March 4 - Again from the Heart

C Chromatic Scale

Ascending - C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Descending - C B Bb A Ab G Gb F E Eb D Db C


Typical Large Orchestra

Woodwinds
[4] Flutes
[4] Oboes
[4] Clarinets
[4] Bassoons

Brass
[4] Trumpets
[8] Horns
[3] Trombones
[1] Tuba

Percussion
Harp
Piano
Mallets
Battery
Timpani

Strings
[17] Violin I
[15] Violin II
[13] Viola
[11] Cello
[9] Bass


Listening

[8835] Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 4: III
[8838] Georges Bizet - Carmen: Habanera
[8839] Modest Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition: II. Gnomus (Gnomes)
[8840] Peter Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6: II
[8860] Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 1: III
[8866] Erik Satie - Gymnopedie No. 1

***

More

gloom,

eventually

attaining

the

proper

spot in the universe for bestowing upon the

elect, select Theoreticians Charles Ives's Variations on America: Spanish Variation for Dictation, Keyboard Solfege, and Board Harmony -- followed by following Owen's class.

Yet

more

darkness (yet certainly renewed greeness) up the 680 /

80

corridor,

and

clearly

(or rather, cloudily)

not without its

beauty.

Upon return, grade papers and prepare for the evening class,

which

happens

soon

enough,

through the Classic and Early Romantic periods.

Wrap up the day out with Owen, the Tims, and Sal --

before the

lights of midnight towards home, where a second page of 371 Chorale Cadences is composed.

March 3 - Happiness, Indeed

Happy 87th to the amazing George!  Raising a toast at a distance

with Harriet at Joe's Creekside in the evening.  On either side of this (while concluding an audit of the 2006 Metropolitan Richard Wagner Das Rheingold) begin 371 Chorale Cadences, Op. 223, after J.S. Bach.

Overcast,

no

rain

locally,

on

either

side 

of

the

Diablo Valley College

commute, where the Theoreticians deal with the C Chromatic Scale, Seventh Chords, and excerpts Frederic Chopin's 24 Piano Preludes for adventures in the Circle of Fifths, eventually focussing on No. 4 in E Minor.

Subdominant voice-leading in

Owen's class follows...

March 2 - Gold

Take in, with Harriet and Megan, a marvelous Metropolitan Opera production of Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold (1854 / 1990) -- fantastic and surreal -- while finishing

Abducted by Aliens, Op. 222

I. 1965 Gemini 7 Bogey
II. 214 BC Livy / 74 BC Plutarch
III. 1561 Celestial Phenomenon over Nuremberg
IV. 1897 Aurora, TX, UFO Incident
V.1944 Foo Fighters / 1947  Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting / Roswell UFO Crash
VI. 1948 Thomas Mantell / Gorman Dogfight
VII. 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter
VIII. 1957 Gordon Cooper / Antonio Villas-Boas / 1961 Betty and Barney Hill Abduction
IX. 1966 Portage County UFO Chase
X. 1973 Pascagoula Abduction / 1976 Tehran UFO Incident / 1986 Japan Air Lines

now in its entirety (a rocketting 89 pages, c. 15 minutes duration, the last movement mapped on Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose: IX and Gustav Holst's The Planets: VII. Neptune),

on

a

day

of

late-afternoon dramatic skies,

and just a bit more precipitation (though making a nicely palindromic 8.68 total since July 1, 2013)...

September 21 - 0.22
September 25 - 0.01
September 26 - 0.01
November 19 - 0.41
November 20 - 0.23
December 6 - 0.60
January 29 - 0.02
January 30 - 0.12
February 2 - 0.11
February 5 - 0.10
February 6 - 0.42
February 7 - 0.71
February 8 - 2.23
February 9 - 0.96
February 15 - 0.01
February 26 - 1.04
February 27 - 0.07
February 28 - 1.28
March 1 - 0.12
March 2 - 0.01

Ah, yes, also the 86th Academy Awards, where it is nice to see Gravity win for Steven Price's fine music, and ditto Alfonso Cuarón's direction.

March 1 - Viewed Over Time

Another

run

to

the

library for more video enrichment,

somehow managing to finish up composing

Abducted by Aliens: IX. 1966 Portage County UFO Chase (indebted to Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose: XIII, and perhaps a peale from Edgar Varese's Hyperprism and/or Ionisation), somehow concentrating against more multimedia, including

Peter Schickele[P.D.Q. Bach]'s Houston: We Have a Problem and

Peter Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty (1889 / 2006).  Again the rain, though not much, adding to the July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2014 rain year (8.67 total tod date), as below...

September 21 - 0.22
September 25 - 0.01
September 26 - 0.01
November 19 - 0.41
November 20 - 0.23
December 6 - 0.60
January 29 - 0.02
January 30 - 0.12
February 2 - 0.11
February 5 - 0.10
February 6 - 0.42
February 7 - 0.71
February 8 - 2.23
February 9 - 0.96
February 15 - 0.01
February 26 - 1.04
February 27 - 0.07
February 28 - 1.28
March 1 - 0.12