Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

May make adjustments yet.

I have a low-level nag whether the lately-added passage "needs something."  But I also have a clear idea of something to try.  (Apart, I mean, from having micromanaged the dynamics in mm.139-157.)

The final Amen (not yet shown) came to me just as my head was meeting the pillow last night.

Overall (and we might attribute this in part to recent review of Cato's Exaudi Me) I am thinking of giving more to some solo voices, so that m.152 is not just a one-measure caprice.

[Cato]

I have a low-level nag whether the lately-added passage "needs something."  But I also have a clear idea of something to try.  (Apart, I mean, from having micromanaged the dynamics in mm.139-157.)

Certainly the Tenor line in bar 140, later picked up by the Soprano(s), has possibilities.

Staggering the entry of the voices is another possibility.

Overall (and we might attribute this in part to recent review of Cato's Exaudi Me)* I am thinking of giving more to some solo voices, so that m.152 is not just a one-measure caprice.

*The whispering campaign has begun!   

[Karl Henning]

Certainly the Tenor line in bar 140, later picked up by the Soprano(s), has possibilities.

Staggering the entry of the voices is another possibility.

I think I almost want to compose out to the end first, before quite settling on The Solution.

*The whispering campaign has begun!   

[Karl Henning]

With but a light touch (which is my strong preference) I believe I have allayed any nattering nag.  And we have begun the home stretch.

[Karl Henning]

She may be done!  Ready to leave the score cure overnight.

[kishnevi]

Looks good.

The "amen" is certainly among the shortest and punchiest I know of.

One quibble of a clerical nature.
Is it necessary to do all that flipping and flopping between 3/8 and 3/4 so quickly and repeatedly? On paper at least it is confusing, especially when you add in the changes to and from 2/4.. Could it be renotated with a shared time signature? You would still be flipping between 2/4 and 3/4 but it would still minimize the one measure flip in and out of 3/x.

[Karl Henning]

Looks good.

The "amen" is certainly among the shortest and punchiest I know of.

One quibble of a clerical nature.
Is it necessary to do all that flipping and flopping between 3/8 and 3/4 so quickly and repeatedly? On paper at least it is confusing, especially when you add in the changes to and from 2/4.. Could it be renotated with a shared time signature? You would still be flipping between 2/4 and 3/4 but it would still minimize the one measure flip in and out of 3/x.

Thanks. You know, I believe you're completely right. Of course, back in the Deeps of Time (must have been a year and more ago) the 3/8 was my original reference. But your suggestion has particular force regarding the beginning, because 3/4 (three quarter-note beats) is easier to conduct clearer, than 3/8 (one beat per measure). And the way that the composition later proceeded, the reference meter is, in fact 3/4.

I'll sleep on it, but I am inclined to follow your suggestion.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Karl Henning]

Looks good.

I hesitate to offer the MIDI extrusion, which on at least one level, does not sound especially good

[Karl Henning]

One quibble of a clerical nature.

Is it necessary to do all that flipping and flopping between 3/8 and 3/4 so quickly and repeatedly? On paper at least it is confusing, especially when you add in the changes to and from 2/4 [....]

In fact, we might argue that I anticipated the concerns you raise, when I recapitulate that material in m.69ff.  So I am indeed thinking of rebarring/modifying the opening.  Book's not closed yet, but consideration is in earnest.

[Cato]

Looks good.

it more than looks good!      Trust me: it will sound quite fine!  I noticed the changes from the earlier version: they increase the nature of the work itself, i.e. as if something orange had become more orange, in a more definite and refined way.

I hesitate to offer the MIDI extrusion, which on at least one level, does not sound especially good

The music indeed sounds better than any MIDI version, which I found a frustration, when it fails to approximate the idealized performance in my musical imagination.

While using a modern music composition program for the first time to transfer my manuscript to a "publishable" form, I wondered about the effect of "MIDI" on the composer, i.e. whether its limitations would hinder more than help the composer, and perhaps even cause discouragement.  In one case it did help me to find an error: when I used it to play back a section I wondered why I was hearing an "E" instead of an Eb: sure enough, the Eb of my manuscript had been "automatically" changed to an "E" by the program!

At too many other times the MIDI version annoyed me with its squawks and honks: but perhaps this stems from the version I was using, an online program called Noteflight.

[Karl Henning]

While using a modern music composition program for the first time to transfer my manuscript to a "publishable" form, I wondered about the effect of "MIDI" on the composer, i.e. whether its limitations would hinder more than help the composer, and perhaps even cause discouragement.  In one case it did help me to find an error: when I used it to play back a section I wondered why I was hearing an "E" instead of an Eb: sure enough, the Eb of my manuscript had been "automatically" changed to an "E" by the program!

Yes, most definitely a good proofing tool!  Back in my Finale days (which may have reflected more the use of an older machine, anyway) more than once I found that a note which I had in fact entered correctly at first, I had later dragged to a wrong note with an errant mouse . . . .

[Karl Henning]

I'm not sure it's fair to the soloists, that they should sit out that last accented chord (I have already made special accommodation for the soprano solo).  So I think an easy alteration there is indicated.

[Karl Henning]

Here's what I think this morning:

Jeffrey's plea for less visual noise in the meter changes is full worthy, and only the first benefit is that the conductor and choir can start the piece more solidly.  So mm.1-2 are going to merge into a 3/4 bar.

Unlike the steadier quarters of m.69ff abovementioned, though, I am sure I do like the element of jumpiness granted us by the 3/8 of mm. 3 and 7, so they stay.

The S/A unison in m.9 feels to me like suggesting a change in tack, so that I am not sure I want to keep mm.10-12 in 3/8.  Nor do I believe it quite works (the way mm.1-3 do) as a [3/4 plus 3/8] rebarring. I am modifying the rhythm and changing mm.10-12 to three bars of 2/4.

As at the beginning, mm.27-28 & mm.31-32 will be rebarred as 3/4 measures.

Even more than with m.10ff., I have had some doubts that the 3/8 of m.36 rushes things unnecessarily, so that will be made a 2/4 bar.

I'll engrave those changes this evening, and then we shall see.

[Karl Henning]

Back when I first started the Gloria (February 2015) it was just those two initial phrases, and the metrical tension between the 3/8 and 2/4 (then 3/4) was "the point."

But once the "heart" of the piece became the 'orgiastic dance' of m.41ff., the piece accumulated sufficient rhythmic excitement via that engine, that these alterations to the first 36 measures are nothing of any sacrifice.  In fact, I do think they tighten things up, entirely.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe m.126ff. should not be quite so fast.

[Cato]

Maybe m.126ff. should not be quite so fast.

There is at least case to be made for starting the Ritardando at bar 130 ff., and slowing things down for that part.

[Karl Henning]

That double-bar has felt just too fast, and I've realized that there is actually no reason to increase the velocity there.

I do think it's done!  I'll run out for mushrooms, and let the score rest.

[Karl Henning]

Looks good.

The "amen" is certainly among the shortest and punchiest I know of.

One quibble of a clerical nature.
Is it necessary to do all that flipping and flopping between 3/8 and 3/4 so quickly and repeatedly? On paper at least it is confusing, especially when you add in the changes to and from 2/4.. Could it be renotated with a shared time signature? You would still be flipping between 2/4 and 3/4 but it would still minimize the one measure flip in and out of 3/x.

And thank you, Jeffrey!

[Karl Henning]

In other Henningmusick news, Lux Nova Press reports that we have gotten in a number of orders for sheet music from Flute World . . . a number of copies of the C flute version of The Angel Who Bears a Flaming Sword, the Fragments of « Morning Has Broken » , All the Birds in Mondrian's Cage, and Swivels & Bops.

[Karl Henning]

That double-bar has felt just too fast, and I've realized that there is actually no reason to increase the velocity there.

I do think it's done!  I'll run out for mushrooms, and let the score rest.

A sound file in wind tones (cannot abide the impression the MIDI export "choral voices" sound gives).