Henning's Headquarters

[karlhenning]

Has the sonata anything to do with this thread (and GMGer)?

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,14980.0.html

Yes, but rather indirectly (or ethereally) ; )

[Guido]

Can't wait to hear it - have you got performers lined up?

[karlhenning]

Dana asked me for the piece, for a recital next month (!);  we're going to meet this Friday.  I think the accompanist he originally had lined up, had to duck out.  His new accompanist will need nerves of steel, and lightning in the fingers, of course . . . .

[karlhenning]

A few questions for you, Karl:

1. Have any orchestras commissioned any works from you?
2. Have you composed any symphonies? If yes, then what is your general approach to the symphonic form?
3. Where does your inspiration come from for your music? Are you influenced by nature, the city, philosophy, etc.?
4. Since you play clarinet, how often do you think about the woodwind section, in particular the clarinet, in your music?

1. The simple answer would be no; that is, no orchestra of any name, with money to commission works, even knows of me, so . . . no.  On a "local" scale . . . .

1a. The music director of a community orchestra south of Boston asked me (in late 1999) to write a piece; the result was an 11-minute piece, The Wind, the Sky, and the Wheeling Stars.  The first (and as yet only) performance was a bit shaky, but the piece made a favorable impression on the audience.  The night of the concert I was given a check for a $100 honorarium. ("Better than a kick in the head," as my sister would say.)

1b. The music director of the Clemson (So Carolina) University orchestra had a particularly strong wind section one year, and wanted a piece to showcase them (i the spring of 2001).  As with (1a.), there was no money to be had, just a promise of performance if the composer did not write technically beyond the group's capacity.  (The composer managed to push the envelope a bit there, in the case of both 1a. & 1b.)  Here the result was the 7-minute I Sang to the Sky, and Day Broke.

[MN Dave]

Yes, but rather indirectly (or ethereally) ; )

[Luke]

The Wind, the Sky, and the Wheeling Stars.....I Sang to the Sky, and Day Broke[/i]

Interesting - would love to see scores! I've not seen much orchestral Henning on the page as yet.

Lovely titles, btw.... (echoes of the evocative subtitles of Tippett's Rose Lake in the second one)

[karlhenning]

2.  I have plans for symphonies, and some substantial sketches for the first of them; but nobody as yet needs any such piece from me.  I have settled into the practical situation of (probably) not writing a symphony until there is some prospect of a performance.  That's not an absolute . . . but I am tending to write pieces instead for which there is an occasion, venue, & musicians.  In a perfect world, in which the conductor of an orchestra has capacity for and interest in a Henning symphony, an event which would then (hopefully) domino into further demand in that organization and elsewhere . . . I think I reasonably have juice for a dozen symphonies.  (God grant;  my calendar is not an endlessly renewable resource.)

Although I have not set myself yet to writing symphonies, quite a few of my recent projects have been large-ish scale musical designs, though mostly for chamber groupings (or, in the case of the Passion, large choir, of course).  I should feel perfectly comfortable adapting that experience for symphony orchestra. In fact, some of the scenes I have written for my ballet White Nights are of a long-breathed nature which (arguably) would be better suited to a symphony.

[karlhenning]

Interesting - would love to see scores! I've not seen much orchestral Henning on the page as yet.

Lovely titles, btw.... (echoes of the evocative subtitles of Tippett's Rose Lake in the second one)

You are too kind!  As I look at the WSWS, I almost feel I want to suppress it.  But maybe it's not genuinely bad . . . perhaps I am just writing very differently . . . and of course there are ways in which the material was driven by the occasion.

[karlhenning]

Hm, the original PDF score is too big to attach! So, I've split it in two. First half:

[karlhenning]

Second half:

[Luke]

You are too kind!  As I look at the WSWS, I almost feel I want to suppress it.  But maybe it's not genuinely bad . . . perhaps I am just writing very differently . . . and of course there are ways in which the material was driven by the occasion.

Odd how my two performed orchestral pieces a) were performed by similarly community/university based ensembles and b) were so much geared to the performers, even though stretching them at times. (And like you, the first of mine, The Chant of Carnus, leaves me with mixed feelings which I could describe in exactly the same words as you just used - 'I almost feel I want to suppress it.  But maybe it's not genuinely bad . . . perhaps I am just writing very differently ')

I'd love to really be able to let my imagination fly with an orchestral piece at some point, unhindered by questions like '...but will the second bassoonist be able to do this?',  now that I feel I'm more capable of writing something worthwhile. Maybe I just will...

[Luke]

Oooh! Looks like I've scored, so to speak....

thanks, will download now!

[karlhenning]

I'd love to really be able to let my imagination fly with an orchestral piece at some point, unhindered by questions like '...but will the second bassoonist be able to do this?',  now that I feel I'm more capable of writing something worthwhile. Maybe I just will...

At times, you just should!

Oooh! Looks like I've scored, so to speak....

thanks, will download now!

I must have the PDF of I Sang to the Sky & Day Broke back at home . . . will try to scare it up this evening.

[Luke]

Wow, I see what you mean, so many features I wouldn't associate with your music at all, rhythmically, texturally, melodically, harmonically, tonally, but the quality is apparent, and - maybe this is the advantage of hindsight - at first glance it looks like there's still the kind of logic and rigour, and the kind of playfulness and way of doing the unexpected that I associate with your music, even if in a different context. Thanks for posting it - look forward to seeing the second one.

As for 'At times, you just should!' - yes, of course! But there's always that thing called time. Life is so full, and there are so many distractions. If only there was a cave (or a shed) (or an outpost) in which I could go and hide for a few months....

[karlhenning]

3. Where does your inspiration come from for your music? Are you influenced by nature, the city, philosophy, etc.?
4. Since you play clarinet, how often do you think about the woodwind section, in particular the clarinet, in your music?

3. Inspiration comes from . . . everywhere, in a sense.

My wife and mom-in-law are fabulously talented artists (really; that is not just a husband's love talking).  So one regular source of inspiration is their artwork, which surrounds me at home.

But wait, there's more.  One day I was talking to Mom (my wife is the only child of a widow, so my mom-in-law is part of our family, and I simply call her Mom) and she had spent the day at the public library.  One of the things she said is, she'll just open a magazine, and maybe there will be a full-page ad for a toilet — and that could be your inspiration.

At one time or another, I have been inspired by a piece of music which I absolutely adored (although the piece I then wrote was not just a carbon copy). Or by a piece which I found godawful dull — but in which, as I was listening, I would think, The piece as a whole is dreadful, but this texture, or this idea of using these two instruments in this way, or this thing he's doing with a certain theme . . . there must be some way I can put that to use in a much, much better piece of my own writing.  Art is wonderful: you can put even your experience of bad art to good use.

4. I don't think I "over-consider" the clarinet . . . but my awareness of how I possess the practical knowledge to "maximize" idiomatic exploitation (as it were) of the clarinet becomes a model reminding me that I shouldn't settle for routine with any of the other instruments.

Edit :: typos

[karlhenning]

Wow, I see what you mean, so many features I wouldn't associate with your music at all, rhythmically, texturally, melodically, harmonically, tonally, but the quality is apparent, and - maybe this is the advantage of hindsight - at first glance it looks like there's still the kind of logic and rigour, and the kind of playfulness and way of doing the unexpected that I associate with your music, even if in a different context. Thanks for posting it - look forward to seeing the second one.

Thank you for your willingness to look, and for your patience and charity in reading.

As for 'At times, you just should!' - yes, of course! But there's always that thing called time. Life is so full, and there are so many distractions. If only there was a cave (or a shed) (or an outpost) in which I could go and hide for a few months....

Balance, devoutly to be wished!

[karlhenning]

Sometimes, too, I am inspired just by the sound of a chord or an interval.

I could groove to a major seventh for an hour ; )

[Mirror Image]

Thank you Karl for your answers to my questions. Always interesting to read a composer's thoughts about their music.

[karlhenning]

Always a pleasure!  Such questions are a great opportunity to think of my work in different ways.  Keep me from going musically stale.

[Luke]

I could groove to a major seventh for an hour ; )

Call it a fifth and you're getting dangerously close to plagiarising LaMonte, you know...remember this one?