September 17 - If It's Wednesday It Must Be Friday

Walk in the Briones East Bay Municipal Water Distict Lands (what a poetic name), as if it's a Friday afternoon, but it's Wednesday, having just finished giving a Theory Dictation of the Alas, You Are Dead recitative from Claudio Monteverdi's


Orfeo (although the Gustave Moreau above is more "He Is Dead"). Also off to Marin to do the paper-grading-Mexican-restaurant-post-office routine, then home for 12 pages of orchestration for XI. The Sacrifice (16 pages of this movement so far) from



Abraham and Isaac.

September 16 - Barbeque, Anyone?

Four pages of orchestration concocted for XI. The Sacrifice in Abraham and Isaac, based on the Igor Stravinsky.



Dictation in Theory is a combination plate of Josquin des Pres's El Grillo and Costanzo Festa's Quando Ritrovna; History class offers related smorgasbord in evening (where am happy to receive tasty Turkish janissary music from John); then it's out to Left Bank with Doug and Owen for true confessions over drinks, and home through the windy fog and crystal-clear moonlit mountains (yes, that's daylight above...), where Harriet's still cooking with various computer work.

September 15 - Good News

Theory dictation is Louis Bourgeois's Old Hundredth, of John Calvinist fame,



as opposed to Calvin and



[Thomas] Hobbes -- also chord numerals in major scales, plus A natural and harmonic minor, and D major. New recording of Abraham and Isaac: II. The Separation in the lab,



followed by another run to the University of California at Davis for another session with the full score of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, for orchestrational inspiration re A & I. Checking the cellphone while walking to the library, receive great news re John Browning's situation in S. Cal., and positive greetings from the I.R.S.


Home in the evening with Harriet, completing orchestration of Abraham: X. The Birth / The Banishment.

September 14 - I Just Like To Pet Soft Things

LENNIE: I just like to pet soft things.

CURLEY'S WIFE: Well, who don't? Ever'body like that....

Final performance of our triumphant Mice and Men mini-run (above tag was the cast's incantation before going on stage), and a good time was had by all, with our largest audience, biggest box office, most champagne drunk and cake eaten, etc., and how nice to see Erin Lahm and Maria Mikheyenko return to their lovely femininity after pants-role turns as Slim/Whit and Lennie respectively -- looking forward to their being guards (but let's make them female this time!) in November's Antigone!



Brief stop at Doug and Miriam's while Harriet checks with M re costume designs for A, Orphelia Forever, and The Quantum Mechanic -- while I continue to attempt to organize photos from last August's southern California walking trip, on the floor with the computer in a position that Miriam finds amusing.... (O.K., guess it is...)...



Home at last, and the four pages of orchestration that are Abraham and Isaac: IX. The Deception (an easy feat, since the instrumentation and music -- but not the tempo and words -- are identical to the second strain of II. The Separation). Also post half the recordings...

IV. Fly Away
VI. You Shouldn't Work for Nothing
VII. How to Depart
VIII. On His Way
IX. One Day Dinah

...of Israel in Trouble at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com.

September 13 - Together at Last

Day off -- finally! (though Harriet has morning rehearsal of Ophelia Forever) and only confirmed at the last minute (due to an evening commitment cancellation) so, 34 pages of Abraham and Isaac orchestrations (page 34-68)

III. The Rescue (Fanfare-Boogie)

IV. The Covenant / V. The Slave Girl (Aria-Blues)

VI. The Circumcision (Calypso)

plus recorded instrumental version of



II. The Separation (Rag)

September 12 - Vaseline? What the Hell For?

Another successful Mice and Men tonight (above with Wayne Wong [George], Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie], and Alix Jerenic [Candy]), with the biggest turnout yet -- the cast has developed a tradition before going into the house that involves standing in a circle, with outstretched arms to the center, shouting a favorite line. Tonight it was "Vaseline? What the hell for?"



[Suzanna Mizell (Curley's Wife), Alex Katsman (Piano), Wong, Mikheynko, Jerenic]

As in...

CANDY: You see that glove on Curley's left hand? Well that glove is full of vaseline.

GEORGE: Vaseline? What the hell for?



Slip-sliding our way through the evening (here's many of the cast in the Act II Prelude Worksong -- Erin Lahm [Slim/Whit), Megan Cullen [Boss/Carlson], Alix, Adam Broner [Crooks], Suzanna),



it's Megan Cullen's 25th birthday (above with Wayne and Maria), so there's cake and ice cream, along with the requisite champagne reception.



Earlier, finish orchestrating the twisted ragtimic Abraham and Isaac: II. The Separation (four final pages for a total of 21) and begin conceiving the orchestration of III. The Rescue.

September 11 - Together and Separate

Quiz 4 in Theory, with examples drawn from Medieval organum (c. 1000) through Machaut, Dies Irae for keyboard-solfege, and four G modes (major, mixolydian, dorian, and minor). Off to Davis thereafter to score full scores for Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (again, and probably not the last time, either) and Igor Stravinsky's Ragtime for 11 instruments, both needed for orchestrational advice re instrumentation of Abraham and Isaac. By some miracle, track both down in the stacks without benefit of computer.



Upon return, 17 pages of orchestration for A&E: II. The Separation, a twisted rag equally indebted to Scott Joplin (and one of his contemporaries, James Marshall) and I.S. -- three strains of four thus far, scored roughly for the forces of the Stravinsky.