Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Does New England have something similar to this?
http://www.clevelandoperatheater.org/new-scenes
(As I understand it, this was limited to members of the CCG, so it's not an open competition.)

Nice program!  If there is any such in Boston, my people do not speak of it  0:)

[Karl Henning]

Separately:  This is the piece I have wanted to shape, since the end of yesterday's service.

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

I started with a mix consisting only of modifications of the handbell recording (take 1, still on DropBox https://www.dropbox.com/s/hzk6htgqii9nk27/Pavane%20Remix%20-%20Take%201.mp3?dl=0 )

Some of the "bell stuff" I have done has felt limited to higher pitch . . . and I did feel that this wanted a kind of "bottom."

So I listened to take 1 on headphones, hit the Record button, and improvised vocalizations, and a few bits on the recorder. For good or ill, I did it "in one breath," and in a single take.  I added that track as a layer to the mix, and made modifications here and there.  So the harmonic felicities between the bells and the air columns is not "chance," but musical improv.

[Karl Henning]

Incremental progress.

[Karl Henning]

Karl, I've been listening to your recordings on Soundcloud from the top-down. I've left a few short comments and would be happy to listen to and comment upon anything you recommend. It's great that you have so many live recordings. You have a lot of stylistic variety and it's been interesting to listen...

Thanks again, both for your kind listening, and for your comments!  I need to return the favor.

[Karl Henning]

Separately:  This is the piece I have wanted to shape, since the end of yesterday's service.

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

I don't know, in the Grand Scheme, how good it really is . . . but I do find that I like it.  This may be an eccentricity on my part.

[Karl Henning]

The state
Of Scene Eight

Edit :: old version deleted

[Karl Henning]

Above all, the Summer Solstice is Henningmusick time.  Aside from being The Right Season to work on White Nights, it is the time of year, apparently, when a composer's thoughts turn to wild fruit.

[Karl Henning]

I was up and rested at 4:30, so before going in to work, I laid in some more work on Scene viii.

[Karl Henning]

(There was an intermediary score from last night, which I neglected to post.)

[Karl Henning]

I then added a flute obbligato, to make it a solo mezzo, flute, piano trio . . . so now I have retro-fitted the unison choir anthem with optional flute or violin obbligato.

The inaugural outing, warts 'n' all.

[Karl Henning]

Particularly good progress today, even allowing for the fact that I reserve the right to make further refinements here and there in these first 294 measures of the Scene.  (The PDF is now too large to attach here.)

[Karl Henning]

For a while (and yet, unless I am mistaken, not before 2017—so it may be an argument for not having finished the scene sooner) I realized that I wanted to bind this apparently independent excursion into Rossiniana to the ballet as a whole, by alluding to the opening of the Overture.  It works very easily in terms of instrumentation, adding only the harp to the Rossini orchestra (allowing for a slight revoicing of the initial trichord—in the Overture, three flutes, here readily recast for picc/fl/cl 1).

The incredibly wonderful idea (as I see it) which came to me only yesterday is, to take what in the Overture is apparently a digressive rhythmic invention (a passage I have always loved, and would never have considered alteration or withdrawing) after rehearsal letter S, and likewise plugging it in as an episode other than Rossini, and which likewise strengthens the ties to the ballet.  (Lest a hostile critic—and face it: If you build it, the hostile critics will come—dismiss the Scene as mere pastiche.)

So my work this morning was essentially to realize this vision, and holy cats, I love it;  I think it one of the most perfect musical touches I've brushed onto a musical canvas.

There is nothing second-rate about this belated return to the completion of the ballet;  it will be (as I have always hoped and meant for it to be) one of the works of which I can be proudest.

[Karl Henning]

The most important "repair" I am going to need to apply is:  All of my work this year has assumed (you all probably know the joke) two horns.  (Which was a coin toss:  there are four horns in the Ov. to La gazza ladra, two in the Ov. to Il barbiere.)  Today, as I (ahem) look at the first page of the number (i.e., the introduction which I composed three years ago) I see that, in fact, I was writing for four horns.  It is not going to be a terrible lot of work to give some employment to another pair of horns.

[Karl Henning]

(The PDF is now too large to attach here.)

File-size reduction:

Edit :: old version deleted

[Karl Henning]

The arrangement of the New Year's Carol is a matter of some urgency (must get it done tonight, so I can print it off and bring to choir rehearsal tomorrow evening).  The important thing (which makes a little more work, of course) is that I want the arrangement to be clear of any copyright infringement from the start, so I want to devise my own harmonization/accompaniment.  On the plus side, it means that it should be simpler, and thus something less likely to provoke complaint from the accompanist.

Organists are always complaining about something, even if the work is composed by a master organist!

This one has a rare talent for complaint, even among organists  0:)

SO...did organist Miss Donna Prima take a bow for your arrangement?

She was all right.  It was the calmest rehearsal we've had in four weeks 

The fever is past:  the organist has tendered her resignation, effective 1 Sept 2017.

Deo gratias.

[Karl Henning]

Scene 8 is in the first phase of being Done;  that is, I have found my way to the final double-bar.  I am still stress-testing all the joins, and confirming the pacing.  And I need to go through the horn and trombone lines and add some material.  So it will very possibly be completely done tomorrow.  Which of itself, is a huge step for this composer, and for the ballet.

[Cato]

This one has a rare talent for complaint, even among organists  0:)


She was all right.  It was the calmest rehearsal we've had in four weeks 


The fever is past:  the organist has tendered her resignation, effective 1 Sept 2017.

Deo gratias.

Good riddance to that stress in your life! 

I have reviewed the latest score to the scene for the Dostoyevsky ballet White Nights : not just good, but excellent, especially in the last moments!

The incredibly wonderful idea (as I see it) which came to me only yesterday is, to take what in the Overture is apparently a digressive rhythmic invention (a passage I have always loved, and would never have considered alteration or withdrawing) after rehearsal letter S, and likewise plugging it in as an episode other than Rossini, and which likewise strengthens the ties to the ballet.  (Lest a hostile critic—and face it: If you build it, the hostile critics will come—dismiss the Scene as mere pastiche.)

So my work this morning was essentially to realize this vision, and holy cats, I love it; I think it one of the most perfect musical touches I've brushed onto a musical canvas.

There is nothing second-rate about this belated return to the completion of the ballet;  it will be (as I have always hoped and meant for it to be) one of the works of which I can be proudest.

Amen!   0:)

[Karl Henning]

The most important "repair" I am going to need to apply is:  All of my work this year has assumed (you all probably know the joke) two horns.  (Which was a coin toss:  there are four horns in the Ov. to La gazza ladra, two in the Ov. to Il barbiere.)  Today, as I (ahem) look at the first page of the number (i.e., the introduction which I composed three years ago) I see that, in fact, I was writing for four horns.  It is not going to be a terrible lot of work to give some employment to another pair of horns.

This morning I have done with the "'filling out";  and I think I may have done with testing the joinery.  About to head out for some last-minute necessities, and let my musical mind clear.  A good chance it is absolutely done.

[Karl Henning]

Good riddance to that stress in your life! 

I have reviewed the latest score to the scene for the Dostoyevsky ballet White Nights : not just good, but excellent, especially in the last moments!

Amen!   0:)

Thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Another hazard of leaving a project unfinished for three years:  I now notice that, at the start of Scene 8, at least, I wrote for two flutes.  So now, do I fill in flute 2 material for the rest of the scene, or re-draw the intro so that only one flute is needed?  The latter course is easier, but . . . if I mean for the piece to enjoy a semi-independent existence, we should really have two flutes as well as the piccolo.


Will worry about this after I am back from grapeseed oil hunting.