Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

Ensemble Aubade will play Oxygen Footprint again, in Easton, Mass. on Tuesday, 24 Oct 2017.

And we have everyone available to revive From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud on Tuesday, 16 Oct 2018!

[Rons_talking]

Hi Karl,

I tried to send you a PM, but your inbox was full!  So, I'm going straight to the Henning Headquarters...

I've been listening to several of your compositions on YouTube.  As an amateur composer trying to improve at writing music, I'm fascinated to learn more about the compositional techniques and philosophies of other more refined and talented composers.  I have a few questions for you on your approach to composing, if you're up for it. 

1) As I learn about counterpoint and study species counterpoint, I'm learning about a variety of "rules" designed to produce strong counterpoint.  Given how contrapuntal much of your music sounds while featuring modern harmony, I'm curious as to how loyal you are to some of the old rules (such as, avoid parallel fifths, avoid similar motion into an octave, etc...).  As you aspire towards rich counterpoint, what sorts of rules have you created for yourself?

2) Observing that your works often feature modern harmony, I'd be interested in learning more about how you approach chord structures.  Do you subject your music to extensive harmonic analysis, or do you write your harmonies in a more freely intuitive sort of way?  When working with modern harmony, how often do you find yourself revisiting the voicing/inversions of your chords, or thinking to yourself, "this chord progression is wrong"?  How do you know that a chord or chord progression is now "correct" in your mind?

I greatly appreciate your thoughts!

Thanks,
Pete

Yes Karl...where's your "Craft of Musical Composition: ? 

[Cato]

Ensemble Aubade will play Oxygen Footprint again, in Easton, Mass. on Tuesday, 24 Oct 2017.

And we have everyone available to revive From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud on Tuesday, 16 Oct 2018!

Yay Team Henning!   That "From the Pit" work has a "horrible text" full of brutality         ...or at least...dat's wut I've hoid!   

For those interested in an analysis of Karl's music, I can offer this essay about the Viola Sonata:

You will need the scores found here: scroll down past Opus 96:  http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,92.6760.html

Here it is: my analysis of Karl's Viola Sonata:

In the first movement, you hear the shadow of Alban Berg in the Viola: a mysterious yearning arises from a kind of struggling non-tonal tonality.  Note that even in the first bar, in the 5:4 figure of 16ths, one hears a kind of tonality in the broken D# (= Eb) Bb (= A#) Eb (= D#) chord, and then again in bar 2, note the broken up D major scale in the 5:4 figure, nearly emphasized by the accent mark on the D after the 16th rest.  Bar 3 has the little march figure which again has an aroma of traditional tonality (F minor, starting with the C-F figure at the end of bar 2), and tells us that maybe the Viola has been wanting to be in F minor from the start, but cannot decide.  The seeming chaos in the piano, with its B/A# and D/C# in the bass, and similarly wide-spaced dissonances in the treble, would apparently not be involved, but listen carefully to the odd E major in the piano in bars 3 and 4, which the Viola picks up in its partially contrary figure at the beginning of bar 4.

The chord at the end of bar 4, with its open fifths in the piano and the Viola's minor second G#/A stubbornly refusing to accept the engagement ring from either suitor, will become very important motivically, as it is paralleled in bars 28-31, and in bars 203-205, repeated nearly verbatim in bar 41, and paralleled again in the conclusion. The minor second in the Viola can of course be heard as a variation on the major 7ths in the piano's bass at the beginning.  This idea is reinforced in bar 7 in the piano, where the bass ascends from Bb to Bb to G#, while the treble and the Viola hold an A.

Lest ye think that the little minor second is just a moment's hesitation, let me send you to bar 14, where for a moment both instruments play G#, but then the piano plays F#2/G# on the last beat, and to the Meno mosso section at bar 45, where things are seemingly in accord, with a unison on B in both instruments, but immediately we get a disagreement (Bb in the piano/A# in the Viola), followed by a C/Db and then in bar 46 we hear that G#/A, resolved into a unison to be sure, but then note the minor seconds in bars 49 and 50 (nicely played in the performance).  This is one of the more comically poignant, or poignantly comic parts of the work.

The Piu mosso section at bar 59 shows a variation on the 5:4 motif from the opening melody.  The motif is now legalized with a time signature of its own (5/16), but does return in the piano for a moment in bar 64.  Of interest rhythmically and motivically are bars 66-72: the music struggles upward through major and minor seconds for a while.  In bar 69 the 5:4 figure in the piano sets the stage for an erratic ascent from B to C, with a minor ninth crescendo in bar 72.

The delicious Slow (but with life) part (bars 83-108) shows variations on the previous motifs (bar 86 develops the 5:4 figure, and the double open fifths in bar 87),  and I like how the wide leaps in the piano presage the sudden drop in the Viola in bars 97-98.  Octaves abound, but not for long, as the music fragments to a kind of pointillism in bars 109-132.  The open-fifths-vs.-minor-second debate is heard in the piano in bar 122, just to make sure you are paying attention, and that 5:4 figure now appears as a 5:6 in the bass.

And then my favorite part: the completely schizoid Piu mosso ancora! (Bars 133-176) The section continues to play with items already established, e.g. hear the bass part of the piano continue the minor/major 2nd/7th/9th patterns, while the treble plays around with the motifs introduced back in bar 95ff. and 106-107.  Listen to how they contrast with the melodic line in the Viola, with trills (136-137), emphatically accented 16ths, the 5:4 and new 6:4 figures, while the piano obediently avoids such rhythmically complexities, allowing only some syncopations.  And I must remark upon how well the premiere performance handled this section!

In bars 177 the music develops the earlier Piu mosso (bars 59-82) and drives toward a climax where a variation of the opening is proclaimed beginning at bar 201.  During this drive, note again the presence of those minor/major 2nd/7th/9th patterns: bars 189 and 194-195 are especially impressive here, the latter two bars show a minor second expanding to a third and then a fourth, leading to the open fifths in the treble in the next two bars.

As mentioned earlier, those Beethovenian chords from bar 4 return in bars 203-205.  We then hear a brilliant, condensed, and varied recapitulation of the most important parts of the entire movement (e.g. listen to the piano in bars 212-214 and in the bass only to 218 and compare it to bars 95-102, while above one hears a near apotheosis of the 5:4 figure interspersed with continual variations on it: check out e.g. bar 219 where the Viola plays an eighth-note triplet with a duplet, as well as the bass part in the piano in bars 220-221.  Bar 221 is particularly fascinating with the way motivic and rhythmic elements coalesce in the piano, before our Beethovenian chords put an end to this serious yet playful and highly expressive movement! 

Suspension Bridge: Karl has pointed out two of the building blocks of this bridge movement.  The first is a scale (see e.g. bar 85 in the piano) spanning two octaves, allowing both dissonance and a pentatonic warmth.  The second block is a "periodic rhythmic pattern which needs 73 measures of 3/2 to play out."  The listener certainly does not need to recognize either of these, but the composer sets such limits for himself as guideposts toward continual inspiration.

Ever since hearing the opening to Mahler's Tenth Symphony (on the violas!), and the long chant-like phrases in the Tenth of Shostakovich, I am a sucker for long, lonely, unaccompanied themes!  So you can predict that the unadorned 20-bar Viola theme at the start of Suspension Bridge, the Second Movement of the Viola Sonata, is something which would appeal to me.  The theme almost has a hymn-like character, and is in G with only a few, but very delicious, chromatic wanderings (e.g. the Ab-Abb in bar 5, carrying forward the minor-second motif from the previous movement). 

The piano offers an ascent from a "G" abyss in bar 20, with notes often rising in 6ths (e.g. bars 20-33) until the end of the section, where some leaps of a 7th occur.  The 6ths can be heard as inversions of the 3rds in the Viola theme (e.g. from the half-note in bar 32 to 38), providing thematic-harmonic unity in a section where the long, Adagio-Largo line needs stabilizing.  The section ends with an open fifth D-A to which A an octave lower and then a deep B octave are added.  We then hear our 5:4 friend (in assorted guises) from the First Movement, while the piano revisits (again beneath various masks) the 7th and 9th chords (e.g. bars 50-54).  The piano's music recalls bars 83-94 from the First Movement.  Of interest are the insistent duplets and triplets in the Viola, which link the music rhythmically to similar insistent figures found throughout the First Movement (bars 42-43, 56, 72, and the final bar). 

Of course, these figures are also presaging similar things in the last movement, which makes one wonder if the first two movements are not elaborately inventive variations on elements from the Tango in Boston.  As befits a middle movement named Suspension Bridge the music connects itself most impressively to both of the outer movements. 
 
To return: the piano attempts to raise the bridge with the help of the 5:4 figure going up eccentric scales, but things fall apart by bar 64, where the piano reminds us that the minor-second motif has not disappeared!  And speaking of insistent figures, there is a nearly constant F/E 7th in the bass between bars 64 and 78, while our friends (the major and minor seconds in 66-67 and 75-76, the 5:4 figure) frolic back and forth, ending with the return of a variation in Eb minor of the Viola's opening statement.

Then in bar 80, starting on G in the bass (the key of the Viola's opening), the piano starts charging upward, while the Viola also rises up a D major-minor scale played in octaves.  The section leads to a Maestoso with a series of (mostly) hexachords in the piano, wherein one picks up open and diminished fifths, 7ths, and 9ths, (e.g. bar 95 C/G/B/A#/C#/G#). These point backward (e.g. bars 83-94 in Fair Warning) and forward (e.g. bars 105-113 in the Finale).

Bars 101-120 present an enigmatic dialogue with the Viola speaking pizzicatoly and the piano playing 5 8th notes against 4 (cf. the 5:4 motif), with an emphasis on our motivic intervals of 2nds, 5ths, 7ths, and 9ths.  And a cadenza for the Viola – starting on G – parallels both the heaven-storming of the piano in bars 80-92 and the preceding dialogue: note how the louder triplets form one voice contrasting with a second voice of soft 16ths. 

Punctuated by the piano (fortissimo) with a hexachord (Db/Ab/C in the bass, Eb/F/Cb in the treble), the cadenza continues now with large chords on the Viola, harkening back to the piano's Maestoso section: check bar 142-143, where the minor second (C#/D) "resolves" into a F#/C/E 7th chord.  The chords also presage a similar section in the Finale (e.g. bars 105-114 in the Tango in Boston), which even occasionally uses the same chordal sequences (cf. the two chords at the beginning of bar 147 with bars 105-106 in the Tango in Boston.  A repeated chord (D/B/F#/E) ends the cadenza, and brings us to another dialogue between the two instruments, even more antiphonal than before, with an exotic array of rhythmic figures repeating the same notes, as if a Martian Morse code were being transmitted.  In fact, however, one tastes here some of the "tango-ish" aspects of the last movement. 

From this exotic soundscape we plunge downward on the piano – starting on (a high) G – while the 5:4 motif is heard in the Viola, and is soon echoed in the piano.  After the ff climax, the Viola plays a Largo version of the opening Adagio, again in a kind of key of G, with which the piano quietly and sweetly (dolce) disagrees in the final bar with a D#/C# 7th in the bass, which we easily understand, since a 7th has been heard in the bass before (on F/E in bars 64-78).  We have gone full circle, but discover that circle is actually a Möbius strip, so that we are no longer back at the beginning but somewhere else...maybe we are in Boston and ready to tango! 


For the Tango in Boston, the subtitle Dances With Shades is perhaps instructive: one can assume the reference is not to guys in sunglasses, but to ghosts and the pirouettes they might be making.  (Of course, maybe the ghosts are wearing sunglasses!)  In either case, one hears a rather mysterious and ghostly opening with our melodic and harmonic friends from earlier: the assorted seconds/sevenths/ninths and assorted fourths and fifths.  In the very first bar, an Ab in the bass of the piano is answered by a C/F# and then a D/C#, and soon a G in the Viola joins that bass Ab.  This opening section reminds one of an earlier sequence in Fair Warning (cf. bars 82-90).  And the melodic motif at 24-27 in the piano's treble evokes the spirit of Erwartung.  After dancing up a quasi E major scale, the Viola sings on C# and D# while the piano provides a tango beat with a chord of B/C/F leading to A#/D/F#.  Of interest is the bass rocking back and forth on the fourth-fifth pattern of A-E-E-A, providing a temporary "E" background and a yearning in the Viola line with that C#-D# theme.

At bar 33, the piano begins a bass ground in C-Db-Ab (or A)-F, while the Viola again struggles up that quasi E major scale, finally arriving at the theme from bars 19-22 now played in octaves.  Deliciously evocative is the end of the section (bar 47) where the Db octave on the Viola fades away with a chord of Db/G/C in the piano.  This continues the minor-second element (Db/C) heard in the first two movements.  Also, as part of a final movement's summation of previous material, the Viola's music here might be heard as a variational reminiscence of bars 55-62 from the second movement.

And speaking of bass grounds, in the next section (bars 49-69) listen to the "Scott Joplin Channels Schoenberg c. 1915" in the piano's left hand, where our 5:4 figure dances "with intensity" with (or against) the Viola's dance played mainly in thirds. and using 5 8th notes tangoing on top of the piano's 5:4 notes, thereby creating a giddy contrast for the ear.  There is also an occasional 7:8 figure with 16ths in the piano: it begins on a low G# and rumbles upward to F (bar 54), then on D to B (bars 58 and 66) before reaching G# again at the end of bar 69.  (See Karl's previous comment on the multi-octave scale in the opening comments about Suspension Bridge.)  Our destination is not G#, but (of course) the A, a minor ninth higher (bar 70).  But the Viola has been busy during all this too!  The 5-patterning is also heard in the descending figure in the Viola (beginning at the treble clef bars 66-67) and later in its ascending figures (bars 68-69).  And the 7-pattern is heard in a 7-note descending motif (bars 62-63, 65, 67-68).

The unison on A (bars 70-71) is quickly disturbed by a Bb and G#, which is right in character!  We then return nearly to the beginning of Fair Warning with a startling variation on the Viola theme from that movement (cf. bars 71-80 with Fair Warning's bars 7-18).  The piano continues its 5:4 motif interspersed with groups of 7 notes (e.g. the  bass in bars 73-74, 77, 79 vs. the treble in bar 80).  Suddenly at bar 81we enter an A minor/major area, with a simple pizzicato theme, which strikes my ear as evocative of an ancient Greek melody.  Then after the piano intones a mysterious 9th chord (A/F/B), we hear a transposition of some of the opening bars (24-30) with some variations: rather than the rising pizzicato of bars 33-41, we now have a very lugubrious theme (from the last beat of bar 89 to 104): if it is not quite a danse macabre, it is Herrmannesque, where octaves are just as disconcerting as 2nds, 7ths, or 9ths.  This leads to a Largamente where the Viola returns to its cadenza chords of Suspension Bridge, but this time the piano adds its voice (cf. bars 137-142 of Suspension Bridge with bars 105-114). 

The Adagietto (bars 115-132) takes us back to Fair Warning's Meno mosso (bars 45-58) section: if it is not quite a variation, it is certainly a reconfiguration of that earlier section.  Two massive hexachords conclude the section, leading to a Vivo finale which the piano insists must be in C, while the Viola plays rhythmic elements heard earlier which emphasize a strident B minor (e.g. the D/B in bars 133-135 along with the C#-B/F# figures throughout the finale). 

A purely personal and no doubt idiosyncratic reaction to the final page: I was reminded of the thunderous finale to Rachmaninov's First Symphony.  Perhaps it was the repetition of the motifs in the bass of the piano, but the connection was immediate.

If the essay has helped to illuminate some things for a listener, then its purpose has been fulfilled.  Ultimately, Karl Henning's Sonata for Viola and Piano Opus 102 sings for itself and will illuminate the listener with its tour through an unknown soulscape.   

[Karl Henning]

Yes Karl...where's your "Craft of Musical Composition: ? 

Some days, I think it's as simple as, Would these notes be fun to play?

[Karl Henning]

I did fancy ghosts wearing dark glasses!

[Karl Henning]

No, no, not working on this just yet.

[Hammerklavier]

The traditional rules remain for me a handy reference point, as I take their core musical goals to be (1) independence of the voices, and (2) to avoid what sounds jarring.  When I am writing for unaccompanied choir, I may hew more closely to the old rules, than I might within a richer, purely instrumental texture, especially as I sing in choirs myself, and am alive to how well the music "sings."  That said, I don't mind making the degree of independence the voices may enjoy from one another, one of the rhetorical elements;  and a given piece may be an environment in which the occasional parallelism may be an agreeable sort of jarring.

I am always keenly aware of the harmonic dimension of my work, the chordal materials.  And, I have an eye to the architecture of the music, in terms of moving through different "key" regions.

Although I often use more complicated (less near Common Practice, anyway) chords, in some ways my management of harmonic materials can basically be illustrated in the comparison between the V- I and IV - I cadences:

1. Similarities:  two chords of the same structure in each cadence;  one tone in common between the two chords in each cadence.

2.  Difference:  the common tone in the IV - I cadence is the tonic.  Is that why the plagal cadence is "less strong"—that there is no "dynamic arrival" onto the tonic note?

Karl,

Thanks for taking the time to follow up on my queries.  I look forward to exploring more of your music. 

Cato,

Once I have a bit more free time, I'll have to check out that Violin Sonata and read your analysis, which seems to have been written with great enthusiasm and insight.

Thanks,
Pete

[Cato]

Karl,

Thanks for taking the time to follow up on my queries.  I look forward to exploring more of your music. 

Cato,

Once I have a bit more free time, I'll have to check out that Violin Sonata and read your analysis, which seems to have been written with great enthusiasm and insight.

Thanks,
Pete

Oh yes!  I sometimes need to control myself before I start worrying about the 64th notes! 

[Karl Henning]

Henningmusick at lunchtime today.

[Cato]

KARL has reported elsewhere that the concert was well-attended!   0:)

[Karl Henning]

I believe we have both audio and video. It may be the weekend before I can attend to it ... back to the cubicle farm tomorrow!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Karl Henning]

I believe we have both audio and video. It may be the weekend before I can attend to it ... back to the cubicle farm tomorrow!

Q.E.D.

[Karl Henning]

(And not even out a full week, mind you . . . .)

[Karl Henning]

This weekend I should have a "sneak preview" of the Gloria – I had 'tape' running when Julian decided to try an initial run-through, this past Monday's rehearsal.  Of necessity, lacking polish (as an initial run-through must);  but, I think you will agree, showing a lot of potential.

My old friend Mark Engelhardt is back in Salem tonight to play a "Spooktacular" at Grace Episcopal Church.

[Cato]

Hey Karl!

You have gone underground!      Your message box here at GMG is full, and Google G-Mail says the same thing: Google says your account is "over quota," which I did not know was possible outside of Google Drive.

Let us know when your covert operation for the C.I.A./N.S.A./D.I.A./C.O.N.T.R.O.L. is over!   

[Karl Henning]

Hey Karl!

You have gone underground!      Your message box here at GMG is full, and Google G-Mail says the same thing: Google says your account is "over quota," which I did not know was possible outside of Google Drive.

Let us know when your covert operation for the C.I.A./N.S.A./D.I.A./C.O.N.T.R.O.L. is over!   

Well, as to here at GMG, while our Jeffrey is perfectly right, and I could solve the problem by excising old messages ... the message quota for a subscriber is some multiple of that for a non-subscriber, and it will take a lot of excision. I'm not saying it's impossible (which cannot be true) but I have not applied myself to the task.

My gmail, yes, I need to get on it. It seems I need to do that from my notebook, rather than via the phone app. And I was fixin' to do that (as well as to manage audio and video from Tuesday's concert) this morning. Instead, so far, I'm waiting at the service department because of ... a capless fuel tank.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Karl Henning]

My gmail, at any rate, has been brought back in under quota.

Separately . . .

We know nothing will come of it.  But I have submitted the second and third movements of the Symphony to two separate calls for scores.  Nothing will come of it.  But, I had to submit.

[Karl Henning]

Made a start

This was a start on a scene from . . . the Scottish play, set for two voices and a largish chamber group.  The concert for which it was meant either got canceled, or was re-organized (canceled, I think).

While I do not reject the possibility of resuscitating this version, I am planning an entirely distinct setting of the scene for two female voices, piccolo (doubling bass flute), C flute, horn & fixed media, for the April concert at King's Chapel.

[Cato]

This was a start on a scene from . . . the Scottish play, set for two voices and a largish chamber group.  The concert for which it was meant either got canceled, or was re-organized (canceled, I think).

While I do not reject the possibility of resuscitating this version, I am planning an entirely distinct setting of the scene for two female voices, piccolo (doubling bass flute), C flute, horn & fixed media, for the April concert at King's Chapel.

Who doesn't love the bass flute?!    For those unsure of its look...

[Karl Henning]

Very close to settling on three dates for the revival of The Pit for October 2018.

Good Triad rehearsal last night.