October 31 - Towards the Dark

More voice-leading for the Theoreticians: Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms: II, with the altered Please Mr. Postman progression -- I-iv-IV-(ii) -- as a series of chords related by two common tones each.  Also that same composer's West Side Story: Cool and John Cage's Sonata No. 5 in video presentations, plus general Week 11 review (Olivier Messiaenic Octatonic Whole-Step / Half-Step and Half-Step / Whole-Step Scales, C Blues Scales in Lydian and Dorian manifestations, and the Richard Berry Louie Louie C: I-IV-V in characteristic rhythmic figures, twice through).

Return

to

grade papers, but fall woefully short again, with Harriet arriving near upon re-leaving, back to the scene of the action on this Halloween Eve, where attendance is nonetheless pretty impressive in the evening class -- not an historically strong East Asian tradition, after all...

We proceed, with fairly alarming music aplenty, from Alban Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra and Wozzeck to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, looking ahead to

20th-Century Music III.

Write a Four-Note Non-Scale Passage:
Forwards (Prime) (a scale example would be ABCD )
Backwards (Retrograde) (DCBA)
Upside-Down (Inversion) (AGFE)
Backwards Upside-Down (Retrograde-Inversion) (EFGA)

Idealized Instrumentation in Three Styles of Jazz:

Dixieland (New Orleans Style):

1-2 Clarinet(s)
1-2 Trumpet(s)
Trombone
Banjo
Piano
Tuba / Bass
Drums

Swing (Big Band):
4-5 Saxophones
4-5 Trumpets
4-5 Trombones
Guitar
Piano
Bass
Drums

Bebop:
Sax
Trumpet
Trombone
Guitar
Bass
Drums

Listening:
[8900] Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring: II. Allegro
[8901] Harry Partch - U.S. Highball
[8903] Joe Garland - In the Mood
[8906] Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5: I
[8908] Olivier Messiaen - Turangalila Symphony: IV
[8912] John Cage - Sonata No. 5


***

Home late, beginning the composition of Double Piano Concerto: II and continuing that of The Decameron - Third Day: Novel IV (page 12) and the pdf for Lot in Life: IV. Lothario (2).

October 30 - Early Rewards

 
Receive three messages (two phones with an intervening text), and by the third, launch into to action to substitute for Brett Peppo in his Music Literature class. 

So, out the door in spectacularly clear --

near

dramatically

foggy --

conditions,

down

the

scenic

680

corridor

to

the

environs

of Diablo Valley College,

simply administering a quiz. 

After this,

there's time to experience the end of Joyce Pricco's Vocal Workshop,

before Theory, where we take in a few minutes each of Harry Partch's Barstow, Richard Rodgers's The Sound of Music: Do-Re-Mi, Joe Garland's In the Mood, and Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Turangalila Symphony, and a birdcall lecture.  Dictation and Board Harmony follow on Jester Hairston's Elijah Rock, followed by accompanying

Carol to Victoria's Secret

and

Elephant Bar,

for more wonderful times.

Return

through

similar scenecronicity to finish the

Troubadour Songs (Seven Troubadours) cycle with I. William IX of Aquitain - "Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh" (9 pages total), continuing the composition of The Decameron - Third Day: Novel IV (page 11) and beginning the pdf for Lot in Life: IV. Lothario -- much of this over dinner and videos with Harriet and Marek.

October 29 - Progressions

With Hurricane Sandy making landfall in New Jersey, call Bette and George, Sorrel Ann, and Crystal to see how all are faring.  Locally, Week 11 for the Theoreticians, Chord Cycles, but beginning Voice-Leading early, with Richard Rodgers's The Sound of Music: Do-Re-Mi for Dictation, Keyboard-Solfege, and Board Harmony.

Returning speedily, rendezvous with Harriet for an afternoon of congeniality, heading out again later on multiple errands including

the return of the new earbuds (Apple has perfected the art of planned obsolescence),

supply runs

to three 

enterprises, and

further troubadour

research

at

U.C. Davis.

Desperately in need of the Provencal words to William IX of Aquitaine's Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh and the translation of Bertran de Born's Rassa tan creis, find all the volumes used last time not reshelved (a persuasive argument for the usual behavior in this regard, in explicably ignored in the recent past) and further volumes either not helpful or present.

Finally, do an end run to the wilds of the back fourth floor, into the literature section at last locating both (will have to make do, however, with the suspect version of WIXA, since no other variants are forthcoming).

Return -- finding, for the first time in the 12 years at this residence, Halloweeny decorations, courtesy of Marek --  to compose the Bertran Rassa: 11 pages, through-composed, perhaps the least-likely setting thus far, and recording all with the Garishtone Ensemble.  Somewhere in here, composition of The Decameron - Third Day: Novel IV (page 10) and pdf re Lot in Life: III Parking's Lot's Wife (concluding this, with 8 pages total).

October 28 - Panorama Into Shadow

 2/3 of the way through preparting the print version of 21st-Century Music, November 2012 -- plus composition of The Decameron - Third Day: Novel IV -"Dom Felice Has a Good Time with Fra Puccio's Wife" (9) and pdf for Lot in Life: III (page 7).

Following this

off with Harriet, down 80

680 through Solano

and

Contra Costa,

24, and

580 --

picking Tisha up enroute,

to the monthly Goat Hall Productions

board meeting

at

Zoli's, during which time the Giants win their Series. Upon return, compose Troubadour Songs: VII. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras - "Kalenda Maya" (5 pages total, recording same).