Henning's Headquarters

[Karl Henning]

I knew there was A Story behind Dorsey's hymn, but until today I don't think I knew what it was.  Heaven preserve me from making light of another creature's trials;  but in "the right hands" a delicate, touching story becomes a Hallmark greeting card.

Anyway, this was part of the thumbnail biography I read in such a "story behind the song" on line:

In 1921, at the age of 22, Thomas gave his life to Jesus. Almost immediately he left the jazz clubs and began writing Gospel music. He took great effort to circulate his musical scores, but it was three long years before anyone started to notice.

There's the "give your life to Jesus, and leave the jazz clubs" angle, of course.  But: three long years!  What a tough time he had . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Having a great time arranging "What Wondrous Love Is This" for choir and handbells this morning.

[Karl Henning]

Done with the score, though now a separate handbell part is wanted.

[Cato]

Done with the score, though now a separate handbell part is wanted.

Very nice!

  The arrangement in the hymnal is plagued with, on the one hand, a rhythmic profile which feels wrong to me, and, on the other, rather peculiarly notated grace-notes, some of which are intended to convey "blue notes."

In the past 50+ years, I have seen too many incompetently composed songs in hymnals for the Catholic Church.  What is interesting is hearing the congregation unconsciously "fix" the incompetence by singing the natural rhythm in the words.

This unconscious fixing I experienced most recently at a conference on ecclesiastical music, where the choir leader herself had not noticed what was happening.  When I pointed out the contradiction between the printed music and what the group had just sung, she was rather amazed.

[Karl Henning]

And a wilfully cacophonous piece for the handbells alone.  Sort of curious to try it with them . . . to see if they revolt.

[Karl Henning]

Done with the score, though now a separate handbell part is wanted.

Yes:

[jochanaan]

Yes:

Looks fine. How big is your bell set? 4 octaves, 5 octaves, or just 3 with the high D?

[Karl Henning]

Three octaves, plus a third (our highest bell is an E).

[Karl Henning]

Fellow Triad member Jason Brown will also use this arrangement of "Precious Lord" with his church choir (a Catholic parish, I believe).

(He's asked me to drop it down to A^b, which of course is just a matter of a couple of mouse-clicks . . . .)

[Karl Henning]

Fellow Triad member Jason Brown will also use this arrangement of "Precious Lord" with his church choir (a Catholic parish, I believe).

(He's asked me to drop it down to A^b, which of course is just a matter of a couple of mouse-clicks . . . .)

I did finally get this Jason first thing this morning.  I practically had my head on the pillow last night (yes, after frittering the evening away in a three-hour viewing of Braveheart . . . worthwhile, illustrated—I suppose—by the fact that I did not remember the movie being anything like that long) when I thought, I promised Jason I'd get that adjusted score to him yesterday evening . . . .

The thought did not keep me awake, because I knew I could do "the work" in the space of three minutes first thing in the morning, before shipping off to the office.

[Karl Henning]

And I have my choir's copies of both Precious Lord and What Wondrous Love stapled and ready to bring to this evening's rehearsal.

I still have to staple and mark the handbell parts for What Wondrous Love and my Paschal Carillon, but as long as that is done before I hit ye hay Saturday night . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Last night, my choir did a fine job of reading both Precious Lord and What Wondrous Love for the first time. The former is one of the anthems we'll sing this Sunday, so I was counting on their getting right on board.  Still, my arrangement includes some of my characteristically wilful rhythms, so we needed to work a bit;  and sight-reading is a challenge for our organist.

Interestingly, What Wondrous Love was new to many of the choir. We worked through the few quirks, and this is already in fair shape, weeks ahead of Easter.  This was the plan, of course: so that, at press time, the only anthem we still need to roll our sleeves up for, is the de Victoria, which is coming along well, too.

[Karl Henning]

I still have to staple and mark the handbell parts for What Wondrous Love and my Paschal Carillon, but as long as that is done before I hit ye hay Saturday night . . . .

Now stapled, and 3-hole-punched.  May begin marking this evening, 13 parts for the Paschal Carillon, and 10 (— 13 minus the three bell-ringers who will sing in the Chancel Choir instead —) for What Wondrous Love.

Or I may just watch T-2 again . . . or mark the parts while sort of watching T-2 (. . . what could possibly go wrong? . . .)

[Karl Henning]

Well, I've finally made a little progress on this (in this case a little progress means, more than doubling the initial idea, which, all right, was just an 8-measure phrase).

[Karl Henning]

No definite word viz. Ear Buds at NEC, but a message came in from Charles P. yesterday asking if I am around to day, and for my phone number.  So, I have printed out the parts, and hole-punched them.  I can run them to Charles's office at lunchtime if need be.

Yesterday was quite a big Henningmusick test-kitchen day at HTUMC, the Op.139 n^os. 4-6.  My arrangement of Thos. A Dorsey's Precious Lord, Take My Hand went fairly well.  The performance from the service is on FB (one of my faithful bell ringers typically takes video on her phone and uploads it), and is a fair improvement even on the rehearsal before the service.  We'll keep it in rehearsal and sing it again on Good Friday.

We now have 13 ringers in the handbell choir.  All it seems to have taken was, scheduling a piece which needs 11 ringers (somehow I thought 13 were needed!  No matter, as I shall soon explain) and telling my group that we need to recruit more hands.  So, I got the wrong idea that, for Charles T.'s arrangement of the spiritual, The Hebrew Children, we needed 13 ringers;  reckoning that, if we have that many hands to ring, I should have more for them to do, I composed the Paschal Carillon needing 13 people, and figured on needing 10 (13 minus the three who will be singing) for What Wondrous Love.

So, yesterday we sight read What Wondrous Love first, and we "trained" our new recruits, including a young lady in the 3^rd grade and her mother — so we have expanded our age range.  Our youngest member learned quite quickly, and by the end of the rehearsal, she was completely reliable in The Hebrew Children!  She and her mom took one of the books home to practice (with wooden spoons!)  Leading a handbell choir was not anything which I had planned to do, but it is such great fun.

When I composed the Paschal Carillon, it was after two quite straightforward arrangements of traditional hymnody, so I deliberately chose a jangly pitch-world.  I half-wondered if the group would recoil from it;  but we rang it through (and having all our ringers, we heard the entire piece, without missing any bells), and they agree that it sounds cool — and surprisingly near to normal.

[Karl Henning]

Just had a very nice talk with Charles P. on the phone;  the news is not what we had hoped, but I do not call it genuinely bad    For this reading in past school-years there has generally been capacity (hence Charles's initial invitation), but (in brief) it turns out there is not at present (there are four pieces, and one of them is 28 minutes in duration — and, for the reading to serve its educative purpose, the student needs to hear the lot).  Alternatively, there might have been some time towards the end of the semester (a breathing-space between the final classes, and juries), save that the Wind Ensemble is going to Ottawa for an event.

He is in warm earnest that he wants to do and hear the piece (and has assured me that I am not being forward in sharing new work/events, &c., lest I should take the present "sorry" as any dismissal), and asked my assurance that I would remind him of Ear Buds next January.  He also assures us that he has never forgotten White Nights (heaven knows what the timing may be, but when there is opportunity, he will program it).

[Karl Henning]

(Of course, I read the alert that we should talk on the phone, as an indicator.  But even when the circumstances are thus, I greatly appreciate talks with this gentleman.)

[Karl Henning]

Well, I've finally made a little progress on this (in this case a little progress means, more than doubling the initial idea, which, all right, was just an 8-measure phrase).

Pam & I had good fun reading this beginning of the piece; so there is an implied mandate to go on and write more . . . .

We also read through the Three Things That Begin With 'C,'  which is already quite close to presentable.

[Karl Henning]

Good rehearsal with my church choir on Thursday.  They are working hard on the de Victoria, and even on the Byrd (which is already tantalizingly close to the music-making stage). My sopranos reminded me that I promised them "music minus one" rehearsal mp3s, so preparation of those (for all the sections, why not?—anything that can help any of my choristers) was my work this morning.


Fun rehearsal with Triad last night.  We've been engaged to sing Nono's Das atmende Klarsein as part of a conference (on Easter weekend, if you can believe it . . . our performance will be Holy Saturday, so at least it is minimally inconvenient), and last night was our first rehearsal.  We took it measure by measure, working from 7 to 10pm;  good solid work, and it will be both fun and gratifying to sing.


Triad conductors meeting tomorrow afternoon, to sort out who is conducting what on our own proper program in May.  I hope to conduct Charles's Wordless Choruses.

[Karl Henning]

Viz. this . . . the formal note came in via e-mail at last yesterday.

Dear Karl,

Thank you for submitting your work to the 2016 Underwood New Music Readings. The committee has completed its review of the scores submitted for the current season. I regret to inform you that your work was not among those selected.

This year we received almost 200 eligible applications and the quality of works submitted was consistently high. With a challenging schedule, and to maximize the experience for those selected, we were forced to limit the number of composers and works we were able to include.

Though we are not able to perform your music, we would like to encourage you to attend the Underwood New Music Readings as our guest. The Readings will take place June 13-15, 2016 at Miller Theatre in New York, and will include a series of career development workshops that you may find extremely helpful. More detailed information will be posted at americancomposers.org in the near future. Please contact [redacted] if you have any questions.

It was a pleasure to get to know your music. We will send you information about next year's New Music Readings when guidelines are published...

Thank you for your interest in American Composers Orchestra. Best of luck in your musical endeavors