February 3 - Rise & Fall of Roaming Empiricist

Up early to Diablo Valley College to record instrumental version of the interior part of Camino Real: Block 12, for the Horsewomen of the Apocalypse: The White Horse show, 8pm, February 16 at St. Gregory of Nyssa (500 De Haro Street, SF - goathall.org)


Doug's in the lab, grading Assignment 1 for Music 173. Well I remember it, recording Antigone: 10 Come On Now, Miss with haunted-house wind and chains,


(above are Mark Alburger, Guard III; David Saslav, Guard II [obscured], Leticia C. Page, Antigone; Robert Benda, Guard I).

Jump in the car, through the Caldecott Tunnel,

over Bay Bridge to San Francisco,


for rehearsal with Suzanna,

who continues to make a great Curley's Wife, vocally and dramatically, in Mice Suite No. 2, which we have determined will use the orchestral tracks after all.

Also go over Camino: 12 -- surreal to have finally recorded it, after Karl's excellent recording -- and "June's Song," from Henry Miller in Brooklyn (here's Jennifer Ashworth, below, from the showcase performances, pre the run, with more pictures at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, and the overture to same at the ilike spot).


Cold, bluster day in SF, with random huge dark clouds and rain spritzes (contrary to some of the sunny pictures above), so it's time to head home, the weather still looming over the English Hills beyond the Chevron in the near environs.


Check in with Harriet, and all's well in Seattle, particularly with Tisha's recital (we certainly still miss having her down here on a regular basis).


Finish preparation of the March 2008 21ST-CENTURY MUSIC (soon to appear at 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com and, one would hope, eventually at 21st-centurymusic.com, as well as print version from P.O. Box 2842, San Anselmo, CA) for final proofing this week. Cover references Frederic Rzweski


The Fall of the Empire.

January 28 - Off We Go Again

A big sun in Lynch Canyon, just in case any northern Californians have forgotten what it looks like (the sun, that is; the canyon is easy to miss on the right as one blips along I-80 in the Sulfur Springs Mountains, heading toward San Francisco).

Up very early, preparing page 4 of Mice and Men: Act V, C "Jus' feel that hair" for publication.

Then it's off to Diablo Valley College, racing past the Suflur Springs again, now on I-680, clouds hovering over the hills (higher than the draped fog below),

vaulting over the Benicia Bridge (n.b. new span not shown),


to DVC, with its parking-lot view of Mount Diablo.


All's well in Theory (the Music Building is the circular structure just below the pond -- a nice place to teach!),


with a dictation on the Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1582 or 1592 until 1635) Three Blind Mice (1609), not exactly as below, and certainly without all those extraneous flags, last eighth, and protracted last measure...


Keyboard-solfege for the week is the Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)


Ode to Joy (the simplified C-major version, melody only) from the Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") (1824).


Scales/modes are D Dorian (treble clef),


D Minor,
and


(played on keyboard while singing solfege).

Bit of conducting in simple and compond meters, and we harmonize Three Blind as if early organum,

at the P4.

Retrograde, past the Sulfur Springs Mountains again,

the distant Twin Sisters beckoning,


I start three more blogs at

21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com

markalburgerworks.blogspot.com

and

markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com