All Saints Day

It's official: have been hired by St. Mary's, and looking forward to beginning teaching there next week, in addition to Diablo Valley responsibilities. Begin April 2009 21st-Century Music with the notice of Lukas Foss's passing....


Theory class is dictation from the Musica Enchiriadis: Nos Qui Vivimos (original chant -- we harmonize at fifth below), with Chris Knight, as teaching assistant, doing the honors, and also assisting in initial play-throughs of student compositions. We also do a pretty good job sight-singing (and clapping) the First Delphic Hymn and first part of Gregorian Gaudeamus and all of Kyrie IV -- indeed, not bad at all...

Lunch at a new (to me, anyway) Mexican joint in Concord, grading Quiz I for the Music Historians, then to Fry's to buy an ethernet cable and toy with the idea of a video projector...




Second page of Saul! Saul! orchestrated before the evening class (ah, the wonders of laptops), plenty of time to cue old videos and visit with several former students, before music from the Epitaph of Seikilos (a perspective Mills student recognizes it, and am impressed) through Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chant.

Left Bank with Owen and Doug thereafter, and home -- a pretty classic Tuesday...

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.

February 1 - Farewell Hello

Harriet at W.A. Mozart Marriage of Figaro rehearsal in Berkeley most of the day while I say goodbye to the orchestration of Babe Ruth: IV. Daybreak Dance / Feria (Turn Aside), blitzing through 11 pages, for a total of 19 in the movement and 34 for the piece. Not exactly an extended score...


Moving towards finishing up the March 2009 issue of 21st-Century Music (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com); re-visiting George Crumb Black Angels, Makrokosmos I and II, and Peter Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King; and casting about for orchestrational source material for Saul! Saul!, next up. Also received contract from St. Mary's today, so looks like the Music in the Enlightenment course is a go (syllabus-in-development is fourth posting from top at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com).