March 1 - Off in the Mind

We're off to walk-and-dine in Napa
A wonderful break for us both.
We zoom away in Harriet's car
Which means I can take shotgun shots.


If ever or never I'm able to take a
Picture of Cherry Valley it's now.
Because it does go fast when passed on the right --
It's often a fuzz, not a wonderful sight.


But it's there, Amahl. And so is Jameson Canyon.


With a blazing riot of wildflowers at its mouth.


We leapfrog just beyond the Napa city border, at the intersection of Old Solano and Congress Valley Roads,


with treed hills to the south


and north.


But our route is straight up the gentle hill, and back down into Napa proper.


The patterns of the vineyards are intoxicating


geometrical,


set against natural architecture, pruned by the wind.


The road is dappled and mild to the south,


blazing and sere north,


up and over, straight on,


across the Napa Valley to the distant Vaca Mountains from these Mayacamas foothills.


And here we are for lunch at Joe's by the Napa River -- well, Harriet, contemplative, at least --


and me.


Can't see me? Here's up close.


Well, maybe too close,


in the reflection, which also includes a panorama of mountains,


mezmerized as Harriet holds forth.


Return via Jameson Canyon again, near the Napa-Solano border, a lonely power-pole crucifix (well, guess not, there's only a transformer perched on it -- transformer, hmm...),


two redwoods, and beyond


nothing but a naked declivity,



with shadowy cattle,


flowers and a high-wire bird (also shadowy),


lines of trees and grass and clouds,


isolated powerlines,


cliffs. Rather a lot, really.


Home (as opposed to Arizona's Canyon de Chelly, above), mixing recording of Harriet in All the Dark Birds, in versions for



Flying Out the Mouth and



Flying Mixes, with the addition of the original Navajo Ribbon Dance.

February 25 - Artful Dodgers

Once again, to the Theory ramparts, with John and Nick T studying away at their wonderful text before class...


Today, it's W.A. Mozart (he looks pretty serious -- perhaps he's studying theory -- too),



with the first movement's initial four measures in the most famous of his four Sonatas in C Major, that being K. 545 (c. 1788).

Melodic solfege:

Do Mi Sol Ti Do Re Do La Sol Do Sol Fa Mi Fa Mi

Harmony:

I V43 I IV64 I V6 I



We play the whole movement as a shining example of sonata form.

A (Exposition) B (Development) A' (Recapitulation

with subdivisions

a (first theme) transition b (second theme) codetta development a' trans' b' coda

harmonically as

I V development IV (more typically I) I



Also a little Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Piano Sonata in A for a sense of the early fortepiano (or is that pianoforte?).



And the journey home, now that the rains have (at least temporarily) stopped?


Benicia Bridge, with the hill beyond reminiscent of Tamalpais,


Parrish Hill against the clouds,


the north slope of the South Lagoon Mountains



and the south slope of the North Lagoon Mountains (seemingly always mountians, and how's that for balance?),


and let's not forget Hume Way in Vacaville.


Who knew Central Californian exurbanites were so conversant with the English empiricist (1711-1776, died just as they were mixing it up in America),


to say nothing of the Tao?


Or is that Wyoming?

Take that, David and


Lao-tzu and


Chuang-tzu, and, O.K.,


Wild Bill (the old one


and, O.K., even this one -- over the hills),

And this, speaking of California natives, here are the recordings of



Op 155 FLYING MIXES: III. Flying Out the Mouth (Yurok Women's Brush Dance) and



IV. The Woman From the Sky (Creek Gar Dance)