September 8 - Day of Wraiths

Dies Irae today for dictation, harmonized with a dominant drone, introducing intervals larger than the fifth,


also a sight-sing of the Hymn to St. Magnus and impressive student compositions, some going far beyond the required 4 measures of monophony.



Lab work, so to speak, turns out to be fairly extensive, finally finishing off a vocal recording (Act V, Scene 2 B through E, the F conclusion having been previously recorded -- above are Wayne Wong [George] and Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] delivering the ending September 5's dress rehearsal) of Mice and Men, a project begun at the beginning of last year, plus VIII. On His Way from Israel in Trouble.



Home, and the Trouble continues with 5 more pages of orchestration (on beyond mostly piano, for a total of 11 for this penultimate movement (IX. One Day Dinah -- Peter Paul Rubens's Rape of the Sabine Women will have to serve as a stand-in, as D is virtually un-iconographed) thus far. Jacob and sons and women seem to get the orchestrated sections, while the Canaanites seem to get theirs with piano, whateve that means. Also about 4 hours of work for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, planning for the November performance.

September 3 - Symphony Opener

It's the annual San Francisco Symphony Gala with Harriet hobnobbing in the Press Room with Georgia Rowe, Marilyn Tucker, and other friendly folks.



Previous to this, it was Gregorian Chant Day in Music Theory, singing Kyrie IV, among other Medieval hit singles,



and dictation/harmonization of the lower line of the Orkney Island Hymn to St. Magnus.



But now we make our way upstairs through the crowds,



which includes the Symphony's own piano player Robin Sutherland (or his lookalike, at right -- also, nice bald bilateral symmetry framing flowing locks -- N.B. above two and immediate below were all taken by just holding the camera up in the air and clicking while we were trapped below in the throngs),



past the lower [huzzah!]



and upper staircases [engineering marvels!],



to the interior of Davies Hall,



where the San Francisco Symphony makes ready to play music of Leo Delibes, Leonard Bernstein, and Sergei Rachmaninoff (report in Commuter Times this Friday, and soon thereafter for 21st-Century Music, 21st-centurymusic.com, and 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com),



then out into the clear, dark, relatively mild (for San Francisco, at least) night of Van Ness Avenue (north, with a blue City Hall,



and south)



and home, and how can there be any time to produce the third page of orchestration for Israel in Trouble: VIII?