Henning's Headquarters

[Cato]

Speaking of Karl's earlier works, I recalled the Opus 119 today for some reason!


Text:

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.



Performance:

#2

Text:

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.


Performance:

[Karl Henning]

Enough with the Retrospection, Already

[Karl Henning]

I keep working on it, but the sense that what I've been doing is right is eluding me. My feeling, though, is to plough my way out to the final double-bar, and re-touch/repair when I've got the line complete.

As noted in the blog, I'm thinking of a different tack on the writing for guitar. I did make a start on that today, but mostly I discovered how to write out the rest of Simple Music, Opus 205, and that's now done, a good ten-minute piece. 

[Karl Henning]

but mostly I discovered how to write out the rest of Simple Music, Opus 205, and that's now done, a good ten-minute piece.

It's only MIDI:

[Karl Henning]

Simple Music and All

[Karl Henning]

As noted in the blog, I'm thinking of a different tack on the writing for guitar.

And (pending, of course, any notes Aaron might have, I finished today.

[Karl Henning]

At Ease, It May Be

[Karl Henning]

Nowhere to Hide

[Karl Henning]

And (pending, of course, any notes Aaron might have, I finished today.

My colleague Jim Dalton most graciously wrote back,

I just read through Aaron's Uneasy Sleep a few times. Once slowly to check for playability, once up to tempo without the fixed media, and once complete with fixed media. It's enjoyable to play and I think it will be very effective. Let me know if Aaron programs it in the area, I'd love to hear what he does with it.

Jim then wrote at enormously helpful length touching on divers details, so that (while the matter of a bend awaits Aaron's own opinion/thoughts, I have made some necessary additions to the score.

[Karl Henning]

Beginning to Bewail

[Karl Henning]

the matter of a bend awaits Aaron's own opinion/thoughts ...

Actually, as thoroughly pleased as I am that this was the only problematic point in the piece (the problem in essence being a request to bend an open string) I think I may obviate the problem with an easy re-write of that measure. I'll hold off, though, until I can speak with Aaron.

[Kalevala]

My colleague Jim Dalton most graciously wrote back,

I just read through Aaron's Uneasy Sleep a few times. Once slowly to check for playability, once up to tempo without the fixed media, and once complete with fixed media. It's enjoyable to play and I think it will be very effective. Let me know if Aaron programs it in the area, I'd love to hear what he does with it.

Jim then wrote at enormously helpful length touching on divers details, so that (while the matter of a bend awaits Aaron's own opinion/thoughts, I have made some necessary additions to the score.

Uh, oh!  There's a cat in it [means that I'll have to watch it later on today]!   

K

[Karl Henning]

Uh, oh!  There's a cat in it [means that I'll have to watch it later on today]!   

K

The plus is that the guitar tone sounds reasonably like a guitar.

[Karl Henning]

Beginning to Bewail

Some good work on the Opus 200 today. Nevertheless, I'm not quite at the 90-second mark yet. So, slow going meets today's low-ish energy. I do think I'm pleased with it so far. In fact, I've just listened to it six times in a row, and I like it a great deal. I feel that this is a piece I'm going to win by inches. And that's all right. Each new piece is its own particular journey. Also, I think that once I hit my stride with this piece, progress may just get quicker. PT tomorrow, so almost certainly no work until...when? We have Henning Ensemble rehearsals Saturday and Sunday, so it won't surprise me greatly if I cannot really resume work until Monday. We shall see.

[Kalevala]

My colleague Jim Dalton most graciously wrote back,

I just read through Aaron's Uneasy Sleep a few times. Once slowly to check for playability, once up to tempo without the fixed media, and once complete with fixed media. It's enjoyable to play and I think it will be very effective. Let me know if Aaron programs it in the area, I'd love to hear what he does with it.

Jim then wrote at enormously helpful length touching on divers details, so that (while the matter of a bend awaits Aaron's own opinion/thoughts, I have made some necessary additions to the score.

Cool!  I enjoyed it!

K

[Karl Henning]

Cool!  I enjoyed it!

K

Thanks!

[Kalevala]

Thanks!

And don't blame the black cat; he/she is considered good luck in a number of countries.   

K

[Karl Henning]

And don't blame the black cat; he/she is considered good luck in a number of countries.   

K

Oh, I never have any quarrel with a black cat.

[Karl Henning]

Good Henning Ensemble rehearsal today, though a bit strange, as one of our number needed to stay home with a head cold (he tested negative for COVID.) As a trio, then, we read through both of the non-Henning pieces (which we all like a great deal) twice, as well as touching up a passage here and there. The fact is that the bassoonist was fighting off a head cold, too, and on returning home feels sufficiently run down to need to stay home tomorrow. Wanting both of our bandmates to mend as rapidly as possible, at this time, I'm not sure about tomorrow's rehearsal. We shall see.

[Karl Henning]

Good Henning Ensemble rehearsal today, though a bit strange, as one of our number needed to stay home with a head cold (he tested negative for COVID.) As a trio, then, we read through both of the non-Henning pieces (which we all like a great deal) twice, as well as touching up a passage here and there. The fact is that the bassoonist was fighting off a head cold, too, and on returning home feels sufficiently run down to need to stay home tomorrow. Wanting both of our bandmates to mend as rapidly as possible, at this time, I'm not sure about tomorrow's rehearsal. We shall see.

Within reasonable expectation, both Dan and Greta severally feel rather worse, alas! and of course we have canceled today's rehearsal.