December 22 - Varied Trio

[Contemporary spin on the Artemis mother-goddess iconography; possible image for Micah's Idol in Judges, chapters 17-18; and what results from googling "Woman with Three Breasts"]

Three [!] more pages of Samson and Delilah: XI. Dan orchestrated in the a.m., before traipsing to DVC in the early afternoon, where Doug has inadvertently deleted all the files on my default computer station, alas (nothing totally essential, but still...). He gives me some tips, however, about running checks on the laptop and burning CDs on the lab equipment (it's been awhile), and I make 7 copies of the Henry Purcell Dioclesian for Harriet,



while recording the rest of short version (9-10 minutes, or is that c. 3 x 3?) of my Diocletian:

III. Happy Funeral Music (Part 3)
IV. What Shall I Do?
Va. Speak, Flame
Vb. Great Diocletian
VI. Country Dance



[Mice Suites in rehearsal, 8/24/08, Berkeley, CA --
Suzanna Mizell, Alexandre Jerenic,
Maria Mikheyenko, Adam Broner, Wayne Wong]

A Marin loop is next, picking up the October 2008 21st-Century Music from the printer ('bout time), then return, buying 40 more file boxes (obviously very serious about this project), and mixing Mice Suites recordings from this past August and beyond, including

I. Dreamsong I
II. Worksong
III. Threatsong
IV. Tartsong I
XIII. Dreamsong II

Oh yes, and two more orchestrated pages of S&D: XI. D late (the Igor Stravinsky Song of the Nightingale trope, after pages of Camille Saint-Saens), so perhaps this day is as much about quintets as trios...

August 20 - Chariots on Fire

Finish up the orchestration of Op. 46 Iliad Songs: III Achilles before and after teaching,



then charioteering off (no one in tow) to Diablo Valley College for third day with new batch of brilliant students -- presenting daily from markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, which has / will have plenty of material for Theory Class as well as Lit -- followed by lab (of course), recording instrumental versions of Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2 part D, E, and F (Here are Wayne Wong [George] and Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] in the latter at August 17's rehearsal).



Also post instrumental of Op. 90 Diocletian: I. First Paragraph Music ("Abject and Absurd") over at myspace.com/markalburger before heading home to put up excerpts of sheet music



of Orpheus Cycle, Op. 24, for Chloe at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com (dated July 7, 1982).

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 10 - Mice & Antigone & Diocletian & Iliad

Harriet and I at Kinko's (soon to change its name and lose our interest) preparing for the get-together and rehearsal today (in my case picking up piano-vocal scores to Antigone and printing up a couple of pv Diocletians [short version]), then off to second floor of Chamber Arts, where Wayne Wong and Maria Mikheyenko hold forth as George and Lennie in Mice and Men Act I part K "We're gonna get the jack together,"



"What you gonna say tomorrow to the boss?" and



"George, you asleep?"



More rehearsal pictures soon at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com (dated September 6, 2008), then downstairs for a Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera Singer-Composer Matchmaking Event, with Harriet introducing Amy Beth Kirsten's Orphelia Forever,


John Bilata talking about his Quantum Mechanic, and



my presentation on Antigone (performing "Where Is Your Pain, My Dear?", "Haemon," "Come On Now Miss," and "The Spring Is Wound")



and Diocletian (with "Great Diocletian," "What Shall I Do?", and "Happy Funeral Music"). Season will also include Henry Purcell's Dioclesian and W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (alas the two latter composers were not able to attend).



Afterwards more Mice and Men rehearsal, and others linger, too, including Harriet, Meghan Dibble, Maria, and



Eliza --


who borrows me re the clavinova's delivery for a house concert



at a north Berkeley house with a beautiful prospect.



Partial Goat Hall Board Meeting afterwards at La Paz,



near the corner of Cedar and Shattuck.



then home via the evenglow of the Claremont and



Mt. Diablo --


and even time upon return for second page of "Odysseus" from Iliad Songs prepared for publication.

June 22 - Singing Byrds of a Feather

Byrd is the word (Renaissance William's Sanctus from the Mass for Four Voices) at St. Gregory's today in SF today, then To Everything There Is an Audition at Chamber Arts for Goat Hall San Francisco Cabaret Opera auditions with



Meghan Dibble,



Suzanna Mizell,



Alix Jerinic, Alex Katzman, and Harriet March Page. Lots of wonderful singing -- from auditionees Suzanna, Alix, Jillian Boye, Sasha Joggerst (Tiger Brown down in Santa Cruz, as noted a while back), Erin Lahm, Allison Collins, Annemarie Ballinger, Robin Hansen, Ayelet Cohen, Elizabeth Russ (Polly Peachum in same), and Shauna Fallihee -- and more next week at the same time, as we begin casting for



Mice and Men (Act V, Scene 2 B page 6 prepared for publication, incidentally)



Antigone,



Diocletian,



The Countess Cathleen, and fine works by the likes of Henry Purcell, Peter Josheff, and others.