Zoom Wedding of Mark Alburger and Harriet March Page, under the auspices of Deputy Commisioner of Civil Marriages James Gilardi of the
Marin Civic Center, joined by family and friends, many of the latter associated with
Springfield High School (SHS - Pennsylvania, 1975) +
several of our musical groups, including
Goat Hall Productions (GHP, a.k.a. San Francisco Cabaret Opera) / Fresh Voices
(founded by Harriet in 1997 / 2000), and
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) & The Opus Project
(established by Mark, 2002 'n' 2013):
Flora Agharanya - Harriet's Niece
George, Bette, and Sorrel Alburger - Mark's Father, Mother, and Sister
Cliff Alburger and Summer - Mark's Son and Son's Friend
Hussein Al-Naswari and Mrs. Al-Naswari - Opus Project / SFCCO
John Beeman - GHP / SFCCO
Harry Bernstein - SFCCO / Opus
John Bilotta - GHP / SFCCO
Dorna Bullpitt - Harriet's Cousin
Paul Mooney and Carole Cloud - SHS / Opus
Michael Cooke - SFCCO
Martha Cooper - GHP
Allan Crossman - GHP / SFCCO / Opus
Nandu Jayakumar and Megan Cullen Jayakumar - GHP / SFCCO / Opus
Meghan Dibble - GHP
Owen Goldin - SHS
Don Gosnay - SHS
David Hodge - Mark's Cousin
Aldan Jenks - GHP
Corey Johnson - SFCCO / Opus
Michael and Edith Kimbell - GHP / SFCCO / Opus
Diana and Greg Landau - GHP
Miriam Lewis, Douglas Mandell, and Pan - GHP
Gene and Ronda Madrid - Harriet's Friends
Eliza O'Malley - GHP / Opus
Edna Harrison-Hilder and Kelly March - Harriet's Sister-in-Law and Niece
Cherie and Gary Mosier - Mark's Cousin and Cousin-in-Law
Megan Page - Harriet's Daughter
Nathan Palmer and Claire Izzy Palmer-Page - Harriet's Granddaughter and Son-in-Law
Carol Piatt - SHS
Lori Rubinson - Sorrel's Partner
Bob Satterford - GHP / SFCCO / Opus
Marijane Shapell - Mark's Cousin
Cathy Stout - Mark's Cousin
Bonnie Sweeney - Harriet's Cousin
Michelle Sullivan - GHP
Maria Tamariz - Harriet's Sister-in-Law
Ken Teore - SHS
Vickie - Megan's Friend
Gigi Walker - Harriet's Neice
Kat Walsh - SFCCO / Opus
Amy Weigelt - Mark's First Cousin Once Removed (i.e. Cousin's Daughter)
Marie Whittle - Mark and Harriet's Neighbor
Erling Wold - SFCCO
Wayne Wong - GHP
MARK:
So, we're starting this wonderful thing --
It's already recording, you're absolutely right, Cliff --
so we're going to start with the traditional wedding music, and
Harriet and I are going to do a modest procession.
So, we're going to do a screen share...
So, here we go, with the original [Richard] Wagner [Lohengrin (1850): Act III - Wedding March],
[Laughs] only 30 seconds or so...
HARRIET:
Nothing but the best!
MARK:
And we're going to process in. Here, ready?
[Richard Wagner (1813-1883) - Lohengrin (1850): Act III - Wedding March]
All right! [Applause] Well, thank you! Back to you, James!
JAMES:
So, we are gathered here for the purpose of uniting in marriage, Harriet and Mark.
Love, loyalty, and understanding are the foundation of a happy and enduring relationship. No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those you now assume. Do you both understnad that you will be lawfully wedded today?
HARRIET:
Yes.
MARK:
We do, yes.
JAMES:
At this point in the ceremony, the couple would like to take this moment to exchange a few personal words to one another.
HARRIET:
My hat is in my hand
as I humbly stand
before you
I anticipate no priviledge
that would be sacrilege
or bore you
I want to tell the truth
I love you.
[Kiss, cheer]
MARK:
OK, how wonderful!
The poet and singer, and the composer over here.
So, I have another screen share and we have to get it set up...
You know, Harriet and I have been together for 22 [slightly elongated a la Edwin London's Portraits of 3 Ladies (1967): I. Pocahontas] years, and
we've thought about doing something official on many occasions, including, for some reason,
last summer, and so I started a piece called
Palms to Pines Proposal, a short little thing, it's about as long as what we have... (traditionally I talk longer than the pieces are), but the
melody of the piece -- which you'll hear on harp,
because, I figure I don't want to spoil our wedding by singing
(you'll see on the left-hand side of the screen),
you'll see just a little note I wrote to Harriet -- and the
melody of this piece is based on some of Harriet's favorite melodies,
although they've been so sort-of-transmogrified that you probably won't recognize them,
including one of mine from
the four-opera quadrilogy The Ring of Harriet [Op. 142 (2006], and then the
background is from
Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain [(1867]].
So, here it is, all of 38 seconds...
[Mark Alburger (b. 1957) - Palms to Pines Proposal, Op. 353 (2021)
Oh Harriet!
It's been a delightful journey,
from the deserts to mountains!
Love always,
Mark]
[Kiss, applause]
Back to you, James.
JAMES:
The contract of marriage is most solemn and not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously, with a deep realization of its responsibilities and many joys.
Do you, Harriet, take Mark to be your lawful wedded spouse?
HARRIET:
I do.
JAMES:
And do you, Mark, take Harriet to be your lawful wedded spouse?
MARK:
I do.
JAMES:
You will be lawfully wedded to have and to cherish each other from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to honor and to love, in sharing your lives together.
Now that you have joined yourself in marriage, may you strive all your lives to meet this commitment with the same love and devotion that you now possess.
By virtue of the authority vested in me as a Deputy Commisioner of Civil Marriages for the County of Marin, State of California, I now pronounce you joined in marriage.
Congratulations.
[Kiss, applause, cheers]
SEVERAL:
Congratulations! About time!
MARK:
We didn't want to rush into anything!
HARRIET:
Thank you all for coming!
MARK:
James, thank you!
JAMES:
Mark and Harriet, I'm going to log off and register this document.
It will be waiting for you tomorrow when you come to get your certified copies.
If you have any questions along the way, please feel free to reach out to me.
MARK:
Let's give James a hand, too, because he's been great this whole time!
[Applause, cheers]
JAMES:
Congratulations! Enjoy the rest of your day!
MARK:
Thank you! All right!
BETTE:
That's amazing!
***
We continue the zoom with a reception, for a total duration of 1 1/2 hours (normally, the Marin Marriage Zooms only last an hour as they are often back-to-back, but the last of a day -- ours, at 2pm -- means that we can go on a bit longer... so consider that, future online Marin wedding couples).
In short order, break out the bubbling champagne and quixotic cake,
featuring stand-ins for the divine Harriet as
Alexander of Antioch's Afrodite (c. 100 BC)
-- a.k.a Venus de Milo (i.e. the Greek Island of Milos) -- and the
rather-more-earthy Mark evoked by
Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831; Lon Cheney, 1931; Disney Tim Hulce, 1996)
Quasimodo, name derived by having been left on the cathedral doorstep on the Roman numeral counted (i.e. no 0) eighth day of Easter, also known as
St. Thomas Sunday (here from Michelangelo Caravaggio, 1602).
Cliff, as our Harvard-Divinity-School-graduate pastor-stand-in, (lamentably two other ministerial friends thought the meeting was respecitvely earlier or later!) delivers Paul's 1 Corinthians 13
(The Love Chapter): 4-7 (a classic wedding passage), apparently from memory! Bravo!
The Biblical book bringing to mind Doric
(from Doris?),
Ionian
(Ionia, on beyond modes), and
Corinthian [!] columns,
from the Corinth, and generally the
Ancient Greek
sphere of influence --
as well as, of course,
agape (spriitual) love,
as
well
as
more
earthly types,
through history and around the world...
Oh dear! Looks like Quasimodo and Venus de Milo got carried away with all this talk,
as the truly heroic go the distance for the entire one-and-one-half-hour event.
Linger over
cake and an
initial video re-watch of c. half the event,
then
out
for a
honeymoon
dinner at
Red Lobster --
delicious
Admiral's Platter (where else locally to get scallops?) in a comparatively coronavirus-cleared venue,
then delightfully home (best bed-and-breakfast anywhere),
on the 10th day of spring, high up 5 to 63 (tying with January 5 as the toast-of-the-temperature-town thus far this year (Fairfield bests by 2 at 65 -- oh, Fairfield also has a Best Buy)...
Earlier in the day compose page 3 of
English Folk Song Suite Revisited, Op. 377 (January 8, 2022)
I. I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday / Pretty Caroline / Dives and Lazarus
which certainly has its erotic components, strikingly in the initial song's verse 6
"So I went down to her mummy's house, when the moon shone bright and clearly,
She did come down and let me in, and I lay in her arms till morning."
Which, of course, will be included -- not the case in the Ralph Vaughan Williams (purely instrumental) and Percy Grainger (excised) settings, which are the sources for this new version...
Also adding Freudianly to
Book of Dreams, 2022, Op. 376 (2022)
January 10
12am "But If They Started to Get Too Big, They Started to Drag 'em"
1am Power Surge on Computer, Through Closed Eyes...
3am Tadpole Soup... Hanging Christmas Tree Balls... An Equalizing Metric Chimp....
Count Me In...
8am Ascending Staircase for Wedding at Megan Cullen's
9am I'm Going In, Since You Don't Have Any Secret Infomation for Me,
I'm Not Going to Stand Here Getting Wet... Menthol Cigarettes...
Late morning,
head out to local Raley's
to pick up cake, flowers, and newspapers (Holy Trinity, Batman!),
for the blessed event.
Return for more prep,
temporary background distraction, re 1/6 co-conspirator
Jim Jordan,
the stage
set,
mercifully the Zoom connect is made on the dot, with a few planning minutes with James...
Now that we've gone full circle for the day,
let's pause and consider the marriage vow construction:
for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer,
in sickness and in health
What's wrong with this construction?
Positive / Negative
Positive / Negative
Negative / Positive
Where did this come from?
Well, at least just after the Roman-Catholic-Litugy-in-England Sarum Rite was eclipsed by the
Protestant Reformation under Henry VIII (particularly the 1534 Act of Supremacy, declaring the King top religious dog), and, Lo, How an English Prayer Book of 1549 (mostly corresponding to Sarum) Ere Blooming:
for better for wors,
for richer for porer,
in sikenesse and in helthe
Ah, perhaps the logic is
AB
A'B'
B"A"
So that the positives (As) surround, semi-rondo-like the negatives (Bs)...
tyl deth us departe...
Igor Stravinsky - Les Noces (The Wedding, 1923)...
Again, thanks to one and all who made this day such an exemplary one for Harriet and me!