See below for "Program" Note: A Statement About CF's Philosophy of Programming

CF's "ONLINE INTERACTIVE PAGES"

Since the online format allows for the Work In Progress THE FESTIVAL to be presented in program configurations suggested by the various "cycles of epicycles" of the work, these pages will be presented here in the form of "Interactive Programs."

The program FIRST VIEWS OF THE FESTIVAL, a public concert given in 2009 with funding by the late music patron Ruth C. Jacobs, has been converted into an interactive concert page. At this page, and at future similar pages that will appear, online link selection allows for the listener to listen to pages in the order presented, or to select which pieces in a program they prefer to hear, or which videos they wish to hear or program notes they would like to read, and in whichever order they like. The idea of course is to create unique and complete programs with which people may interact as they prefer, or from parts of which they may select what interests them to work with.

I hope that the listener finds such "Interactive Programs" both interesting and convenient. Though the capability to create such an interactive program has existed for some time, as far as I know, in 2009 my interactive FIRST VIEWS OF THE FESTIVAL page became the first page of its kind. I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows of similar pages, or who has ideas about how I may improve my own. As for my philosophy about such things, I again encourage you to read my short essay "Program" Note, below.

COMPOSITIONS BY CF

Some programs are available. These include:

SCRITTI DI LEONARDO also available on the double CD set MODERNISM FOREVER

E IO ETTERNO DURO also available on the double CD set MODERNISM FOREVER

MASS OF THE RESURRECTION available on the CD NON NOBIS DOMINE

NOTE: Many performances and computer realizations that are not currently part of programs are available at this site. Perhaps the best portals for these are the pages:

THE HOME PAGE
THE PRINCIPAL WORKS PAGE, and the
WHAT'S NEW AT THIS SITE page

OPERA AND OTHER REPERTOIRE

OPERATIC AND OTHER PROGRAMS WILL BE LISTED in reverse order of presentation. Until time allows for these to be posted, the reader may consult CF's REPERTOIRE PAGE.

Some pages are associated with particular works. Please peruse this list for functional links:

THE SCARLET LETTER by Martin Hermann. World Premiere conducted by CF

THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE BY HER BATCHELORS, EVEN by Charles Shere
For the World Premiere of this work, given at Mills College, CF was Chorus Master and Second Conductor (Two condustors are required)

SIEGFRIED, by Richard Wagner
Conducted by CF. Two casts. Six Performances

THE GROWING CASTLE by Malcom Williamson
--In English. CF was Baritone II Soloist in performances in California and Bayreuth, Germany, for the University of the Pacific Summer Opera Theater, in 1975

OTHER REPERTOIRE

Milton Babbitt
--AN ELIZABETHAN SEXTET for Female Voices. Local Premiere
--MORE PHONEMENA for Twelve Voices. World Premiere
----Available on the CD set MODERNISM FOREVER

Robert Basart (American)
--STILLNESS AND THE NIGHT BECOME for Vocal Octet. Commissioned by CF
----World Premiere

Luciano Berio
--A-RONNE for Vocal Octet; Local Premiere. Also sang as Baritone Soloist
--CRIES OF LONDON for Vocal Octet.

Pierre Boulez
--LE MARTEAU SANS MAITRE for Mezzo soprano and Instruments
--MESSAGESQUISSE for Cello Solo and Cello Ensemble

Elliott Carter
--SYRINGA for Mezzo soprano, Baritone, and Guitar Soli with Chamber Orchestra
----Available on the CD Set MODERNISM FOREVER. Local Premiere
--TRIPLE DUO for Pierrot Ensemble with Percussion

Peter Maxwell Davies
--THE MEDIUM Monodrama, CF Vocal Coach; Local Premiere
--VESALII ICONES for Nude Male Dancer, Cello Solo, and Instruments
----Two separate full productions. Local Premiere. VIDEO AVAILABLE
--WESTERLINGS for Chorus; Western Hemisphere Premiere
----Available on the CD set MODERNISM FOREVER

Vivian Fine
--TEISHO Oratorio for Vocal Octet and String Quartet. West Coast Premiere

Don Carlo Gesualdo
--MADGRIGALI LIBRO VI

Paul Hindemith
--DER SCHWANENDREHER Viola Concerto, arranged by Wilbur Sudmeier

Gerald Humel (German)
--ET IN TERRA PAX for vocal octet. Commissioned by CF. World Premiere

Hans Holewa
--CONCERTINO VII for Chamber Ensemble. American Premiere

Laszlo Kalmar (Hungarian)
--HORA EIUS for three sopranos. American Premiere. CD In Preparation

Gyoergy Kurtag (Hungarian)
--A LITTLE PREDICAMENT Local Premiere
--SCENES FROM A NOVEL True American Premiere
----(This performance preceded the Speculum Musicae "Premiere")
--S.K. REMEMBRANCE NOISE Local Premiere

Robert Hall Lewis
--KANTATEN for Vocal Octet and Piano. Local Premiere

Olivier Messiaen
--O SACRUM CONVIVIUM! for Chorus. Available on the CD NON NOBIS DOMINE

Luigi Nono
--SARA DOLCE TACERE for Vocal Octet; Local Premiere

Nigel Osborne
--CHORALIS I for vocal quintet
--CHORALIS II for vocal quintet
--CHORALIS III for vocal quintet
----All American Premieres; CF also sang as Baritone Soloist

Bernard Rands
--OBLIGATO MEMO 2C for Trombone and String Quartet. Local Premiere

Aribert Reimann
--JOHN III, 16 for Vocal Octet. American Premiere. CD In Preparation

John Donald Robb
--REQUIEM for Chorus and Organ. Recording: Opus One Records, # 114

Camille Saint-Saens
--CHRISTMAS ORATORIO for Chorus and Organ

Laszlo Sary
--INCANTO for Vocal Quintet; American Premiere

Arnold Schoenberg
--PIERROT LUNAIRE for Speaker and Instruments

Heinrich Schuetz
--JOHANNISPASSION (Oratorio) for Chorus

Ruth Crawford Seeger
--CHANT 1930 for Soprano with Chorus. Local Premiere

Roger Sessions
--MASS for Unison Chorus and Organ. Local Premiere. CD In Preparation

Charles Shere (American)
--REQUIEM WITH OBOE for Vocal Octet with Oboe. Commissioned by CF.
----World Premiere. CD In Preparation

C. James Sheppard
--LUMINARIA (SKY MUSIC) for Soprano, Tape and Instruments. Local Premiere
----Recording: Opus One Records #126

Ezra Sims (American)
--THE CONVERSIONS for vocal octet. Commissioned by CF. World Premiere

Igor Stravinsky
--ANTHEM, THE DOVE DESCENDING for Chorus
--AVE MARIA for Chorus. Available on the CD NON NOBIS DOMINE

David Vayo (American)
--SALMOS for Voice and Instruments. World Premiere

Anatol Vieru (Romanian)
--OH, THAT YOU WERE LIKE A BROTHER TO ME for vocal octet.
----Commissioned by CF. World Premiere

Willan, Healey
--RESPONSARIES FOR THE OFFICES OF TENEBRAE for Chorus. Local Premiere

Walter Winslow
--NINETEEN MADRIGALS for Five Voices. World Premiere
----Recording: Opus One Records, Number 131
----See and Order This Amazing Disc on EBay

Stefan Wolpe
--PIECE IN TWO PARTS FOR SIX PLAYERS. Local Premiere

Charles Wuorinen
--ARABIA FELIX for Instrumental Ensemble. Local Premiere
--BEARBEITUNGEN UEBER DAS GLOGAUER LIEDERBUCH for Instrumental Ensemble. Local Premiere

"Program" Note:
A Statement About CF's Philosophy of Programming

In light of my thoughts on the matter this seems to me a relevant place for me to offer a quick, practical sketch of my philosophy of programming, with a few pointers to some of its constituent components, known from the work of other thinkers, and given here in bold letters. (However, it should not be thought that I necessarily accept all or even any of these thinkers' propositions exactly as they present them.)

This and all my pages, in fact most of what I do, and certainly including my work as a taxi driver, are meant to be steps in Evolutionary Robotics, in a physics of immortality employing the Omega Point Theory (as advanced by Frank J. Tipler, and apparently by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin before him, but without reference to Deism or Theism, which I think are actually liabilities, if you want your machines to realize on their own the purposes for which you intended them) and conforming to the Anthropic Principal.

Even if this universe were the place most people believe it is, I believe it is in the nature of things that both matter and consciousness re-create themselves into human form (separately if necessary). To choose an example immediately at hand, there are at least as many universes conforming but potentially diverging from this very universe as there are copies of this page being read or available to be read; the certainty of the existence of these universes increases according to the involvement of living beings with it, and most reliably if the living beings are fully human.

I believe that some form of many-worlds condition obtains (and in fact, in a wide variety of ways), and that alteration of one's circumstances, including of one's "salvation," is constantly subject to many kinds of re-creation and re-invention. I subscribe to neither of the usual agendas supposed of either evolution or creationism: evolution is the result of work (which can be defined many ways, and exists in many forms, some of them not even requiring consciousness as we know it), and all physical appearances, and even apparent history, may be changed through work. That's right, I believe that not only the future but also the past can be altered by work. It seems probably to me that every time we change the focus or endpoint of our future we may be changing the focus or starting point of our past. Well-conceived work would of course control these parameters.

It seems to me that only an abject acceptance of entropy results in (apparently) permanent death. But even the act of "giving up" can be used as a defining moment for later use - even a tombstone is a document of a fact of living-ness. Work, especially work that is somehow documentable in accordance with actual fact, is capable of leaving data for future use by other beings, whether living or apparently not living.

Spirituality is physically perceiveable by humans (and is recognized most commonly in the form of feelings of health), and it accrues according to a yoga or union of a human another existing consciousness, emphatically not limited to God, either living consciousness or recorded consciousness. There are probably an infinite number of consciousnesses with which a being may form a yoga or union. This theory does not deny that Deists or Theists may accomplish much the same effect through use of concepts of God (or, what they want to call, "God"). In general however usage of the concept of God is polluted by ideas of predetermined valuation of what may be thought desirable or valuable in the "permanent future." Defining God as a singularity is meaningful if the work being attempted is that of resurrecting the dead; such a singularity is needed, and if it gives the appearance of being God there is no need to heckle. However I believe that we are all resurrecting all manner of supposedly dead things all the time, but this is facilitated by the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, we are not, in fact, in the sort of reality we imagine we are in. We are in a hologram, where phenomena arise according to other rules than most persons are aware.

It seems certainly safest to invest one's salvation (that is, one's future wholesome re-start to living-ness) in living beings, but through evolutionary robotics all manner of machines can develop themselves into tools useful to the project of the eventual and entire resurrection of that which one desires to be resurrected. Spiritual machines already exist; it may even be that we are they. If there are many worlds in which to maintain things, there is no reason to limit future salvation to only that which conforms to what is presently convenient. Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell may be numerous and on sliding scales that change, and can even be reversed, according to our preferences. This theory does not deny the possible, if temporary desirability, of one being's set of preferences over another's. The heirarchisation of beings' preferences is compatible with love and compassion and benefit to all. And this theory does not preclude that one particular individual might be the most useful in effecting salvation.

Since light is alive, any medium involving light is alive; since light is the only constituent element of the universe, everything is alive. The living-ness of things seems to be most readily apparent to humans when those things can be easily understood as, or in relation to, light. But it should not be thought that all change must directly effect light; indirect operations are quite evidently possible (and may be physically safer). Sound, for example in the form of music, can be a means of designing eventual matter, which is made of light. The restructuring of the universe can be effected in the manner of creating a work of art.

Death is not possible, it is only possible to remove evident living-ness to points more or less distant. All event sequences, in fact probably all phenomena, can be used as constituent parts of the evolution of life- and consciousness-resurrecting persons and machines. It should be obvious that some phenomena are more useful than others.

Programs are living beings, interact as living beings, and even their components are living beings, which interact as living beings.

Christopher Fulkerson

Page, with "Program" Note and "In Dollars Fiat" photo, first posted December 2, 2012.

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