Nothing (Day 355/365)

Posted on by Dale

You would think, with ten days to go in the countdown, I’d be feverishly working on something.

Alas, the fact is that I stayed up till 2:30 a.m. finishing Deathly Hallows, and today I had to clear the living room of my packing crates. My brain is still trying to reconcile that I’m not in the Land of PDM any more. These are my streets I’m walking down, my bed I’m sleeping in now, not some bizarre facsimile, and it’s still not right.

The brain rebels. That curious feeling I noted before, of a sense of unreality as I walked through the campus, I have now identified: it was relief. Now, I sit in my club chair in the living room, looking out onto College Street, wondering what Roger’s last name is so I can call him to come fix the air conditioner in my attic study, wondering what I’ll do tonight. There is no concert. There is no culminating event. There is not a steady stream of people barging in on me, asking my opinion or giving theirs. There is no laughter from the lobby, no memory of some wonderful class I’ve seen today, no anticipation of tomorrow’s events. I have to deal with the openness of reality.

Feh.

It’s far too hot to work in my study, so any extended creative work is out of the question for the moment. I could go for a walk with my music Moleskine (remember that passage in my life?) and try to come up with more songs for Day in the Moonlight, or begin sketching out the symphony. But my brain won’t work.

Perhaps tomorrow.

The mug (Day 352/365)

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And here it is:

Not bad, although I think I should have used a green glaze for the interior. The size is just about right, so I was lucky there.

It does not approach the beauty of my 1987 mug, but it’s nonetheless nice. And of course it keeps me on schedule of one mug every twenty years.

I picked it up this morning in the ceramics studio; it had been unloaded last night, but I was a bit busy with a concert/world premiere/weeping.

As I write this, I’m stalling going down to Whitehead Auditorium to end it all. If I can stand it, I’ll write more about today later.

Dance for Double Bass (Day 351/365)

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The last full day here in the Land of Pan-Dimensional Mice, and it’s a pretty sad time. I’ll talk about that tomorrow, perhaps.

We end it all with the Prism II concert, wherein the music department dazzles us with dozens of pieces. This year, it was not just good, it was phenomenal. All the pieces were well performed and well selected. They ended with the orchestra playing St.-Saëns’ “Bacchanale,” which is rousing good fun, followed by a “mosaic” of each of the areas playing a brief part of some piece from the summer. I was okay till the brass played their piece. It’s a sombre, gorgeous piece, and I don’t know the name of it, and I began to melt. The pianists gathered round Clara Starkweather, and she played the Rachmaninov. I began to squint. The vocal majors sang “Everything I Own,” and that did it. The kids onstage were crying, Kay next to me was crying, I was crying. I cannot type this without crying.

Here are my boys: Alex Edwards, Viet Cuong, and Jack Meisburg. This is before the concert. I had sneaked in the stage door, avoiding the crowd of 800+ people who were stuffed into the halls and heating the area up to 98.6° and beyond.

As you can tell, they’re pleased and excited to be giving the world premiere of “Dance for Double Bass Duo and Marimba.” I must say, I was pleased and excited for them.

It was about two-thirds of the way through the concert, and it was good. I was sitting under the marimba, almost, so the balance was a little off for me, but the double basses played with éclat and accuracy.

The piece is marked “dangerously,” and I think they did a nice job of pushing their tone into that area. Viet nailed the bravura passage at the end. It would have sounded a bit better, perhaps, if they had been on the stage rather than in the VIP/handicapped seating area at the back of Whitehead, but that’s quibbling.

So that was exciting. After the concert, I went backstage to congratulate them, picking my way through the sobbing musicians. Viet, who had become a star in his own right with a killer xylophone piece, was beaming. Jack was a little moist around the edges. Alex was comforting Jason, who was doubled over a music stand in grief. I expressed my thanks, and they were all over-grateful in their response. It was my pleasure.

Here we all are together:

14 days to go.

A few predictions

Posted on by Dale

According to my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows countdown widget, there are 9 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds until we know all.

So this is my last chance to make my predictions. Here goes.

[note: I won’t be able even to put my hands on a copy of this book until Monday evening. Don’t be telling me things I don’t want to know.]

Snape is good. Of this there is no doubt. He loved Lily Evans truly, madly, deeply. I think he grew up with her (in the skanky neighborhood we see at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince, when Petunia says she overheard her sister and “that awful boy” talking about Azkaban, she didn’t mean James) and hated James Potter for stealing Lily’s affections. (The jury is out on whether Petunia had a crush on him pre-Hogwarts.) He helped Lily in potions class; Slughorn never knew it was not her talent that got her good marks. He overheard half the prophecy and dutifully reported it to Voldemort, but when it resulted in Lily’s death, he returned to Dumbledore and vowed to defeat the Dark Lord.

He will be instrumental in that defeat. It was his magic that saved Dumbledore’s life after Albus destroyed the Slytherin ring. He will have the knowledge and skill to undo whatever connection there is between Harry and Voldemort.

Because Harry is the Horcrux. Whether this means Harry must die in order to destroy Voldemort, I’m not sure. I rather think it does. I’m pretty sure Harry’s going to die, whether by his own hand or by sacrificing himself.

Dumbledore is dead. Although I’m not as sure of this today as I was yesterday. Jobie is hurtling through the other books in preparation for tomorrow, and last night he came in to read the scene in HBP where Harry, in the dorm room, tries out the HBP’s Levicorpus spell. It’s a nonverbal spell, and it results in Ron dangling upside down in mid-air.

When Snape hits Dumbledore with the Avadra Kedavra spell on the parapet, something very strange happens. There’s the burst of green light, but then Dumbledore flies up and over the edge of the parapet. This is not what Avadra Kedavra does: whenever we’ve seen it before, the victim simply collapses. (Or do they? What happens to Cedric in the graveyard?) Also, we know from Order of the Phoenix that Avadra Kedavra will not work if your heart isn’t in it.

So has JK left it open? On the one hand, it is entirely possible that Snape has spoken Avadra Kedavra while noverbally casting Levicorpus, gently sending Dumbledore over the side. He certainly appeared dead, but what is one of the first things Snape enthuses over in the very first Potions class in Sorcerer’s Stone? The Draught of Living Death. Hm.

On the other hand, Snape did make an Unbreakable Vow to fulfill Draco’s mission, which was to kill Dumbledore. (That’s another reason we know he’s good, because he made an Unbreakable Vow to the Order of the Phoenix.)

So while I still think Dumbledore is dead, I’m downgrading my certainty on that. Even if he is dead, there are plenty of opportunities for him to put in an appearance in the last book. Harry could go into his Pensieve, where Dumbledore could be aware of his presence and have a chat, at least about things that happened before his death. He could show up behind the Veil in the Department of Mysteries, which is where we’re thinking Harry and Voldemort are depicted on the cover of the American edition. He could show up in the Mirror of Erised.

Speaking of covers, the cover of the American special edition shows the gang riding on a dragon. Is Norbert returning? That would be classic JK, wouldn’t it?

Who’s dying? Can’t tell. I’m betting Hagrid for sure. Possibly Snape. Probably Harry. Maybe Draco.

Kreacher has the locket.

That’s all I know. The floor is now open for your crackpot ideas.

Milky Way (Day 350/365)

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At 11:00, I went to the chorus room and worked with the vocal majors on “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way.” They learned it quickly and it sounded good. They seemed to enjoy it and appreciate it.

At 11:30, we moved into Whitehead Auditorium, where the orchestra was just beginning to sightread the piece. There were too many woodwinds, which I gently fixed, and there were issues with the legato-ness of the playing, which I can correct in the score. All the arpeggiation in the cellos was a problem as well.

Other problems for the reading were the multiple time signatures and the players trying to count their rests. Also, Stephen was conducting in 9 or 12; maybe this was helpful for subdividing the triplets, but it was confusing to me and the choir.

In short, we didn’t get a solid reading of the piece in the short time we had available. Still, it was fun to hear an orchestra working on it, and I think they would have been able to knock it out of the ballpark if they’d had the usual Czarkowski treatment of it.

They ended up playing Alex Depew’s “Winds of Autumn,” and it was quite lovely. They were a little further along with his piece than mine, since it was simpler to play. I wish Stephen had it a little more polished, because it would be entirely appropriate to play at Convocation as the concluding piece.

Nearly a mug (Day 349/365)

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The mug was fired and ready for glazing, so I made my way to the ceramics studio. One of VSU’s ceramics guys, Michael WhoselastnameI’llgetlater, was preparing to do a “soda firing,” and both Andy and Harry encouraged me to hop into that firing. I would be very happy with the finish, they said.

Even knowing that they would just rather not do another firing in another kiln now that everything is cleaned up and packed away, I trust their aesthetic judgment. I glazed the inside with a basic black glaze, and in it went.

In other “here at the end of all things” news, Stephen will be reading through “Milky Way” with the orchestra tomorrow at 11:30. At lunch, I wrangled an invitation from David to come teach the piece to the vocal majors at 11:00.

I always forget how hectic and tiring the last week is for me. Everybody else is coasting, enjoying the kids, enjoying the evenings, winding things up, and I’m scrambling trying to catch all the events, getting speakers and directories prepared, and endless exit interviews in the evenings.

Nothing, really (Day 348/365)

Posted on by Dale

As you can imagine, the day after a fire closes your Fine Arts building is a bit busy. As fate would have it, damage was minimal and confined to Sawyer Theatre, so after gathering all the fine arts majors in the Old Gym, we were able to release everyone to go their regular classroom, give or take the dance majors.

Power was still off in Whitehead Auditorium, so no orchestra, so no “Milky Way.” That was disappointing.

I did get to go over “Dance” again with the bassists and marimbist. I think they’re going to do quite well, and the piece should be well-received. The boys certainly seem to like it.

This afternoon the vocal majors had their Rotunda concert, in which they fill the dome of West Hall Rotunda with glorious a capella music. Tonight the art exhibit opened, and it’s quite good. I’ll try to go back tomorrow and take some photos to share.

In the meantime, here are some Hogwarts photos from last Saturday:

First of all, me in complete Snape drag.

The whole Hogwarts gang [Sibyl Trelawney, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Rita Skeeter, Gilderoy Lockhart, Moaning Myrtle, Harry Potter, Rubeus Hagrid, Nymphadora “Don’t Call Me That!” Tonks, and Severus Snape.]

Albus Dumbledore in the lobby of our dorm.

Sibyl Trelawney. Notice the sherry bottle. She wandered around the dining hall, incanting predictions.

Hagrid arrives in the lobby. Dave has neither read the books nor seen the movies.

Myrtle and Rita pose at the head table.

Myrtle, Rita, and Harry chow down while flashes are going off all around them. Quoth Myrtle: “I could get used to being famous.”

Gilderoy Lockhart, posing, as usual, with his new book, Yes, It’s Me! He also handed out bookmarks and coerced students into having their photos made with him. Chris actually made most of this outfit since last summer’s Hogwarts event. (Nadine, who was Mrs. Weasley last year but elected to be our photographer this year, has sworn that she will have a pink wool suit by September and be ready for Delores Umbridge next summer.)

Prof. McGonagall and Tonks at the head table.

Dumbledore with some of his fans.

Most of the head table.

A Soc Stud gets sorted. This one was Slytherin. All the best people, you know.

This Spanish major is one of our speakers for Convocation this Saturday. Notice her crossed fingers. Also notice, in the background, Gilderoy posing for a photo with a student.

At the Grand Ball on Sunday night, some of the kids were laughing at themselves, saying that on their MySpace page, “You Know You Belong at Nerd Camp,” they needed to put “… if your teachers dress up like Harry Potter characters,” followed by, “…and you think it’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen.” They said this as they were filling out their dance cards in preparation to spending their evening dancing the waltz, foxtrot, and English country dance. Indeed.

Ends and beginnings (Day 347/365)

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The day began and ended with a bang: an emergency Caesarean and a fire.

In between, though, I accomplished a few things. In the morning, I got the copies of the score and parts of “Dance : for double bass duo & marimba” run off, collated, autographed, and distributed to the three players and two instructors who are making it happen.

I also ran off a set for the GHP music collection in the library. Being a good librarian, I rooted around in the Library of Congress catalog for examples of sheet music. Then I prepared the beginnings of a MARC record for the cataloging people over in Odum Library.

This is convoluted, but bear with me: while looking for a couple of pieces in the library a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a brass ensemble piece by Einojuhani Rautavaara, one of my favorite composers. In my Library of Congress search, I decided to look that up, since I knew it was cataloged with score and parts. (Why not just use the Odum catalog? The LC catalog allows you to view the actual MARC record with all its little tags.)

Then I looked up DOUBLE BASS MUSIC as a subject heading, and began studying those records. I printed one out to use as a model for my MARC record and was halfway through constructing it when I realized what I was looking at: a Rautavaara double bass concerto! I was floored at the serendipity. I gave it a listen at the iTunes music store, then ordered it via Amazon. Cool.

During the afternoon, I prepared a lesson for Jennifer Cole’s “Math and the Arts” class on the foundations of music: the overtone series and how it gives us the twelve notes of our western scale; tunings, including equal temperament; keys, key signatures, and the circle of fifths. All multi-media, of course.

So I covered both the beginnings of music and its end, in a published score.

Yes, yes, I know, the end is the performance, but give me break. It’s been a long and weird day. It started at 12:30 in the morning when we rushed Suzette Hermann to the hospital. We just thought that having a fully pregnant instructor was a first. Little did we know. Short version: her little girl was delivered by c-section, stabilized, and transported to Macon for higher level care. Suzette remains in the hospital. Both are going to be OK.

If only that had been all, it still would have been a good day. It ended with a fire in Sawyer Theatre, where Justin Horn was setting lights for the dance concert. We don’t know exactly yet how it started but Justin acted promptly in pulling the fire curtain, calling 911, and evacuating the building. We think at this point the damage is limited and is mostly smoke and water.

However, the Fine Arts Building has been shut down at least for tomorrow. Which means, of course, that the reading of “Milky Way” is probably down the tubes. This is the least of the program’s concerns, and I am being churlish to mention it. I feel more badly for Alex Depew, the horn player whose piece was also being read, than I do for me. And of course for the dance majors, whose concert is seriously threatened, and all the other fabulous things which are scheduled for the next five days in that building.