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).

May 7 - Look, We Have Pergium to Deliver

Productive day, beginning with 21st-Century Music Monthly Journal updating at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and planning for June 7 San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Variations on the Ghost of Sousa Dancing program while Harriet's making preparations for the May 9 Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray, including San Rafael News (info on all at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com), then off to school,



where Robert is the presenter-of-the-day (to a rapt audience including Cristina, Sarah and Nick M.), with a dictation from



South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut (no further questions, Your Honor),



by Marc Shaiman -- a perky, tweaky tune solidly in Bb major (outlining the tonic chord over the course of its first four measures), with nicely surprising sixteenth notes unpredictably on offbeats and onbeats, with harmonization altered/enriched by Robert,



for board realization by Joel, Sarah, Chris, Nick M., Cecilia,



Deborah, and Cristina.

As can be seen, the melody is:

Sol Do Do Do Mi Re Re Re
Sol Sol Sol Mi Fa
Sol Sol Sol Sol La Ti Do Do Do
Do Do Do Do Mi Re Do Do

And we have fine inverted harmony, plus a borrowed Ab/Eb from the relative minor.
Speaking about minor, Nick will catch his scribal error in measure 1 second chord to agree with Deborah's version (Cm/Eb, rather than a potential Igor Stravinskian bitonal C/Eb). And we have communally not yet caught the incorrect Roman numeral at the end of measure 2 (the F chord is, of course, V, rather than VI).



Following this, we play Deborah's beautiful Composition 2, and give the room over to a talented tag team of clarinet and piano; for it's off to the lab, initially making a recording of Variations on Americana in the lab on Cubase that's a bit better than the previous on GarageBand.



Plus record instrumental versions of most of Mice and Men: Act 5, Scene 1, including Triple Fugato of Vengeance and Postlude.



Finally, head home, rehearse AIDSong and Conference Room Technique with Harriet, and have her record former, below, discovering that audio in GarageBand can be sped up and slowed down as easily as MIDI -- tremendous!

May 1 - The Hills Are Quiescent with the Noise

Morning joys and sorrows (The Little Death, approaching the Death Songs of next weekend [markalburgerevents.blogspot.com]), generating the brass parts for Variations on Americana, then off to teach with the North Lagoon Mountains drying out.



Nick T. is up for dictation today with another fine movie excerpt. Learn from Cecilia that yesterday's was from the anime Castle in the Sky, with music of


Joe Hisaishi (b. 1950). Meanwhile, Nick's today is C major: four bars with 2-beat pickup of eighths

Me Sol Do Mi Mi Fa Re Re Sol Ti Do Re Mi Do Do Re Do

I (our addition) IVM7 V7 iii7 vi ii7 V7 I

a hip version (what with seventh chords on all but vi and I) of that Renaissance inclusiveness of using chords built on all scale degrees save viio.

Following this notable compositions by Josh and Robert, followed by Conference Room Technique / How to Survive from San Rafael News: 10 Death Songs.


Home again, correcting the May 2008 issue of 21st-Century Music (now available at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and soon at 21st-centurymusic.com) working on the online Music History text (markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com), putting up info on the Trumpet of Tutankhamen and the First Delphic Hymn.