Henning's Headquarters

[Catison]

I've been away from the forum too long.  I'm listening to the music you uploaded Karl.  This is great stuff!  You have really made my Friday!

I would agree with Greta, that the composer that most immediately came to mind was Torke in Out in the Sun.  I must get the fiancee to listen to this.  She'll love it!  You're clarinet playing is wonderful, btw.

I will keep you posted about the Sinfionetta.  My quintet isn't as good as I would like it to be, and we have some problems counting the time changes.  I have assured them that if we practice, these will come very naturally.  I still really want to play your music.

[Szykneij]

In New Hampshire, of course, E-flat is the key of the Piscataqua.
 

Then why didn't Walton write Portsmouth Point in that key?   

[Ephemerid]

Karl, the Canzona & Gigue is my favourite so far-- something I wasn't expecting really because I'm not much a fan of the organ-- a lovely piece (I'm going to have to listen to it again after posting this).

I love the contemplative moments in Irreplaceable Doodles. 

Each of these pieces you've posted are really wonderful, refreshing and new.  Please post more!   

[greg]

Lovely to see all discovering the sunny joy! 

I love the instrumentation (great use of saxophones), and waxed lyrical to Karl about this piece before...I would love to perform it if we had the players at our school...

I wouldn't say John Adams comes to mind, more Reich or to me Michael Torke, there was a piece I was looking at for our quartet that I remembered that it reminds me of, it's called "July".

Here is a clip.

[mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/13/981279/torke-julyclip.mp3[/mp3]

I like Karl's piece better though, because I love the chorales, and the way the brass trio plays off the woodwinds (and it is less repetitive)!

July...... the month or the name?

[karlhenning]

Thanks again, Greta, Brett & Josh.

[springrite]

Gave your work a first run though while intermittently doing some chores such as cooking, so the concentration is on and off. The first impressions:

Choral works are wonderful. I like the use of the trombones in those works.

My favorites so far are the works with clarinets in them. It is only after I finished listening that I realised that you play the clarinet! Wonderful playing! And it showed, obviously, that the composer know this instrument the best and really brings out the best in this wonderful but much under-utilized instrument!

I will listen again this week, and will give Kimi his first taste of your music.

[Catison]

Choral works are wonderful. I like the use of the trombones in those works.

I absolutely agree.  I immediately thought of Wuorinen's Mass.  You should have seen how excited I was to click through those links of music, and after searching through Karl's list of works, I followed along with op. 87.  The Magnificant is quite amazing, and the trombone writing is very well done.  Good service music has a quality of being a little bit extraterrestrial, as if listening to the Trinity converse amoung itself.  The trombones in Wuorinen's Mass have always sounded that way to me, and I have to say, I enjoyed Karl's music just as much.

Now I am cut off and can't access the music anymore.  I must have cause too much trouble by downloading a lot!

It makes a difference that the music being played by very skilled players.  It was hard for me to fully grasp Karl's music as my brass quintet struggles through the Sinfonietta, the amateurs that we are.

So Karl, you have to keep us updated with more recordings.  Not all of us can make it to Boston.

[Saul]

Music of Karl Henning

Canzona & Gigue, Op. 77 (clarinet and organ)

[mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.gesprek.net/hendrik/Henning/Instrumental/03%20-%20Track%20%203.mp3[/mp3]
[mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.gesprek.net/hendrik/Henning/Instrumental/04%20-%20Track%20%204.mp3[/mp3]

Karl Henning, clarinet
Mark Engelhardt, organ


Irreplaceable Doodles, Op. 89 (clarinet unaccompanied)

Karl Henning, clarinet

[mp3=200,20,0,center]http://www.gesprek.net/hendrik/Henning/Instrumental/08%20-%20Track%20%208.mp3[/mp3]

I imagine this scene when I listen to this music, Karl...



Some kind of a sailors song.

Its not beautiful or sad or happy, its just music that evokes certain images.

Nice work.

Thanks for sharing.

[karlhenning]

Easter is a-coming (early this year).  Ed sent me the sound-file for a Georgian (i.e., the country in the Caucasus) Alleluia, with the request that I transcribe it so that we can sing it for Easter.  It is a lovely little piece, and will go well with a transcription I made much earlier of a Russian Liturgical Easter Stikheron.

Apart from those 'slight distractions' I've been working on the Prelude for some wedding music, organ, brass quintet, and we'll see :-)

[BachQ]

Easter is a-coming (early this year).  Ed sent me the sound-file for a Georgian (i.e., the country in the Caucasus) Alleluia, with the request that I transcribe it so that we can sing it for Easter.  It is a lovely little piece, and will go well with a transcription I made much earlier of a Russian Liturgical Easter Stikheron.

Apart from those 'slight distractions' I've been working on the Prelude for some wedding music, organ, brass quintet, and we'll see :-)

We've always harbored a certain fondness for Russian Liturgical Easter Stikhera ........... so it's nice of you to resurrect this (pun intended) .........

EDIT: amended stikherons to stikhera ......

[karlhenning]

Tasos, what is the proper plural for stikheron?

Paging Tasos . . . .

[greg]

Tasos, what is the proper plural for stikheron?

stikheroni?
stikheron?
stikherons?

[karlhenning]

For some reason I'm thinking stikhera, but my awareness of Greek is most distant . . . .

[BachQ]

My money is on stikhera ........ and I amend my post accordingly ........

[karlhenning]

Let the post be amended!

[Szykneij]

stikheroni?

I thought that was something Michel was going to to when he got old ...

[greg]

I thought that was something Michel was going to to when he got old ...

only if he's smart enough to figure it out, maybe.....

[BachQ]

stikheroni?

I thought that was something Michel was going to to when he got old ...

I thought Michel was debating between smokeheroni and IVheroni .......

[karlhenning]

Just learnt that, in fact, Pascha nostrum will be sung as part of the service Sunday morning at St Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn.

[karlhenning]

Rehearsal of the Passion last night was not bad.  We've officially risen to the condition of serious, but not hopeless.