Henning's Headquarters

Started by BachQ, April 07, 2007, 12:21:26 PM

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karlhenning

(1) Okay, the bongos were probably a bit too wicked for the first strophe (one singer); had to pare them back.

(1a) I pared the bongos back for both strophes, but this morning I think that I do, after all, need the bongos wickeder for the second strophe (two singers).

(2) No trouble with the bongo work for the first two-thirds of Rosaflorida.

(3) After finding (see 1. above) that I needed to radically adjust the bongos, I started second- and third-guessing myself last night; I added my MS. sketch of the two-voice ostinato last night, but then wasn't sure I liked it.

(3a) After a night's rest, and going back to the tape this morning, I think the ostinato is probably fine, it certainly isn't the disaster I was afraid (at eleven of last night's clock) it might be.  I'll go cautiously beyond that:  I think I actually do like the ostinato as it stands.  I might drop the percussion for the first two measures of the voice-ostinato.

(4) Today's work, then, is the last of the composing proper, the florid solo 'delivering' the actual text of the first two-thirds of Rosaflorida, a variation of the first text. Also, 'fixing' the bongos in mm. 273-286, which I can probably make a relatively easy matter of salvaging 'the wicked stuff' from yesterday which I had to scrap for mm. 260-272.

karlhenning

Finished Castelo dos Anjos last night.

karlhenning

Yesterday, happily, I was able to make fairly quick work of 'repairing' all the bits of which I entertained second thoughts from Monday evening's labors.

QuoteI pared the bongos back for both strophes, but this morning I think that I do, after all, need the bongos wickeder for the second strophe (two singers).

QuoteAlso, 'fixing' the bongos in mm. 273-286, which I can probably make a relatively easy matter of salvaging 'the wicked stuff' from yesterday which I had to scrap for mm. 260-272.

The increased activity in the bongos seemed even to demand a 'bongo break-out' before starting Rosaflorida proper.  Don't know just where my head was at 11:30pm Monday . . . the ostinato-canon between the mezzo and the alto works very nicely indeed, I find.

karlhenning

[1.] "Lá no céu está um castelo" — The accompaniment is a kind of rhythm game of interlocking patterns;  the percussion and the voices cycle at different rates.  Additionally, there are some 'breathing' departures from the mechanical repetition in the percussion;  and though the canonical relation of the two lower voices is fairly strict, the pattern which begins by fairly regular repetition gradually 'blossoms' a bit in counterpoint to the solo.  The florid writing for the soprano here is not literal folk music, but (I hope) something of a 'musical lens' upon folk music.  I wanted to take musical advantage of the fact that the texts of both [1.] and [2.] closed with doxologies;  so for the Glórias here I changed musical gears, not only in the 'Picardy third' shift to the major from the Phrygian mode, but in something of a sonic homage to the ritornello-like Lyke-Wake Dirge of Stravinsky's Cantata.  The doxologies also serve as a break for the percussionist to change instruments.

[2.] "Noite de Natal (a)" — As [1.] started out as a kind of 'dancing ritual', with this setting I wanted something brilliant and lively.  The combination of the rapid tempo and the nimble meter changes make this a practicing challenge (I have a knack, it seems, for writing music which resists sight-reading), but I hope there is a musical reward which compensates the labor.  The doxology is a loose inversion of that from [1.] It ends on a half-cadence in a new key, which waits until m. 188 to take tonal effect.

[3.] Intermezzo — I wrote this so that the percussionist has the responsibility of setting the new tempi at mm. 148, 167 & 188.  The overall effect of the changing tempi is a kind of accelerando, and yet (paradoxically, because of the reorientation of the pulse) to set up [4.] which is the slowest tempo of the piece.

[4.] "Noite de Natal (b)" — Overall an A-B-A' shape;  the A material is a strophic ballad with gradual variation (mostly in the accompaniment).  The opening A consists of three strophes;  the accompaniment at first continues the clapping from the Intermezzo, then the two accompanying voices join essentially as sustaining tones with momentary ornament . . . loosely in rhythmical canon, and with a gradual 'accelerando' suggested by gradually briefer note durations.  One of the first ideas I had for the overall piece was tied to the lines where the gallos and pajaritos are singing;  I've always known that I should want twittery music for those lines.  On the surface it feels like a change to a quicker tempo, but of course the 16th-note pulse is constant.  Since so much of the piece heretofore has centered on the same pitch as a home, the birds here also serve as a kind of pivot, in inviting us to different keys.  With the return to the A ballad, the bongos return as well;  one strophe is a solo, the next a duet, and the bongos increase in rhythmic intensity.  To contrast with the doxologies which served as tempo transitions and 'breaths' after [1.] and [2.], tempo remains constant between [4.] and [5.], though the impassioned bongo solo 'masks' that continuity somewhat.

[5.] "Rosaflorida" — To reflect the similarity of the texts, I wanted "Rosaflorida" to be both a clear echo of "Lá no céu está um castelo," and yet, to make itself distinct, too.  The bongo pattern is a literal return (in fact, if anything more relentlessly exact in its repetition than the bongos of [1.]).  Generally, where "Lá no céu está um castelo" carries itself as tightly regulated ostinati contrasting with quasi-improvisatory solo, "Rosaflorida" instead creates an impression of a denser mesh of more communal improvisation among the three voices (notwithstanding that the mezzo and alto are again in relatively strict canon).  In the soprano line, the literal gestural borrowings from "Lá no céu está um castelo" sneak in with (I think) a little subtlety, and the 'chemistry' between the solo and the accompaniment is a bit like a new creation with similar elements.  The contrapuntal coda, I hope, appears as a logical 'destination' plotted from the doxologies which close [1.] and [2.]

In a kind of 'global reflection' of the Phrygian mode which dominates [1.] and [5.], the general progression of keys in the piece – A in [1.], G in [2.], F at the start of [4.] but moving to E (which then sets up a return to A for [5.]) – is a descending tetrachord suggesting the Phrygian mode.

BachQ


karlhenning


Cato

I have quickly imagined the opening page of Castelo and will comment that Karl Henning fulfills Schoenberg's famous comment that there is still a good deal of great music to be written (for this work) in minor modes (Phun with Phrygian), not just C major.

Yay team!   0:)

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

Summer and all, so communication has been slow with folks out of town, and then catching up on all the accumulation on returning to town.  But I have now spoken to two of the singers, and response to Castelo dos Anjos is gratifyingly enthusiastic.

karlhenning

In shuffling things around to open up space on the home PC, at random I revisited the MIDI of Intermezzo II from the ballet.  Back when I had been working on it, I wondered if I needed to re-work some of it;  but now, with the musical palate cleared by the flame of Castelo dos Anjos, it just sounds good to me.

So, once I get all the i's dotted and the T's crossed in the score for Tapestry, the iron is probably hot for the remainder of White Nights.

greg

Quote from: karlhenning on August 12, 2007, 10:37:21 AM
In shuffling things around to open up space on the home PC, at random I revisited the MIDI of Intermezzo II from the ballet.  Back when I had been working on it, I wondered if I needed to re-work some of it;  but now, with the musical palate cleared by the flame of Castelo dos Anjos, it just sounds good to me.

So, once I get all the i's dotted and the T's crossed in the score for Tapestry, the iron is probably hot for the remainder of White Nights.
so you think you'll get it done by the end of the year?
and........ will you have it all in MIDI for us?

karlhenning

Completely finishing with the proofing of Castelo dos Anjos.

Tomorrow, I'll prepare the percussionist's part.

karlhenning

Quote from: greg on August 12, 2007, 11:03:09 AM
so you think you'll get it done by the end of the year?
and........ will you have it all in MIDI for us?

We shall see.

Bogey

Quote from: karlhenning on June 05, 2007, 01:11:18 PM
Well, right now, Bill, this piece . . . Maria has described as "African or Middle Eastern."  (This is essentially for this first of four texts, and the character will change imminently.)

The performers for whom I'm writing have asked for something with 'a Sephardic flair' . . . I'm just hoping this flair may serve :-)

Is this Castelo dos Anjos Karl?
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

karlhenning


karlhenning

My Muse sounds ready to work up the Passion setting.

I didn't plan it, but then, you may plan, and your Muse does just as she lists.

Bogey

Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2007, 02:02:14 AM
It is, indeed, Bill.

Then there is much to celebrate....well done!
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

karlhenning

Percussion part for Castelo dos Anjos is done.

karlhenning

And I've started the sketches for the next piece.  Watch This Space

vandermolen

I have followed your contributions to this Forum with interest and I'd be interested to hear your music. I found your informative website but how does one get to hear your music?

Apologies if you're bored with answering this question.

Kind regards

Jeffrey
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

BachQ

Quote from: karlhenning on August 14, 2007, 04:59:52 PM
And I've started the sketches for the next piece.  Watch This Space

I've been watching for 2 hours ........... still nothing ..........