February 28 - Time Warp Again

After morning fun and games, it's Quiz 7 in Theory, with excerpts drawn from late Baroque through early Romanticism, including works of J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach (above,


(his Solfeggietto, with its reverse use of C harmonic minor in beats 3-4 of measure 2), W.A. Mozart, and Franz Gruber,


plus Frederic Chopin's Prelude in B Minor.



Might be auspicious here to compare above with XV. Chopin from Op. 107 Out on the Porch.



And let's just throw another movement from same in there: XVI. Family Myth (based on Muddy Waters's Hoochie Coochie Man)



And since we're troping along here, how about XIII. Left-Handed Pisces (auspicious number, appropriately enough, derived from George Crumb's Pisces from Makrokosmos, Volume I)




Return home to reload, then blasting to SF via I-80, past the nipply Buckhorn Mountain,


the sinuous northeast quadrant of the Sulfur Springs Mountains...

(writing this at rehearsal, which just ended -- heading home, will continue there...)


...with its precipitous slopes,


rills, and rolling savannas;


the anomalous St. John Mine Hill Farm;


and the jump-off of Vallejo Cliffs.


Then it's over the still-relatively-new Carquinez (Zampa) Bridge,


by Crockett,


Refinery Canyon,


the long marches of housing at Hercules,


and a couple of herculean highrises -- at Albany Hill,


and Emeryville (plus a 9/12 threatening seagull -- although actually heading away),


with details


downright abstract.


Ahead, George Lucas's loading-dock-cranes-inspiration for the Imperial Walkers,


through Yerba Buena Tunnel over the suspension section of the Bay Bridge,


with views of a distant Mount Tamalpais;


a closer, spotty San Francisco;


and the foggy spine of the city, somewhat obscured by that alarming new tower.


A man searches for housing, out of reach in the metaphorical billboard,


as Potrero Hill looms up beyond I-280,


to the exit at 18th Street.


And here we are, cresting the hill at 19th and Texas, looking West to Sutro Tower, with Goat Hall in silhouette to the south (left),


but on we go, looking south at 20th and Connecticut,


ending up at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.


The view north is impressive and so is the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra rehearsal -- with pictures over at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com as of March 1.

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)