September 24 - Windows Onto and Unto the Worlds

We all have our constructs, and music and nature seem to be as good for many. The theoreticians get J.S. Bach's Cantata 140 ("Wachet Auf") Chorale for dictation, harmonization, and keyboard-solfege, plus a little Fugue in G Minor ("Little") and more dynamic second compositions from Desiree (revisted from yesterday, as the piece featured a "one-note-changes-perceptions" issue), Clarissa (for sight-singing), and Danny (with an evocative pop-sensibility and a classical sense of contrast).


Beyond, it's a walk on the Old San Pablo Dam Trail from the East Bay Municipal Water District Headquarters -- past meadows, forests, and mountains -- with views of the


Reservoir and


the Sobrante Ridge,


to the Inspiration Trail's ascent up the east slope of the Berkeley Hills,



which takes on increasing stature



during the loop back on San Pablo Dam Road,



with grasslandic / chaparallic vistas again of Sobrante Ridge,



ending near downslope of a Berkeley Hills upland meadow of trimmed trees and power lines.


Then it's off to Marin to drop off the journal in San Rafael,


check the post box in San Anselmo, below Mt. Tamalpais and


Bald Hill (namesake?), and do the Celia's-paper-grading thing.


Oh, yes, upon returning home, finish the orchestration of The Passion According to St. Matthew: II. Where Will You Go and begin III. Truly, I Say to You (One of You Will Betray Me), the latter seemingly orchestrationally influenced by the Stravinsky Requiem Canticles: Tuba Mirum again plus Alban Berg's Wozzeck: Act II, Scene 5.

September 23 - Orchestrating Another Day

Surprise, surprise. Another day, another orchestration; this time including finishing up The Passion According to St. Matthew: I. Then One of the Twelve before heading off to give a dictation of J.S. Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor, which is also used for harmonization, followed by fine compositions by Desiree, Francisco, and Hiraoki.



Lunch at Elephant Bar (N.B. not pictured directly above -- was not any sort of "Last Lunch" -- at least, hope not... although sometimes seem to get crucified on a semi-regular basis...) and a return for the evening class, from Giulio Caccini to J.S. Bach; then home again orchestrating beginning of II. Where Will You Go (to Have Us Prepare the Passover), a funk-minimalist Andrew-Lloyd Webbernlyesque take on Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring I (whereas the previous is more Igor Stravinsky Requiem Canticles: Tuba Mirum inspired, with a little bit of "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" thrown in for good measure).