December 24 - It Came Upon a Midnight Pink

With Bud and Loraine looking after the house, load up Harriet's car, orchestrate four more pages of Samson and Delilah: XIII. Disunity, then head out the door for the trip south, stopping briefly at Laverne's to drop off a transcript, Starbucks coffee and Chron, more brief stops merging south from I-680 to U.S. 101 in San Jose, then smooth sailing in the stormy twiight of the Santa Lucias above the Salinas Valley, through dark storms and squalls


to the veranda of Sweepstakes, at the inimitable, over-the top



Madonna Inn, with its pink/stony portecochere,



cupola'd dining room,



Jeff Koonesque Christmas decorations --



calling Bette and George and Sorrel and Crystal and Tisha et al, whereupon Harriet and I take refuge in the holiday cheer of the bar lounge, and the bar-counter of the coffee shop, ultimately retiring with visions of cookie-plums...

December 23 - Desert Dreaming

Finish the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: XII. Dan and



begin that of XIII. Disunity. In between, do the grades for the 35 students in the Music Literature class, anticipating the trip south tomorrow.

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...

December 21 - Tall Orders

Finish up the Theory grading on this shortest day, re-organize the geographical collection in file boxes,


and produce orchestration up to page 5 of Samson and Delilah: XII. Dan (here's the short-and-spare opening, first experiment with saving as PDF, and converting to JPG).

December 20 - Semi-Solstice Songs

Party given by Eliza for Harriet tonight at Chamber Arts, and a good time is had by all, with Christmas carols, et. al,



and just a little time left for another orchestrated page of Samson and Delilah: XII. Dan.

December 19 - Reversed World

Begin the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: XII. Dan. It's the Friday end-of-the-semester ritual, holding court in the Music Building lobby to receive last-minute work, etc.,



and, when all's quiet, begin grading. Thereafter in the lab,



for complete recording of S&D: XI. Dagon.

December 13 - Jiggle Belles

Orchestrate a couple more pages of Samson and Delilah: XI. Dagon (through page 10) and continue the major reorganization of the office that began last weekend,


in anticipation of the arrival from Seattle of



Tisha and Clare,



who celebrate an early Christmas with us.



Clare and I play catch out back, and I'm amazed at her stamina and knowledge of Van Gogh, Rivera, and Kahlo at age 8! We stay out almost until the starry night. After the decoration (before) and gift-opening festivities (to a background of Christmas carols, Andre Kostelanetz, Robert Shaw, Hector Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ, Henry Purcell's Dioclesian, and bits of Handel, J.S. Bach, and Bizet), I blitz out to Staples to buy file-storage boxes (first time ever, having relied on Kinko's for years until their untimely demise, subsumed as they have been by the not-really-focussed-the-situation Fed Ex), and this simple purchase allows me to begin to put some kind of re-organizational schema into my music (six boxes and counting thus far), life, the universe, and everything.

December 12 - Dagon It!

Finish Samson and Delilah: X. Delilah orchestration and begin XI. Dagon, hanging around the house all day with Harriet, fresh breezes, sunshine, and a storm brewing.

December 11 - Hair Today

Eight more pages of Samson and Delilah: X. Delilah orchestrated, thanks to some Sibelius help from Peter Josheff tonight at San Francisco Cabaret Opera Fresh Voices Selection Committee meeting (just during the breaks -- we keep our attention on matters at hand most of evening, at soiree chez Sharon Walters, with Harriet, Eliza, and Gus).



Before this, last normal-class-meeting-time-week in Theory, with Seth, Jamison, and Hiraoki presenting dictation, board harmony, and dictation, respectively/sequentially -- in intriguing passages from Blonde Redhead, et. al.


Also last day for fourth compositions -- including fine ones from Megan, Shayda, and Sean, with a rider to the bill of Overture to "The Bald Soprano."

December 10 - Yee Haw!

While Harriet's out on a job in Oakland, finish the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: IX. Defeat (Ass's Jaw), and then record it, with the complete VIII. Death (Lion), after class in the lab.

Between, we have Sheyda, Carissa, and Matthew present two dictations and a board harmony -- J.S. Bach Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and Leo Delibes Coppelia waltz excerpt -- amazing number of art-music excerpts given by the theoreticians this semester (adding these two to the Smetana, Mussorgsky, and Shostakovich earlier).



Home for a spell improvising on the Camille Saint-Saens S&D love/betrayal scene, and play same plus The Ten Commandments / Seven Commandments movement from Moses and Aaron / Animal Opera (take your pick) for Lisa Scola, Ed, and Tom Prosek, plus Davide Verrotta and David Graves (unlike Dr. Seuss we have a reasonable number of Daves).

San Francisc Composers Chamber Orchestra Board Meeting follows, and we work so efficiently that we break early, and Michael kindly helps with the new Sibelius program. Home via Marin, staying up late to begin S&D: X. Delilah on the new-set up on the laptop. Very welcome, a bit challenging, and long overdue.

December 9 - A Muse to Death

Begin orchestration of Samson and Delilah: IX. Defeat (The Ass's Jaw) -- 9 pages -- before heading off to DVC. Daniel and Desiree present, seasonally appropriately, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, with a classic appoggiatura and very straightforward harmonization that by now is a snap for our theoretician sleuths.



Music by Desiree (related to the Berlin), Francisco (with major chords located on a descending whole tone fragment -- Do Te Le Se), and John (on his snappy new Macbook) follows, and afternoon is devoted to Elephant Bar paper grading.

Evening class proceeds from Reich and Glass, now with excerpts on the blog, through Alburger and Wold, still waiting for musical examples, then home to orchestrated a nightcap of 8 more pages of above, for a total of 17 for the day (all based on Aaron Copland's Hoedown from Rodeo, which always seems to be crying for more melodic content, anyway).

December 8 - End of the Line

And a morning and an evening, finishing the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: VIII. Death (Lion), which checks in at about 24 pages.



Luis and Ken W. present the dictation and harmony today, for which they select Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade -- Wow! Third student-selected classical rep for teaching (joining the Smetana and Shostakovich of last week, and pictured above towards the close of his career). After this present selections from Henry Miller in Brooklyn.

Overture
Suicide Song
At the Blood Bank
Subway Madman

John plays and sings a proposed improv-composition after class -- both beautiful and funny -- then in the lab to record S&D

V. Disorientation (complete, finally)
VII. Daughter
VIII. Death (beginning)

Finally home after whirlwind of errands, watching video of November 8 Ophelia Forever, Quantum Mechanic, Antigone with Harriet -- very strong performances -- as we mail out back issues of journals.

December 7 - In-Line Skirting

Up to page 12 orchestrating Samson and Delilah: VIII. Death (Lion), and continuing major reorganization of the workspace (which is just about on the edge of chaos of late), realizing that boxes of files (surprise, surprise), rather than filing cabinets, are part of the solution.

Amongst the items turned up is the David Byrne / Brian Eno My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a welcome re-discovery, which I look forward to importing into iTunes, assuming the computer remembers how (it certainly doesn't seem to be able to handle the second half of the Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire with Cleo Laine as the sprechstimmer).... Also begin listening to the Nonesuch Philip Glass 10-CD box set (the first two so far -- Music in Contrary Motion, Music with Changing Parts, Music in Similar Motion, Music in 12 Parts, in slipcovers, however), which Michael McDonagh so kindly gifted.



The fog breaks, the fog returns (here again a picture of Sulfur Springs treed slopes on December 1); Harriet and I out to the local brewery and then back watching video (of November 16 Chapel of the Chimes Ophelia Forever, Quantum Mechanic, and Antigone, all pretty impressive), mailing out back issues of Journals, plus desert and divertissements.

December 6 - Line of Inquiry

Finish the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: VII. Daughter (turned out to be 10 pages, condensed from a projected 12) and begin that of VIII. Death (Lion) which is finally about one of the title characters, based on that of the Saint-Saens, and also his Carnival of the Animals: IX. The Cuckoo in the Wood (four pages thus far).

Help Harriet get re-organized, which inspires me to do likewise (at least the living, dining, and bed rooms are in decent order now, but the study and garage?... a tall order...), and burn-n-import a few more records and tapes, eventually via another manner, which seems to please the MacBook (and therefore, me) more. The listening, etc., includes



P.D.Q. Bach (a.k.a. Peter Schikele) - Beethoven's 5th, Schleptet, What's My Melodic Line, and My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth

Samuel Barber - Summer Music

Bela Bartok - Piano Concerto No. 1, Concerto for Orchestra (2 versions)

Charles Ives - Selected Songs (Cleo Laine)

Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire (Cleo Laine)

Igor Stravinsky - Ragtime for 11 Instruments, Concerto for Piano and Winds, Symphony of Psalms, Requiem Canticles

December 5 - Pages and Page

Home with Harriet all day, and orchestrate about half the twelve pages of Samson and Delilah: VII. Daughter (Jephtha [someone should have thrown the book at him]) in the morning, while digital archival copies of several analog recordings are made (John Adams - Nixon in China, Robert Ashley - Private Parts, J.S. Bach - Magnificat) on the new Innovative Technologies machine, but some tracks won't import into iTunes (suspect that the latter is misbehaving).


The fog clears (as it did at the American Canyon exit of I-80 on December 1, above), while putting musical examples onto markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com of composers born between 1940 and 1950, but, astoundingly, as is Samuel-Beckettianly- metaphorically-inevitably the case again, the light gleams for an instant.... An open and shut casebook....

December 3 - Top This

Finish the orchestration of Samson and Delilah: VI. Downfall (The Death of Abimelech) but aol won't allow the MIDI file to be emailed, so looks like one step closer to abandoning that increasingly inconvenient format. Have also recently been given the Sibelius program for the laptop, courtesy of Andrew, so perhaps will also be moving away from the old Encore program on the desktop.



Nate and James team up for a dictation / board harmony on the Lennon-McCartney Hey, Jude, and we listen thereafter to Nate's fourth composition, as well as those by Neill and Seth (all quite impressive), plus Joshua Fought the Battle and as much of S&D as has been recorded (through some of V. Disorientation [Gideon]). Daniel plays one of his intriguing minimalist-reminiscent pieces after class, which brings to mind Subway Madman, from Henry Miller in Brooklyn (not sure who his friend is in the above photo, but whatever...) -- subsequently played.



In the lab, record all of Downfall (had sent most of the MIDI yesterday, and completed in Cubase, with the addition of some ACID loops), then fly out the door to Marin (photo is of Mt. Tamalpais last August 22, but whatever...), via Berkeley, and arrive at printer's with minutes to spare, picking copies of September 2005 back issue of 21st-Century Music, followed by post office with seconds to spare.



After Celia's and paper grading, off to Macy's (via Mervyn's in its last gasp) and, low and behold, there's the Phono / Tape-Player / Radio / CD Burner that we've been seeking (not a Crossly but an Innovative Technology...). Very helpful saleswoman and somehow I carry it (mostly on my head with the laptop slung over the shoulder) down from the third floor, all the way across the Northgate Mall, up again to the second-story parking structure.

Return home to Harriet, we set up the player-recorder, and, low and behold, it works. For the record, so to speak,

First radio station played: Sacramento Classical
First tape played: John Adams - The Chairman Dances
First record played: Alban Berg - Wozzeck
First CD played: Philip Glass - "Low" Symphony
First CD burned: Igor Stravinsky - The Rake's Progress

December 1 - The Light Gleams for an Instant

Up very early, through the fog dissipating in the Sulfur Springs Mountains, to take the car for routine maintenance, wondering how long a 2002 Toyota Echo with 285,000 miles can hold up.



Return home past ever-evolving fog-nuanced landscapes,



to orchestrate several more pages of Samson and Delilah: V. Disorientation. Then off to DVC, where Sean, Dustin, and Neill (with an honorary mention to Sheyda for helping out) are at bat for dictation, with a video game song (the former) and original composition (Dustin). Work on a composition with Luis and board harmony possiblilites for John after, followed by lab recording S&D: III, IV, and part of V.



Foggy all day in Pleasant Hill; head back over the San Pablo wetlands under clearly impressive skies to pick up car (brakes still O.K.)



and return to Harriet, finishing orchestration of Samson: V, and beginning that of VI. Downfall.

November 30 - Finished

Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.

(Pause.)

Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.

(Pause.)



... O.K., so it's only the end of the weekend and the end of the month finishing, plus a third orchestrated page of Samson and Delilah: V. Disorientation (more good-lookin' cookin'),



a rodent requiem,



and various absurd errands delayed for a couple of years -- some successful,




some not.