It's 9am -- almost the middle of the night to some of us late retirers, but, nevertheless, here we are, hard at it, doing board harmony in the summer Introduction to Musical Skills class, which is pretty much a basic Theory course.
There's Dominick, Ashley, Allison, Conrad, Kristina, Lauren (age 9 -- perfect pitch -- wow! -- amazingly we've had several of her ilk over the last couple of years -- she probably is the finest of them re composition, however), Shane, Suzanne (Lauren's mom -- also a very imaginative coomposer), Melissa, Tyler, and Clinton.
And, over on Board 1: Bianca, Nate, Kavah, Robert, and Juilan
OK, so we get a little carried away -- the strategy is teach much, test little -- today a harmonization of Kurt Weill's Ballad of Mack the Knife from The Threepenny Opera (yes, the repertory keeps cycling around), with, at some point for some reason, a passing reference to Heinrich Schenker left as a white board relic, with his tautological notion that life (or at least music) is a big tautological/palindromical I-V-I.
Well, not the whole musical story -- certainly, certifiably....
And more of the daily tale is, of to Novato after class to pick up the car, and drive on South Novato Boulevard (with its views of Mt. Burdell)
to Fernando's, a nice Mexican eatery hideaway to grade papers
and take in the views of the north side of the Big Rock Ridge, ultimately returning home to (among other notions) publication preparation for Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 F Page 2.
