Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

The new four Full Rehearsals have been set!  We are going to make it!

[Karl Henning]

Just an example of my music not hitting the trendy buttons for the local new music groups:

Our season kicks off Saturday, October 17 at 8pm at Longy's Pickman Hall in Harvard Square. Featuring the world premiere of Quetzal Garden by Elena Ruehr, alongside Ligeti's horn trio and Latin jazz great Paquito D'Rivera's wind quintet Aires Tropicales. Tickets at [website]

1. female composer (I don't qualify)
2. dead male composer (I don't quality)
3. Latino composer (I don't qualify)

[Cato]

The new four Full Rehearsals have been set!  We are going to make it!

Yay Team!

Just an example of my music not hitting the trendy buttons for the local new music groups:

1. female composer (I don't qualify)
2. dead male composer (I don't quality)
3. Latino composer (I don't qualify)

1. There are these new operations one hears about!   0:)

2. Faking one's death is easier today than ever before!   0:) 0:)

3. Two words: Carlo Henniño  0:) 0:) 0:)

[North Star]

The new four Full Rehearsals have been set!  We are going to make it!

Yay indeed!

1. There are these new operations one hears about!   0:)

2. Faking one's death is easier today than ever before!   0:) 0:)

3. Two words: Carlo Henniño  0:) 0:) 0:)

What about faking the death of Carlita Henniña? 

The Finnish singer-songwriter Salomon (Timo Antero Silvennoinen) faked his own drowning in the 70s. Unsurprisingly, despite the publicity, it wasn't such a good career move after all as his gigs were canceled...

[Sergeant Rock]

3. Two words: Carlo Henniño  0:) 0:) 0:)

Sarge

[Cato]

Yay indeed!
What about faking the death of Carlita Henniña? 

Three in one! 

The final choice is up to Karl: Eine Wahl ist eine Qual!

[Karl Henning]

The reports of my evil Latino twin's death were greatly exaggerated.

[Karl Henning]

Yay indeed!
What about faking the death of Carlita Henniña? 

The Finnish singer-songwriter Salomon (Timo Antero Silvennoinen) faked his own drowning in the 70s. Unsurprisingly, despite the publicity, it wasn't such a good career move after all as his gigs were canceled...

The same gambit will not suit all games.

[Cato]

The reports of my evil Latino twin's death were greatly exaggerated.

There it is! Carlo Henniño lives!   

Soon we will be seeing new compositions for...

https://www.youtube.com/v/1-sWTPYExh0

[Karl Henning]

Scheduled to talk through the Op.129 with Bobbie this evening.

[Karl Henning]

Made a start

[Karl Henning]

Scheduled to talk through the Op.129 with Bobbie this evening.

Very good talk-through.  First rehearsal with Bobbie Tuesday!

[Karl Henning]

The important thing was the new and improved dedicatio;  a couple of minor layout adjustments, as well.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

How do you go about planning and drafting your compositions?

[Karl Henning]

How do you go about planning and drafting your compositions?

Thanks for asking, both for your interest, Jessop, and because (well) I should think about it now and again.  I used to be more thorough about the planning (or, externally thorough) and lately my process has become more improvisatory—but I realize how un-helpful an answer that would be.

(I still need, for instance, to sit down and do some proper planning for the Shakespeare setting.  This opening—which I expect I should tweak a bit, and perhaps more than a bit—was basically an off-the-top-of-my-head effort.  The only thought I've given to the rest of the piece so far is, what I want to do for the ending . . . and of course, there's a big scene in between.)

When I began work on Cato's text for the piece which (almost miraculously) will still go on a week from tomorrow, getting to know the new text was the first thing.  I already knew the prose source for the text, so I started out familiar with the narrator, and the arc of the story.  I printed out the text double-spaced, and made rough verbal notes stanza by stanza, whether I wanted to start a new section here, or whether the same passage should continue but with a change in scoring/texture, or in pitch content/center.  Actually (I remember, as I type this) my first concern was dreadfully practical:  since I had two players doubling, I should at the outset decided just which instruments I want in each section, so that I could plan out how to give the doubling players time to switch gear (particularly the bass flute & piccolo player).  I also made notes about whether I wanted a given passage to be a sort of unmeasured recitativo accompagnato, or if in meter, what I wanted the tempo and general character of the music to be.

Most of those notes, though, were just general adjectives.  I had the first ten measures (which Luke called "a quiet fanfare," and while I hadn't put those words together myself, the phrase was perfectly apt) engraved back in June, and then I didn't work on the piece for two months . . . partly because I had the time (and capricious inclination) to work on some other pieces, partly because I was doubly unsure—unsure where I wanted to go musically (though I had my verbal notes), and even to a degree unsure the opening was quite right, quite what I wanted.  It seems strange for a composer not to know, that a passage is perfectly fine (which I think the subsequent full composition vindicates . . . and indeed, when I started rehearsing with the instruments, it just sounded so good . . . what was my dilemma? . . .)

I'm conscious of my answer meandering, and not being much of an answer.  Earlier on, my planning was more pencil-&-paper, mapping large blocks and deciding how long each part should be, whether two adjacent blocks should contrast sharply or more subtly, whether the contrasts should be a matter of meter, or tempo, of surface rhythm, of texture; whether I need to move to a different pitch area here, or if keeping to the same pitch area for a while longer might in fact be more dramatic; where I might reintroduce old material, to what extent it would need to be modified in order to make musical sense, or if a more-or-less-literal repetition would be rhetorically satisfying.  Now I find that it is still helpful to do some of my plotting on paper, for perspective;  but in general, some of that process I have internalized, and much of my work feels like a kind of improvisation.  Which is ironic, because as a clarinetist, I think I am rather an indifferent improviser.

[Karl Henning]

Re-post & refresh:

Variations on Wie lieblich est, S.10 (oboe & organ)

Time Was, Op.4 (pf solo)
№ 1: Prelude (Charlottesville)
№ 2: Dance (Barefoot Amid Dandelions)
№ 3: The Myth of Motion II:  Toccatina (on the Ekaterininsky Canal)

Pictures Only I Can See, Op.11 (pf solo)
№ 1: Spring in Her Step
№ 2: The Bronze Girl's Spilt Milk
№ 3: The Myth of Motion I:  Chorale
№ 4: The Sleep-Pavane at the Foot of Frozen Niagara
№ 5: Petersburg Nocturne || MIDI on YT

Little Towns, Low Countries, Op.18 (pf solo)
№ 1: Invention (Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester)
№ 2: Aubade (Lake Canandaigua)
№ 3: Gigue (Glasgow Street, Cornhill)

Night of the Weeping Crocodiles, Op.16 (cl/vn/pf)

Night of the Weeping Crocodiles, Op.16a (cl/pf/prc)

To Melt From a Distance, Op.21 (pf solo)

Gaze Transfixt, Op.23 (pf solo)

Lutosławski's Lullaby, Op.25 (pf solo)

Fancy on Psalm 80 from the Scottish Psalter, Op.34 № 3, performed by Carson Cooman, on YouTube.

O Beauteous Heavenly Light, Op.34 № 2, performed by Carson Cooman, on YouTube.

Journey to the Dayspring, Op.40 on YouTube

'Tis Winter Now (Danby), Op.45a (mezzo-soprano, flute & organ) at Amazon

Initiation of Barefoot on the Crowded Road, the former Op.41 (now the Discreet Erasures, Op.99, below)

Danse antique, Op.44

The original Born on Earth to Save Us, Op.52 for Bill Goodwin.

Born on Earth to Save Us, Op.52a for HTUMC.

Joseph and Mary, Op.53a for HTUMC.

Score of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars, Part I

Score of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars, Part II

Counting Sheep (or, The Dreamy Abacus of Don Quijote), Op.58a for Pierrot-plus ensemble [ score, part I ].

Counting Sheep (or, The Dreamy Abacus of Don Quijote), Op.58a for Pierrot-plus ensemble [ score, part II ].

I Look From Afar, Op.60 for choir, brass quintet, organ & optional timpani

Blue Shamrock, Op.63 for clarinet unaccompanied, at Amazon.

Sweetest Ancient Cradle Song, Op.67 for choir, brass quintet, organ & optional timpani 1^st half | 2^nd half

Sweetest Ancient Cradle Song, Op.67 for choir, brass quintet, organ & optional timpani ::  Choral Score 1^st half | 2^nd half

Timbrel and Dance, Op.73 [ St Paul's choir plus ].

Scene 1 from White Nights, Op.75 № 2

Scene 2 from White Nights, Op.75 № 3

Scene 3a from White Nights, Op.75 № 4

Intermezzo I from White Nights, Op.75 № 6

Intermezzo I from White Nights, Op.75 № 6, arr. for saxophone choir

Scene 4 from White Nights, Op.75 № 7

Scene 5 from White Nights, Op.75 № 8

Before-&-after, Finale-VS.-Sibelius exhibits from the Op.75 № 8| A | B | C | D

Scene 7 from White Nights, Op.75 № 10

Canzona, Op.77a № 1 (org solo)

Gigue, Op.77a № 2 (org solo)

26 February De profundis, Op.78 [ Jaya Lakshminarayan & friends ]

Mirage, Op.79a (alto fl, cl, pf)

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, Op.80 carol for choir, brass quintet, organ & timpani

Moonrise, Op.84 for brass quintet. And MIDI

Moonrise, Op.84a for flute choir in six parts. And MIDI

15 March Passion rehearsal A [ Sine Nomine ]

15 March Passion rehearsal B [ Sine Nomine ]

15 March Passion rehearsal C [ Sine Nomine ]

Conclusion of the 19 Mar 2010 performance by Sine Nomine of the St John Passion, Op.92:

http://www.youtube.com/v/8netMuAHFkI

12 May recital [ k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble (Bloom/Henning/Cienniwa) ]

18 May recital [ Bloom/Henning ]

23 May pre-concert rehearsal [ Sine Nomine ]

22 June recital [ N. Chamberlain/B. Chamberlain/Henning ]

Love is the spirit of this church, Op.85 № 3

Nicodemus brings myrrh and aloes for the burial of the Christ, Op.85 № 4 for cello & piano | Recording on SoundCloud

For God so loved the world, after Op.87 № 9 {Would you like the Doxology with that?} Yes | No | Recording on SoundCloud

The Passion According to St John, Op.92 (on MediaFire, courtesy of Johan)

Lutosawski’s Lullaby, Op.96a № 1 (string quartet)

Marginalia, Op.96a № 2 (string quartet)

Après-lullaby, Op.96a № 3 (string quartet)

Score of Fair Warning [Viola Sonata, mvt 1]

MIDI of Fair Warning [Viola Sonata, mvt 1]

Score of Suspension Bridge (In Dave's Shed) [Viola Sonata, mvt 2]

MIDI of Suspension Bridge (In Dave's Shed) [Viola Sonata, mvt 2]

Score of Tango in Boston (Dances with Shades) [Viola Sonata, mvt 3]

MIDI of Tango in Boston (Dances with Shades) [Viola Sonata, mvt 3]

Cato's analysis of the Viola Sonata

Johan's MediaFire folder, including the whole of Dana's première performance of the Viola Sonata

Discreet Erasures, Op.99 for orchestra

Angular Whimsies, Op.100a (bass clarinet, percussion [two players] & piano)

Whimsy brevis, Op.100b (bass flute & piano)

http://www.youtube.com/v/OAp3w15ISl4

How to Tell (Chasing the Tail of Nothing), Op.103 (alto flute, clarinet & frame drum); 7 June 2014 performance

These Unlikely Events, Op.104 № 4

These Unlikely Events, Op.104 № 5

Kyrie, Op.106 № 1

Gloria, Op.106 № 2 :: work-in-progress, March 2015

Credo, Op.106 № 3

Sanctus, Op.106 № 4

(The Sanctus, arranged for tuba quartet)

Agnus Dei, Op.106 № 5 || Première by Triad

Brothers, If They Only Knew It, saxophone quartet (after Op.106 № 5)

In the Artist's Studio, Op.107, for 17 winds & harp

Organ Sonata, Op.108
Mvt 1: Eritis sicut Deus
Mvt 2: . . . scientes bonum . . .
Mvt 3: . . . et malum

Thoreau in Concord Jail, Op.109 for clarinet solo

http://www.youtube.com/v/OnLYQ748aEg

Airy Distillates, Op.110 for flute solo

Annabel Lee, Op.111 for vocal quartet

http://www.youtube.com/v/tN3aMOrzEb8

Misapprehension, Op.112 for clarinet choir

Misapprehension, Op.112a for strings

The Mystic Trumpeter, Op.113 № 1 for soprano & clarinet

Après-mystère, Op.113 № 2 for flute & clarinet And MIDI

http://www.youtube.com/v/7RhH161HhlA

just what everyone was expecting, Op.114 № 1 for clarinet & marimba

(very nearly) what everyone was expecting, Op.114 № 5 for bass clarinet & marimba

just what everyone was expecting, Op.114a for clarinet, mandocello & double bass

My Island Home, Op.115 for percussion ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/v/hlh61D6COvU

Plotting (y is the new x), Op.116 for violin & harpsichord

http://www.youtube.com/v/2vKGfppo0o8

Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels, Op.117 (fl, cl in A, gtr & cb) [ and at Soundcloud ]

When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy, Op.118 № 1 (shakuhachi, drum & handbell choir)

http://www.youtube.com/v/79tPHWpH3UI

Divinum mysterium, Op.118 № 2 (choir unison & handbells)

http://www.youtube.com/v/MPr7NhE2-Bs

Easter Stikheron, Op.118 № 3 (choir SATB & handbells)

Welcome, Happy Morning!, Op.118 № 4 (handbells)

My Lord, What a Morning, Op.118 № 5 (choir & handbells)

http://www.youtube.com/v/AJzV-RxXiIk

Hymtunes Moscow & Te Deum, Op.118 № 6 (handbells)

Musette, Op.118 № 7 (handbells)

Psalm 130, Op.118 № 8 [ I think ] (clarinet & bass voice) [work-in-progress]

The Crystalline Ship, Op.119 № 1 (mezzo-soprano & baritone saxophone)

I Saw People Walking Around Like Trees, Op.120 (flute, clarinet, double-bass & frame drum)

http://www.youtube.com/v/E0_-CTvtSS8

... illa existimans quia hortulanus esset ...., Op.121 (vc/pf)

Le tombeau de W.A.G., Op.122a (flute, clarinet, double-bass & frame drum) Audio

A Song of Remembrance, Op.123 (mixed chorus SAB & pf)

http://www.youtube.com/v/kYWAm11MX4s

The Mysterious Fruit, Op.124 (mezzo-soprano & marimba)

The Mysterious Fruit, Op.124a (mezzo-soprano & pf)

Tiny Wild Avocadoes, Op.125 (2 vn/va)
№ 1 "Children's Song"
№ 2 "Autumn Leaves (Wind Effect)"
№ 3 "Scampering Squirrels"
№ 4 "Pond at Twilight"
№ 5 "The Gnomes (Paul's Garden)"
№ 6 "Cheerful Song on the Wing"
№ 7 "The Avocado in Winter"

In the shadow of the kindly Star, Op.126 № 1 (violin solo and handbell choir)

I Want Jesus to Walk With Me, Op.126 № 2 (choir SATB unaccompanied)

Variations on a Basque Carol, Op.126 № 3 (clarinet unaccompanied)

Beach Balls (Red) , Op.125 № 5 (org solo)

Pat-A-Pan, Op.126 № 6 (handbell choir)

Little Suite, Op.127 (vc & pf)
№ 1 "Summer Song"
№ 2 "Valentine"
№ 3 "Sparrows Hopping on the Wet Sidewalk" || MIDI on YT

Notebook for Elaina & Anna, Op.128 № 1 "Out for a Walk" (fl/a sx)

From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129, soprano & chamber group

Piece for double wind quintet, Op.130 {work-in-progress}

Visions fugitives de nouveau, Op.131 (pf solo)
№ 1: One Leaf
№ 2: Versuch eines Milonga
№ 3: Beneath the Clear Sky
№ 4: That Tickles!
№ 5: Stephen Goes to California
№ 6: Kay's Blue Crabs
№ 7: Questionable Insistence
№ 8: Morning Prayer
№ 9: Bunny Keeping Still
№ 10: Gamboling Squirrels
№ 11: The Street Musician
№ 12: The Shade of an Oak
№ 13: "Could you change one more thing?"
№ 14: Waiting
№ 15: Bicycling in Boston Common
№ 16: Mist on the Harbor
№ 17: Peter Moves to Montréal
№ 18: Seeing a Long-Since-Cancelled Stamp
№ 19: ... but his mind is elsewhere
№ 20: Starless Summer Night || MIDI on YT

Neither do I condemn thee, Op.132 for flute duet

A whimsical Canon:

http://www.youtube.com/v/B6xeqrcavUQ

Saltmarsh Stomp, Op.134 for clarinet choir in 15 parts

http://www.youtube.com/v/7DCc2sD2KAk

Ear Buds (The dream of a young man in the woods, listening), Op.135 for young symphonic band

Darkest Doings, Op.136 {work-in-progress}

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZSMo90L5xJA

8 Oct 2013 recital at King's Chapel

Henningmusick at ReverbNation.

Henningmusick at Instant Encore.

About an hour's worth of Henningmusick, too, at SoundCloud

The 9^th Ear at SoundCloud.

And: Maria appears on the evening news in DC.

Maria's harpsichord

[Karl Henning]

Nancy Ditmer, band director at the College of Wooster, who assumed duty upon the retirement of the well-loved Dr Stuart Ling (so I was not certain whether she might remember me) wrote back very nicely.  She is busy with a conference, and then admin stuff, for a couple of weeks, but promised to have a look at Ear Buds.  You never know!  (Jack responded very warmly to Ear Buds, a couple of weeks ago.)

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Thanks for asking, both for your interest, Jessop, and because (well) I should think about it now and again.  I used to be more thorough about the planning (or, externally thorough) and lately my process has become more improvisatory—but I realize how un-helpful an answer that would be.

(I still need, for instance, to sit down and do some proper planning for the Shakespeare setting.  This opening—which I expect I should tweak a bit, and perhaps more than a bit—was basically an off-the-top-of-my-head effort.  The only thought I've given to the rest of the piece so far is, what I want to do for the ending . . . and of course, there's a big scene in between.)

When I began work on Cato's text for the piece which (almost miraculously) will still go on a week from tomorrow, getting to know the new text was the first thing.  I already knew the prose source for the text, so I started out familiar with the narrator, and the arc of the story.  I printed out the text double-spaced, and made rough verbal notes stanza by stanza, whether I wanted to start a new section here, or whether the same passage should continue but with a change in scoring/texture, or in pitch content/center.  Actually (I remember, as I type this) my first concern was dreadfully practical:  since I had two players doubling, I should at the outset decided just which instruments I want in each section, so that I could plan out how to give the doubling players time to switch gear (particularly the bass flute & piccolo player).  I also made notes about whether I wanted a given passage to be a sort of unmeasured recitativo accompagnato, or if in meter, what I wanted the tempo and general character of the music to be.

Most of those notes, though, were just general adjectives.  I had the first ten measures (which Luke called "a quiet fanfare," and while I hadn't put those words together myself, the phrase was perfectly apt) engraved back in June, and then I didn't work on the piece for two months . . . partly because I had the time (and capricious inclination) to work on some other pieces, partly because I was doubly unsure—unsure where I wanted to go musically (though I had my verbal notes), and even to a degree unsure the opening was quite right, quite what I wanted.  It seems strange for a composer not to know, that a passage is perfectly fine (which I think the subsequent full composition vindicates . . . and indeed, when I started rehearsing with the instruments, it just sounded so good . . . what was my dilemma? . . .)

I'm conscious of my answer meandering, and not being much of an answer.  Earlier on, my planning was more pencil-&-paper, mapping large blocks and deciding how long each part should be, whether two adjacent blocks should contrast sharply or more subtly, whether the contrasts should be a matter of meter, or tempo, of surface rhythm, of texture; whether I need to move to a different pitch area here, or if keeping to the same pitch area for a while longer might in fact be more dramatic; where I might reintroduce old material, to what extent it would need to be modified in order to make musical sense, or if a more-or-less-literal repetition would be rhetorically satisfying.  Now I find that it is still helpful to do some of my plotting on paper, for perspective;  but in general, some of that process I have internalized, and much of my work feels like a kind of improvisation.  Which is ironic, because as a clarinetist, I think I am rather an indifferent improviser.

Really interesting to read! Your improvisatory approach reminds me almost of when (I think it was him) John Cage was asked what method was used to compose a certain piece of music, but he replied 'the seashell method' likening his process of musical thoughts and ideas to walking along a beach and finding seashells that look nice and picking them up.

I might be mixing up this story with something else, don't trust my memory!

At the moment, for me, I find it difficult to compose without at least having thought out how long each section within the work will be, how many bars spent on each idea etc. Getting a sense of pace in the introduction and development of melodies and motifs in a work has been the hardest part for me of writing any piece of music....I'm afraid that an improvisatory/purely instinctive approach is rather impossible at this time.

[Karl Henning]

Go with what works for you now! 

[Karl Henning]

Printed out a fresh score of the Op.129 to conduct from tonight and henceforth. And so, I transferred my notations from my previous working score . . . and added fresh markings reflecting my talk-through with Bobbie Sunday night.  Tonight is the "full rehearsal minus one":  it proved impossible to find four times absolutely everyone can rehearse together . . . and so tonight is the only rehearsal of the Final Four with an absentee (missing Dan on recorders).