Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

I did some more work yesterday, which needed buffing today.  At about the one-minute mark.

[Karl Henning]

I did some more work yesterday, which needed buffing today.  At about the one-minute mark.

And the MIDI, for whoever may wish it.

[Sergeant Rock]

I did some more work yesterday, which needed buffing today.  At about the one-minute mark.

A symphony!    Will it be Webernian or Brucknerian ...well, Henningian, of course  but what are you envisioning?

Dsthr

[Karl Henning]

Writing it for a smallish orchestra, and at a technical level which could conceivably suit a community orchestra. Nevertheless, a musical language such that I might pitch it to a professional orchestra. The scale, too, should not be immediately forbidding to a community orchestra; so a 25-minute piece in three movements.

As there is no immediate (nor near-term) need for such a piece, I do not set even a soft deadline; I'll work on it, as and when the Muse bids me, Sarge.

[Karl Henning]

Thank you!

[Karl Henning]

A bit more work, though the latest, I'll let cure overnight.

[Karl Henning]

You know, it is starting to feel (in part) like a kind of return to the sound world of White Nights.  Which I am not taking to mean, that this should at all "really be" a scene in the ballet (its character does not suit any of the scenes which remain to be composed, for one thing) . . . but I find it encouraging from the standpoint of the ballet, because I feel that I can return to it (when it is time) and have the music remain consistent.

Also feeling fairly pleased that there is a kind of "voice" which remains true between the two large-scale orchestral projects.

[Karl Henning]

So: good work laid down over the weekend, the first movement nearly two minutes done (with the understanding that I still may tweak, modify, recombobulate the latest 15 measures). As I say, I am in no rush to get the movement finished, but I was keen to get a certain "critical mass" of the piece formed, so that it should be an independent object which exists not only in the ephemera of my imagination. I'll say I am really pleased with the start, which spurs me (in the best way) to make certain that the movement as a whole carries out that promise.

So what is different, now? The fact is, that the thought crossed my mind perhaps six times in the past: "I should write a symphony. I know I've wanted to." Once, I even made several sketches (none of which I am using in the present piece, for whatever reason). The key difference at present is, I feel entirely capable of composing a symphony. This feeling, arguably, may prove illusory. But I am for the moment going to continue to enjoy living into that illusion.

Thanks again, all!

[Karl Henning]

Good Triad rehearsal last night.  Got to a late start, and after the warm-ups, the piece I am conducting was first, so I was shorted about five minutes.  Made good progress;  in general, the piece is a lot of work for a four-minute piece but we will do it justice.  We still have five weeks of rehearsal.


And it is time I created Facebook events for the concerts . . . will do that this evening.


Friday, going to a concert at Middlesex Community College, to refresh some networking.

[Karl Henning]

Symphony Update

While no more notes have landed on the page since Sunday's session, there has been (in a musically pertinent sense) mental activity. Partly, I've thought of events/passages to follow (setting many of them temporarily aside, as not The Right Thing for measure # 58, where the score of the first movement presently stops); partly, I've been digesting the musical Stuff of what is presently composed.

This last may sound odd. "He wrote it; doesn't he himself GET it?" But recall that my goal this weekend past was a musical object possessed of a certain sufficiency, to serve as a lump of workable sonic clay. It was the result of musical caprice, an impromptu. In a word, I thought it sounded fairly good, and that it would be something to work with; yet the creation was, I won't say a speedy affair, but the idea was, do first, and reflect after. (There are many situations in Life where that is NOT the way to proceed, but I've found I can compose like this to no one's hurt.)

So one of the things I've done is, study my own score, reduce the pitch material to a compact phrase, the clearer to make further use of what is already in the piece, so that the composition contains, among other things, ample self-reference and musical affirmations.

That done ... I now go to paper. Just regular, blank paper, to sketch, arrange, fiddle with verbal and graphic scribblings with which my inner ear will associate a variety of musical elements and ideas, some of them more or less specific, some of them vague but nevertheless real. The broad idea is a kind of blueprint, although I caution you from considering it as anything as fixed as an architect's blueprint must perforce be. The arrangement, ratios, and content of these visual blocks will quite probably alter over time as I work on the piece; since of course what ultimately matters is the success of the sound of the music.

This sort of sketch is a kind of "pre-compositional" activity which I've used in the past, although by now, in quite the distant past. It is an ancillary process which was very helpful earlier in my composing, and which I largely internalized. It's kind of a fun "back to basics" activity which, I think, helps me to ritualize and affirm this formal embarkation upon the composing of a symphony.

So that's the tale for today.

[Cato]

After several delays, I was able to use Karl's hymn De Profundis in my Latin classes (8th Graders).  They translated the text, and then we listened to Karl's score, which most of them found most evocative.

Without prompting, most immediately caught on to how the music begins "in the depths" with very low notes in the pedal of the organ, and then mirrors the sin and despair at the beginning of the text to the brighter ideas of hope, mercy, and redemption toward the end.

And so, if you do not yet know this spiritual diamond...

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

[Karl Henning]

I've been listening to this awesome piece of yours recently, I will add.

https://youtu.be/H1GX6gAmom8

Thanks!  That is a piece which GMG made possible, we might well say.

[Karl Henning]

Some more work this morning, basically realizing ideas which had I had been turning through the week.

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[Karl Henning]

Fleeting moments of work on the symphony Monday and yesterday (more detail later).

Was going to post this in the Pictures You Like thread, only it belongs here better.  Advice from Monk to a drummer (and perhaps others) in rehearsal.

Those pieces were written so as to have something to play, & to get cats INTERESTED enough to come to REHEARSAL.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Question for Dr. Henning: for whom are you composing this symphony? Is an orchestral performance coming up in the near future? Apologies if you've already answered this!

[Karl Henning]

At present, for the shelf.  There is at present no demand for the piece.  When the first movement is done, I'll pass it around to a few conductors I know, and maybe—just maybe—post-facto demand for the rest of the piece may be teased out;  but I am writing it basically because I want to.

[Karl Henning]

Oh, and I did not mean to be curt, Jessop!  I wanted to answer, but I also was about to gear up and push off to work.  Thanks for asking!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I will be looking forward to the world premiere when it happens, as I am sure it will!

[Karl Henning]

Thanks for the kind thoughts!

[Karl Henning]

Fleeting moments of work on the symphony Monday and yesterday (more detail later).

Well, so I added two measures Monday morning, at ca. 5 AM, and probably before I had finished my cup of coffee.

I know what you're thinking, but at times I do actually do some musical work which is good enough to be retained in the finished product, that early in the day.  But as Shakespeare said, At times is not always.  So I worked on paper a bit yesterday afternoon, to repair what I felt sure I should wish to repair.

And this evening, I have both set those measures right, and pressed on (briefly) to a double-bar.

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