Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Thank you, sir!

[Karl Henning]

There will be video this weekend!

[Karl Henning]

Very likely to finish this up over the weekend, I should think.

[Karl Henning]

Very likely to finish this up over the weekend, I should think.

Well, perhaps not over the weekend (as I've mentioned to our Cato), but certainly by June's end.

I have "let out" a seam here, slightly expanded a passage there.  Now I do think the piece done, to this point:

[Karl Henning]

To start, the audio from 21 June.

[Karl Henning]

Our show:

http://www.youtube.com/v/dXMra6BvZew

[Scion7]

I like those sort of events.  I've seen one where the artist - at the end - blacklighted her chalk drawing giving it a totally different look/theme.
The audio was a little low.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks.  It is not my camera, and I am learning on the fly . . . I think the problem (audio-wise) was that the camera was at such a remove from the performers (I positioned it up in the organ loft at the back of the Chapel, which seemed to me optimal in that space for a line of sight upon the artists—in the event, the camera ought to have been closer for sharper resolution for their work, too).

The separate audio recording I made is cleaner;  so (while I did want to upload the full document) I will try to putter in Movie Maker, and see if I cannot produce a second version, dubbing in the cleaner audio.

[Karl Henning]

Present state of the Gloria.

[Sergeant Rock]

Our show:

I really enjoyed the music, Karl...well, the entire experience. It was nice to see you and Maria in action 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks, Sarge!


Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Cato]

Present state of the Gloria.

Marvelously inventive, which we always expect from Karl!  Allow me to point out especially bars 85-117 and the D minor/D major section immediately following!     But the whole piece is a jolly bold soul!  0:)

[Karl Henning]

Thanks!

Very likely to finish this up over the weekend, I should think.

That was too ambitious a thought, but by June's end for sartain.

[Scion7]

That was too ambitious a thought, but by June's end for sartain.

Well, if you're sartain . . . I'll believe you.   

[Karl Henning]

[Karl Henning]

You want to know a great way to spend Monday morning?  Finding a sketched passage which you did not use for laudamus te, benedicimus te, and finding that (readily adapted) it is perfectly what is needed for the present qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

That is a great way to start the work-week.

[Karl Henning]

I know exactly what I want to recapitulate, musically, for Quoniam tu solus sanctus and out to the end.

I conclude the Credo with a semi-luxuriant Amen, so I may keep this Amen short and punchy.

[Cato]

You want to know a great way to spend Monday morning?  Finding a sketched passage which you did not use for laudamus te, benedicimus te, and finding that (readily adapted) it is perfectly what is needed for the present qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

That is a great way to start the work-week.

The Latin text for the Mass is not necessarily the easiest to set, since it is not particularly poetic, so Divine Intervention is always appreciated!  0:)  

A complete Mass in Latin (yes, the Kyrie is Ancient Greek) by Karl Henning!  0:) 

In such cases I always marvel at the text for Schoenberg's Jakobsleiter, which the composer himself wrote, and which on the surface seems supremely anti-musical.  And yet...he made it work!

[Karl Henning]

Although I have probably reported this before . . . it all started with a call to Paul.  In all likelihood, I had been listening to Mozart's d minor Kyrie, and I thought I'd like to compose a setting of my own;  and I wanted to write unaccompanied polyphony, so a good choir was indicated;  and I called to ask Paul if a Kyrie would be acceptable for use in the Unitarian parish whose fine choir he directs.  Not only did he give me the green light for the Kyrie, but he asked that fateful question, "Is this the first movement of a complete Mass?"

Hadn't got as far as thinking that, but the question could not very well now be disregarded.  So I accepted the suggestion, on the understanding that I wasn't "stopping everything" to write a Mass, but that I would take up a movement, now and then, on my Muse's caprice.

That said, I wanted to get the Credo, and all its text, done up first – first, that is, after the Kyrie (which was sung at First Church . . . in fact, I think I was in the tenor section of that performance . . . not exactly sure why we do not have a document of that event, though I have the hint of a recollection of some 'soprano-brain incident').

For the Kyrie, obviously, I would inscribe a dedication to Paul Cienniwa.  My idea then was to dedicate each movement to a choral director (most of them here in Boston) to whom I owe an especial debt for helping to foster and promote my compositional work.  The Credo bears the dedication "in memoriam Wm A. Goodwin," who was responsible for commissioning so many occasional pieces for use at First Congo, and who essentially bankrolled the purchase (and the first subsequent upgrade) of Finale.  The Agnus Dei is dedicated to Mark T. Engelhardt who as Music Director at the Cathedral Church of St Paul on Tremont Street invited me to compose a festive Evensong, the chief of many occasions on which he directed his choir in Henningmusick.  The Sanctus is dedicated to Heinrich Christensen who has made King's Chapel a welcome venue for twice-annual presentations of Henningmusick.  And the present Gloria is dedicated to Nana Tchikhinashvili whose choir Moderato Cantabile has repeatedly performed my Magnificat, itself no easy piece.

Of course, what I have found (which ought to have been no surprise) is that the Gloria, while less than the Credo, also has quite a passel of text.

– and another reason it ought not to have surprised me is, that when I finally had the Credo done to my satisfaction, I thought, "Let me write the Agnus Dei now:  that is just a little slip of text ...." –

Probably, I've detailed in this thread the various fitful starts to the Gloria, all the more reason why I am pleased to report what a well-oiled machine it is now, this week.

[Karl Henning]

May make adjustments yet.