Henning's Headquarters

[TheGSMoeller]

May not seem like much, but it is a significant gain on the prior sketch (which dates, yes, more than two years ago).

Jaya is still on board!

Hey, where's the trumpet part?   

I like the score, thank you for posting, Karl.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, Greg!

[Cato]

Hey, where's the trumpet part?   

Oh, wise guy!   0:)

For those who can read the score, a few quick comments: the French Academy in the previous centuries defined lines in painting as appealing to the intellect, and color as appealing to emotions.

Music has both also, of course, (color being paralleled with harmony) and it is at times difficult to disentangle the two, which is also a problem in painting.

Karl Henning's two-line composition allows us to see, in just the opening bars, how the master can create "color" or emotional content from a single line.

A quick example of gentle ironic humor (or at least I thought so, and I am assuming the Clarinet part is in C in the score, and not transposed!): see bar 10.  The singer uses a regular "non-strange" A major chord (A-E-C#-A) for the lyrics "Some strange musician," and immediately afterward the clarinet has a flurry of notes which fight between A major and A minor (note the B# vs. C#, the D vs. the D#).

I will be back for a few more comments. 

[Karl Henning]

Yes, score is in C . . . I switch back and forth, I enter the clarinet part in the software in the A transposition, but for both the singer (and you, O Gentle Readers) an untransposed score is the clearer aid.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Karl Henning]

What is now mm.41-43, in my sketch from v.2011 (which you can see here) was a meter change (3/4) . . . as I puttered last night (I made some alterations and some expansions before the double-bar), it was borne in upon me how the piece has just gotten started, and to change gears (I fancy I was 'hearing' a tempo change, too) were too sudden.

[Karl Henning]

Lately received e-mail from Luke! He writes:

[...] all is well, no need to be concerned. My intention is still to return to GMG when I can. It may still be some months!

[Karl Henning]

Re-post & refresh:

Timbrel and Dance, Op.73 [ St Paul's choir plus ].

26 February De profundis [ Jaya Lakshminarayan & friends ]

15 March Passion rehearsal A [ Sine Nomine ]

15 March Passion rehearsal B [ Sine Nomine ]

15 March Passion rehearsal C [ Sine Nomine ]

12 May recital [ k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble (Bloom/Henning/Cienniwa) ]

18 May recital [ Bloom/Henning ]

23 May pre-concert rehearsal [ Sine Nomine ]

22 June recital [ N. Chamberlain/B. Chamberlain/Henning ]

Score of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars, Part I

Score of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars, Part II

Love is the spirit of this church, Op.85 № 3

The Passion According to St John, Op.92 (on MediaFire, courtesy of Johan)

Lutosawski’s Lullaby, Op.96a № 1 (string quartet)

Marginalia, Op.96a № 2 (string quartet)

Après-lullaby, Op.96a № 3 (string quartet)

Score of Fair Warning [Viola Sonata, mvt 1]

MIDI of Fair Warning [Viola Sonata, mvt 1]

Score of Suspension Bridge (In Daves Shed) [Viola Sonata, mvt 2]

MIDI of Suspension Bridge (In Daves Shed) [Viola Sonata, mvt 2]

Score of Tango in Boston (Dances with Shades) [Viola Sonata, mvt 3]

MIDI of Tango in Boston (Dances with Shades) [Viola Sonata, mvt 3]

Johan's MediaFire folder, including the whole of Dana's première performance of the Viola Sonata

These Unlikely Events, Op.104 № 4

These Unlikely Events, Op.104 № 5

Kyrie, Op.106 № 1

Organ Sonata, Op.108 :: Mvt 1, Eritis sicut Deus

Organ Sonata, Op.108 :: Mvt 2, . . . scientes bonum . . .

Organ Sonata, Op.108 :: Mvt 3, . . . et malum

In the Artist's Studio, work-in-progress

Thoreau in Concord Jail, Op.109 for clarinet solo

Airy Distillates, Op.110 for flute solo

Annabel Lee, Op.111 for vocal quartet

Misapprehension, Op.112 for clarinet choir

The Mystic Trumpeter, Op.113 for soprano & clarinet [work-in-progress]

Henningmusick at ReverbNation.

Henningmusick at Instant Encore.

And about an hour's worth of Henningmusick, too, at SoundCloud.

[Karl Henning]

Had a very nice chat yester even with Mark Engelhardt, formerly of the Cathedral Church of St Paul here in Boston.  He's back at the parish where he had been, some 23 years ago, in Bayshore, L.I.  I've been keen to get Mark's opinion on the Organ Sonata . . . all the keener as, should he take a liking to it, he is apt to perform it, and perform it well.  Mark is the fabulously talented organist with whose abilities in mind I composed the Toccata.

Now, it is not quite true to say that Mark would run a mile in tight shoes to avoid the Toccata . . . the facts briefly are thus:  on at least three occasions, he worked on the piece, with an eye to a specific concert he was preparing, but (although on my repeated questioning, he insists that there is nothing impossible about the piece) the practice time required to feel confident in the piece, ever wound up exceeding the time available to prepare for a given concert date. As a fellow performer who is apt to need ample time to practice Henningmusick, I understand all too well.

It is fair to say, though, that the experience of the Toccata laid the groundwork for the Sonata.  If with the Toccata, which I wrote at a time when Mark (an organist with chops) was never interested in my previously-written music with too-easy organ parts, I made a compositional point of writing a demanding piece into which a talented executant might sink his teeth . . . the Sonata is designed as three movements of a time-scale modest enough, and with technical demands moderate enough, to serve either as musical bits for a church service, or as one component of a concert performance.

[Karl Henning]

On the bus to La Manzana Grande

[Cato]

On the bus to La Manzana Grande

d.h. Der grosse Apfel

or

i.e. Malum Magnum and according to some people, NYC really might be a "malum magnum"    !   0:)

[Karl Henning]

Success! Just had a nice chat with Luke. Not sure just when, but he will return to us 

[Cato]

I proposed these pictures under What Are You Listening to Now? for Karl's...

Annabel Lee...



and Misapprehension

.



Guess which work this could be used for!



for Irreplaceable Doodles of course!

And then I came across this!



Again, guess the work!



The Viola Sonata (taken somewhat literally)!   

Or...

The Viola Sonata (taken somewhat figuratively)!



This next one will really be too easy!



The Organ Sonata (but you knew that) !


Any ideas for other works?  (See the list above on this page!)

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks for the smiles!

[Karl Henning]

All in all, The Grand 2013 Henningmusick Re-Rollout has been an overridingly positive experience.  I have managed to get Sibelius 6 files to the publisher for:

Three Short Pieces (organ), Op.34
Radiant Maples, Op.59
Fragments of « Morning Has Broken », Op.64a
Starlings on the Rooftop, Op.82
Studies in Impermanence, Op.86
Nunc dimittis, Op.87, № 9

. . . and the experience of (perforce) having to put new composition on hold, while sawing away at a task which brought a fair number of “old scores” under my eye, gave me the chance (potentially) to grow heartily sick of (it might have been) embarrassing early work.  But — even if none is The Masterpiece which would show some of our neighbors here that the Art of Composition has not forever died out of the race — I find all the pieces to be well made, still, and I just enjoy the sound of them all, still.

And (but wait — there's more!) I find myself freshly enthused to attend to The Mystic Trumpeter.  Yes, I did some composing on this morning's train.

Erm, how absent-minded of me to forget that this was occupying me for a while . . . I was just chiding myself for such a long absence from The Mystic Trumpeter, whereof I composed some more on this morning's train.

[Cato]

Erm, how absent-minded of me to forget that this was occupying me for a while . . . I was just chiding myself for such a long absence from The Mystic Trumpeter, whereof I composed some more on this morning's train.

I have discovered that Creativity functions in its own sphere of Temporality, and that when one looks back at the finished work, one sees that the entire process of spurts and starts and pauses and doubts had a logic of its own, without which the work would have turned out to be quite different, and not necessarily for the better.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, I often find that even when I try to press myself to work, I have a visceral resistance which (I believe) is not mere laziness . . . .

[Karl Henning]

On the whole, I think that what I wrote yesterday makes the cut.  Need to relax the tempo a notch, the triplet semi-quavers, you know;  which actually is not merely suitable, but a sliver of inspiration all its own.

[Karl Henning]

As there are special transportation considerations today . . . there was no train ride for me, and no progress on The Mystic Trumpeter (yet).

OTOH, I just had a nice bicycle ride from the MFA to Arch Street . . . with the rain holding off, and the benefit of cooler air.

[Karl Henning]

On the 10:40 train out of North Station last night, I wrote some ten measures of The Mystic Trumpeter, bringing me to the end of the second (I suppose it is to be called) stanza.

Will stir things about a bit before posting a refreshed score. (And I must remember to switch between transposed and not!).

[Karl Henning]

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