December 7 - Bright Reflections

Second-to-last-day of pre-exam-week Theory, last regular Music History Class, and where does the semester and, for that matter, life, go?... blazing down the freeway in the blaring glare of welcome

late-season sun, for

Week 2, Day 3 of Student Teaching.  Homeward for the afternoon, there's time to stop of at the library for further video enrichment, now all opera, including

Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1687),

Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio (1814),

Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville (1816) and

La Cenerentola (1817),

Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love (1839) and

La Favorita (1840),

Richard Wagner's Lohengrin (1850),

Guiseppe Verdi's Otello (1887) and

Falstaff (1893),

Arthur Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (1879, in William Leach's ahistorical, clangorous, obtrusive, over-the-top, suspect 1980 orchestration -- heavy on brass, guitar, synthesizer, glockenspiel, and xylophone)

Arthur Sullivan's The Mikado (1885, in a 1987 production featuring Eric Idle's operatic debut),

a typical double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1892),

Kurt Weill's Der Kuhhandel (1935),

Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), and the

John Adams Dr. Atomic (2005).

Grade a lot of papers over the afternoon,

but still not nearly enough -- Harriet heading out, and soon following suit for the evening's last hurrahs, with music astoundingly from Leonard Bernstein's Candide through serialists, minimalists, and rockers to Mark Alburger's Psalm 6: 1-5 and San Fernando Hub: I. Fresno, the latter as classroom participation, and a postlude on Camino Real: Block 9.

Home in shadow and smoke for more night music (pdf of page 5 Street Songs [second of II. At a Photo Shop] and 13th measure composed for Psalm 81).

November 2 - How Sweet

Heroically down the freeway towards Diablo for yesterday's Music Theory content today (on what may be the last day of summerlike temperatures for the season, given the weather report): to wit, Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story: Cool as intervallic and tone-row demonstration, Mark Alburger's San Fernando Hub: I. Fresno to round out round 2 of compositions, and Jester Hairston's Elijah Rock for Dictation / Board-Harmony.

Home to grade papers thereafter, then

back

over

80

and

and 680 for the

evening class, proceeding from Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto: Act III, Storm to Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme: Act II, with South African and Native American Music along the way -- at the same time looking ahead to the

Early 20th Century and back to past weeks via

make-up quizzes.  Home again for typical late-night musical actvities re Aerial Requiem pdf page 2 and composition of The Cop and the Anthem (36) and Psalm 78 (2).

October 29 - Arrangements in Colors

The weather report has suggested early snow, and it is looking to be the case,

building up enough in the stroll to breakfast and

back,

that an early departure to Swarthmore seems appropriate, over

Baltimore Pike, the

Media

By-Pass, and the Blue Route

to

set up and

practice the

percussion again

and

prepare

for

the

afternoon

lecture-

demonstration.

At the appointed hour (or thereabouts) -- with Debby How and Jerry Levinson --

composition students and others gather, with

Elizabeth Hoffman and I sequentially holding forth, re music for two violins, Irish pipes, and electronics; plus allusions to Psalm 6 and Suite ("Sol[ar]") and performances of The Twelve Fingers: I (live), San Fernando Hub: I (featuring audience participation), and Camino Real: Block 9 (the video produced over the summer), as the wind blows and the

snow continues to fall.

More practice thereafter (a bit of Eastern cabin fever setting in, but beats walking across campus in the snow for dinner), including one with Debby and Tom for The Inner Circles, and another for Peter Schikele's canons Dona Nobis Pacem and Swing, Swing, Swing.

At last the concert,

with

all

going

impressively

well --

warm comments all around, and particular congrats to Debby for putting all together, this the second annual event.  Many express interest in next year: in particular, thinking of excerpts from Ecclesiastes, Op. 3... keeping this sequential numbering conceit... perhaps 199+ concerts over as many years?  No doubt, we shall not see or hear, but an amusing idea. 

Great to take in the concert with Tom, Lisa, Bette, and George -- wrapping up the evening with a lovely reception

and an adventurous drive back (comparing merits of Baltimore vs Blue 'n' By-Pass)

to

warm-in-the-cold

accomodations.