Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

.

[Karl Henning]

So, after yesterday's rehearsal of the Op.129, flutist Carol Epple, the liaison with Kammerwerke, wanted to ask me about a couple of rhythms in the first section of The Young Lady Holding a Phone in Her Teeth.  Although there is perhaps the odd chance that, if it had not been the shag end of a full day when I was still recovering from a cold, my musical mind might have been alert enough to demonstrate correctly the rhythms she asked me about, I immediately agreed to the more essential point, that there had to be a player-friendlier way to notate those measures.

The first example (of only two) which Carol asked about was, e.g., flute 2 in m. 5.  I could plead the excuse that my brain (and not my brain alone) needed rest, but even the simple, unobjectionable question Where does beat 2 fall? defeated me.

Before:

[Karl Henning]

Now, the facts are these:

1. Carol has read through the whole score (as of 21 June) and listened to the mp3, and she is entirely for the piece, and is staunch to advocate on my behalf, and press for a commission.

2. Most of the piece is in quite plain (or plain-ish) rhythmic configurations;  there are just a few of these brain-teasers (though they are distributed through the group, so that more than one brain is being teased).  Probably, I kept them few, and similar one to another, to keep down the rhythmic complexity.

Hence, I felt there was no point in having these few brain-teasers be any possible sticking point;  and my own brain was mercilessly teased last night.  (Served me right, we might say.)  So I took it as in fact an enjoyable composerly exercise, to find an alternative, player-friendlier means of evoking the rhythm.

So here's after:

[Karl Henning]

Mind you, the tempo is 92 half-notes per minute, so the differences between these two are minimal, audibly, but there is a substantial difference in the stress level for the player.

Stimulated by the exercise, I've gone ahead and composed the next minute of the piece.  I started writing it, because it felt like what I wanted.

And then, I thought, I stopped writing the previous section four months ago;  does what I'm writing tonight even have anything to do with what comes before?  But in fact, it sounds peculiarly and satisfyingly organic.  It works.  I'm not sure how I got it to work so well, and maybe I don't deserve that it should work so well.  But, I am sure it works.

[Cato]

Mind you, the tempo is 92 half-notes per minute, so the differences between these two are minimal, audibly, but there is a substantial difference in the stress level for the player.

Stimulated by the exercise, I've gone ahead and composed the next minute of the piece.  I started writing it, because it felt like what I wanted.

And then, I thought, I stopped writing the previous section four months ago;  does what I'm writing tonight even have anything to do with what comes before?  But in fact, it sounds peculiarly and satisfyingly organic.  It works.  I'm not sure how I got it to work so well, and maybe I don't deserve that it should work so well.  But, I am sure it works.

The miracle of the unconscious mind!

Perhaps Saint Cecilia is involved?!  0:)

[Karl Henning]

She and I may possibly have a subtle thing going on 

The updated MIDI:

http://www.youtube.com/v/6qCqm82knpg

[jochanaan]

Now, the facts are these:

1. Carol has read through the whole score (as of 21 June) and listened to the mp3, and she is entirely for the piece, and is staunch to advocate on my behalf, and press for a commission.

2. Most of the piece is in quite plain (or plain-ish) rhythmic configurations;  there are just a few of these brain-teasers (though they are distributed through the group, so that more than one brain is being teased).  Probably, I kept them few, and similar one to another, to keep down the rhythmic complexity.

Hence, I felt there was no point in having these few brain-teasers be any possible sticking point;  and my own brain was mercilessly teased last night.  (Served me right, we might say.)  So I took it as in fact an enjoyable composerly exercise, to find an alternative, player-friendlier means of evoking the rhythm.

So here's after:

Yes, much nicer to read; it doesn't call for an engineer's calculator!

[Karl Henning]

[Karl Henning]

Never let it be said that I do not entertain a musically reasonable request!

[Cato]

She and I may possibly have a subtle thing going on 

The updated MIDI:

http://www.youtube.com/v/6qCqm82knpg

Something went wrong!  I get a message saying that the "video is private."   

[Karl Henning]

Sorry!  I switched it to Unlisted, which is what I meant.

[jochanaan]

Sorry!  I switched it to Unlisted, which is what I meant.

Does Marie know about this?!

[Cato]

Does Maria know about this?!

Always a bad sign when your wife suddenly has an unlisted number!   

Or when you come home from work and the house is empty and a For Sale sign is in the front yard!   

[Luke]

Just dropping in, as excitement mounts....

Karl, there's this option too.It leaves the durations of your original unchanged.... and it shows where beat 2 comes! OTOH it loses the sense of dotted rhythm between C# and D, so it might not be worth it.

[Luke]

Actually, this is better - beaming it like this shows the dotted rhythm and the second beat...

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, Luke!  Those are certainly nearer — or indeed, they preserve — the original rhythm.  I felt that the circumstances warranted sacrificing the septuplet.  Here is what Peter (not a member of Kammerwerke, but Carol is his student) wrote when I sent him the modified/expanded score:

For a guy who's not feeling entirely healthy you certainly are productive and clear-headed!  I think that Carol was wise to express her concern.  With her musicianship and experience, she could comfortably navigate the complex rhythms.  But when it comes to her conservative colleagues in KW (whose comfort zones and tastes slumber, dogmatically, in the land of Vaughan Williams) she wants to be sure that she can sell your piece as user-friendly.  And, by the way,  she's thrilled to be part of this current H en n in g E n s e m b l e project [i.e., the Op.129].

[Cato]

LUKE is here!

We await words of skepsis at Luke's outpost!

[Karl Henning]

LUKE is here!

We await words of skepsis at Luke's outpost!

We Want Luke!

How do you go about planning and drafting your compositions?

She and I may possibly have a subtle thing going on 

The updated MIDI:

http://www.youtube.com/v/6qCqm82knpg

Jessop, here I certainly need to "tape out" the rest of the piece, get a sense of where to go, and how I want to get there.  Even while I trust my semi-improvisatory method, occasional governance by some cool deliberation is generally a benefit, too . . . one "mistake" I just nearly made (not anything which actually requires "correction" in this passage, but . . . let's call it an oversight which set in, since four months had elapsed) . . .

I intentionally let the oboes "sit out" during the sort-of-sarabande which is the most substantial block in the piece so far.  When I started composing the new material yesterday, I got cooking with no regard for the oboes (I began with the clarinets at the present m.137) — which is no flaw which I cannot make good through the course of the completed piece, but if I have too little for the oboes to do when the group get together on the 30th to read this beginning of the piece, they might think I have a quarrel with them.  I think I "mended" that, both with bringing the oboes in for a sort of answer in m.149, and with a bit of subsequently added joinery, the present mm.134-136.

Anyway, mulling all that has tickled my braincells, and I now remember various sections of material which I was contemplating back in June . . . and it is time for me to draw up a bit of a schema for the rest of the piece . . . .

[Cato]

This geographically diverse program features Czech pianist-composer Giorgio Koukl's fantasy for flute solo after a Norse spirit;  a piece which Nashville, Tennessee composer David Leone wrote especially for us, playing against/with exquisite pre-recorded electronic percussion;  and the "biggest band" edition of the k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble to date, accompanying an intense monodrama for virtuoso lyric soprano on a text by Columbus, Ohio author Leo Schulte.

Tuesday, 27 October 2015
12:15pm
King's Chapel
Tremont and School Streets

Giorgio Koukl: Fylgjur, 1981 (flute unaccompanied)
David Leone: flute | clarinet in a + fixed media [2014 : 4] "... cathedral ...", 2014 — première
Karl Henning: From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129 (text by Leo Schulte), 2015 — première

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

Barbara Hill Meyers, soprano
Carol Epple, flute
Pamela Marshall, horn
Dan Meyers, divers recorders
Peter H. Bloom, divers flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet

As it turned out, the monodrama - like the heroine's adversaries in the desert - is more intense than I thought!  0:)

[Karl Henning]

As it turned out, the monodrama - like the heroine's adversaries in the desert - is more intense than I thought!  0:)

Searching through the email for something else, I chanced upon this, which I sent you in May:

The finished poem is excellent, perfect unto our purpose in both tone & scale, thank you!

I stand by that.