6 Months -- on this anniversary of the Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) assassination (what a strange word; it really bottoms out...), duly memorialized by
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) et
moi
(as Op. 329, from 2019)-- after the hospital incident and, as Henry Fool (titular character in the Hal Hartley, b. 1958, movie of 1997) had it
"Well... here I am... still... after all..." Yet, there remains a dynamic captured by Fool's later interchange with Simon Grim:
SIMON:
It hurts to breathe.
HENRY:
Of course it does.
Amazingly, this date also marks George Washington (1732-1799 -- exactly contemporaneous w/ F.J. Haydn, but dying a decade earlier) giving an impassioned speech to his officers, imploring them not to support the Newberg Conspiracy (1783) -- an attempted armed-forces coup d'etat against America before it was even fully formed (who knew? Turns out the Recent Occupant was not the first to deal w/ such a situation... oh, but in the recent case, a "statesman" who was in favor of such...)!
OK, time to get to work, on the 25th day of summer, high again 74, in an environment of
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) - Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 (1878): III. Polka,
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) - Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 15 (1880),
Harriet reciting from memory
Eugene Field (1850-1895) -
Little Boy Blue (1888 -- which motivates us to seek out any settings on IMSLP,
yielding one, the fourth of Five Songs, Op. 12 ... 1891...by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTXFWXNzVE
Ethelbert Nevin, (1862-1901 --
a setting seemingly light on the deathly irony implied in the poem, settingly more on the mere nostalgia of childhood,
though the composer died tragically in debt, alcoholism, depression, overwork... with numbness in his hands in his final hours at age 38 -- same as that of George Gershwin, 1898-1937),
Gabriel Pierne (1862-1937) - 15 Piano Pieces (1883): XIV. Album Leaf
a two-fer of Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) Symphonies -- No. 2 (1941, for strings and trumpet, the last ad libitum only in a final choral... not exactly the approach others might take..) and
No. 3 ("Liturgique") (1946),
Peter Warlock (1894) - Capriol Suite (1926): II. Pavane,
Aaron Copland (1900-1990) - Rodeo (1942): V. Hoedown,
Nino Rota (1911-) - La Strada Ballet Suite (1966),
Anabal Troilo (1914-) - Milonguero Triste (1965), and
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) - Douze Notations Pour Piano (1945, his earliest published work), and
a press conference from Jen Psaki (b. 1978),
on Ukraine and
other matters.
Ah, the work, updating the Works site re
Business As Usual, Op. 49 (1993),
supplimening with more text
Book of Dreams, 2022, Op. 376 (2022)
March 14-15
6am Working for an Egotiist Frank-Sinatra Type, We Are Totally Disorganized for a Fundraiser,
Which Peters Out As His Female Protegee Composer Lays an Egg w/ a
Song I Attempt to Salvage, He Wants One More Go Of It,
But Everyone's Packing Up and Leaving, There Are Still Negotiations After and
I Stay to See If Something Can Be Worked Out for Future,
He Praises Me re a Run-Through of Something Earlier, Saying I Thought You Were the Lead,
How Long Have You Been Working on Material, I Say I Was Brought in That Afternoon,
I Have Scheduled Time for Whatever's Next Week's Hence,
But He Disappears Down a Foggy Stairway Slope at Night Towards Beach,
Female Lead and I Linger, Go Out Through Back Securty Door, Are Detained By Security,
My Compatriot Breaks Down That Her Career Has Been Ruined by This Guy and
She Has Made Such Scheduling, Etc, Sacrifices.... I Buttered the Egotist Up
Before He Left, and Regret That... There Are a Lot of Sticky, Slimy,
Puddly Rain-Soaked Floors Upon Which We've Been Walking...
Dark and Cold Warehouse Areas... Later, Trying to Salvage a Birthday Zoom
Dinner Party for George, Putting Mayonaise on Vanilla Ice Cream...
Harriet: We're Doing Tonight (Taking a Bath), So We Can Finish Tomorrow Morning, Huh?
9am Dream of Carol Doda...
10am Cars Rushing Backwards Through the Intersection of Yosemite at Plumas --
Some Directly Across Former, Others Turning Left (Northeast)...
provide Bassoon part for
Three George Crumb Tropes, Op. 392 (2022) from The Decameron: Fifth Day, Op. 247 (2015)
Novel III. Pietro Boccamazza runs away with Agnolella, and encounters a gang of robbers
(Madrigals, Book II [1962]: III. Cabalito Negro - Little Black Horse),
and
continue planning,
via Zoom,
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's Spring 2022 show!