December 18 - Last Day First Day

Up early again to grade papers, but forget iPod, so dispense with the breakfast outing (no protection against muzak and loud cellphone and other conversers), and directly to school, where all three classrooms are exam'd and the lab's security system is experiencing opposite day. The only solution seems to be to head to the office, shared with Rory (who mentions in passing that his favorite Renaissance composer is Ciprano de Rore...), turns out to be a pleasant experience, triggering Baroque music off of markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com (in preparation for the St. Mary's gig next semester) and doing grades on the laptop.



[James, Desiree, Ken W., Daniel]

It's the second final exam and our final time in Theory -- all of our survivors make it, including Dustin (who zips through a two-day test in one), and we are

Desiree Abad
Francisco Arcila
Hiraoki Asakawa

Sheyda Bahramian
Carissa Beck
Danny Butler

Neill Castro
Daniel Ciurlizza
Matthew Cooper

Ben Dashley
Andrew Flesher

Jamison Leggett
Luis Lobos

Nate Ma
Dustin Marks
Ken Medlen
Jonathon McCollum
Megan Mui

James Parton
Sean Paulson

John Veitch
Ken Wilcox
Seth Zimmerman



[Seth, John, Sean, Carissa, James, Desiree, Ken W., Daniel]

-- 23 in all! Some sort of record (and two with perfect attendance/participation: Carissa and John).


[Sheyda, Jamison, Nate, Neill, Dustin, Luis, John)

The two hours are devoted to finishing up the written exam, then presenting the remaining fourth compositions, and all the fifths -- the latter which must be presented by students (in either live performances or via recordings). These include Desiree and Daniel's colaboration (respectively on guitar and piano in several photos above) -- a funny and moving Goodby Music Theory Class, including

I really like Do Re Mi
But I didn't like the Fi Si
Or the C Section (in the 12-bar blues)


[John, Seth, Sheyda, Luis, Sean]

-- and John's Lament for Alburger's Class ("Alburger said I should play my own piece so I did"),



[Francisco, Megan, Ben, Ken M., Andrew, Jonathon]

which mirthfully combines elaborate extended melismatic cantillation and minimalist drone --



[Francisco, Megan, Ken M., Andrew, Ben, Jonathon, Daniel, Hiraoki, Desiree]

both pieces, as well as all the others, to very positive response.



[John, Ken M., Andrew]

So, farewell,



[Ken M., Andrew, Megan, Neill, Danny, Matthew, Desiree, Daniel, Dustin, Francisco, Sheyda, 12/11]

Music Theoreticians --



[Neill, Danny, Matthew, Desiree, Daniel, Dustin, Francisco, Sheyda, Seth, Carissa, Luis, Jamison, James, Sean, Nate]

but keep in touch!



Home thereafter, finishing orchestration of Samson and Delilah: XI. Dagon -- hopefully having nothing to do with our reality...

August 21 - A Lied of Human Babbling Wind

First Fall 2008 Quiz for the Theoreticians and subsequently in the lab recording Babel: III And the Lord Scattered Them (with BBC sound files from 22 different countries, to wit

Algeria
Bolivia
Central African Republic
China
Columbia
Czech Republic
Ethiopia
France
Greece
Hungary
India
Kenya
Morocco
Nepal
Niger
Paraguay
Peru
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
Zaire [now back to Congo, of course]),



Iliad: II. Odysseus,




and Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2 A, B, all in instrumental versions (Wayne and Maria last Sunday again, Scene 2 F "And I can tend the rabbits").



Zip past home and off to Davis to get scores for the last movement of the below, in its orchestral version --

Opus 62: Six Romances on Verses by English Poets for bass and piano (1942)
Poems by Walter Raleigh, Robert Burns, and William Shakespeare;
translation by Boris Pasternak and Samuil Marshak.

1. To a Son: Largo
2. In the Fields: Moderato
3. Macpherson's Farewell: Allegretto
4. Jenny: Moderato
5. Tired with All These: Lento
6. The King's Campaign: Allegretto

Dedicated to Lev Atovmian (no. 1), Shostakovich's wife Nina (2), Izaak Glikman (3), Yuri Sviridov (4), Ivan Sollertinsky (5) and Vissarion Shebalin (6).

First performance: June 6, 1943, Moscow Conservatory by E. Flaks (baritone) and the composer-pianist.

Opus 62A: Six Romances on Verses by English Poets for bass and orchestra (1943)
Orchestration of opus 62.
Unpublished; later version opus 140.

Opus 140: Six Romances on Verses by English Poets for bass and chamber-orchestra (1971)
Chamber-orchestral version of opus 62 (1942).



-- and the Hosanna sections of the Benjamin Britten War Requiem Sanctus,



the former as an orchestrational guide to The Wind God: XIII. We Almost Mutaneed and the latter as a check to orchestration of Iliad Songs: III Achilles.



Finally returning home, do and corroborate orchestrations as above.

August 15 - Cross Porpoises

Faculty luncheon meeting today, and thereafter recording piano-vocal midi versions for first five sound files of Diocletian, Op. 90 (just the short version for now), including part one of Happy Funeral Music chorus (cross is the excuse for the above),





plus Tritone Orchestra version of I. And the Whole Earth from Babel, Op. 47,



with its 5/8+5/8+9/8+5/8+9/8 (i.e. 33-rapid-beat) rhythmic cycle. Also finish orchestration of II. Behold, they are one from same, constituting page 10-12.



And, O.K., to justify blog title, thinking that it's about time to orchestrate the rest of The Wind God, which will require another trip to Davis re orchestrational advice (specifically the march music, which requires Dmitri Shostakovichian touches) and will purposefully include the dolphin denouement.

August 13 - Sic Transit Gloria Summer

To DVC, where the burned security building of the early days of summer is no more,



finishing the instrumental recording of Antigone --

XVI. Antigone
XVII. Take Her Away
XVIII. It's You
XIX. News to Brek Your Heart
XX. I've Had Them Laid
XXI. There We Are

-- and catching up with Doug Michael, who is getting the Lab ready for next week



-- then to Lisa Scola Prosek's salon in San Francisco, where Loren Jones and she play several intriguing new works, checking in as well with Happy Funeral Music from Diocletian as a group sing (along the lines of August 10's singer-composer get-together) and Act I "With us it ain't like that" from Mice and Men, followed by a big and cordial San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra board meeting

(in attendance

Mark Alburger
Rachel Condry
David Graves
Philip Freihofner
Loren Jones
Lisa Scola Prosek
Martha Stoddard
Davide Verotta
Erling Wold

[Alexis Alrich still on the plane from Hong Kong,
Michael Cooke out of the country -- guessing Japan]),

all of this unphotographed, so a picture of Phil doing a solo dance outside of Erling's after will have to suffice.


Home thereafter, and before all this finish up the orchestration (through page 7) of I. And the whole earth from Babel, Op. 47.

August 12 - Academic Day-Off Endeavors

Time to go to UC Davis, to see if a score of Igor Stravinsky's Babel is available for orchestrational inspiration, proceeding past one of Robert Arneson's Egghead sculptures, specifically Eye on Mrak (Fatal Laff),



down the promenade,



to Shields Library (not Mendota).



[Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera 2001 Fresh Voices II production: Sharon Walters, Harriet March Page, Laetitia C. Page)

Thereafter to DVC Lab, recording five Antigone selections (instrumental versions)

XI. What Is This?
XII. The Pride of Oedipus
XIII. Where Are You Going?
XIV. I Shall Save You Yet
XV. You Think You Knew



Then home, minutes before Harriet returns from the city, to orchestrate first three pages of Babel, Op. 47 (1992), troped on the Stravinsky.

July 24 - Up and Gone

Up at 4:30am and out by 5:15 with the half-glow on the area's picture palace,




the local Micky D's / Chevron aglow (only place in town this early to pick up NYT),




Mt. Diablo coming into view.


By 6, park with a view of palms and the Briones Hills


at a fronded beanery to grade remainder of papers before Theory (which turns out to feature last day's fine final compositions).



Music History class includes nice extra credit presentations from Mark Pagel



and Alan Buckley,



Then off to Marin to check on banking (Mission San Rafael / St. Raphael's looking diminuative against the Hill)


and postbox (with Red H [looking more Green and Golde] dominating the scene).



Home over the Marinwood / Novato divide,



past the north wall of American Canyon on I-80,



diverting up Rockville (past hay bales)



and Abernathy Roads (adjacent to Gomer School and



Fairvield Vineyard Foothills. More diverting behavior in evening vis-a-vis Mice and Men V 2 F 8 publication preparation.

July 23 - Last Dictation Show

This is the last job. The last one. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Hosanna from Jesus Christ Superstar, with its G Major lurch temporarilly into Eb Major -- more beyond, but this is enough for now for Tyler, Melissa, Ashley, Ryan (welcome back!),


Shane, Lauren (hard to see), Tom, Suzanne, Kavah, Conrad, Robert, Allison, Nate, Bianca, Dominick, and


Cristina -- oh, oh, better move that tenor part from D to C in the second chord, and lower the soprano an octave in the final collection....



Next up, it's the Music History class, with many early arrivers -- five minutes from now, lights will go off for short film clips from a variety of musical styles for starts, and most (sometimes all) of the 40 desks will be occupied. Home thereafter, occupied by Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 F Page 7 publication preparation, plus putting fairly recent items on markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com (including myself, Tan Dun, and Erling Wold), which will have to suffice for now.

July 22 - ...of Theorei (and Historei)

...to where Theory students are harmonizing the C section of Part I (Psalm 23 - boy soprano solo) Movement II Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms -- Suzanne, Julian, Tom, Shane, Clinton, Dominick, and Kavah left to right at Boards 4-2 (yes, named counterclockwise for some reason -- perhaps from near to far distance from the dictation piano), with Allison and Melissa (front) and Conrad, Rob, and Nate (back) having already finished their contributions to boardwork. It's 9:20 -- perhaps we've already taken our break -- possibly ran over, due to sight-singing / performing the first part of Terry Riley's In C projected on big screen in front of classroom (Board 1 area).



The wide angle shot didn't take in Lauren, so here she is, again with other Board 4 denizens.



And somehow, Kristina didn't get in the mix, until this photo, where she is studiously hovering over her laptop.



Perhaps she was at Board 1, where Tyler and Shekiba still labor -- forshadowing my labors on Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 F Page 6 publication preparation upon return.