Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Gotcha. What sounds are you using for playback? Default Sibelius sounds or something different?

Just the Sibelius sounds lib.

[Karl Henning]

This is "only" soft-core news, especially given the fact that orchestras' life is on hold indefinitely, but there is true potential, and it warmeth my heart:

An old friend (on the phone today, we recalled that we go back 30 years) who leads a good community orchestra, and who has seen, and not forgotten, White Nights has struck up a collaboration with a dance school nearby. So he has asked me for a 10 or 12-minute "vignette" from the ballet which he will pass on to the dance school director with the query, "does this inspire you?" With an idea to perform that portion of the ballet with dancers.

Now, years since, when I showed a bit of White Nights to my friend (I'll call him Carl) One of the numbers I showed him is Scene 2, A Walk in the Meadows, which is scored for strings alone.  Cut to the present, and for whatever passel of reasons, he needs a 10-12 minute extract from the ballet which is for strings alone, or strings plus non-concertante piano. I am too gratified by the thought of a performance, to let the project founder on such a point, so . . . I realize that Scene 3a, Nastenka at the Bridge will adapt quite easily for strings plus non-concertante piano; so that's what I am working on, today.

[André]

Coincidentally:

Right now, listening to Karl Henning's instrumental music. One of the pieces is for percussion, all the others feature the clarinet, either solo or in combination with other instruments - lots of variety!

- Square Dance op 71 is for clarinet quartet.
- Murmur of Many Waters op 57 is for percussion ensemble.
- Canzona ... & Gigue op 77 are for clarinet and organ.
- Fragments of « Morning Has Broken » op 55 is scored for violin, clarinet and piano.
- I Sang to the Sky, & Day Broke op 55 and Out in the Sun op 88 are for winds (the excellent New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble).
- Three Things That Begin with 'C' op 65a - Cats, Clouds, Canaries are scored for viola and clarinet.
- Irreplaceable Doodles op 89 is for solo clarinet.

The composer plays in 5 of these pieces. This is a fun disc. I like the way the music makes place for different feelings, different layers of musical communication. The music is 'on the move', not staying very long in one place, ready to advance to the next statement. It reminds me of Stravinsky's Jeu de cartes in its epigrammatic demeanor. When it's said, it's said. No lingering. I found the same quality in the choral works I listened to last week.

[Karl Henning]

Fort apprécié, mon ami!

[André]

Mais de rien  .

I like to understand how a piece of music is built, its language, and what means are used to convey its message.  Harmony and conciseness are two qualities I value highly. I like music that appeals to the intelligence, not just the emotions.

Later this week (or next) I will listen to your Passion According to St John. I feel it is appropriate for the times we are living in.

[not edward]

https://soundcloud.com/karl-henning-756715731/karl-henning-oxygen-footprint

Ooh, I like this. Rhythmically lithe and some very effective contrasts in the material.

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Well, the strings-&-pf adaptation of Scene 3a is done.

[Karl Henning]

19 down, one to go: Intermezzo IV is done.

[Karl Henning]

Morning may possibly be done; we'll see in the morning  . [PDF is too big to attach]

[Cato]

Morning may possibly be done; we'll see in the morning  . [PDF is too big to attach]

Karl sent me the score late last night, and this morning I happened to be up at 5:00 A.M.  I was joyous and surprised, when Karl's e-mail appeared!

White Nights is a remarkable work.  In one sense it is the perfect vehicle for Karl's miniaturist style (I have named him Our American Liadov but without the Oblomovian tendencies   0:)    ), as a ballet is usually built upon small scenes.  In another sense, however, the choice of a Dostoyevsky story presents a challenge, which might make any other composer hesitate.

How to convey such a story musically, by one of the most Russian of Russian authors, without wandering into imitation? 

If one listens to any section of the score, one hears - always! - a brilliant piece of musical painting, highly Tanzmaessig, and music evoking that Dostoyevskyan atmosphere without cliches.  It is music by a composer who loves Russian music and culture and people, but whose music remains uniquely his music, and not something filtered through nostalgia for Romanov Moscow.  One does not hear an American wanting to be Prokofiev: I think of one of Lowell Liebermann's piano concerti, which I heard by chance 20 years ago or so, and thought I had listened to a recently discovered work by Prokofiev, until the announcer said it was by Mr. Liebermann.

What one hears is a ballet of universality, evoking musically the themes of Dostoyevsky's story which transcend nationality and apply to all of us at any time.  "Evoke" is probably the best word: one might hear the slightest echo of e.g. Rimsky-Korsakov and others (in the score sent this morning I detected the faintest murmurs from Sibelius and Schoenberg). This evocation is parallel with how e.g. Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is Goethean without being imitative.

When Karl eventually sends out Morning, check especially Sections G and I and the marvelous piccolo melody at bar 218.  Ultimately, as is typical with Karl's works, every bar is packed with things of interest and delight.  If you cannot imagine the score, then wait for the MIDI, which will give you a (very rough) approximation.  And again, as is typical, one wants more!

So, go back to the beginning and listen and imagine and dream again!  0:)

[aligreto]

Karl sent me the score late last night, and this morning I happened to be up at 5:00 A.M.  I was joyous and surprised, when Karl's e-mail appeared!

White Nights is a remarkable work.  In one sense it is the perfect vehicle for Karl's miniaturist style (I have named him Our American Liadov but without the Oblomovian tendencies   0:)    ), as a ballet is usually built upon small scenes.  In another sense, however, the choice of a Dostoyevsky story presents a challenge, which might make any other composer hesitate.

How to convey such a story musically, by one of the most Russian of Russian authors, without wandering into imitation? 

If one listens to any section of the score, one hears - always! - a brilliant piece of musical painting, highly Tanzmaessig, and music evoking that Dostoyevskyan atmosphere without cliches.  It is music by a composer who loves Russian music and culture and people, but whose music remains uniquely his music, and not something filtered through nostalgia for Romanov Moscow.  One does not hear an American wanting to be Prokofiev: I think of one of Lowell Liebermann's piano concerti, which I heard by chance 20 years ago or so, and thought I had listened to a recently discovered work by Prokofiev, until the announcer said it was by Mr. Liebermann.

What one hears is a ballet of universality, evoking musically the themes of Dostoyevsky's story which transcend nationality and apply to all of us at any time.  "Evoke" is probably the best word: one might hear the slightest echo of e.g. Rimsky-Korsakov and others (in the score sent this morning I detected the faintest murmurs from Sibelius and Schoenberg). This evocation is parallel with how e.g. Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is Goethean without being imitative.

When Karl eventually sends out Morning, check especially Sections G and I and the marvelous piccolo melody at bar 218.  Ultimately, as is typical with Karl's works, every bar is packed with things of interest and delight.  If you cannot imagine the score, then wait for the MIDI, which will give you a (very rough) approximation.  And again, as is typical, one wants more!

So, go back to the beginning and listen and imagine and dream again!  0:)

That all sounds very intriguing and we are all keen with enthusiasm, excitement and expectation.

[Cato]

That all sounds very intriguing and we are all keen with enthusiasm, excitement and expectation.

Amen!  I always feel honored to see Karl's scores both in-progress and in finished form.

I am not sure how it works, but could a crowd-funding project help to interest a ballet company/orchestra in a performance?

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks, gents!  I've actually massaged the scene a bit after sending to Cato.

When I composed the Overture, 17 years since, I wrote a melody which I have always considered "the White Nights theme," and though I mined the Overture for material in the odd number later, I always reserved the theme for the final Morning, save the inversion of the theme which I devised for Scene 12b. Thus Morning is essentially the ABA' of the Overture, with a different B swapped in (the inversion, in fact).  The modifications I made this morning were:

1.  When I shared the Overture with a friend some years ago, he liked it, but felt that it got off to a slow start. I pondered that objection, seriously, but found that I did not want to excise anything;  that said, I did feel that now, at the ballet's end, it was arguably a bit of a dawdle.

2. Some changes in scoring (mostly in the A'), to mitigate the repetition somewhat

[Karl Henning]

With the ballet now done, at last (though there is one complicated Scene which I want to review for QC) the W-I-P which I am keen to finish, because I have met the conductor of a local ensemble, whom I hope to interest in the piece, is the Op.148: Karl's Big (But Happily Incomplete) Map to the Body (Symphony No. 2, for band)

The first movement (The Nerves, I had begun in Nov 2017, and finished in June of 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/v/HAK0BwHRTxM


Movement 2 is The Heart.  I started to form an idea for it while I was in Rehab, and itching to be composing again, but I did not commit anything to paper which I consider necessary.  I may sit idle-ish and mull for a couple of days more, I want to form a specific notion first.

[Iota]

https://soundcloud.com/karl-henning-756715731/memories-of-packanack-lake


Less current fare, but I liked the highly atmospheric Memories of Packanack Lake above, very much! Suggestive to me of huge internal space, though I realise that's perhaps somewhat contrary to the implications of the title. Anyway, sounds like quite a time you had there! The results certainly strike a pleasurable chord with me, I'll be listening again.

[Karl Henning]

https://soundcloud.com/karl-henning-756715731/memories-of-packanack-lake


Less current fare, but I liked the highly atmospheric Memories of Packanack Lake above, very much! Suggestive to me of huge internal space, though I realise that's perhaps somewhat contrary to the implications of the title. Anyway, sounds like quite a time you had there! The results certainly strike a pleasurable chord with me, I'll be listening again.

Thank you!

[aligreto]

With the ballet now done, at last (though there is one complicated Scene which I want to review for QC) the W-I-P which I am keen to finish, because I have met the conductor of a local ensemble, whom I hope to interest in the piece, is the Op.148: Karl's Big (But Happily Incomplete) Map to the Body (Symphony No. 2, for band)

The first movement (The Nerves, I had begun in Nov 2017, and finished in June of 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/v/HAK0BwHRTxM


Movement 2 is The Heart.  I started to form an idea for it while I was in Rehab, and itching to be composing again, but I did not commit anything to paper which I consider necessary.  I may sit idle-ish and mull for a couple of days more, I want to form a specific notion first.

Synaptic electricity everywhere! 

[Karl Henning]

Cheers!

[Karl Henning]

19 down, one to go: Intermezzo IV is done.

As I happened to have Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a in my kitchen CD player, the thought occurred to me to bundle the Four Intermezzi from White Nights as my Op. 75a.  I think I like the idea.