Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Well, and here it is . . . not sure if it is actually good, or if it sounds like something rejected from the soundtrack for Arthur . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/v/b8qFlgPRKZY

[jochanaan]

Okay, Carol is in for the 27 October concert, and thus, in for the new piece.

The accompaniment will be:

soprano recorder (doubling on tenor)
flute in C
bass flute (doubling on piccolo)

I see you're "flauting" convention.

[jochanaan]

...All this to say that as a conductor, my search for "the one true tempo," as our Lenny put it, was necessarily modulated by the desire of the composer. Even when that desire proved at variance with the score.

And if this serves to illustrate how The Score is a work-in-progress, rather than engraved in marble, so much the better.
[/quote]You mean composers can actually change their minds?!

[Karl Henning]

I've heard that it happens! 

[Karl Henning]

Okay . . . an auld virtual acquaintance not forgot, organist David Bohn, has asked for a one-minute piece.  It's a project dubbed Fifteen Minutes of Fame, and the call is for scores of 60 seconds in length, and the idea is 15 of the submissions are selected, and will be performed (in David's present case, in November of this year).  David wrote to me about the call months ago, and I've rarely forgotten about it;  but knowing that the deadline was not until 1 June, I worked on other things, reckoning that I would see to this matter in May.  So my challenge to myself is, ten seconds of music each day, and the piece (obviously) done in a week's time.

So, here they are:  the first few measures (and yielding ten seconds of duration) of the piece:

All right, so I dropped the (red beach) ball on this one.  I'm leaving for Fall River tomorrow, but will bring gear . . . I've now got 45 seconds done (okay, I cheated very slightly, by reducing the tempo marking), and can easily (hah hah) get the piece to 60 seconds while I'm on vacation.

[Karl Henning]

Got up a bit early, so got a start on engraving the last of the pieces of the Op.4 (kind of a short Suite, but I feel inclined to leave it that way), composed while in the reading room of a library overlooking a canal in Petersburg.

[Karl Henning]

Done.  (I think.)

[Karl Henning]

And, here that one-minute organ piece is:

[Luke]

I'm loving this sudden flood of scores, Karl! Really joyous to see...

I didn't find the time or the inspiration to write an organ piece myself (thanks for the heads-up on it, though), but I'm glad to see that you did. Looks quite the finger/brain-twister! Am I right to sense that in recent years your music has become more rhythmically intricate? IOW, am I correct in feeling that I'm seeing more tuplets and nestings thereof than I recall in pieces of, say, five years ago?

[Karl Henning]

The tuplet nesting was in homage to your esteemed self!    But, yes, you are entirely correct.

[Karl Henning]

And, got a good start on the first of the original Little Towns, Low Countries:

[Karl Henning]

And, got a good start on the first of the original Little Towns, Low Countries:

It's done!  And I do like it.

Edit :: old version deleted

[Cato]

It's done!  And I do like it.

Hi Karl! This is not downloading right: I am getting computer code! 

[North Star]

Hi Karl! This is not downloading right: I am getting computer code! 

Just rename it ending with '.pdf' and it should work.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe an unsupported character in the filename, try this 'un:

[Karl Henning]

Second of that ancient troika done:

[Karl Henning]

Easily the maddest piece of the three.  Luk elected to play this one as part of his piano jury the end of that semester.

[Luke]

 

Reminds me of that story about Schoenberg's Violin Concerto, paraphrase-able thusly:

'But Mr Schoenberg, only a six-fingered violinist could play this!'

'I can wait...'

Personally I can't wait to break my fingers on this one, after the more leisurely luxuries of the previous little jewels. Fantastic stuff, Mr H!

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Now I need to practice for a lunchtime performance Tuesday . . . I almost cannot believe that I have at last caught up with all that old piano music!