Showing posts with label Harriet March Page. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harriet March Page. Show all posts

Sunday, March 30, 2008

March 30 - The Journey Out


Time to leave the Vaca Mountains and English Hills again, at least for awhile,



turning and getting on I-80, the northside of the Lagoon Mountains as a bumpy dark green horizon,


the south side of the Poverty Hills starting to sere out against rogue cumuli.


Harriet's driving, so I get to take slightly better pictures than normal of some of the 680 sights, including Long Barn and its backing fingers of vegetated canyons reaching up to the Sulfur Springs summits,


Eden,


the Hovel Hills,


and Horse Farm



On beyond, approaching cloudier conditions near Orinda,



up to


and through the Caldecott Tunnel



for another rehearsal of Antigone: III-V and San Rafael News at Berkeley's Chamber Arts with Eliza, Kristin, Beth, and Janet;



then to the City for a brief practice with John Partridge, checking the Goat Hall mail, dropping the PHNH key off with Erling, lunching in the chill of Connecticut Yankee, and checking out the Phoenix Theatre near Union Square (an interesting 49-seat venue six floors up in the Native Sons Building) -- ultimately heading to Marin, approaching the Rainbow Tunnel



through the 101 Headlands Canyon,


down the Waldo Grade with Mt. Tam rising.


Stopping at the Strawberry Starbucks yields views north to Horse Hill,



west to an outlying eminence in greater Mill Valley,



and south back to Marin City and the highlands beyond.



It's Symphony night, but we're early, so we take our leisure by driving the long way around China Camp, three-quarters circling San Pedro Mountain,



past the Brick Yard,



to the heroic viewpoint at Rat Island Cove, where Mt Burdell looks great



at any distance.


So does the isle itself


(just offshore of the picnic area),


a spot of singularity,


as distinctive a presence as the shadowy Turtleback beyond.


We arrive at the Civic Center, with Frank Lloyd Wright's singular spire,


and views of the north slope of San Pedro Mountain (across from the druid-circle-flowers of the duck pond's artificial island),


the eccentric light sculpture in the round-about (one assumes Frank Lloyd Wright's own?), and


Mt. Tam glowing in the half-light beyond the parking lot.


Concert is fine (and in color, live) and will be reviewed tomorrow, appearing in Commuter Times this Friday, and excerpts at 21st-centurymusic.com and 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com.


Page 4 of Variations on Americana orchestrated upon return.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

March 20 - Mystery Be Wrought


Harriet and I at leisure, watching Jesse Stone: Sea Change, with surprisingly good photography, for an athletic adventure, then writing up Anton Webern for markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com and we're off to Napa yet again on this



Maundy



Thursday of vacation week... unquestionably Holy Week...



The seemingly requisite shot of the Wine Guy, perhaps attempting to increase the Passover supply --



which brings to mind Op. 55 The Passion According to St. Matthew: II. Where Will You Go?, here in a rustic instrumental rendition, soon to be over at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com.










First it's back to Dry Creek Road, with stately palms as part of three distinct Northern California transplanted residential tree groups --


eucalyptus, redwood, and palm --


all grander than


the not-quite-a-mansion


which they shelter.


Past the spire


of the local Mormon ward (its lower roof nicely compromised by the gentle arc of the Vaca Mountians),


a path of the preserved open space opens up (and it is at this point that the melody to Vocal Sonatina No. 2 ["Vatsyayana"]: I. Introductory appears),


with oaks and a stump


squinting in and


arboreally eclipsing the disc of the rabid sun.


Back and


beyond, Castle Peak


framed;


the rise of the upland toward the outland Mayacamas;



a dragon aloft and



all


there is.


All that's left is a taste of local vintage


with the Napa sized-bottle and white-shirt brigade.



Back home on this first full rebirthing day of Spring,


the music and words of first movement Vatsyayana, the latter much reduced from yesterday -- mostly whole notes to be performed freely; and, unlike accompaniment, G Dorian/Lydian/Minor mix.

Lord of Beings
Do Me Do Te

men and women
La Le Me Do

Dharma
Do Me Mi

Artha
Sol Fi Me Re

Kama
Do Me Do Te La Le

Kama
Do Me Mi

Sutra
Do Me Mi Sol Te Do

Vatsyayana
Do Me Do Te

composed his work
La Le Me Do

small volume
Do Me Mi

as an abstract
Sol Fi Me Re

of the whole
Do Me Do Te La Le Me Do