Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Okay, here's a teaser:  the opening of Scene 4, The Dreamer Awaits Nastenka

[Karl Henning]

The first scene (Scene 4) of Night the Second is just a two-minute intro, so a number which I knocked off in an afternoon:

[Karl Henning]

Scene 5, The Dreamer Explains Himself, is a much more substantial matter, 13 minutes.  Here I go!

[kishnevi]

Forget about finishing Intermezzo I tomorrow: it's done now!

Visually at least a pleaser,  with the flutes and clarinets making a pas de quatre across the page.   

Now to compare the score and the mp3 of Scene 4 so I can figure what is going on the part the MIDI makes into an accordion solo.

[Karl Henning]

Hah!

Do I have an e-mail address for you?  I can send you a link to the mp3 of the full Scene.

[Karl Henning]

I'm up to the Debussy-&-Жар-птица allusions in Scene 5 (I hope this won't put our Sarge off!), p.5 of the "old" (tiny print) score.

When I finish this page, I am heading out for a walk in this beautiful, cool morning!

[Karl Henning]

Now, off to walk a bit!

[Karl Henning]

Mid-Egyptian Dance . . . will definitely finish that today;  can I finish the tropes upon Parasha's Aria? We shall see . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Whew, done at last (I think) with the Egyptian Dance.  All the percussion (which I love) was a bit of work;  and while I had no qualms about changing the [ 9/8 + 2/4 ] measures to 9 + 4 / 8 . . . for the middle section with its ever-changing [ 6/16 + 3/4 ] and variants ([ 6/16 + 4/4 ] , [ 9/16 + 3/4 ]), the solution was perforce to break the measures up.  Not a great sacrifice, really . . . and with the type this tiny on the hard copy, the loss of the measure numbers as a reference is almost no loss, since I cannot read those numbers without the magnifier, anyway.

So now I am at p.15 of the 25-p. score;  not going to finish the Scene today, at any rate.  Think I'll finish p.15, five measures remaining, a return to the Debussy allusion qua transition to the tropes upon Parasha's Aria . . . and I may call it quits then.

[Karl Henning]

Last night, while thunder pealed in the distance, and then the rains poured down in torrents for perhaps 20 minutes, I got the Tropes Upon Parasha's Aria set in Scene 5.  Now I'm near the end of p.18 of this tiny-print-tabloid hard copy of the 'old' version, which runs to p.25.  Offhand, I think I stand some hope of reaching the final double-bar tomorrow (Wed) evening.

The thought occurs to me that this is the 21^st century, and I can furnish an alternate version of Scene 5.  The decision is not yet entirely firm, but I may well endorse this modified version of the Egyptian Dance as the preference, but leave the Scene with the original Dance as an authorized variant, if there should arise a conductor with an orchestra for whom those frightfully rapid semi-quavers hold no fear.

Part of my recreational listening these past seven-ish days has been the Tallis Complete Works, and I am starting to get ideas for the Gloria;  or (in part) ideas I had earlier are taking more definite shape, and reacting to Tallis in the process.  Time was short, and we had to prioritize;  when I was working with Lux Nova to get imprints ready for the AGO event at First Church, and one of the (many) thoughts I had was the Kyrie, it was decided to hold off until the Mass is complete.  White Nights is the priority, and will remain so;  still, the back of my mind considers just what I want to do with the remaining Gloria and Sanctus.


There are also just some slight refinements I should make to the Credo, not any recomposing, just some voicing specs.

[Karl Henning]

> post deleted <   

[Cato]

Following the revised score for the ballet has been a pleasure: I told Karl that the orchestration (difficult to tell at times from an mp3 version) is very inventive, as it brings out the exquisite lines in the score.

And watch those lines, as the counterpoint is often (perhaps even always?) the unconscious level of the music!  They can become even more important at times than the more obvious themes.

[Karl Henning]

Thank you kindly!

With a little astonishment, and not a little pleasure, I've been rediscovering just how much of the ballet is already "done," beyond the Overture plus Night the First which is the folio of PDFs I have had ... all of the ballet which I could tangibly hand over to a conductor prior to this year. Am approaching the final double-bar of Scene 5, then two more Scenes and Intermezzo II to "refurbish" (15 minutes of music) ... and then I set to the long-awaited task of composing the remaining numbers.

Very excited to be back on track here.

[Karl Henning]

I told you I'd finish Scene 5 yesterday, and finish it I did:

[Karl Henning]

For those who may take an interest:  a few before-&-after snapshots.

Near the beginning....

[Karl Henning]

The lively dance with the "murky," rhythmically activated sustained chord in the brass (plus bassoons/bassi):

[Karl Henning]

In the Egyptian Dance, the retransition:

[Karl Henning]

And the close of the Scene:

[Cato]

For those who can read music, all sorts of marvelous things abound in this excerpt: what is most striking among very many striking elements, is the flow of the story throughout the orchestra.  One senses that a story is indeed being told, that the story has many parts, and that the parts are diverse yet connected.

By emphasizing the darker hues of the orchestra (e.g. English horn, the lower registers of the flute and the trumpets, and check out that low brass commentary at various points) the composer has created a Dostoyevskyan orchestra suitable for the story.

This excerpt alone should convince a music director to perform the entire piece!   

[Brahmsian]

For those who can read music, all sorts of marvelous things abound in this excerpt: what is most striking among very many striking elements, is the flow of the story throughout the orchestra.  One senses that a story is indeed being told, that the story has many parts, and that the parts are diverse yet connected.

By emphasizing the darker hues of the orchestra (e.g. English horn, the lower registers of the flute and the trumpets, and check out that low brass commentary at various points) the composer has created a Dostoyevskyan orchestra suitable for the story.

This excerpt alone should convince a music director to perform the entire piece!

I agree!  Listening to 'The Dreamer Explains Himself', Op. 75 No. 8, Scene 5

Fantastic, Karl! It is terrific.