W.A. Mozart Sonata in C, K. 545, for dictation, harmony, and keyboard-solfege in Theory, then to the lab for longer than expected recording Amazing Joseph: I. I Had a Dream. After this, it's a fly up the freeway to U.C. Davis to search and rescue Aaron Copland's Music for the Theatre for orchestrational advice in II. Meanwhile, Judah -- an amazing story of coitus interuptus and father / daughter-in-law liaisons -- did Luigi Pirandello travel the latter path in writing Six Character in Search of an Author? Hard to say, kid.....
Evening is given over to orchestration of A section of Meanwhile, plus work on the
Opera Apocalypse! post card for Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera and Harriet (which includes Antigone, above from the photo shot yesterday at Chamber Arts House in Berkeley).
where Curtis checks in with a tried-and-true, but at least we have to figure out the key (since we are not given a signature), and get a chance to harmonize untraditionally, should we so choose, at Board 1 with Sarah (don't forget the Eb in measure 2) and Curtis,
or Boards 4, 3, and 2 with Joel, Deborah, Cecilia (what's with the hoodies today?), Mike, Robert, Cristina, and Chris.
There's time for a second bass line dictation, which is San Rafael News: V. Life Span, that should have been given (was actually a bit sketchy, performed from memory) as 4/4 in whole notes
G F E D (decorated by rising whole-tone scale scale in 1/8th notes on C), Ab Bb Cb Db (decorated by falling whole-tone scale in 1/8th notes on Eb) Eb C A F# (decorated by repeated F#s in 8th notes)
Bass is example of 12-tone tonality, each harmonized as a root-postion M7 chord.
Song is, as correctly noted by Joel, existential, to say the least. Play same, and Deborah's lovely and somewhat tonally ambiguous composition 2.
Home, preparing for publication Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2, Page 2, and placing the relatively new instrumental version of Triple Fugato of Vengeance and Postlude at myspace.com/markalburger.
Mix a version of San Rafael News: V. Life Span with Elizabeth, Janet, Eliza; post all of the SRN recordings with same, plus Harriet and Kristen; and record a voice take of Vocal Sonatina No. 2 ("Vatyayana"), dated respectively as 1995 and 2008 over at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com. Additionally, post photos at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com for Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The Black Horse, and finish preparing for publication the three pages that are Scene Change for Mice and Men: Act 5, Scene 2.
Call Bette to wish her a Happy Mother's day at the stroke of midnight, and let's do the same here:
It's Death Stallion night at St. Gregory's (Horsewomen of the Apocalype: The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray), and, in preparation, mix the Eliza O'Malley / Kristen Jones / Elizabeth Henry recording of
San Rafael News, Op. 51: IX. The Reproductive Organs (found text)
The reproductive organs (Which from a biologist's perspective Are the only reason for existence)
Control and contribute to Everything from mood To how cholesterol is used In the body
In preparation for the evening's concert, but first we have to get there,
via David Chavez and our wonderful resident pianist rehearsing music of
Francis Poulenc.
Next, it's Theory, with Joel bringing back a little class act (older selection, admittedly), with the Nocturne in E Minor of Frederic Chopin (this after yesterday's The Internet Is for Porn from Avenue Q, and the previous excerpt from South Park triple-entendric Bigger, Longer, and Uncut -- of course, I should talk given for visual of SRN:TRO) for dictation, featuring a nice rising m6 Sol Me (dovetailing with previous analogous SolMi of AQ: TIIFP). Harmonization is a free adaptation (first chord would have probably been conceived as a simple E Minor with an upper neighbor C, here as Emadd6),
realized by Sarah, Cristina,
Chris, Joel, Nick M., Robert, Mike, Cecilia, Deborah, and Nick T.
In the lab subsequently, finishing off recording Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 1 (The Barn),
specifically section D ("Hide in the Brush").
LENNIE:
I done bad thing! I done another bad thing! Hide in the brush... [Runs off]
[Enter GEORGE and CANDY]
GEORGE:
Oh, Jesus Christ!
I think I knew it all the time I think I knew we'd never make it Usta tell'im so much I got to thinkin'...
So I'll take my fifty bucks and blow it all like Ev'ryone else
[Exit GEORGE]
CANDY: [Shouts]
Hey!
Finally, it's off to San Francisco for The Black Horse, view above from the front sidewalk of
the venue, St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church.
Amazingly, am able to record Eliza, Janet Lohr, and Elizabeth in Life Span, before and between rehearsals for show,
which is a big success, all brilliantly empressario'd over by the divine Harriet March Page.
[San Rafael News: Harriet March Page, Janet Lohr, Elizabeth Henry, Kristen Jones, Eliza O'Malley]
Details of the program (including music of Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Mary Watkins, Felix Mendelssohn, John Partridge, Sheli Nan, Peter Josheff, and Mark Alburger; performed by Janet Lohr, Harriet March Page, Eliza O'Malley, Elizabeth Henry, Kristin Jones, Marilyn Pratt, Kelly Vomacka, Jo Vincent Parks, Cynthia Weyuker, Sarah Hutchison, John Partridge, Matthew Edwards, Shei Nan, Peter Josheff, and Mark Alburger), photos etc., will follow soon on markalburgerevents.blogspot.com (dated May 9, 2008), with complete recordings of the Henry / Jones / Lohr / O'Malley / Page versions of the Ten Deathsongs that are San Rafael News at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com (dated February, 1995).
Productive day, beginning with 21st-Century Music Monthly Journal updating at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and planning for June 7 San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Variations on the Ghost of Sousa Dancing program while Harriet's making preparations for the May 9 Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray, including San Rafael News (info on all at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com), then off to school,
where Robert is the presenter-of-the-day (to a rapt audience including Cristina, Sarah and Nick M.), with a dictation from
South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut (no further questions, Your Honor),
by Marc Shaiman -- a perky, tweaky tune solidly in Bb major (outlining the tonic chord over the course of its first four measures), with nicely surprising sixteenth notes unpredictably on offbeats and onbeats, with harmonization altered/enriched by Robert,
for board realization by Joel, Sarah, Chris, Nick M., Cecilia,
Deborah, and Cristina.
As can be seen, the melody is:
Sol Do Do Do Mi Re Re Re Sol Sol Sol Mi Fa Sol Sol Sol Sol La Ti Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Mi Re Do Do
And we have fine inverted harmony, plus a borrowed Ab/Eb from the relative minor. Speaking about minor, Nick will catch his scribal error in measure 1 second chord to agree with Deborah's version (Cm/Eb, rather than a potential Igor Stravinskian bitonal C/Eb). And we have communally not yet caught the incorrect Roman numeral at the end of measure 2 (the F chord is, of course, V, rather than VI).
Following this, we play Deborah's beautiful Composition 2, and give the room over to a talented tag team of clarinet and piano; for it's off to the lab, initially making a recording of Variations on Americana in the lab on Cubase that's a bit better than the previous on GarageBand.
Plus record instrumental versions of most of Mice and Men: Act 5, Scene 1, including Triple Fugato of Vengeance and Postlude.
Finally, head home, rehearse AIDSong and Conference Room Technique with Harriet, and have her record former, below, discovering that audio in GarageBand can be sped up and slowed down as easily as MIDI -- tremendous!
Mixed a provisional San Rafael News: IV Immortality -- best that could be done thus far on GarageBand, what with the outside ambient noise at Chamber Arts, etc., but at least a surreal document approximating what we've been up to.
Lyrics after an encyclopedia definition...
Immortality Is a term for the feeling believe In human life continuing after death The question whether there is life after death Has played an important role In philosophy and religion Immortality An ability to void death totally
It's a mensuration canon -- probably not what first comes to mind -- a sort of "time round" where the three entrances of the melody in the middle of the piece are not only at different pitches, but in different time signatures (normal on top, slow on bottom, and extremely slow in the middle) --
a notion borrowed from Josquin des Pres in Agnus Dei II of Missa "L'Homme Arme" Super Voces Musicales (will have to get the sheet music of Immortality up on site soon, too).
Before this, Deborah does a great dictation of Alan Menken's
A Whole New World from Alladin (1992), beginning, in Bb
Mi Fa La Sol -- another melody with delayed usage of a prominent tonic, as in yesterday's selection from
King Diamond (the name had eluded yesterday -- b. Kim Bendix Petersen [the appelative change definitely suited metal usage], June 14, 1956, Copenhagen, Denmark -- Lord, he's older than.... -- and I suppose we all have to act out -- some regularly for fun and profit... definitely at a distance from Alladin....).
But we digress-- and isn't much of life so? -- at any rate, the Menken selection proves to have great harmony -- again, like King Diamond, Bela Bartok, and so much of the blues, a reharmonization of a static motive.
Distict here is are the nice voice-leading potentials: an initial three chord changes that yield a nice step-wise rising voice; and a chromatic passing bass (4 #4 5), interior harmonized as a diminished 7th, with double common tones from the previous IV.
After this Nick M. plays his animated new piece on guitar, and we hold forth with Kristen's recording of Ozymandias.
Stop at local library on way home for re-supply of borrowed CD's -- have gone through 6/7ths of their collection by now, picking and choosing, of course.
Back in evening for the Music Historians -- our last class at the helm, as students will be giving special presentations over the final two weeks -- music tonight (recapitulating a bit of the past couple of weeks, plus music 200-2008) by Neal Hefti (Batman), Philip Glass (Naqoyaqatsi), John Corigliano (The Red Violin), Jimi Hendrix (All Along the Watchtower as used in Forest Gump), Neil Young (Keep on Rockin' in the Free World utilized as the closer in Michael Morgan's Farenheit 911),
(According to Neil Young's biography Shakey, while on tour in the late '80s, Young and Frank "Poncho" Sampedro looked at photos in a newspaper of the Ayatollah Khomeini's body being carried to his grave. These images showed mourners burning American flags in the street, which incited fear in Poncho. Sampedro commented, "Whatever we do, we shouldn't go near the Mideast. It's probably better we just keep on rockin' in the free world." Then Young asked if he could make a song out of it.),
Kurt Cobain / Nirvana (Heart-Shaped B0x), Steven Clark (Amok Time, first instance of showing a You Tube clip), and music of Symphony X, Death Cab for Cutie, and Panic! At the Disco!
Home late. Blitzed through music sections of NYT, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Times of London, Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News, Toronto Star, and Philadelphia Inquirer -- and surely that's enough extended life for one day...
Let's just say that it never occurred back in 1998 that Pontoon Tattoo (In Memoriam Sonny Bono) had anything to do with anything except lines re-quoted by Tom Kuntz (let's not go there either -- January 11, NYT),
shortly after the death of the recording-republican in a run-in with a rogue tree on a ski run.
***
On his show-business low point in 1988, which prompted him to enter politics. He angered the diminutive TV star Herve Villechaize by calling him ''Pontoon'' rather than ''Tattoo'' during filming for Fantasy Island:
"I wrote 10 gold records, I produced a top-3 TV show in the nation, and now I'm standing here getting bawled out by a midget."
-- address at Harvard, quoted by The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), May 4, 1996
***
San Rafael News: VI. Pontoon Tattoo
Somehow the quote turned into --
Pontoon Tattoo I've had hit records Produced T.V. shows Here I am bawled out by a midget.
-- and the recording of Janet Lohr's, this past Sunday, was mixed provisionally as above.
Great dark thrash of a dictation from Mike today, sounding remarkably beautiful on piano w/ respect to both melody and harmony (hmm, what's the story with the visuals on this blog at present?)
E harmonic minor, notated in an interesting non-standard, yet efficient key sig of two sharps (F and D!). Two phrases -- melodically of 4 and 7 measures, but harmonically of 5 and 6, such that the return of the first motive functions as an entire motivic anticipation -- nice!
The bass line descends chromatically (the old Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas "When I Am Laid" trick), and then contains a related retrograde passage at end. Melody is a textbook case of delayed resolution to tonic -- also nice! (and yet another semi-clothed maiden, albeit ancient -- what is going on here?)
Returning home, receive a fine review from Michael McDonagh of the Philip Glass Satyagraha in New York (at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, yes, that's the Robert Mapplethorpe / Robert Wilson / Einstein on the Beach photo, but that's what happens sometime) and have started re-constructing the back issues of Journal, beginning wtih July 2005.
Pleased to hear from Santa Cruz that Harriet and I will be attending and reviewing their
Kurt Weill Threepenny Opera.
And as for top photo? Or photo of top? Well, that's Chessie Moore (and again from her Wikipedia article), who has kept abreast of the times by getting a tat on (well, once again, guess we're not going there, as well).
Cold day today -- sunny in the hinterlands and clearing in Berkeley -- for a warm last rehearsal of Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray (this Friday at 8pm, St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, San Francisco - goathall.org / markalburgerevents.blogspot.com). It's the San Rafael News Deathsongs, again, and all's well.
It's another day of recording, too.
Eliza records Death Catch, Immortality, The Reproductive Organs, and Rain-Death Fugato; and
Janet checks in with the former and latter, as well as Pontoon Tattoo (In Memoriam Sonny Bono).
Then it's off to what turns out to be the final walk, south of Castro Valley, on Fairview Road (and as schedule will change next week, this seems appropriate), where the looming views are pastel hazy
and geometrical, as the chill fog attempts to clear, bookended by equines
west
and east.
Arrive at the upper Hayward boarder, with a Great Wall of Suburbia now sunsetward,
and peekaboo views inland, which one hopes will continue to experience a dearth of housing. Eventually head back north, arriving home to mix versions of Death Catch, including below, of Eliza, Kristen, Elizabeth, and Janet.
Mark Alburger (b. 1957, Upper Darby, PA) is an award-winning, eclectic ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities. He is Music Director of San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Cabaret Opera, Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music and New Music, and Professor Emeritus in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College. His principal teachers were Gerald Levinson, Joan Panetti, and James Freeman at Swarthmore College (B.A.); Jules Langert at Dominican University (M.A.); Christopher Yavelow at Claremont University (Ph.D.); and Terry Riley. Dr. Alburger has composed 406 major works over the past 48 years, including chamber music, concertos, oratorios, operas, song cycles, and symphonies. His complete catalogue is being issued on discs from New Music. Alburger's multiple blogs include: markalburger.blogspot.com,
markalburger2022.blogspot.com,
markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.
com, 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com
