Henning's Headquarters

[karlhenning]

Concentrating on the trio today.

[karlhenning]

Transposed score, BTW

[karlhenning]

With a frame drum on board, I felt that certain percussive extended-technique fluteage was called for.  (Now if only I remembered -- did I ever know? -- how to do substitute note-heads in Sibelius . . . .)

Going to Peter's place in about an hour, and we'll play through a bit of this.

[karlhenning]

Just had a really great rehearsal with Peter.  He's fired up for How to Tell.  We both essentially sight-read the eight duets which Frank Warren wrote for us (well, we stumbled through one or two of them, I confess . . . what did Peter say? "Reading is for people who can't improvise well enough . . . .")  Very good, well written and conceived, and more than one genuinely exquisite moment.  Also read Joe Fear's duet, which will need a little work on our part.

[DavidW]

I guess I missed this but what instruments is the trio written for?

[karlhenning]

Alto flute, clarinet & frame drum.  Today, it was just Peter & I rehearsing; the drummer will join us on Friday.

[DavidW]

Well that's interesting, I'll have to hear that some time... well I guess when you finish it, have it premiered and recorded...

[karlhenning]

You remind me! I need to check, make sure Shauna is still available to twiddle those dials . . . .

[PaulSC]

shift-option (PC: shift-alt?) numbers-other-than-0

[for example, shift-option-1 gives an x-notehead]

you can access numbers greater than 9 by typing a second digit soon enough after the first

With a frame drum on board, I felt that certain percussive extended-technique fluteage was called for.  (Now if only I remembered -- did I ever know? -- how to do substitute note-heads in Sibelius . . . .)

Going to Peter's place in about an hour, and we'll play through a bit of this.

[karlhenning]

Thank you! In the event, I was a bit overawed by the on-line info I found viz. extended technique notation. When I worked with Peter yesterday, he reassured me that the notation is nothing standardized at all, and that using regular noteheads is just dandy.

[karlhenning]

Huzzah! Shauna is on board!

[karlhenning]

I have a rehearsal with both Peter & Dan tomorrow, although I am tied up this evening (again), so that my ability to 'build up' the Sibelius file of How to Tell (Chasing the Tail of Nothing) is impaired.

Work on the piece, though, proceeds . . . yesterday morning (bus) & evening (E train) I worked out a passage which, in my orignal sketches, would have been a three-voice chorale for a fl / cl / vc . . . but which cannot be thus, now that there ain't no cello.  I knew it would be easy enough to "Alberti-fy" it so that (transposed a bit) it could be covered by the alto flute and clarinet;  that was 'baking' in the back of my musical mind for a bit, and so the work yesterday was essentially execution.

This morning, I was a tool for an idea of Cato's ; )  Well, it was a thought I'd had myself . . . in reading over the score, Cato wrote to ask if I were planning to use the alto flute material in mm. 81-89 for antiphonal play.  And in fact, I was.  So my work this morning was on these lines.

[karlhenning]

Did I mention that the First Church choir will sing Bless the Lord, O My Soul on Sunday the 15^th?

Rescheduled to Sunday the 22^nd.

[karlhenning]

I've been concentrating on the trio for the 19 May recital.

The only real news on the soundtrack front is:  the animator submitted her project for school with a faux soundtrack (deadline and all); but we are going to assemble the Real Soundtrack for the piece's submission to festivals (I think she did cast that noun in the plural).

[karlhenning]

Feels like the end is in sight . . . .

[DavidW]

Well Karl if you give it away you'll never be able to sell it!

[karlhenning]

This year, first time, I received a royalty check on a scale not to be used primarily for a laugh, Davey (no, I'm still not quitting the day job, of course).

It was from performances pf pieces which I've shown here in the HQ while they were in progress, so . . . no, I'm not worried that this chatter is at all compromising my earnings potential.  (Inconsiderable as that is likely to remain ; )

[karlhenning]

Sonic Confections of the Minuteman Trail

Program:

Frank E. Warren, Eight Duos for flute & clarinet
Joseph Fear, Diversion № 1 for flute & clarinet
Karl Henning, How to Tell (Chasing the Tail of Nothing), Opus 103 for alto flute, clarinet & frame drum

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

(All pieces are premières.)

Peter H. Bloom, flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet
Dan Meyers, frame drum

Thursday, 19 May
12:15pm

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
138 Tremont Street
Boston, MA

[DavidW]

Awesome Karl, that royalty check means that your work is finally paying off.   Well a little bit, it's kind of like Underpant Gnomes plan:

1. Atonal Honking
2. ?
3. Profit

[karlhenning]

Hah!

Got a little more work done on the trio. The end is so near — and, of course, it needs to be completed soon . . . the three of us will rehearse on Monday, which (because Peter is heading out of town for a week) is the last chance before Wednesday the 18^th.

We're out tonight, but I think that between about 40 minutes of work once we're back, and maybe a lick of work when I get home from the museum tomorrow evening . . . I am optimistic.