Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

(I should check the ACF Opportunities page again.)

And what should I find but a Call for the International Clarinet Association Composition Competitions with a deadline of Wednesday. Well shame on me, a clarinetist/composer, if I cannot supply scores. There are two categories, Solo and Chamber, and everyone can submit one piece in each category. The pieces must be 5-15 minutes in duration. For the Chamber category, a slight adjustment of metronome markings makes The Mask I Wore Before, Op. 168a (which the Fivemind group declined) eligible. For the solo category (for which cl/pf is suitable) I decided to concatenate the last two movements of the Op. 136 Clarinet Sonata dubbing the result Profiles in Ambiguity. Done and submitted. I'll eventually think of new pieces to submit to the same Call next year.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

So, predictably, more rejection e-mail msgs are coming in. (I should check the ACF Opportunities page again.)  I haven't been composing, as I needed to get the church choir poised for Christmas (a week from today) but I've felt I should set to writing something, I knew not what. Inspired by a slight Rodrigo piece on Friday's program in Lowell, I've decided to write an eight-minute piece for flute and strings: Pocketsful of Uncertainty. I've got the first half-minute done, and I've set up the introduction of the string choir.

Good title--particularly with all that's going on in the world.

PD

[Karl Henning]

No great progress. I've tinkered but slowly

[Karl Henning]

No great progress. I've tinkered but slowly

The lugubrious pace is not genuine desuetude, but simply the seasonal Advent busy-ness. Suited to the title, I am broadly thinking of employing Zappa's principle of AAAFNRAA (Anything Anytime Anyplace For No Reason At All) and on these lines am planning to listen to some Boulez as catalytic inspiration. The care I need to exercise on that head is that I want to keep the string writing within the reach of a good local chamber orchestra. The solo flute writing can be as wild as we please.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

So, how did your Christmas works/performances go Karl?

PD

[Karl Henning]

So, how did your Christmas works/performances go Karl?

PD

Very nicely, thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Sunny and cold-ish (ca. 38° at a guess) and it was good to take some fresh air at the top of the year.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Sunny and cold-ish (ca. 38° at a guess) and it was good to take some fresh air at the top of the year.

I also managed to get out for a short walk today.  Like you, it was sunny and pleasant outside.  Good to feel the sun on my face.

PD

[Karl Henning]

Program for King's Chapel on 16 April 2024

The Argument for Harmony
Music of Karl Henning
Fuchsia Minor, Op. 179a
I Dreamt of Reconciliation and Harmony, Op. 171
Waiting on the Italian Paperwork (Throwing Vermicelli at the Wall), Op. 177
Nun of the Above, Op. 144e
Peter H. Bloom & Carol Epple, flutes
Dan Zupan, alto saxophone
Dave Zox, contrabass

[Karl Henning]

Rep for King's Chapel in October

Nostalgia and Homecomings

Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels, Op. 117a (C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet and Double-bass) 5'30
Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road, Op. 149a (C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet and Double-bass) 7'30

New piece by Pam?

Adaptation of The Mask I Wore Before (5'30)?

[Cato]

Program for King's Chapel on 16 April 2024

The Argument for Harmony
Music of Karl Henning
Fuchsia Minor, Op. 179a
I Dreamt of Reconciliation and Harmony, Op. 171
Waiting on the Italian Paperwork (Throwing Vermicelli at the Wall), Op. 177
Nun of the Above, Op. 144e
Peter H. Bloom & Carol Epple, flutes
Dan Zupan, alto saxophone
Dave Zox, contrabass

Rep for King's Chapel in October

Nostalgia and Homecomings

Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels, Op. 117a (C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet and Double-bass) 5'30
Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road, Op. 149a (C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet and Double-bass) 7'30

New piece by Pam?

Adaptation of The Mask I Wore Before (5'30)?

2024 looks like a good year for HenningMusick!   

[Karl Henning]

Just a few icicles.

[Karl Henning]

Not much snow, nor did I catch the tree at its snowiest.

[Cato]

Hi Karl!

This link appeared elsewhere: check out the titles of his sonatas!  I think you have inspired him! 


Sonata 159 (2007) "Waiting for Batman"
Sonata 116 (1987) "Underwater Rhumba"
Sonata 140 (2003) "The Well-Tempered Cyclist" [slight cut-out]
Sonata 165 (2008) "Pensive Noctambulism"
Sonata 156 "A Boogie for Jonathan Powell"

[Karl Henning]

It was a much more clement day than the forecast had led me to expect. Even the breeze was fairly mild.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

It was a much more clement day than the forecast had led me to expect. Even the breeze was fairly mild.

...and now back to normal winter temps--for better or worse; I was getting spoiled!

PD

[Karl Henning]

This year, we [the Institute for Choral Creativity] received a total of 259 anonymous submissions, from 34 countries around the world, with texts in 16 different languages. Carefully reviewing each of your submissions was no small task, and choosing first and second place winners was quite the challenge. If you were not chosen as a winner this year, we sincerely hope that you are not discouraged, but rather inspired to keep composing; we dare say the world needs to hear your voice, all your voices, now more than ever....

[Karl Henning]

So, no musical news apart from all the blanks I've come up with, in all the calls I've participated in. There are two I remember from which I haven't heard yet, and I have almost no emotional reserve to maintain anything like hope in those cases.
Personally, I'm stunned by news of the passing of my sister Kim in Tennessee. Another sister was up here visiting with me (which has been fabulous) While we were driving back to Woburn I called and left vx-mail. I subsequently learnt that she was already gone. Very disorienting, losing a younger sibling.

[Cato]

So, no musical news apart from all the blanks I've come up with, in all the calls I've participated in. There are two i remember from which I haven't heard yet, and I have almost no emotional reserve to maintain anything like hope in those cases.
Personally, I'm stunned by news of the passing of my sister Kim in Tennessee. Another sister was up here visiting with me (which has been fabulous) While we were driving back to Woburn I called and left vx-mail. I subsequently learnt that she was already gone. Very disorienting, losing a younger sibling.

You and I are now in are a very sad club!  Best Wishes at a sad time!

One of my cousins died ten days ago: January is one of the worst months in my family for relatives dying.

Very disorienting, losing a younger sibling

It is indeed disorienting!

[Karl Henning]

Just got the message from the Rochester Phil. Oh well.