Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

A start (arguably only a token start) on the flute-&-marimba duet...got some of the (old, old) Credo MS. punched into Sibelius.

[Karl Henning]

At this stage I have all of what I had composed of the Credo now in Sibelius.

Nothing for it now, but to decide how to proceed . . . .

[Karl Henning]

I suspected I was quite late in giving a new listen to the Henning viola sonata, and a quick GMG search reveals that I am very late indeed. It's now been two years, in fact, since I first heard it. On the other hand, those two years have opened my ears considerably (I found a post of similar vintage documenting my boredom with Stravinsky's octet, for instance!). So I listened as if it were new.

First movement: on second/first impression the strongest impression I have is of the dramatic buildup over the final minute or so, which is fairly well gripping. This is still a musical language that is not my first, so to speak, but I have an impression of, if not always knowing the syntax, understanding the diction, the enunciation. Hrm, that will do as a metaphor for now.

"In Dave's Shed" I had remembered as my favorite movement previously and so it remains. It's easy to see why - it has a more lyrical bent and a relaxed way about it, like days spent in the shed, perhaps. Maybe I'm missing Dave Brubeck a little too much, but listen to the piano accompaniment from 3:40-4:40: it reminds me a bit of a jazz pianist following an improvised solo with tasteful chords. Another recollection was in thinking the "Suspension Bridge" title appropriate, somehow, and this I think is because the viola's melodic lines (hrm. Am I allowed to call them melodic? Maybe just lines) seem to grow longer and more substantial as we move along, and of course so does the piano's role. The final bars feel like they are reaching out to someplace they can't quite catch.

The "Tango" rhythm insinuates itself. I feel like that's the word. I only start feeling a dance pulse strongly after about ninety seconds, and the pianist sometimes starts to sound again like a jazzman champing at the bit, but our tango-ist is up to other tricks. At 3:15 are we hearing a quotation or is this hummable Henning?! "Hummable Henning" - hmmm, I oughta copyright that.

I think I get that feeling, with this sonata, that I often do with a piece that challenges me: my "way in" is by identifying places and sections that I find especially intriguing and ear-grabbing (e.g. an episode early on in the first movement, the ending thereof, all of Dave's Shed) and work from there to the parts that are, to me, more enigmatic or at any rate not obvious - one such spot being the ending.

I'm not sure if our friend Karl intended me to hear jazz sounds in some of the piano chords, and I'm not sure I'll hear them again, but I'll at least make him think about it tonight! In the meantime it shall be fewer than two years before my next listen.

Thanks, again. (Was poking through the thread for other info . . . and this was a post from erewhile which I re-read with pleasure.)

[Karl Henning]

Paul wants a piece for violin & harpsichord, 7-12 minutes.

Got a start on this last night, working title is Plotting (y is the new x).

[Karl Henning]

Okay, little newslets here and there . . . I actually have a couple of pages more of MS. for the Credo. Somehow, as I was working from my notebook and plugging the music into Sibelius, I understood (and I now know it was a misunderstanding) that et homo factus est was the last bit which I had set, per the file posted above.  I mean, I should have learnt otherwise if I had just turned that last page . . . but I didn't.  When I went into the notebook to re-stock it with blank MS. paper, lo! there were two pages more.  Good thing I hadn't gone to the trouble of composing a superfluous setting of those lines . . . .


We are certainly nowhere near any suggestion of actual performance . . . but, curiously, a choir in the Fort Worth, Texas area will read the Kyrie at one of their rehearsals, possibly ere year's end.  This has been a fortuitous Facebook connection, and possibly a restored Wooster connection . . . or maybe just good ol' Wooster networking.


Dr Tim has waited on the return of his mallet-wielding partner from a west coast conference, and they may possibly have a look at just what everyone was expecting this week.


And Dr Paul has given me the all clear to proceed with the vn-&-hpschd piece. (He's been too busy yet, to look at the Organ Sonata; but then, I am sure he will at some point, and sure that he will play it.)

[Karl Henning]

No great surprise, really . . . got some work done for the percussion ensemble piece on this morning's train.

[Karl Henning]

A somewhat trippy thought, that Weinberg wrote this the year I was graduated from Wooster . . . .

[Karl Henning]

No great surprise, really . . . got some work done for the percussion ensemble piece on this morning's train.

And a bit more this morning.

[Sergeant Rock]

A somewhat trippy thought, that Weinberg wrote this the year I was graduated from Wooster . . . .

1986 was a good year 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Huzzah!

[Karl Henning]

Nana brought me up to date, concerning the first performance of your Magnificat. It was a resounding success. The concert started with it, and was again performed at the end of the concert, lots of applause, lots of compliments.
It will again be performed coming Saturday in Groningen, and I will take pictures, and a video recording will be made.
Henning's name is resounding through our parts of the Netherlands.

Wow, reading this has me all misty-eyed.

[Karl Henning]

Although timing and the graphic result all worked out, preparation of the parts for Brett's wedding music surprised me by how much time the end-game consumed . . . far 'hairier' an experience than the prep of the parts for (say) Out in the Sun.  And, as I am gearing up now to wrap up the ballet (I think I hear Allan chuckling, but then, one is pleased to incite some mirth in so fine a chap), the experience with the parts for the Opus 93 indicates that post-production of White Nights will be sixfold hairier.

This sober consideration has prompted me to take seriously, for the first time, a switch from Finale to Sibelius.

. . . and the rest is history . . . .

[Karl Henning]

I'll accept the short end of that range. That is, if I haven't finished it in three years (by the end of 2012, say) I'll officially consider the project jettisoned.

But, no, I don't.

[jochanaan]

. . . and the rest is history . . . .

. . . or hysteria . . . ?

[Karl Henning]

Oh, we're thinking of the "rest is noise" guy, aren't we? 

[Karl Henning]

0 - 3 - 5 - 6 - 1

[jochanaan]

Oh, we're thinking of the "rest is noise" guy, aren't we? 

[Karl Henning]

Karl, what in the world was that? are you serious?
This was very tenacious, I wish it had some charm...

[Karl Henning]

Okay . . . to accompany the score for the Boston Musica Viva call, I've needed to assemble a list of performances.  Had to do some little research (and this thread was a key resource), and of course, the fact that I have so many little performances strewn here and there is A Good Thing.  The exercise has underscored for me the importance of maintaining a file dedicated to harvesting these data . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Sent all the stuff in to Boston Musica Viva (per blog).


My choir (lovely group of folks!) need a bit more time with my Alleluia in D, and I anticipated that they might, before Thursday's rehearsal.  Plan B took the form of an English-language edition of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.  We were quite a hit this morning.  (We might have done better yet with it, of course;  but I led them at a none-too-fast pace, felt most grazioso.)  Now, though, I think we may wait until Christmas before performing my piece . . . we probably want all the more typically characteristic music for Advent (which I still think of as a preparatory penitential season . . . would feel weird to me, programming an Alleluia).


Mostly took it easy today . . . worked a bit at re-creating a Sibelius file of Moonrise, and added a bit to the violin-&-harpsichord piece.