Henning's Headquarters

[JBS]

I'm fairly sure we have letters from Mozart, Beethoven, and others complaining about not being appreciated by contemporary audiences. So you're in good company.

[aligreto]

Thanks. I feel like it was bad form, whining like that, but I had to let it fly.

Steady as she goes, Karl. 

[Karl Henning]

As an old schoolmate was wont to say: Maintain.

[aligreto]

As an old schoolmate was wont to say: Maintain.

That will do, Karl. 

[Cato]

Charles Ives comes to mind: I think he was nearly 80 before he heard his Symphony #2 via a small radio, in a performance by the New York Philharmonic with Bernstein, and then, 2 or 3 years later, Ives died.

Gustav Mahler had become interested in his Third Symphony.  This essayist examines why Mahler found the piece of interest - and spent time to examine it - when he was very sick with a heart infection and when he was working on his own Symphony #10:

... remember that one of Mahler's most important innovations, and surely the one he took the most criticism for throughout his career, was his introduction of popular, even banal or kitschy styles of music into the symphony. Imagine his surprise when reading the Ives for the first time. Where Mahler draws from Klezmer tunes, country dances and urban waltzes, military marches and ceremonial funeral music, Ives uses church hymns, Stephen Foster songs (albeit, not in the 3rd), jaunty marches and naïve sounding chorales.

However, even their shared use of the profane (yes, in the hallowed halls of classical composition, the inclusion of American church hymns in a symphony would certainly qualify as profane!), and their shared exploration of new techniques would not, in my opinion, be enough to tear Mahler away from his Tenth for even ten minutes.

What I think must have fascinated Mahler was not the materials and techniques Ives was using, but the meaning Ives found in them. In Ives, he found another composer who was wrestling, in a very profound way, with the same questions of musical space and time, of the intersection the controlled musical world on stage with the world around it.

See:

https://kennethwoods.net/blog1/2009/05/01/ives-and-mahler-kindred-spirits-and-spirituality/


Of course, Mahler died before he could have conducted the Ives Symphony #3.  Bad luck for both composers!

But imagine the difference it (probably) would have made for Ives' career!

Anyway, Ives did not compose much at all in his later years, so Karl has the good fortune to retain the energy and concentration necessary to keep composing music!   0:)

[Karl Henning]

Had a good Triad Repertory Committee mtg (via Google Meet). The piece of mine I'm offering is indeed the Sanctus from the Op. 106 Mass, which hasn't yet been sung. Its chromaticism will require rehearsal. Atop the traditional challenges ("not too much sacred music," "Is there too much slow music?") we must keep in mind the result from a post-concert survey, that the singers felt we didn't have quite enough rehearsal time for the music.

[Karl Henning]

The future of the Henning Ensemble has become somewhat uncertain. Our violinist needs a sabbatical, which needs to be a bit open-ended. And fellow composer and hornist Pam Marshall is about to spend some weeks in Portugal, exploring the possibility of moving there.

We are beginning to think more seriously about recruiting new members.

We have an October date at King's Chapel and are starting to assemble a program. We've also got a date at the Woburn Public Library to repeat the program that same week.

[Karl Henning]

New members have not been recruited. A little bittersweet, as it may prove to be the final flight of the Henning Ensemble, we have concerts at the Woburn Public Library tomorrow and at King's Chapel in Boston at 12:15 on Tuesday.

King's Chapel does livestream the concerts here.

[Karl Henning]

The program includes two pieces of mine setting poems by our own Cato.

[Karl Henning]

New members have not been recruited. A little bittersweet, as it may prove to be the final flight of the Henning Ensemble, we have concerts at the Woburn Public Library tomorrow and at King's Chapel in Boston at 12:15 on Tuesday.

King's Chapel does livestream the concerts here.

I don't mean to be defeatist; I'm sure Peter & Carol & I will convene afterwards to think more actively about potential additions to the roster.

[aligreto]

I don't mean to be defeatist; I'm sure Peter & Carol & I will convene afterwards to think more actively about potential additions to the roster.

Best wishes.

[Karl Henning]

All your support warmly appreciated!

[Cato]

The program includes two pieces of mine setting poems by our own Cato.

It is always an honor when Karl is interested in one of my works or requests a specific kind of text!

His music for my two poems is - naturally! - most evocative and and compelling, providing an audible soul permeating the words.

[Karl Henning]

It is always an honor when Karl is interested in one of my works or requests a specific kind of text!

His music for my two poems is - naturally! - most evocative and and compelling, providing an audible soul permeating the words.

The singer (Ellen) and instrumentalist (Peter) — The Crystalline Ship is voice and baritone saxophone, My Life, My Life, voice and alto flute — are both enthusiasts for the twain.

[Cato]

Here are the poems:

The Crystalline Ship

And so the crystalline ship has sailed,
Where you feasted on the soul's hard bread,
With the winds in league
With the seas calm or gale
The crystalline ship must sail

Somewhere

You rested in the soul's long bed,
And dreamed you were alive
On the crystalline ship
With the fish and the birds
And the cook in the galley
Sings to her ears
That water is a three-edged sword,
One for the skin and one for the bone
And one for the spirit all alone,
Who is tempted to splash and thrash
The Pacific of your mind's distress
That the crystalline ship has sailed

Somewhere

You bested the sea and split the shell
With a three-edged sword
Of pain and smiles and a wondering blue,
And now launch a vessel found only in you
Left behind by the crystalline ship.


My Life, My Life

Thus moaned the soil:
My life, my life, my life,
A mass of desire
In a priestless church,
A smile of despair
In a cloud-choked face,
A gasp of adieu
In an unknelled box.   

Thus cried the fire:
My life, my life, my life,
Growing and thinking and warming,
Gilded and hated,
Warming and yearning and fading,
Useful and useless,
Fading and yearning and fading,
With a yearning heart.

Thus sighed the air:
My life, my life, my life,
A wave in a sea
With a too-far shore,
A clock in a world
With a time-free sky,
A grain in a dune
With a boundless mind.


Thus sang the sea:
My life, my life, my life,
Dreaming and birthing and storming,
Frozen and cobbled,
Storming and healing and playing,
Lovelorn and Love-filled,
Playing and healing and playing,
In the healing soul.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The future of the Henning Ensemble has become somewhat uncertain. Our violinist needs a sabbatical, which needs to be a bit open-ended. And fellow composer and hornist Pam Marshall is about to spend some weeks in Portugal, exploring the possibility of moving there.

We are beginning to think more seriously about recruiting new members.

We have an October date at King's Chapel and are starting to assemble a program. We've also got a date at the Woburn Public Library to repeat the program that same week.

New members have not been recruited. A little bittersweet, as it may prove to be the final flight of the Henning Ensemble, we have concerts at the Woburn Public Library tomorrow and at King's Chapel in Boston at 12:15 on Tuesday.

King's Chapel does livestream the concerts here.

Eek!  Sorry to hear of your troubles finding new members (and best wishes in the voyages of the original members too).  I'll try to tune in on Tuesday; need to put it on my calendar.

It is always an honor when Karl is interested in one of my works or requests a specific kind of text!

His music for my two poems is - naturally! - most evocative and and compelling, providing an audible soul permeating the words.

Congrats Cato!  I shall read your poems when I'm in a bit calmer state of mind (currently taking a short break whilst defrosting my chest freezer and getting the contents back in it and organized). 

And break a leg Karl!   Or is that phrase only used for stage actors? 

PD

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, PD!

[Cato]

Congrats Cato!  I shall read your poems when I'm in a bit calmer state of mind (currently taking a short break whilst defrosting my chest freezer and getting the contents back in it and organized). 

Many thanks!  We await your impressions!

And break a leg Karl!   Or is that phrase only used for stage actors? 

PD

I think the phrase works in this case!   

[Karl Henning]

That's my understanding, also.

[relm1]

Loved the poetry and looking forward to hearing it performed!