December 31 - The Sunset

Compose Page 2 of Psalm 45 and put the blog version of the November 2010 issue of 21st-Century Music (yes, rather late) into print-ready form (taking twice as long to do as usual, thanks to the non-wonders of Word), before heading out with Harriet to Bill and Kathy's in Dunnigan on its closing night, toasting in 2011.  Record audio of restaurant overtones, etc. -- process upon return as



A Walk Through California: Yolo (Bill and Kathy's Last Night), and do video of same with pictures of the jaunt, posting to YouTube and Facebook. 

On the way there and back, finish up our mostly-Bartok playlist with complete and/or partial performances of

Divertimento (1939)
Concerto for Orchestra (1943)

plus Zoltan Kodaly's Hary Janos (1926).

Also edit a half page of Diabolic Variations: XIII. 

Call Bette and George, email Crystal, and wish to all --

Happy New Year!

Concert, Fireworks, Bed...

December 30 - Into the Future

Begin composition of Psalm 45 ("Eructavit") ("My Heart Overflows"... a combination of the Ambrosian and Gregorian chants on same, in consort with a modal rock bassline i bVII bVI v, approximately utilized in Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moom: Eclipse [in their case V], and mixed meters based on phrase lengths [11/8, 19/8...]), do the editing of the Kamran Ince / Tom Moore interview for 21st-Century Music while Harriet is on errands, and --

on a second beautiful

day --

proceed

southwesterly

to

Diablo

Valley

College to record Psalms 43-44 and Diabolic Variations: V-XII.  Return to share dinner and videoize



Diabolic Variations: V.

December 29 - Light on the Subject

Glorious day, for being out on a job as Harriet is, or home to spend catching up, including finishing Psalm 44 ("Exsurge, Domine") (4 pages total) and a video for



History Phases: XXVII. Pierre Boulez (Le Marteau sans Maitre).

Listen to a lot of Pandora radio stations, mostly the Anton Webern, Edgar Varese, Alban Berg, Harry Partch, Olivier Messiaen, Alan Hovhaness, Conlon Nancarrow, and George Crumb ones....

December 28 - Warm by the Fire

Rains all day, and glad to be home writing the third page of Psalm 44 ("Exsurge, Domine") and doing a video for



History Phases: XXI. G.F. Handel (Messiah: Hallelujah).

December 27 - All We Could See

Another fair day in Northern Oregon,

hoping for improved conditions as we head south from Troutdale into the

Willamette

Valley,

with the windshield wipers

mostly fully engaged into the

Umpqua River

country

near

Canyonville, then upsy-downsy in the roller coaster of the south as

Canyon Creek Pass,

Glendale, Stage Road Summit,

Wolf Creek, Smith Hill,

Sunny Valley (where? where?), Sexton Mountain, and

Merlin / Hugo.  Gotta love these names.

From here, it's the Oregonian Endgame of Grants,

Table Mountains,

and

the

straightaway to

Ashland.

Up, up, to the Siskiyous,

the rain does not stop,

but it also doesn't turn into snow, even at the Summit (4310'),

and all improves (in this case, i.e. no more precip), as usual, in California --

down to the Klamath,

up and over Anderson Grade, and into

Shasta Valley and

Yreka.

The Mountain beckons like a

shrouded dream, as does its consorts

Black Butte,

Freeway Lake (more prizewinning nomenclature), and the

fog bank ominously rising from the Sacramento River Canyon.  Beyond

Weed,

there's another

pausa in

Shasta City.

Will we make it? Sure, listening to an almost-all-Bela-Bartok repertoire -- chronological order, but some fragments, and quite loud, as Harriet and I seem to like -- down into the Central Valley:

Violin Concerto No. 1 (1908)
Four Pieces for Orchestra (1912)
Romanian Dances (1917)
The Miraculous Mandarin (1924)
Piano Concerto No. 1 (1926)
Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938)

with Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms (1930) somehow shoehorned in between the latter two, and serendipiduously cadencing in the driveway upon our return.