Another day of Psalm 30: Part II editing, with the weather a bit cooler, concentrating deskside on getting a slightly belated October 2010 issue of 21st-Century Music up and running (with Tom Moore's delightful interview of Alex Shapiro -- we immediately become friends on Facebook), three dining adventures with Harriet, and the day's videos, finishing up Two and a Half Pieces with III. Recapitulation (first use of cutaway in Imovie, plus taking a turn at picture-in-picture), and beginning some for
Some Stuff with III. The Angry Flutist. Discover, quite accidentally and surreally, that Twelve Preludes and Fugues ("Topical") has been picked up by four other video sites --
World News, Witty Sparks,
Apni Community, and Lux Info News -- and that
Animal Farm: Donkeys has hit 400 Views, particularly by folks from India...
SAN FRANCISCO COMPOSERS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Mark Alburger, Music Director
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
8pm, Saturday, September 25, 2010, Old First Church, San Francisco, CA Mark Alburger and John Kendall Bailey, conducting
Program
Lisa Scola Prosek Piano Sonata
Jorge Liderman Flautando
Michael Cooke Love Letters I. GAC II. Minerva's Dance
Mark Alburger Animal Farm: Grand Zoological Fantasy-Variations Part 1 - In Cold Blood I. Wasps II. Flies III. Spiders IV. Crabs V. Sharks VI. Frogs VII. Turtles VIII. Snakes
Intermission
Loren Jones Banyan I. River II. Forest III. Desert
Terry Riley In C
***
Begin editing Psalm 29, then off toward the Vaca Mountains, to get the requisite buzz-cut, adjacent to
intriguing enterprises,
swinging
by
print shop to prepare Animal Farm for tonight's performance, then homeward for Harriet, who will be narrator in same. Poetic superscriptions are
The Wasp Ogden Nash
The wasp and all his numerous family I look upon as a major calamity. He throws open his nest with prodigality, But I distrust his waspitality.
The Fly William Blake
Little Fly, Thy summer's play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away.
Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me?
For I dance And drink, and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life And strength and breath And the want Of thought is death;
Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die.
A Noiseless Patient Spider Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Strayed Crab Elizabeth Bishop
This is not my home. How did I get so far from water? It must be over that way somewhere. . . .
The Maldive Shark Herman Melville
About the Shark, phlegmatical one, Pale sot of the Maldive sea, The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim, How alert in attendance be. From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw, They have nothing of harm to dread, But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank Or before his Gorgonian head; Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth In white triple tiers of glittering gates, And there find a haven when peril's abroad, An asylum in jaws of the Fates! They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey, Yet never partake of the treat -- Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull, Pale ravener of horrible meat.
The Frogs Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A Pool was once congeal'd with frost; The frogs, in its deep waters lost,
No longer dared to croak or spring; But promised, being half asleep, If suffer'd to the air to creep,
As very nightingales to sing.
A thaw dissolved the ice so strong,-- They proudly steer'd themselves along, When landed, squatted on the shore, And croak'd as loudly as before.
The Turtle Ogden Nash
The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks Which practically conceal its sex. I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile.
What the Rattlesnake Said Vachel Lindsay
The moon's a little prairie-dog. He shivers through the night. He sits upon his hill and cries For fear that I will bite.
The sun's a broncho. He's afraid Like every other thing, And trembles, morning, noon and night, Lest I should spring, and sting.
15 minutes before the show, the place is filling up (always a good sign), and the concert goes very well, returning for the evening's Twelve Preludes and Fugues ("Topical") videos --
Finish editing Psalm 28 (four pages total) and head to the city for the dress rehearsal, at Old First Presbyterian Church, of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra Animal, Vegetable, Mineral show, including Lisa Scola Prosek's Sonata, Michael Cooke's Love Letters, Mark Alburger's
Animal Farm: A. Cold-Blooded
Jorge Liderman's Flautando,
Loren Jones's Banyan, and
Terry Riley's In C. Home for more video madness with Twelve Preludes and Fugues ("Topical")...
A leisurely morning with Harriet, plus two more videos for Mary Variations, being VIII. Salieri Mary and
IX. Mary Rag, another page of Psalm 22 (14), and printing up the parts for Animal Farm: Part 1. In Cold Blood at Staples (slightly cheaper and more service oriented than at formerly-known-as-Kinkos, the latter where they now have several "Kinkos Inside" signs in the spirit of Intel -- perhaps they've finally learned the value of the original name, albeit probably too late). After this, we head to the city, finding, at last,the Getty Grant waiting for us in the Goat Hall mailbox... Hallelujah! Then off to Loren's to drop off the parts for AF: P1. ICB + Terry Riley's In C and to Suzanna Mizell's likewise re the Job score. Beyond, Harriet and I swing south to South San Francisco, dining late at a Mexican spot, then north via the coast, Marin, Sonoma, and home for a relaxing late evening together, to the strains of Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Very late, discover all of the Philip Glass Koyaanisqatsi and Powwaqatsi video files on YouTube and post as two new playlists on the DrMarkAlburger channel.
Begin videos for Mary Variations, Op. 28 (1985), with I. Pentatonic Mary and
II. Mary Raga Kalyam, bestow the first quiz upon the Theoreticians, then make for
Alameda and
Marin, for a first fall-semester 2010 session at Celia's (all A's on the quizzes -- always a good sign), checking the post box with several financial greetings, then
north to
Petaluma for a second and final walk on
Lakeville Road,
east
out
of
town
to
Casa Grande north, now with only this stretch from here to
Sonoma Mountain Road to finish up the walk from the Coast to the Sierra.
Returning via 116,
12 (through Sonoma
and
Napa
in
plenteous
traffic),
and
80,
there are the last two pages of Symphony No. 2 and another of Psalm 22c (11) to edit, and more parts to print out for Animal Farm.
Mark Alburger (b. 1957, Upper Darby, PA) is an award-winning, eclectic ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities. He is Music Director of San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Cabaret Opera / Goat Hall Productions, Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music (P.O. Box 2842 San Anselmo, CA 94960) and New Music, Music Critic for Commuter Times, and Instructor in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College. His principal teachers were Gerald Levinson, Joan Panetti, and James Freeman at Swarthmore College (B.A.); Jules Langert and Ted Blair at Dominican University (M.A.); Roland Jackson at Claremont University (Ph.D.); and Terry Riley. Dr. Alburger has composed 181 major works over the past 35 years, including chamber music, concertos, oratorios, operas, song cycles, and symphonies. His complete catalogue is being issued on discs from New Music ($15 / P.O. Box 2842, San Anselmo, CA 707-474-7273).
YouTube/DrMarkAlburger,
markalburger.blogspot.com,
markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, markalburgermusichistory.blogspot. com, 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com
