February 22 - Never the Same, Always Another

Write up the beginning of the Rob Kapilow interview for Commuter Times (this Friday) and 21st-Century Music (immediately at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com) and make the transit to

Contra Costa where

snow still impressively lingers on Mt. Diablo,

on a beautiful California winter/spring day.  Big week in Theory with three days of material to cover in two, beginning with Letter Names and Roman Numerals in Major, with dictation, keyboard-solfege, and board harmony on Louis Bourgeois's Old Hundredth.  Amazingly, still a bit of time left for inventive student compositions,

before

returning to Harriet mid-afternoon, grading Music Literature papers, and

retracing steps to the evening class, with music from the Crusades to various spins on the Medieval Trotto and Saltarello (including that of Corvus Corax) -- with a jump ahead to the Guillaume de Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame.  Second time homebound, and how is it possible to compose page 16 of Psalm 47, orchestrate the next double-sided sheet (21) of New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday, and do a video for



Salome Suite: III. The Execution?

February 21 - Four the Books

Compose page 15 of Psalm 47, orchestrate piano-vocal page 20 of New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday (114 orchestrated pages total), write a second draft of the Erling Wold article for The Grove Dictionary of American Music, Second Edition, and do a video for



Salome Suite: II. Bring Me the Head.

February 20 - Thawing, Maybe

Page 14 of Psalm 47 composed, then out the door as the snow receeds from the Vaca Mountains,

down

the

I-80

corridor

through

the

Sulfur

Springs

Mountains,

over the Bridge,

and

up

into

the

East Bay Hills to attend service at the

First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Berkeley,

on a prominence in

Kensington with

glorious views of the Bay

and an

inclusive, stirring message within.

Intriguing music, including a duet of violin and nyckleharpa (a Swedish keyed viol, held at shoulder height under a cradled arm) and a

quartet of Monteverdians (soprano, tenor, harpsichord, and cello in music from L'Incoronazione di Poppea), with Sondheim's Into the Woods presented later in the afternoon, and who should wander in but Kim Anderman, who's in the show, as well as Meghan Dibble.  Chat with them in the dressing room, with an update on Harriet, then check in with the office manager -- who turns out to be Lisa Harrington-Bailey, mother of John Bailey (Theory student, similarly appelated to San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Associate Director John Kendall Bailey), who appears soon after to make a cordial duo.  And just as we are leaving -- there they are!  Crystal and Christina, and it is wonderful to see them.  Group hugs and an assurance of email correspondence for a rendezvous, and we shall hope for the best.

Return through

Vallejo,

over the Sulfur Springs Mountains, phoning Bette, and

cannot resist another brief walk on the newly-reopened McGary Road,

now from Foothill Canyon

Road

to the

Lone Eucalypti,

with views all around,

including

Sentinel Peak.

Make

the

rest

of

a

circuit

back,

picking up lunch for Harriet and moi at the local chicken emporium,

and

we spend the hours comparing notes on movies (amid cycles of her therapy), plus doing the 19th piano-vocal-into-orchestration page (106 orchestrated pages thus far) of New Big People Old Trouble So Sunday and the



video du soir (Salome Suite: I. Dance of the Seven Veils, Op. 178 [2009] -- somewhat of a femme de la nuit....  Oh yes, also do second draft of the William Winant article for Grove American.