March 16 - Tunnel at the End of the Night

Write up the Leonard Bernstein / Nathaniel Stookey / Opera Choruses Marin Symphony concert from last night (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com etc.), and gray out the door to Diablo for a shining Charles Ives Variations on America: Spanish Variation dictation / keyboard-solfege / board harmony -- followed by a decent presentation and review of F Minor (Natural and Harmonic), Ab and Db Major the C Chromatic Scale, and C Triads, plus first-rate student compositions.  Head down to the Apple Store for the third time in a week, now to see if they can fix the errant iPod, and they can and do... even pleasantly!  Back to DVC, it's time to finish up composing Psalm 49 and recording same with the Tritone Orchestra, taking a break for coffee with Doug.  Check in with Owen, and apparently the New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday orchestration went well in its first rehearsal with the Diablo Valley College Philharmonic Orchestra.  Check in with Mark Steidel, and there may be changes ahead.

Homeward in the

dusking

surreality, now it's iMovie's time to express what is evidently a known glitch: in going into full screen mode, film clips whose original sound has been lowered are suddenly audible in fortissimo bursts in a seemingly random fashion (something not evident in the standard window.  When "sharing" or mixing down into a final-output .mov file, this randomness continues, impacting the sonic intention.  There seems to be no fix for now other than a painfully slow one... taking the individual clips, silencing them, outputting them as separate little files, then re-importing.  While such has never occurred before, on the other hand, we have never undertaken a video project as ambitious as the Camino Real one -- 25 original video clips in intuitive repeating arrays.  Will be lucky to produce 15 seconds of new product a day, instead of a minute.  So sure enough, put us down for almost a John Cageian 4'15" re Block 2.

March 15 - Voices that Are High

With all the late nights, it's all one can do to get up and drive under the sun-pierced sky before Diablo and a straightforward dictation / board-harmony of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida: Triumphal March, with a few scales (Bb and Db), chords (Aug, Maj, Min, Dim), and wonderful student compositions thrown in for good measure.  In the lab afterwards at a desktop PC, attempting to brush up on the non-intuitive Finale, but it's so opaque that even opening up a custom full score seems problematic, and when trying to import Encore (which the program says it can do) the entire computer crashes... twice!  In talking with Doug Michael and Mark Steidel however, it seems a a strong possibility that the misbehaving Encore program on the MacBook may be a laptop issue -- a few judicious adjustments are attempted, and it's time to head home to Harriet, calling the Encore people long distance one last time; and, low and behold, John Miller answers and is very helpful.  In that minute, all thoughts are abandoned (at least for now, again) of making any rash transition in writing....  Of course, when talking to John, everything works fine (like the ailing car you take to the shop that suddenly runs fine), so off we go composing page 8 of Psalm 47.  Little time to look over Music History papers before returning to a brief discussion of the abbreviated Baroque, at least through early J.S. Bach with

thoughts turning classical next week.  The Quick Music Professor Jumps Over the Endless Roadways to Marin to take in part of a dynamic Marin Symphony Concert -- full report over at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com and in print.  Home for the sixth minute of Camino Real: Block 2 video.

March 13 - Glimmers of Light

Home with Harriet and rain all day -- the latter no novelty -- briefly out for a supply run, plus page 8 composed for  Psalm 49, parts for New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday: V. Trouble and VI. So created and emailed to Owen, the fourth minute of the Camino Real: Block 2 video finished, and third draft of the Erling Wold article for Grove American completed.  Oh yes, and it's daylight savings... not that it seemed to matter much today, but give it time...

March 12 - Suspect Picture

Harriet is well enough to drive to the city for rehearsal, while activities on the homefront -- sheltered from the rain all day -- include composition of yet another page (7) for Psalm 49, creating parts for New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday: IV. Old, emailing this and III. to Owen, doing the third minute of the Camino Real: Block 2 video, and finishing third draft of the William Winant article for Grove American.

March 11 - Round and Round They Sped

Harriet checks in with the therapist, and it turns out she's been over-icing (to the point of mild frostburn -- but not frostbite) and under-medicating.  Already upon return she seems back on her recovery road.  During her outing, make a run of parts for New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday: III. People, and later run to the 

library 

to

re-supply 

her

with

videos --

including Little Caesar (1931) and

Lolita (1962, after Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel) --

re-rendezvous'ing and composing page 6 of Psalm 49, creating the second video minute of Camino Real: Block 2, and doing third draft of the Melinda Wagner article for Grove American.  Also touch base with Charles Hiroshi Garrett re article lengths, and he agrees to all proposed changes, the net result being two shorter articles and three longer ones, for a total increase in coverage.  Email all the first- and second-movement New Big parts to Owen.

March 10 - The Stony Gaze

Do parts for New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday: II. Big, always on edge because of potential crashes, then off into the gloom near Diablo Valley College, and many bright Theoreticians taking Quiz 7, with musical examples drawn from J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, W.A. Mozart, and Franz Xaver Gruber.

Pick up the monthly thereafter, swing by local financial institution and the Crockett Hills to collect some maps of the area (somehow misplaced back during Harriet's hospitalization)

then

homeward in the

storm-torn clouds to compose page 5 of Psalm 49 (somewhat breathlessly, due to the potential of sword-of-Damoclesian catastrophe), followed by a jaunt to the

Fairfield Center for Creative Arts (where North Bay Opera is presenting Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff, with Skye Atman, Mark Narins, Paul Cheak, and

Richard Mix) for the third

Solano Symphony

rehearsal.  Begin a video for Camino Real: Block 2 (the first minute) upon return, and find that Harriet has encountered a setback with increased difficulty walking, with swelling and perhaps infection.  She doesn't feel it serious enough to merit any emergency measures tonight, but looks forward to checking with the therapist tomorrow, with perhaps medical attention following.

March 9 - Tabula Diabolica

Do parts for New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday: I. New with a major glitch, being that files are crashing when renaming in Encore.  Several workarounds are tried:

Saving as Midi (yes)
Opening File or Midi in old Encore (no)
Opening Midi in new Encore (yes, but this will mean a lot of extra work)
Opening Midi in Sibelius (yes, but unable to save files, due to some other inexplicable situation)
Renaming Part in Finder, then opening in Encore (yes, but a bit of extra work)
Renaming Score in Finder, opening in Encore, and proceeding as always (yes!)

Definitely time to go to Diablo Valley College, for Franz Xaver Gruber's Silent Night as Dictation / Board-Harmony, YouTube videos of Diabolic Variations: Thema and I-III, and continuation of engaging student compositions of Round 2.  But there is another challenge: MacBook cord going south again, with another short,

so

south again on a short run to the Apple Store to pick up another pricey one, but making an appointment for Monday to perhaps get the item replaced free of charge.  After this, it's back to the DVC Music Lab, seemingly for the first extended time in more than a month to record Psalm 46, through the beginning of 49.

Homeward

in

improving

weather, then out with Harriet to local seafood emporium, compliments of Bette and George, congratulating H on her remarkable recovery.  Other evening's endeavors include composition of page 4 Psalm 49 and video for



Camino Real: Block 1.  Also do third draft of the Andrew Shapiro article for Grove American.

March 8 - Here's the Picture

Finish the editing of New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday on a Tuesday to

Diablo Valley College and a Music Theory dictation / keyboard-solfege / board harmony of W.A. Mozart's Sonata in C Major, K. 545, beginning the second round of engaging student compositions.

Mid-day

return

up

the

classic

corridor

beyond

Cordelia

and

the

Lagoons

to Harriet, catching up a bit on Music History grading, then return for said

class in works from High Renaissance dance music to Thomas Morley

and on beyond to the Baroque, out with Doug thereafter with Melanie waitressing (first time in more than a month, alas without Owen), page three composed for Psalm 49, and do video for



Camino Real: Prologue.  Also email all seven New Big scores to Owen.