Henning's Headquarters

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

This is sounding marvellous!

A few thoughts:
The opening is a strong contender for Sibelius's 8th! An inspiration perhaps? A very Henningesque Sibelius, that is

At figure B I liked what you did with the thinning of the texture and exploring the unison to semitone motif. Bars 40-45 in particular seem a little 'squashed' somehow; like a nice calm passing of thoughts from one timbral combination to another that perhaps could be fleshed out a little bit more, maybe some more klangfarbenmelodic treatment of that passage? idk. It is just that when bar 46 comes along, I feel that short moment has simply been pushed aside as something more metronomic happens with the reintroduction of the strings and a busier texture. The first 6 bars of B really sounds like a logical progression to what came before during A; it is somewhat of a separation between the two main textural layers (the legato and the pizz/percussion), almost like you are gradually disintegrating what was just heard in order to prepare for a new section a few bars later (and I like these bars very much). What does follow in bar 46 onwards sounds like a fully developed elaboration of the short passage from bars 40-45 ..............there is just something about the stillness of 40-45, the lack of propulsion, almost as if it questions itself or meanders just for a moment slightly aimlessly.......I think it is that when the busier texture and metronomic rhythms are reintroduced it doesn't happen as gradually as you disintegrated them at the start of figure B and that makes the flowing forward movement, the propulsion, seem a little compromised. What are your thoughts on this?

Figure E to the end: Absolutely wonderful! What a delight! I love the way you really made it flow. The expansion of little rhythmic, pitch and timbral ideas over time have made this a really engaging listening experience.

I am looking forward to hearing the other movements soon!!!!!

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks, Jessop, for your detailed thoughts!  I shall mull your concerns . . . probably I may drive through to the end of the movement, and then take stock.  I am certainly open to the possible need to modify here and there.

Thanks again!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Many thanks, Jessop, for your detailed thoughts!  I shall mull your concerns . . . probably I may drive through to the end of the movement, and then take stock.  I am certainly open to the possible need to modify here and there.

Thanks again!

Can't wait to hear the final product

[Karl Henning]

On your Sibelius question . . . I don't rule it out, I am too much of a fan to think that there can be no Sibelius in here.  I don't think it's a very direct influence, necessarily.  However, one of the fundamental ideas behind the piece was, considering the Brahms and Sibelius symphonies, and how rich they are, even though the orchestra they use is not a large orchestra (really only modestly larger than a Beethoven symphony requires).

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

On your Sibelius question . . . I don't rule it out, I am too much of a fan to think that there can be no Sibelius in here.  I don't think it's a very direct influence, necessarily.  However, one of the fundamental ideas behind the piece was, considering the Brahms and Sibelius symphonies, and how rich they are, even though the orchestra they use is not a large orchestra (really only modestly larger than a Beethoven symphony requires).

I did notice the orchestra size, and I am very fond of the use of relatively smaller forces to create music which isn't limited in its timbral scope. It always helps with getting an orchestra to play it too!

[Karl Henning]

Last night I pretty much realized the modified recap of the beginning which has always been the idea for this point of the movement;  this even went into a hitherto-unperceived direction, incorporating (not very surprisingly) a thought or two from music written over the weekend.  And in fact, I now have notions for the brass chorale with which I've wanted to close the movement, of making use of some of the material just before [ J ].

The trick is just discovering an ending, rather than writing a passage which continues the momentum.

If prior experience is any indication, for the most part I just need to let the thoughts stew in the back of my mind for a day or two.

[Karl Henning]

I worked the ending last night.  I am still in the mulling stage, but I think it may be more or less done.  (There is a measure here and a measure there where my ear raised a yellow flag, so the comb's fine teeth remain at the ready.)  The movement runs almost a minute longer than "planned";  in fact, I had planned on the brass coda . . . and the need both to "stop the train," and to allow the coda to be a part of the design, rather than "What just happened? Oh, is the movement over?" meant that (a) the coda needed more play, and (b) I felt that the woodwind recap at [ N ] worked better at a relaxed tempo, too, as a sort of temporal transition.

http://www.youtube.com/v/-WCZ77mt2aE

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I will have a listen to this! Very excited to hear that the movement is now finished

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, gents!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Nice coda! Considering the brass chorale is a new idea in the movement, I wonder if it would work nicely as a continuous transition to the next movement seeing that the pace does slow towards the end of what you have already completed............

[Karl Henning]

That's a good idea, but I do want a break, and then a fresh start. But your musical reasoning is sound 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Karl Henning]

Ok, so I've just had an un-educated listen to the youtube link (without reading the score) for the near completed? Version of the 1st movement.

I'm blown away by it, I'm still not familiar enough to tell you exactly what I like about it. But I noticed something with dissonant textures, awesome contraptual melodies, juxtaposition between the mallets to the rest of the orchestra and a great varying tone colour between instrumental groups.
Again, that's an un-educated assessment (and from what I've read of an earlier uncompleted version) of it.

I'm almost off to sleep now but I'll be reading the score through with the video tomorrow morning and I'll update you!! 

Very pleased that you like it so well!

[Karl Henning]

What is quite likely a playful nod to Sibelius which was prompted by Jessop's question (and yet, of course, it derives perfectly naturally from the opening gesture of the piece) is the final cadence: the B^b in the trumpet and G# in the tuba in m. 263 resolve from opposite directions to the A which most of the rest of the orchestra had begun playing the measure before.  I was in part recalling the final gesture in the Sibelius Seventh.

Another revelation I can share (since Cato has responded so generously to the percussion at [ H ]) is that this percussion invention was provoked (in the highest sense) by my recent revisitation of Monk and Milt Jackson collaborating on "Bags' Groove."  (It's not the first time I wrote something with a smile towards the inimitable Monk.)

[Cato]

What is quite likely a playful nod to Sibelius which was prompted by Jessop's question (and yet, of course, it derives perfectly naturally from the opening gesture of the piece) is the final cadence: the B^b in the trumpet and G# in the tuba in m. 263 resolve from opposite directions to the A which most of the rest of the orchestra had begun playing the measure before.  I was in part recalling the final gesture in the Sibelius Seventh.

Another revelation I can share (since Cato has responded so generously to the percussion at [ H ]) is that this percussion invention was provoked (in the highest sense) by my recent revisitation of Monk and Milt Jackson collaborating on "Bags' Groove."  (It's not the first time I wrote something with a smile towards the inimitable Monk.)

Earlier I had sent Karl some comments, after mentally listening to the score (preferable to many MIDI performances) and then hearing the "MIDI":

"The opening in the strings is very attractive, mysterious, and sets the stage for the quasi-oriental sound of the section to come: your ideas for the percussion are excellent throughout the movement, and some are particularly brilliant e.g. at H ff.

The MIDI smears the falling motif in A somewhat, but in an actual performance those cascades in the woodwinds should come across in a striking fashion.  The variations in B, especially in the trumpets and trombones (bar 50 ff.), complement the enigmatic atmosphere: the marimba's comments (bar 55 ff.) are not to be missed.

Nicely inventive development section - again the marimba and vibraphone in H!!! - take us to a variation/development of the opening, and then the coda expands on that with a marvelous chorale for the finish."

Later I was playing around mentally with several of the motifs: they offer all kinds of possibilities!  However, as my ideas grew ever more complicated, I recalled that Karl's purpose here is to provide a contemporary work which a talented semi-professional orchestra could handle, not to provide challenges for the Cleveland Orchestra or the Berliners!   0:)  As a result, the music is quite apt for that purpose, and one might say that the movement's inventiveness derives precisely from that purpose, which restriction some composers would find a hindrance and a hassle.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks! Monk, Boulez, Zappa . . . it's all in there, somewhere . . . .

[Cato]

I really like the mallet part (mallet solo?) that starts at H. I'm not sure if it reminds me of Boulez or Zappa, but I like it nonetheless 

Thanks! Monk, Boulez, Zappa . . . it's all in there, somewhere . . . .

There is a case to be made for making that section the seed for a Scherzo!

[Karl Henning]

This is what the beginning of the second movement may sound like.

[Karl Henning]

The score . . .

Edit :: old version deleted

[Karl Henning]

The score, this morning:

Edit :: old version deleted

[Karl Henning]

OXYGEN FOOTPRINT, Op.138

This is how the program note must perforce begin:  Like many another composer, from the first I listened to Debussy's exquisite Sonata, it has been my wish to write a trio for flute, viola and harp — a sound world which is at once rich, and delicate.  I remember clearly the afternoon when I was in the Andrews Library at the College of Wooster, listening to an LP recording while following the score.  The Debussy trio is a kind of event in my musical life.

Decades later, I set to writing just such a piece.  How?

First, I said to myself, "Forget Debussy."  (If I have not been clear:  I love a great deal of Debussy's music, and this piece in particular;  so this is not any statement of artistic hostility.)  The aural beauty of this combination of instruments was revealed to me by the Debussy piece, but the last thing I wanted to do was, write "my version of" the Debussy Sonata.

Second, the palette thus scraped back down to the wood, the answer was obvious:  write your own piece, and these are the instruments to employ in the piece.

The title is a double pun, and yet the second pun did not occur to me consciously until I set to writing these notes.

The first pun adapts an au courant phrase for a metric of the individual's environmental impact.  My idea is that, befitting the ensemble's capacity for delicacy, we want an airy impact.  And "footprint" in music suggests the dance, which ties in to the before-today-unconscious second pun.

One of the ballets Prokofiev composed for Dyagilev's Saisons russes in Paris, a sort of celebration of the Workers' Paradise at a time when the West was still intrigued by the new socio-economic system in Moscow, is « Le pas d'acier », The Steel Step.  This may seem contradiction.  I am quite a fan of this ballet;  but I do not believe I had it in mind when I wrote my trio.  Why it may seem a contradiction is, I find the counterpoint between the two titles (Steel Step, Oxygen Footprint) quite winning.  I almost wish I could say I HAD meant it.

Because, in a sense, we might consider my piece a sort of ballet suite in miniature, starting at a vigorous pace and with a frequent emphasis on syncopation.  By stages, the music makes its way to a kind of dreamy-yet-insistent gigue (jig).  And the becalmed-intense emotional core of the piece has a distant family resemblance to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

And with observing that Debussy and Stravinsky once sat down to play the four-hands rehearsal reduction of that celebrated ballet, these program notes have come full circle.