May 29 - Happy Creative Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Crystal!, who turns 21 today -- so... A toast! A toast! -- and who has, in the last couple of months, been on an incredible pilgrimage (superbly chronicled at crystal-uganda-2008.blogspot.com)



to Uganda



specifically, Kampala, with side trips north-east to



Mbale,



Sipi Falls,



Soroti,



Lira; and west to



Mbarara



Bushenyi,



Queen Elizabeth National Park



in the Great Rift Valley



up against the Ruwenzori Mountains



whose foothills include Semuliki National Park,



home to some of the Batwa people.... before coming back to her own home -- today! --



in San Rafael! So, as well, Happy Homecoming!



Meanwhile, two rehearsals this evening, first getting the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra going at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House Theater. As John Kendell Bailey is welcomely conducting the first half of the program, am able to head several blocks downhill (both venues being along De Haro Street on Potrero Hill in SF) to



St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church for the first rehearsal, beyond excellent works of others in the ensemble, of Blake House: 1. To the Muses with Sanford Dole and sons and daughters of the choir -- just a quick double reading from 7:30-7:40pm -- and a good start, though challenging, somewhat due to meter, but more particularly in light of the second strain's accidentals: 5/8 alternating with 7/8, octatonic melody harmonized such that the mode is

E: Do Re Me Fi Sol Le La Te Do... Dorian-Lydian-Minor, one supposes!




From here, a race back up to the Nabe for Camino Real: Block Four and Variations on Americana, as part of The Sousa Variations collaboration, to be given 8pm, Staruday, June 7, at Old First Church (Van Ness and Sacramento Streets, SF, with co-collaborators contributing movements to the latter as follows

Harry Bernstein - Stars and Stripes Quodlibet
Alexis Alrich - MinSu
David Graves - Sousa Variant
Mark Alburger - Variations on Americana
Erling Wold - On the Death of David Blakely
Michael Cooke - Stripes and Stars
Loren Jones - Stars and Stripes for Desert

with more info at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.



Returning home, cannot resist doing an instrumental recording of the choral To the Muses, so here it is...

April 16 - Truth, Justice, and the Indian Way

More Philip Glass for dictation, this time from Satyagraha (re Mahatma Gandhi, above -- recent partial NYT review of Met production of which can be found at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com), specifically the opening scene -- the marvelous, simple cycle of

F: I bVII bVI V, which (for class) we harmonize traditionally in contrary motion, since no common tones are found between triads a second apart (completely counter to PG's quite lovely parallelisms).

After this, performance of Cecilia's beautiful fourth composition, in D minor emphasizing IV such that one can hear it in G dorian at times, with poignant appoggiaturas and striking stacked chords of 9ths and beyond.


Also beyond, a fair amount of time in the lab, first recording the beginning of Triple Fugato of Vengeance from Act V, Scene 1, Mice and Men.



All of 37 seconds, with footsteps and running and general commotion and two words from Curley ("Jesus Christ!"), as he finds his wife's lifeless body.



Further beyond, begin a concerted effort to produced CD's of last April's Halfway Mark, dealing with Douglas Mandel's fine Peak Pro recording, which we convert to iTunes, transfer to Sound Forge, and beginning editing. By late afternoon, there are 12 files thus far

Op 1 Psalm 6: 1-6
Op 3 Ecclesiastes: 5-6 There Is Evil
Op 21 Missa "The a deux": 1 Kyrie
Op 24 Orpheus Cycle: 6 Lyre's Melody
Op 27 Aerial Requiem: 10 Agnus Dei
Op 41 Mice Suite No. 1: 1 Worksong
Op 53 Mice Suite No. 2: 6 Deathsong 2
Op 77 Henry Miller in Brooklyn: 11a June's Song
Op 107 Out on the Porch: 10 Creole Banjo Player 2
Op 110 Camino Real: Block 12
Op 116 The Pied Piper of Hamelin: Overture ("Rats!")



[after Robert Browning]
Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the
Cats and bit the babies in the cradle and ate the
Cheeses out of the vats.
And licked the soup from the cook's own ladle
Split open the kegs of salted sprats.
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats and
Even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning there
Speaking with
Shrieking and
Squeaking in
Fifty different sharps and flats.

Op 142 The Ring of Harriet: Cats, Dogs, and Divas: 23 Brunnhilde

Back to the land of residence briefly to pick up CD's at local library (Leroy Anderson, Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, James Macmillan, Arvo Part, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Antonio Vivaldi), plus scores at home.


Then off to San Francisco for San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Board Meeting -- just Michael Cooke, Mark Alburger, Erling Wold, and David Graves -- and we seem to accomplish quite a bit.


Home late, via Golden Gate Bridge and Marin.