Showing posts with label Fairview Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fairview Drive. Show all posts

Sunday, April 27, 2008

April 27 - Death and Life


Finish preparing the full score of Variations on Americana (will be doing the parts this week), then off to Chamber Arts (again!) for rehearsal of the 10 Deathsongs that are San Rafael News with Kristen Jones and Elizabeth Henry, and



Eliza O'Malley, Harriet March Page, and Janet Lohr.


Record Elizabeth and Kristen in

III. Death Catch
IV. Immortality
VIII. Rain-Death Fugato (Death Is the Rain)
IX. The Reproductive Organs

All above will be recorded by Eliza next week, plus Harriet and Janet in Death Catch and Rain-Death Fugato.


Also record Kristen's solo VI. Ozymandias (yes, above image is Olmec rather than Middle Eastern...)


Then off for another walk along Fairview Road, above Castro Valley and Hayward, featuring views east to unfortunate new construction in the pristine hills,


and west to a hazy San Francisco Bay,


dallying with a llama (get it?) through the slats of a fence --


make that two (in the spirit of the double and triple popes of the Babylonian Captivity and the multiple usages of the "Delay Lama" in the DVC lab) --



and a gaunt horse (is that an apocalyptic pale horse?) --


make that two, too (and a black horse! -- and weren't there duo steeds in the Synge / Vaughan Williams Riders to the Sea?).



But no cats (or guard ducks, for that matter) in sight.



A swing past the highrise of Cal State East Bay (an eventual walking goal), down (Mr.) Jackson Street and over the San Mateo Bridge (beyond pyramided roof) to San Francisco allows errands at Goat Hall and John Partridge's,


then over the Golden Gate to Kinko's San Rafael (the view of San Pedro Ridge while xeroxing) to print up a couple of copies of


The Bald Soprano: Overture (on the cover, that's Tisha Page as the Nurse, who's flown back home to Seattle by now after her whirlwind yesterday, and Percy Martinez as the Firechief, who's flown God-knows-where, in my direction of several year's past before Goat Hall began its ongoing renovations),


followed by a drive to the Civic Center (with views up toward the eucalyptus on Ridgewood Drive near where we used to live), and dynamic Marin Symphony performances of Colin McPhee's Tabulah and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, the latter with supertitles -- first time experienced in an oratorio after all these years of use at various operas -- a visceral experience, with report in a few days for Commuter Times and 21st-Century Music (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com).



Up late mixing Elizabeth and Kristen's recordings, with particular attention to Ozymandias, since all the rest are still works-in-progresss until Eliza et al can be added (shot of K by Tom Voigt during The Playboy of the Western World run, one of six dressing room knitting shots...hm).



For Ozy, it's Big Electric Lead Guitar Center, Piano Right and Left Hands at Left and Right 16, two recordings of Kristen as "Epic Diva" with standard settings (Chorus, Track Echo, 1/4 Echo, 1/3 Reverb) at Left and Right 32, a string of 4 Ceramic Drums and 2 Dombeks at Left 48, and the first eight Tambourines at Right 48 -- both percussion tracks set to "Edgy Drums," and all instrumental tracks at maximum reverb.







Sunday, April 20, 2008

April 20 - News to Us


It's been a year since Halfway Mark, and we soldier on. Concert last night, and many of us are back at Chamber Arts by mid-day: Elizabeth, Kirsten, Janet, Eliza, Harriet. We make striking progress with all 10 of the Deathsongs that are San Rafael News (provisional recordings are up at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com [dated February 1, 1995]).


Break a little early, and Harriet and I head to Castro Valley for a Mexican lunch at some nice humble little dive, then a walk on Fairview Drive above it all, with views east past an ominous plot,


with development heinously invading the open spaces.



West, beyond a red-hewed hedge, stretches the Bay, San Francisco, and Mount Tam.


A path on a hillock plunges down past what could be


a row of madrone to the north,


a hovel


and mansion to the south.


separated by the pure lines of hills


threatened by development.


Who knows what fortunes lie behind the fence,


and the fates of a green vale making a beeline toward the San Mateo Bridge --


one can only hope that the impact will be no more than the palatial doll house emerging from the eucalypti


and pines.



Around a bend and the car comes into view, along with Bay, City, and Mountain.


Time to go home, past the green grafitti barn in the Dublin Canyon declivity,


and the wildflowers of the Diablo Foothills to the east of Danville.



And yes, preparing for publication page five of the second part of Triple Fugato of Vengeance from Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 1.