September 19 - Together Rangers

Harriet and I are home all day -- fairly unusual -- and we both get a lot of work done, including catching up with email (where Maria Mikheyenko has a wonderful album of Mice and Men shots on Picassa, showcasing her amazing performances with Wayne Wong, as Lennie and George, above -- will have to put all at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com and markalburgerworks.blogspot.com) and 21st-Century Music (September 2008 issue finally done at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and soon on 21st-centurymusic.com and in print),



and doing orchestration of XI. The Sacrifice from Abraham and Isaac through page 40 (but instead of more A&I, how about the mercy-killing from Mice?).

September 12 - Vaseline? What the Hell For?

Another successful Mice and Men tonight (above with Wayne Wong [George], Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie], and Alix Jerenic [Candy]), with the biggest turnout yet -- the cast has developed a tradition before going into the house that involves standing in a circle, with outstretched arms to the center, shouting a favorite line. Tonight it was "Vaseline? What the hell for?"



[Suzanna Mizell (Curley's Wife), Alex Katsman (Piano), Wong, Mikheynko, Jerenic]

As in...

CANDY: You see that glove on Curley's left hand? Well that glove is full of vaseline.

GEORGE: Vaseline? What the hell for?



Slip-sliding our way through the evening (here's many of the cast in the Act II Prelude Worksong -- Erin Lahm [Slim/Whit), Megan Cullen [Boss/Carlson], Alix, Adam Broner [Crooks], Suzanna),



it's Megan Cullen's 25th birthday (above with Wayne and Maria), so there's cake and ice cream, along with the requisite champagne reception.



Earlier, finish orchestrating the twisted ragtimic Abraham and Isaac: II. The Separation (four final pages for a total of 21) and begin conceiving the orchestration of III. The Rescue.

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 6 - It Is Finished, and Begun

Opera Arias and Duets and Mark Alburger's Mice Suites opens at San Francisco Community Music Center tonight, and a good time, apparently, is had by all, with fabulous singing in both halves of the show and many familiar faces from Diablo Valley College.



Before, record all the rest of Wayne Wong (George) and Erin Lahm (Slim/Whit, with Maria Mikheyenko as Lennie, above) in this short version of Mice and Men, up in the same classroom at SFCMC, with the weather not quite as hot (for SF) as yesterday.



Before this and after all, climb up the sunshine mountains of orchestration, finishing VIII. On His Way, from Israel in Trouble, Op. 54, with a cliffhanger, clawhammer conclusion, and beginning to conceive the instrumentation of the comedic/parody-rape/mass-murder penultimate movement of same (i.e. talk about objectionable settings and stories -- the defoliation of Jacob's only daughter Dinah, in the sexual kitchen with uncircumcised Canaanites, who are revenge-vendetta x'd by her brothers while recovering from ritual surgery...): musically based on Act III, Scene 3 (the out-of-tune piano bar scene) of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, via a consciousness including The Piano Lesson from Meredith Willson's The Music Man, J.S. Bach's Fugue in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, and a hint of the American folk song I've Been Workin' on the Railroad.

September 5 - Dressed, Rehearsed

So we're dressed (pretty much) and rehearsed (definitely) for tomorrow's opening of Opera Scenes and Mice and Men excerpts at San Francisco Community Music Center (Capp Street, 8pm), so will put the night's pics at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.



Warm evening everywhere, and back home, it's two more pages of orchestration of Israel in Trouble: VIII On His Way (five pages of this movement thus far).


Oh, yes, how can we forget? Also record with Maria Mikheyenko (pictured above with Wayne Wong [George] and Alix Jerenic [Candy]) on the second floor of Community Music Center (thanks to Laura Bruckman -- of Brian Holmes's Fashion God and other fame) all the rest of Lennie's parts for this short version of M&M.

August 31 - Dressed for Success

Mice and Men rehearsal with costumes (Wayne Wong, as George, dreaming of "Getting the jack together") at Chamber Arts today,



and pianist Alex Katsman (with Erin Lahm, as Slim, in Worksong).



Record Worksong with Marilyn Pratt,


and Tartsong I adding Alix Jerinic and Wayne (the latter and former [Candy] above, with Suzanna Mizell [Curley's Wife] and Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] behind).


Rehearsal of arias and duets (including Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata: Act I, Sempre Libre, with Ross Halper and Eliza O'Malley), quicky meeting with Eliza and Lars thereafter,


followed by local pub with Harriet and home for 19 more pages of Israel in Trouble (VII. How to Depart from You) orchestration -- with aspects of Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals: Finale, Alban Berg's Wozzeck: Act III conclusion, and Michael Nyman's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

August 27 - 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Column Operations

Three Greek melodies in Theory today (Mesomenes melody finally posted at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com), plus the Ludwig van Beethoven "Ode to Joy" (simplified version in C) for dictation.



Subsequent recordings in the lab are vocals and effects for Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2 "I didn't forget" (above are Wayne Wong [George] and Maria Mikheynko [Lennie] from last Sunday's rehearsal -- upcoming performance info at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com and goathall.org), plus instrumental versions of Israel in Trouble: I. If It Is Thus and II. Cunning Hunter. Additionally, post Wicked Prelude from Noah's Flood at myspace.com/markalburger.



On the homefront, orchestration completed for Abraham and Isaac: I. The Call; and Harriet and I do mailings for SF Cabaret Grand Opera show and 21st-Century Music, delivered in the dead of night,


after which it's time to orchestrate yet again, this time the first page of III. Isaac was old from Israel in Trouble, indebted to the Igor Stravinsky A and I.

August 20 - Chariots on Fire

Finish up the orchestration of Op. 46 Iliad Songs: III Achilles before and after teaching,



then charioteering off (no one in tow) to Diablo Valley College for third day with new batch of brilliant students -- presenting daily from markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com, which has / will have plenty of material for Theory Class as well as Lit -- followed by lab (of course), recording instrumental versions of Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2 part D, E, and F (Here are Wayne Wong [George] and Maria Mikheyenko [Lennie] in the latter at August 17's rehearsal).



Also post instrumental of Op. 90 Diocletian: I. First Paragraph Music ("Abject and Absurd") over at myspace.com/markalburger before heading home to put up excerpts of sheet music



of Orpheus Cycle, Op. 24, for Chloe at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com (dated July 7, 1982).

August 10 - Mice & Antigone & Diocletian & Iliad

Harriet and I at Kinko's (soon to change its name and lose our interest) preparing for the get-together and rehearsal today (in my case picking up piano-vocal scores to Antigone and printing up a couple of pv Diocletians [short version]), then off to second floor of Chamber Arts, where Wayne Wong and Maria Mikheyenko hold forth as George and Lennie in Mice and Men Act I part K "We're gonna get the jack together,"



"What you gonna say tomorrow to the boss?" and



"George, you asleep?"



More rehearsal pictures soon at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com (dated September 6, 2008), then downstairs for a Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera Singer-Composer Matchmaking Event, with Harriet introducing Amy Beth Kirsten's Orphelia Forever,


John Bilata talking about his Quantum Mechanic, and



my presentation on Antigone (performing "Where Is Your Pain, My Dear?", "Haemon," "Come On Now Miss," and "The Spring Is Wound")



and Diocletian (with "Great Diocletian," "What Shall I Do?", and "Happy Funeral Music"). Season will also include Henry Purcell's Dioclesian and W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (alas the two latter composers were not able to attend).



Afterwards more Mice and Men rehearsal, and others linger, too, including Harriet, Meghan Dibble, Maria, and



Eliza --


who borrows me re the clavinova's delivery for a house concert



at a north Berkeley house with a beautiful prospect.



Partial Goat Hall Board Meeting afterwards at La Paz,



near the corner of Cedar and Shattuck.



then home via the evenglow of the Claremont and



Mt. Diablo --


and even time upon return for second page of "Odysseus" from Iliad Songs prepared for publication.