San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra with fognozzle and Erling Wold – O1C – Old First Concerts – San Francisco, CA – 06/13/09

A collaboration between fognozzle and Erling Wold performed with the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra.

The bubonic plague arrived in San Francisco in 1899 on board a ship from Hong Kong, in the stomachs of fleas. Between 1900 and 1904, one hundred twenty-six people contracted the disease in San Francisco and nearby. One hundred twenty-two of them died.

The plague was brought under control in 1904, only to resurface in 1906 in the wake of the great earthquake. The response to this second outbreak was dealt with more efficiently as the causes were better understood, but one hundred eighty people died of the plague in San Francisco between 1906 and 1909.

Fortunately, Xenopsylla cheopis (the Oriental rat flea) never got a foothold in San Francisco, and our dominant flea remained the Ceratophyllus fasciatus, which lacked the deep stomach required for effective plague transmission. Many more people would have died if the reverse had been true.

Unfortunately, the rat-eradication efforts during the San Francisco plague outbreaks did not extend to the squirrels of the East Bay. Through them, the bubonic plague established a permanent foothold in the Pacific Northwest, where it lives on today - in the stomachs of fleas.

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Composer Erling Wold and noise performer fognozzle will present a 15 minute piece about the plague outbreaks in turn of the century San Francisco as part of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra season finale. Several other works will also be performed by the orchestra.

Tickets are $15.00 General / $12.00 Seniors (65 and older) / $12.00 Full Time Students and are available at http://www.oldfirstconcerts.org/ or at the door.