September 30 - Somehow, Somewhere

Harriet off on another Tuesday job, and somehow I manage to orchestrate the B section (through the middle of page 20) of Amazing Joseph: II. Meanwhile Judah, before and after a full day of teaching, new Mexican restaurant paper grading, and Left Bank with Owen.

September 29 - Target Practice

W.A. Mozart Sonata in C, K. 545, for dictation, harmony, and keyboard-solfege in Theory, then to the lab for longer than expected recording Amazing Joseph: I. I Had a Dream. After this, it's a fly up the freeway to U.C. Davis to search and rescue Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre for orchestrational advice in II. Meanwhile, Judah -- an amazing story of coitus interuptus and father / daughter-in-law liaisons -- did Luigi Pirandello travel the latter path in writing Six Character in Search of an Author? Hard to say, kid.....



Before this, write the press release for the San Francisco Composers Orchestra Moving Targets concert (November 8, 2008), posted soon at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, and write the review of Stuart Wallace's The Bonesetter's Daughter, on 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and soon at 21st-centurymusic.com and in print.



Evening is given over to orchestration of A section of Meanwhile, plus work on the



Opera Apocalypse! post card for Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera and Harriet (which includes Antigone, above from the photo shot yesterday at Chamber Arts House in Berkeley).

September 28 - Burying Ourselves in the Parts

Here we are for the Antigone photo shoot -- Meghan, Alix, Erin, Michael, Eliza, Kim, Adam, Dalite, Maria, Terrence, Lisa -- amazing! Second vocal rehearsal, now with Keisuke at the piano, and we're moving right along.



Also rehearsal of John Bilata's Quantum Mechanic (with Beth and Michael, above)



and photo shoot for Amy Beth Kirsten's Ophelia Forever (featuring Cary).


The fog rolls in on chilly Berkeley and we dine at La Paz with paella, then home (where it's still 88 in the house), orchestrating the rest of Amazing Joseph: I. I Had a Dream (6 more pages for 7 total).

September 27 - The Rest of the Story

Second conducted rehearsal at Skye's with C.A., Megan, Cary, and Harriet -- then Philadelphia cheesesteaks and hoagies and a trip to the Berkeley Music Library through the throngs of Go Bears football attendees (well, most have migrated slightly south by the time this picture is taken)...


A second trip leads to the top of Sobrante ("the rest" or "the remainder") Peak (c. 1100 ft) in the Briones EBMUD lands (about 2.5 miles today, maybe 3.5 previously), connecting up with yesterday's jaunt -- have now walked the from Dry Creek Canyon in Napa to the top of Mission Peak in Contra Costa, over the years.


Home again and one page of orchestration each for The Passion According to St. Matthew: IX and Amazing Joseph: I. Oh, yes, and draft program and begin press release for November San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra show + also working with Harriet on the GHP Antigone-Ophelia-Quantum postcard.

September 26 - Life with the Fast and Slow Ducks

Ah, how we alternate. First a bit of 21st-Century Music Journal and San Francisco Cabaret Opea work, then off to UC Berkeley to track down the Andrew Lloyd Webber Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (for advice while orchestrating Amazing Joseph) but halfway there realize that it's Native American /Indigenous Peoples / Columbus Day and so the Music Library is likely to be closed, so go to the next item on the to-do list today and head to Briones Reservoir on this beautiful day to walk half of the Oursan Trail between the Briones Overlook and Hampton Staging Areas (c. 2 miles -- 4-mile round trip).



Back roads to the lab at Diablo Valley College to record Cubase versions of The Passion According to St. Matthew: V-VIII, then home beginning the orchestration of XI (which will be mapped on the Paul Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses after Themes of Carl Maria von Weber -- an idea hit upon during the day's walk -- all that's left to make the day complete is a little economic theory from Thorstein Veblen, and, OK, more music by the Anton Webern duckies...).


And, oh yes, somewhere in there, drop an Antigone score off to Micah Epps (who I'm happy to find is home in Concord with his lovely family and delighted to have play Creon once more by popular demand -- the tallest in the photo from the 2001 production)....

September 25 - Limit on the Late Last Suppers

Do the orchestration of The Passion According to St. Matthew: IV. Now As They Were Eating, and am a bit late to class for Quiz 6 (Baroque harmony) -- must have been something while eating... Afterwards record Cubase versions of early sections of PASM, restricted to movements I-IV, and rendezvous with Eileen Meredith and Harriet at Chevy's on Van Ness,



before attending the San-Francisco-Opera-commissioned Stewart Wallace / Amy Tan Bonesetter's Daughter, which features a meal at a Chinese restaurant in February 1997 where the protagonist's mother has a stroke -- report which will run next week at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and later for Commuter Times, 21st-Century Music, and 21st-centurymusic.com -- before returning home to a c. midnight repast.

September 24 - Windows Onto and Unto the Worlds

We all have our constructs, and music and nature seem to be as good for many. The theoreticians get J.S. Bach's Cantata 140 ("Wachet Auf") Chorale for dictation, harmonization, and keyboard-solfege, plus a little Fugue in G Minor ("Little") and more dynamic second compositions from Desiree (revisted from yesterday, as the piece featured a "one-note-changes-perceptions" issue), Clarissa (for sight-singing), and Danny (with an evocative pop-sensibility and a classical sense of contrast).


Beyond, it's a walk on the Old San Pablo Dam Trail from the East Bay Municipal Water District Headquarters -- past meadows, forests, and mountains -- with views of the


Reservoir and


the Sobrante Ridge,


to the Inspiration Trail's ascent up the east slope of the Berkeley Hills,



which takes on increasing stature



during the loop back on San Pablo Dam Road,



with grasslandic / chaparallic vistas again of Sobrante Ridge,



ending near downslope of a Berkeley Hills upland meadow of trimmed trees and power lines.


Then it's off to Marin to drop off the journal in San Rafael,


check the post box in San Anselmo, below Mt. Tamalpais and


Bald Hill (namesake?), and do the Celia's-paper-grading thing.


Oh, yes, upon returning home, finish the orchestration of The Passion According to St. Matthew: II. Where Will You Go and begin III. Truly, I Say to You (One of You Will Betray Me), the latter seemingly orchestrationally influenced by the Stravinsky Requiem Canticles: Tuba Mirum again plus Alban Berg's Wozzeck: Act II, Scene 5.

September 23 - Orchestrating Another Day

Surprise, surprise. Another day, another orchestration; this time including finishing up The Passion According to St. Matthew: I. Then One of the Twelve before heading off to give a dictation of J.S. Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor, which is also used for harmonization, followed by fine compositions by Desiree, Francisco, and Hiraoki.



Lunch at Elephant Bar (N.B. not pictured directly above -- was not any sort of "Last Lunch" -- at least, hope not... although sometimes seem to get crucified on a semi-regular basis...) and a return for the evening class, from Giulio Caccini to J.S. Bach; then home again orchestrating beginning of II. Where Will You Go (to Have Us Prepare the Passover), a funk-minimalist Andrew-Lloyd Webbernlyesque take on Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring I (whereas the previous is more Igor Stravinsky Requiem Canticles: Tuba Mirum inspired, with a little bit of "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" thrown in for good measure).

September 22 - When We Are Laid

Harriet still off on her Modesto gig while the Theoreticians get a crack at "When I Am Laid in Earth" from Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (plus a bit more dictation fun from W.A. Mozart in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus),


thereafter the same get subjected to The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Overture: Rats! rap.



Thereafter thereafter a few private theory tutorials and recording Abraham and Isaac: III. The Rescue (with 50 different sound files of warfare -- guns, planes, tanks -- from the BBC collection), VI. The Circumcision (including four samples of hospital backgrounds), IX. The Deception (a GarageBand edit of a Cuebase original), and XI. The Sacrifice [XII. The Burial / XIII. The Wife / XIV. The Death] (utilizing bells, vibraphone, growly tenor sax, and distorted-overdrive electric guitar respectively for Isaac, Angel, Abraham, and God).



Leaving the music building, a beautiful Diablo sunset,



reunion, and two first two pages of The Passion According to St. Matthew, Op. 55, orchestrated.

September 21 - Post-Apocalyptic Fantasies

First rehearsal, at Chamber Arts, of John Bilata's Quantum Mechanic, plus revival of Antigone (above from the 2001 production, with Mark Alburger, Laetitia C. Page, and David Saslav) and we have excellent casts for both, graced by Alex Katsman's amazing nine-finger-piano work,


and such stars as Adam Broner and Eliza O'Malley (who will share the latter title role this time around with Tisha), all under the direction of Harriet March Page.



Dinner with Harriet at local bistro, then she's off to a Modesto hotel for a job early tomorrow and I am left to my own devices, finishing orchestration of Abraham and Isaac: XI. The Sacrifice, a total of 72 pages.

September 20 - From Sky to Sky to Sky

Off to Sky's house in Berkeley for an Ophelia Forever rehearsal, under lowering stratus,



clearing enough to allow a walk thereafter in the East Bay Municipal Water Districts lands from the Briones Trailhead to the EBMUD Office (conveniently closed on the weekends),


looping back on San Pablo Road, with views of the lower east slopes of the Berkeley Hills,



then home, towards Mt. Diablo,



past Poverty Hills,


Lagoon Valley,


and the North Lagoon Mountains, for more orchestration of Abraham and Isaac: XI. The Sacrifice (with an angelic voice in the heavens) -- to page 54.

September 19 - Together Rangers

Harriet and I are home all day -- fairly unusual -- and we both get a lot of work done, including catching up with email (where Maria Mikheyenko has a wonderful album of Mice and Men shots on Picassa, showcasing her amazing performances with Wayne Wong, as Lennie and George, above -- will have to put all at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com and markalburgerworks.blogspot.com) and 21st-Century Music (September 2008 issue finally done at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and soon on 21st-centurymusic.com and in print),



and doing orchestration of XI. The Sacrifice from Abraham and Isaac through page 40 (but instead of more A&I, how about the mercy-killing from Mice?).

September 18 - Lucky Day

Quiz 5 in Theory with lots of chords, then lots of time in the lab, recording IV. The Covenant / V. The Slave Girl and 10 The Birth / The Banishment from Abraham and Isaac,


plus III.-VIII. of Quartet for the Beginning of Time: Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.



Home with Harriet in the evening, and later 12 more pages (28 total) of XI. The Sacrifice from A & I orchestrated.