October 9 - What's the Buzz of Hanging Around

Finish the orchestration of VIII. I Am Joseph before heading off to give Quiz 8 (with examples drawn from 19th-century music) to the theoreticians. In the lab eventually, recording

Amazing Joseph, Op. 57

VII. Take My Youngest Son
VIII. I Am Joseph

and

The Passion According to St. Matthew, Op. 55

XIVa. When Judas, His Betrayer
XIVb. Judas Went Out and Hanged Himself



On the way home, while driving the back roads, get nailed by a Fairfield bee (often these days I read the Sacramento Bee, but this is unprecedented) which has decided to hang around the back of my shirt -- yowzah! Survive the rest of the trip not further scathed, finishing instrumental labors on Amazing Joseph with IX. Now I Can Die (in reference to Jacob and sons -- not the insect sting), and continuing with text underlay of The Ten Commandments, Op. 58 (which somehow never was finished earlier), before Harriet arrives home from a job.



After a bit of hang-out time together, decide that these Biblical epics need to continue getting orchestrated, etc., so buzz out to U.C. Davis to loiter with the score of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron for awhile (the G.F. Handel Israel in Egypt will also be of service). Back again, doing one page of Moses and Aaron, Op. 63 (a recitative accompanied by a pseudo-baroque swing-rock trio), as a stinger before buzzing off to bed.

October 8 - Giving Back to the Cosmos

Orchestration of The Passion According to St. Matthew: 14, then Scott Joplin Entertainer for the theoreticians' dictation and harmony; bit of Georges Bizet Carmen video and bits of analysis on Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the Erik Satie Gymnopedie No. 1, and Claude Debussy Childen's Corner: Golliwog's Cakewalk. Work with John Veitch on his composition 3 thereafter, then head home to finish instrumentation of PASM: 14a and begin same for Amazng Joseph; VI

Back out, to Lisa Prosek's for a little concert soiree, including performing AJ:

I. I Had A Dream
II. Meanwhile, Juday
III. Now the Ishmaelites (Potiphar's Wife)

followed by San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Board Meeting at Erling Wold's -- with Lisa, Rachel Condry, and Michael Cooke (plus Alexis Alrich on Skype enjoying her morning in Hong Kong)-- where we accomplish much re November Movng Targets show.


Erling and I hang out on the porch thereafter, discussing existence, the cosmos, et al in the mild (for once at his place) San Francisco air, before return to finish AJ: VII. orchestration (not a big deal, since it constitutes a second version of VI.) and beginning VIII. I Am Joseph.

October 6 - Lively Day

Wrote the Erich Korngold Die Tote Stadt review for Commuter Times and 21st-Century Music, which is over at 21st-centurymusic.blogspotcom and eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com and in print. Was mostly on gmail, rather than aol, and heard from Leksi, who is using the Steve Reich interview in her research, and Doreen, who passed on from readers positive reviews of reviews.

Triad and Frederic Chopin chromaticism review (re his Prelude No. 4 in E Minor), seventh chords, chromatic scales -- and Giuseppe Verdi's Aida: Triumphal Entry: Trio theme for dictation.



Then to lab to record The Passion According to St. Matthew: IX-XIII., followed by a blitz to Marin to pick up the Journal (On the way, call Harriet to learn that her pied-a-terre in the north has been sold -- a big relief, given these uncertain economic times -- we shall have to celebrate when we both have some free time at the same time....), arriving with only minutes to spare at 5:08, whereupon I notice that the shop has changed their closing time from 5:15 to 5:00pm. After running around the building in a resigned disappointment, the owner sees and allows me to enter and pay -- ah, the wonders of a business with a heart!



A Celia's paper-grading session, then home again over the lonely and busy North Bay roads, and finish orchestrating Amazing Joseph: VI. Why Don't You do Something? Very late, so it's time to collapse.

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.