September 10 - Time and Distance

Quiz 4 for the Theoreticians with examples from Native American Music, Gregorian Chant, and the Scolia Enchiriadis -- blasting to Marin to correct same, check postbox, etc. --



blitzing home via 37 over the



Napa River towards



the Sulfur Springs Mountains beyond Vallejo to finish the orchestration of The Gospel According to St. Matthew: II. The People that Walked in Darkness and beginning same for III. The Call (music based respectively on G.F. Handel Messiah: XI. [but in swing locrian] and Igor Stravinsky Mass: Gloria [minimalist-modalized]).

September 9 - Roue's Progress

On this numerically auspicious day, a year and five days have passed away, and today at Diablo Valley College it's Renaissance blind-boy sensation



Conrad Paumann's Mit Ganzcem Willen for Theory dictation and board harmony, plus impressive student compositions -- then orchestration through page 10 of The Gospel According to St. Matthew: II. The People that Walked in Darkness (while hanging around the lab, talking with Doug and Hiraoki) and the annual


San Francisco Symphony opening gala with



Harriet -- report next week in Commuter Times and 21st-Century Music (in print and online at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com [work-in-progress] and 21st-centurymusic.com [archive]).

September 8 - Jesus! / Seeing the Elephant

Thomas of Celano's Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) for the Theoreticians as dictation, harmony (evaluating intervals formed by the addition of a drone below at the fifth), and keyboard-solfege -- followed by fine student compositions and paper grading at




Elephant Bar. There's time for



lab work, so to speak, doing Tritone Orchestra recordings of



The Beatitudes, Op. 81, and






The Gospel According to Matthew, Op. 85: I. The Temptation --




troped respectively on Johannes Brahms' German Requiem: I and the beginning of the Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Prelude. Evening Music History proceeds from the time of Charlemagne (c. 800) through that explosion of instrumental music during the Crusader era (c. 1200), during which time the Ghana people moved south towards the present nation of Ghana (always keeping one ear alert for timely music outside of the Western Classical tradition). Listening for next week is, however, all figuratively and literally Catholic:

Latin Lyric - Song of the Ass
Leonin - Hec Dies
Machaut - Notre Dame Mass: Kyrie

Back to Elephant with Doug and Owen thereafter, and home for another page of orchestration re Gospel Matthew: II. The People that Walked in Darkness.

September 7 - Dark Into Light Into Dark

Two more pages of Isaiah (four total) and orchestration for The Gospel According to St. Matthew: II. The People that Walked in Darkness, plus we finalize instrumentation for the Haunted House Science Fiction Quiz Show SFCCO Concert as 2113 0000 2Pf 4Perc 10110 (i.e. 2 Flutes, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 3 Bassoons, 2 Pianos, 4 Percussion, Violin, Viola, and Cell), begin the November 2009 issue of 21st-Century Music (in progress at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com), and welcome back Arel Lucas as a writer in the Journal.



With Harriet still working away, it's time to head to Auburn to grade papers, test driving the hands-free iPhone on the way (though missing the turnoff continuation of 80 beyond the Yolo Bypass, meritting an Arden Fair-like diversion of 50 to Business 80) with calls to Bette and George, and John Browning. Outside at Tio Pepe's



allows for a first comparison of the iPhone and



Fuji cameras.


In the setting sun



the Fuji has zoom and



focus; the iPhone



color and performance in the half tones on Granite Chief and



French Meadows Reservoir and



Camp-



ground --



mountains,



stumps,



forest and rocks



surreal in the



dying light.



Return home in impressive moonlight for two more pages of composition / orchestration of Darkness. Discover on the iPhone how to negotiate Google Maps (including topographical and traffic) and email photos, and put 20 cities in the weather check as

San Francisco
Berkeley
Moraga
San Rafael
Pleasant Hill
Vacaville
Sacramento
Auburn
Foresthill
Los Angeles
Claremont
Yucaipa
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Phoenix
Sedona
Ogden
Swarthmore
Philadelphia
Ocean City

September 6 - Vantage Points

Finish the orchestration of The Gospel According to St. Matthew: I. The Temptation, and there are other



temptations and delights -- including establishing an under-control email environment (perhaps the first time in almost 3 years, post PC), recording A Walk Through California: Solano (Voice-Mail Message) , and beginning a new piece, Isaiah (Op. 175), along with orchestrating The Gospel:




II. The People that Walked in Darkness.