After organizing some early 20th-century music video excerpts for Theory, leave in plenty of time, but a broken keychain leads to a misperception that the house key has been misplaced (in the spirit of Dorothy Gale from Kansas, turns out the door could have been re-secured at any time). After losing time over this, encounter not one, but two freeway stoppages on the way -- try calling Jason, and two attempts later, the word may have gotten through, thanks to several assistants. Meanwhile, a strange wrong turn on a strange frontage road leads to further delay. Some things are not meant to be. Nevertheless, somehow make it only nine minutes late, and -- lo! -- the entire class is still there, in good spirits, patiently waiting. What a great group! We proceed post haste through a review of whole-tone scales and the turn-of-the-century-tinged progression IM7-I-I6-I64-V7-I64 (but neglect the Scott Joplin Entertainer keyboard-solfege, and probably the major / minor scales of the week), lateralling over to a look-see of the quiz, including audio-visual snippets of Igor Stravinsky's Firebird (Diabolic Dance and Finale), Petrushka (Russian Dance and Chez...), and The Rite of Spring (Introduction and Dances of the Adolescents) and a bit of conducting in 7/4. Imaginative student compositions follow, and the afternoon (with a high of 71 -- the seventh summer-like day of 2012) is spent again in the lab, finishing preparations to record Symphony No. 3 ("Recycled"): I.
Seems like a long time since a late afternoon commute has occurred,
and there is much scenic splendor past
Martinez Ridge,
Railroad and
Refinery
Hills,
Suisun Bay,
Sulfur Springs Mountains,
The Quarry,
The Suburbs,
Eden, Chinese Wall, Twin Sisters, Vaca Mountains,
a very distant Mt. Diablo,
Fairfield Foothills and
Pyramids, Poverty Hills, and
Lagoon Mountains --
all the way to an evening including pdf for the next Merton Songs page (43), and more composition of The Decameron (52, beginning First Day / Novel VI "A worthy man with an apt word puts to shame a friar minor) and Psalm 90 (11).
