January 31 - Sex and the Staging

It's almost February, so it's time to start staging Sex and the Bible: The Opera (Part I), with Lucifer (Marilyn Pratt), Adam (Robert Benda), Eve (Kim Anderman), Maria (Serpent),



God of Creation (Liz Finkler),




Cain (Liz), Abel (Marilyn),



Noah (Nanette McGuinness), Noah's Wife (Kim), a crowd of sinners (Maria, Nathan Marken,



Indre Viskontas, and



Crystal Philippi),



the Triune God of the Chester Mystery Cycle (Marilyn, Liz, and Theresa),



Abraham (Robert), Sarah (Kim),



Hagar (Maria),



God of the Covenant (Marilyn), Lot (Nathan), and Lot's Wife (Theresa), plus God of Abraham (Indre), the Angels of Life and Death (Crystal and Liz), Lot's Daughters (Marilyn and Nanette), and a crowd of Sodomites (Indre, Kim, Theresa, and Maria). Fine progress for today.



Before,



it's another page (16) composed for Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus,



after, preparation-for-publication of same for Psalm 4.

January 29 - Mysterious Plans

Beth is over for a Sex and the Bible production meeting with Harriet and moi, and we decide on a color scheme of black, white, metallic, pinks, and purples -- keeping to the notion of stripper poles and adding the possibility of tent-like banners.



Afterwards, design a postcard for the production, do another Mills Graduate Music recommendation (now for Cindy Collins -- she and Rachel are applying to different programs...), mail off same at post office and purchase stamps for the current and back issues of the Journal, compose through page 15 of Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus, and do through the same interval for the publication-preparation of Psalm 4.

January 26 - Chopin Wood Caravaggio Water

Compose fifth page of Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus, and begin creating a back-up for the Music History (markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com) text by taking computer snapshots of the site (the "Grab" function in the MacBook), placing the resulting tiff files in a landscape word document, re-saved as a pdf, to be shown in the slideshow mode -- and pleased to find that the process can be done fairly quickly, such that three chapters / blog-entries are done before departing for Diablo.

Sure enough, the Internet connection at schule is dicey again (ethernet doesn't seem to be up, and the wireless is its notoriously slow self -- at least from this perspective), so the new resource comes in handy.

First dictation -- three bars of high C's in progressively longer durations in 4/4 -- and musical words and retrogrades on the boards, which are played.

Long lunch at China Garden: generous portions, reasonable price in the new draconian reality, power for the PC substitute, internet access. More of the website back-up, helping Crystal P. navigate the markalburgerworks.blogspot.com site via phone, and logistics re the St. Mary's concert (alas we are frozen out of Mahler/Adams and go with a backup of Schumann/Zemlinsky, which will work).

Evening class has again c. 70 hopefuls (30 beyond the official cap of 40), but cumulative faculty wisdom has determined that all cannot be accepted, so only enrolled students are allowed seats, with perspectives standing about. The classroom door is (pretty much) secured, roster is called quickly (a decided departure, as this is usually done to the accompaniment of video at a leisured pace, allowing for various musical asides as appropriate), a determination is made that there are 15 available extra seats beyond enrollment, and the rest are bade a fair farewell.

Sometimes a few hours changes everything, and the ethernet connection is blazing by now, so we proceed through the introductory material (somewhat capriciously styled as Prehistoric Music) apace.

Quiz for next week is

Music Notation

C Major Scale
C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 (8)
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Five Ways of Producting Sound

Aerophone - Wind
Idiophone - Solid-Body
Membranophone - Drum
Chordophone - String
Electrophone - Electricity

Listening Identification/Description

Richard Strauss - Thus Spake Zarathustra: I. Introduction
Alan Hovhaness - Symphony No. 50 ("Mt. St. Helens"): III
Tanzania - Zaramo - Mitamba
California - Yurok - Women's Brush Dance


Out late with the usual suspects over economical coffee and other libations, at a place with ample video monitors; then home for page 5 score-preparation of Psalm 4.

January 25 - Beginning Somewhere

And another semester at Diablo Valley College begins, with the perilous journey past



Mt. Diablo to the often perilous



parking lot, greeting



veteran Theoreticians (including Oren and




Nate) to



Music



Theory!



First session at Boards 1



2



3 and



4 (with a few corrections to be made, clearly) will be played tomorrow in class. No video today, and no keys in the Baldwin, much to our surprise (Chris was to have replaced the latter, but, tragically, his mother has passed away and he is detained) -- so, after our session, Doug heads out to replace a cord for the former (life in the music department often centering around cords and chords), while I look over the lab writing the fourth page of Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus. Detour to Berkeley thereafter to drop off the March 2010 issue of 21st-Century Music for printing (also online at 21st-centurymusic.com and 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com), then,



via Pinole, home through heavy traffic to Harriet, more reorganization of the iTunes library (through Opus 100), more measures of Psalm 4 prepared for publication, and post all the Tritone audio for Sex and the Bible: The Opera (Part I) from



Abraham and Isaac through



Amazing Joseph at markalburgerworks.blogspot.com to honor requests from our new singers Theresa Nelson and Crystal Philippa.

January 24 - Sex and the Photo Shoot

Photo shoot and rehearsal of Sex and the Bible today -- everyone looks and sounds great, and wonderful to have Theresa Nelson and Crystal Philippa join us, with roles shaking out as



Mark Alburger
Lot / Old Abraham / Old Isaac / Laban / Onan / Ruben / Hamor / Hirah / Joseph's Pharaoh

Kimberley Anderman
Eve / Noah's Wife / Sarah / Sodomite / Rachel

Robert Benda
Adam / Ham / Young Abraham / Sodomite / Young Isaac / Jacob

Elizabeth Finkler
God of Adam / Cain / Abraham's Pharaoh / Angel of Death / Abimelech / Zilpah / Judah / Levi

Nanette McGuiness
Noah / Midwife II / Lot's Younger Daughter / Dinah

Maria Mikheyenko
Snake / Hagar / Sodomite / Leah / Er

Theresa Nelson
God of Noah / Midwife III / Ishmael / Sodomite / Lot's Wife / Esau / Bilhah / Simeon / Joseph / Townsperson

Crystal Philippi
Midwife IV / Angel of Life / Hivite / Benjamin / Tamar

Marilyn Pratt
Lucifer / Abel / God of Abraham / Midwife I / Lot's Older Daughter / Shechem

Indre Viskontas
God of Lot / Rebekkah / Prostitute / Potiphar's Wife



We rehearse Abraham and Isaac (first time completely, reintroducing the Circumcision and Sacrifice selections) and Israel in Trouble sections during the basic 1-4 time slot (which included time out for the photo shoot at the beginning) and continue with Amazing Joseph with most of us in the extra 4-5 hour.

From 5-6, do most of the work re the poster, deciding on the litho feature in Photosmart, then rendezvous with



Harriet for the Daily Planet benefit, where



Eliza (whose mother, the paper's co-owner, is also having her birthday) is part of the



entertainment (Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata, and Georges Bizet - Carmen excerpts, among others), appreciated by



Ken Bullock (Daily Planet and Commuter Times correspondent), Adam Broner (Piedmont Post critic, Antigone singer, and set designer), et al. Upon return, finish the poster, send to cast (along with upcoming schedule and contacts) and Meghan Dibble for the Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco Cabaret Opera website, put material re Sex and the Bible at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, and prepare for publication an additional sheet of Psalm 4. Before, managed a third page of composition for Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus.

January 21 - Ramp to the Future

More orchestration of Psalm 3 and composition re Vespers of 2010: I. Deus in adjutorium (page 4) before the driving rain from here to the west exit of 24, south to



Pleasant Hill Road, and thence to



St.



Mary's,



first to visit the




business



office and



on




to




Syufy Hall to meet with



Jia and




Rebecca re Perceiving the Performing Arts.




The order of presentations will be theatre, dance, music, which will allow the benefit of experience, and hopefully the group attendance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Davies in early May, offering Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 and music of John Adams.

The return is via Diablo Valley College to record



MAGNIFICAT, Op. 86 (2000)

VII. Fecit potentiam (Chorus)

VIII. Deposuit (Tenor Aria)

IX. Esurientes (Alto Aria)

X. Suscepit Israel (Soprano, Alto, Tenor Trio)

XI. Sicut locutus est (Soprano, Alto, Tenor Trio, Chorus)

XII. Gloria Patri (Chorus)

and



PSALMS, Op. 172

Psalm 1

Home to compose page 5 of Vespers: I. Deus.