October 21 - And Zen What Happened

Edits for page 7 of Psalm 33, and some of The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) organized by composer on iTunes (it takes some Wikipedia'ing to sort it all out, including a fascinating account of the 1968 North Indian / Himalayan Foothills sojourn). Quiz 10 for the Theoreticians eventually, with examples drawn from the works of George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, Sergei Prokofiev, and Anton Webern (whoops, forgot to do 12-tone music -- oh well... next week...).


The jump to Marin is under uncertain skies, grading papers at Celia's, doing the requisite errands, and heading north somewhat


circuitously in slightly clearing conditions, to a serendipitous walk from



Petaluma Hill Road



to the



Roberts Road bend



(part of the cross-California endeavor,



now splitting the cismontane remainder to bits north



and



south of here), then another wander homeward, finishing up videos for



Deploration Passacaglias (Op. 43) as XXIII. Bernstein and beginning those for



History Phases (Op. 153) with I. Turkey - Epitaph of Seikilos.

October 20 - Hold That Smile

Psalm 33 edited through page 6 and no more videos favorited on YouTube -- evidently once one reaches 650, that's it... no more favorites. Well, there'll be a workaround, but meanwhile there is more favoritism, with video clips of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida: Triumphal Entry, Giuseppe Verdi's Carmen: Habanera, Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring: Tableau II (again via Disney), Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera: The Ballad of Mac the Knife, and Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, with the latter's main-character theme for dictation, board harmony, and keyb0ard-solfege. Quick run to the bookstore for coffee re Doug et al, then more embedding of Rock History items -- particularly Soul.



The evening's class runs from James Brown and Elvis Presley right up to John Lennon, looking towards more


60's Rock next week. File in iTunes all of The Beatles' Yesterday and Today and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by actual composer (i.e. respective contributions by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), plus contemplate videos for Deploration Passacaglias: XXI. Shostakovich (top) and



XXII. Britten.

October 19 - The Hills Are Allied

Page 5 of Psalm 33 edited, and more videos favorited on YouTube, until the time comes to proceed past the Vaca Mountains, English Hills, et al., to Diablo Valley College and Part II of the Kurt Weill Threepenny Opera: Ballad of Mac the Knife dictation / board-harmony, plus more wondrous student compositions.


The seemingly typical Tuesday-at-Elephant-Bar-grading-papers follows, then back for more of same and



evening Music Literature class from William Billings to Frederic Chopin, with leaps ahead for Giuseppe Verdi, Gustav Mahler, Scott Joplin, and greetings from Maria, Ben Abar, and Kamo.



Home to embed videos for tomorrow night's Rock History class, and think about videos for



Deploration Passacaglias: XIX. Stravinsky and



XX. Weill.

October 17 - Serious Dancing

Home all day with Harriet, for some quality time, also Psalm 33 page 3 edited, plus videos of Deploration Passacaglias: XV. Wagner and



XVI. Brahms.

October 15 - Deserted, Haunted

Harriet's out and about while the beginning editing of Psalm 33 takes place, followed by her return and videos for Deploration Passacaglias: XI. Schubert and



XII. Berlioz.

October 13 - Explosive Findings

Third page of Psalm 32, a DVC explique of early 20th-century music techniques -- specifically Claude Debussy, Scott Joplin, Igor Stravinsky (the atonal folks eventually) -- and brilliant student compositions. After class, Bruce Cook asks me to substitute for three more Monte Bairos classes tomorrow -- following a bit of hesitation, this is accepted, and the rest of the afternoon is spent (after a bookstore run for lunch) with more Music History blog updates and embeddings, with the new evening History of Rock class going pleasantly/smoothly in its second installment, from Chuck Berry to Elvis Presley, with a quiz on roughly the same




next week.

(N.B. re above:

Monophonic - One line of music, strictly performed
Heterophonic - One line of music, freely performed
Polyphonic - More than one line; lines of roughly equal importance
Homophonic - More than one line; one line more important than the others)



Home late, and yet still cannot settle down right away, so something like videos for Deploration Passacaglias: VII. Bach and



VIII. Handel are done.

October 12 - View from the Fridge

Second page of Psalm 32 edited, then Diablo Valley College for dictation / board-harmony on the finale to Igor Stravinsky's Firebird (piano reduction in C rather than B), lunch and paper-grading at Elephant Bar, back to the over-air-conditioned classroom (the warm outside beckoning) to embed more videos on the Music History blog, then evening Music Literature class from Johann Fux (watch that pronunciation and spelling!) to F.J. Haydn -- leaping ahead to W.A. Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, and



beyond. Stay up way late embedding more videos for tomorrow's night class and also work on the moving pictures for



Deploration Passacaglias: V. Purcell and



VI. Couperin.

October 11 - Sunset, Sunset

Begin editing Psalm 32 -- a minimalist, rock-latin take on Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 2, orchestration inspired by Claude Debussy's on 3, which he called 1... got it? With this in mind, proceed to DVC for dictation / board-harmony / keyboard-solfege on Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, record



Psalm 31



in the lab (with Doug updating "permissions" on the laptop), and proceed to the Walnut Creek



Apple Store, where it seems like enough tests are run and software updates installed such that maybe -- just maybe -- the computer won't spontaneously shutdown further...



Return in the fading light to produce videos for



Deploration Passacaglias: III. Susato and



IV. Schutz, plus embed classical videos on the markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com site.

October 10 - Skeletons Everywhere

Well, at least the weather's beautiful, part II. Harriet off to the city to meet Vicki, while musical editing of Psalm 31, with the new Encore at least still behaving, is finished (10 pages total), and videos for Deploration Passacaglias: I. Ockeghem



and II. Josquin made, but, again, sometime during the early evening, computer screen goes black again. This time, at least, know the drill: turning it off at the source (despite the fact it sure looks off) then turning back on. Make an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow, and fitfully sleep with lingering cold very present.