Henningmusick

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 7:52 am

The piece nobody traveled to Boston to hear ; )

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:43 am

More Henningmusick performed in 2014 than in any year to date.

Cheers,
~Karl

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:29 am

It wasn't Klinghoffer: The piece nobody traveled to Waleska to hear ; )

Cheers,
~k.

John F · Post by **John F** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:51 am

karlhenning wrote:More Henningmusick performed in 2014 than in any year to date.

Excellent! Good for you.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:06 am

Thanks, John!

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:20 am

For those who may not mind a bit of shakiness in an inaugural performance (and, face it: we unknown composers rarely enjoy the luxury of a perfectly performed première).

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:52 pm

More Henningmusick on YouTube:

(Go ahead, mash the link: it's a short piece.)

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:24 am

Although there is still nothing like any immediate (or short-term) prospect of such a piece being played, I am striking a hot iron in the form of an orchestral piece which I first began composing in . . . 1999. Later, I left it unfinished still in 2009. Looking over the trunk of the score last year, I felt strongly that it is a good start, and that I can make of it a strong (and still coherent) work. After this weekend's work, the score is at about the 5'30 mark; I am planning for the finished piece to be in the 8'-9' range. Roughly even chance of my getting it absolutely done by the beginning of March (although, again I emphasize, it isn't as if there were any deadline to meet). The title is Discreet Erasures.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:32 am

My latest orchestral piece, Discreet Erasures is done! And runs 9-½ minutes. It is a cracking piece, though I've no idea what orchestra might play it. So jazzed to have completed this one, I've now set to revising an earlier orchestral work, The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars, which I wrote for a local community group, the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, for a performance back in 2000.

Once I get that done, it's on to finish the Gloria, so that then the Mass, Op. 106 is done. Watch This Space.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:47 am

Later this evening, I shall finish off the revised version of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars (the piece I wrote originally for the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, last century). I am already scheming to finish a piece for wind ensemble, In the Artist's Studio (There's a wide world in there) . . . and then to send it to the NEC Wind Ensemble. I am traveling the first part of next week, but I should not be surprised if I have time to do some composing, both on the wind ensemble piece, and on the Gloria.

Cheers,
~k.

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 2:47 pm

karlhenning wrote:Later this evening, I shall finish off the revised version of The Wind, the Sky, & the Wheeling Stars (the piece I wrote originally for the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, last century). I am already scheming to finish a piece for wind ensemble, In the Artist's Studio (There's a wide world in there) . . . and then to send it to the NEC Wind Ensemble. I am traveling the first part of next week, but I should not be surprised if I have time to do some composing, both on the wind ensemble piece, and on the Gloria.

Cheers,
~k.

I hope it goes well for you Karl.

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 2:50 pm

karlhenning wrote:More Henningmusick performed in 2014 than in any year to date.

Cheers,
~Karl

I have only just read this post within the past hour, well done Karl, that is very good news indeed. Keep up the good work.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:46 am

Many thanks, Seán! I have indeed resumed work on In the Artist's Studio (There's a wide world in there) for 17 winds and harp. (Still need to decide just how long I want the piece to be . . . clocking at about six minutes as of press time.) Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, this will be the summer for wrapping up White Nights (I shall certainly have had all the other incomplete projects neatly bundled).

Cheers,
~k.

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:23 pm

Good for you Karl.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:05 pm

It's only MIDI, and of something which is frankly not A Major Work . . . but here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1/op ... -valentine

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:10 am

The latest piece finished, for which probably no one has any particular need, is In the Artist’s Studio (There’s a wide world in there), Op.107* for 17 winds** & harp, eight minutes.

* Why the early opus number? About three years ago, I got the first 17pp. of the score done. When I upgraded my Sibelius a couple of years ago, and looked some things over, I felt strongly that this was a piece I ought to set to finishing . . . and lo! so I have done this month.

** Which 17 winds, you ask? E-flat sopranino clarinet, 3 oboes, alto flute, English horn, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, four horns, two tenor trombones, bass trombone & tuba.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat May 02, 2015 6:46 pm

Well, our new choral collective endeavor, Triad, is on "Kickstarter":

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/99 ... collective

And this is a clip of my Agnus Dei from last night:

https://soundcloud.com/triad-boston/kar ... ay-concert

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Fri May 22, 2015 7:13 pm

The Agnus Dei complete from the 11 May concert:

Cheers,
~k.

piston · Post by **piston** » Fri May 22, 2015 7:26 pm

Very lovely. Thanks. My memories of the Agnus Dei at the old Catholic Church are about the same under-than-one-minute song repeated mass after mass, year after year. I can see with your five-minute piece that there are as many ways to sing to the agneau de Dieu than there are different skies at dawn.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat May 23, 2015 9:42 pm

piston wrote:Very lovely. Thanks. My memories of the Agnus Dei at the old Catholic Church are about the same under-than-one-minute song repeated mass after mass, year after year. I can see with your five-minute piece that there are as many ways to sing to the agneau de Dieu than there are different skies at dawn.

Thank you! I was just thinking this morning, how there are hundreds of different settings of the text . . . .

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sun May 24, 2015 6:14 am

Just learnt of a November 2014 performance of Out in the Sun!

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 6:31 am

Recently completed projects include the Little Suite, Op.127 for cello and piano, and a set of short-short piano pieces, Visions fugitives de nouveau, Op.131.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 4:36 am

Admittedly, I passed yesterday in musical idleness . . .

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 4:39 am

Christmas in August! Working on arrangements for the HTUMC forces, to prepare for the 13 December Christmas concert . . . because when we start rehearsing again in September, it will not be too soon to begin . . . .

Back in the Bill Goodwin era, I had arranged "Joseph and Mary" (from the Oxford Book of Carols) for flute, clarinet, trumpet, bassoon, unison choir, [just two] handbells & organ; that first, hasty-ish arrangement included wholesale adoption of two several Vaughan Williams accompaniments for four of the verses. Over the past two days I both wrote original accompaniments for those verses (a funny copyright question which I can detail if anyone be curious), and re-arranged the whole for flute, violin, children's choir, unison adult choir, [much expanded] handbells, and organ. Very pleased with the result.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 9:23 am

The latest wrap is a five-minute piece for flute duo, for Orlando Cela: Neither do I condemn thee, Op.132.

Downside: No idea when it may be performed.

Upside: I know three flutists (including the commissioner) who will take an active interest in the piece, and I am sure they will all like it.

Downstream upside: Will be eminently marketable at the annual flutey-toot conventions.

Cheers,
~k.

Seán · Post by **Seán** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 2:07 pm

Hi Karl, I am delighted to see you are continuing to compose music and post your thoughts and progress in this lovely and highly informative thread.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:27 pm

Many thanks, Seán!

Cheersissimo,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:25 am

The missus's fancy this year runs to a day-trip-distance outing to Acadia National Park. We've never been so deep Down East before (maybe this is the first we shall actually have been Down East . . . terminology, and all.) The distance is agreeably short; but we shall stay there some four nights.

Separately: A bit about Nuhro, really.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:55 am

You never know whom you might see in the woods, nor what music may result.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:58 am

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2015
12:15PM

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

Evelyn Griffin, soprano
Carol Epple, flute
Pamela Marshall, horn
Dan Meyers, divers recorders
Peter H. Bloom, divers flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet, drôlerie

Giorgio Koukl: Fylgjur, 1981 (flute unaccompanied)
David Leone: ... cathedral ..., 2014 — première (flute, clarinet & fixed media)
Karl Henning: From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129 (text by Leo Schulte), 2015 — première

King’s Chapel
Tremont & School Streets, Boston

Voluntary donation

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:33 am

From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud is a scena, a monodrama, a verse adaptation prepared by Leo Schulte at my request, from part of one chapter of his novel in MS., From the Caves of the Cloud.

A year-ish ago, when Evelyn Griffin was doing such a marvelous job with my setting of Walt Whitman’s “The Mystic Trumpeter” for soprano and clarinet (and while I had known of the Holst setting for decades, I forbore actually to listen to that classic until after I had finished my own setting), I was determined to write a new piece expressly for her. Her talent is an admirable combination of singing declaratively and emotionally for the stage, and an ear and taste for music that stretches beyond (in a word, or in a name, indeed) Puccini. (Nothing against Puccini, you understand.)

So I wanted a text for a dramatic piece designed to fix the audience with its glittering eye, so to speak, and I told Leo so; and he delivered just the text any composer might wish to set. (When I sent the half-completed score to the instrumentalists, so that they might have an idea of what they were getting themselves into musically, the plight of the poem’s narrator was at that point so dire, that one of the musicians expressed concern that performing this piece would interfere with our ability to travel by air in future.)

The piece is musically challenging for both singer and the accompanying chamber quartet, but especially for the singer, who has scarcely any rest in a twelve-minute performance. But our Evelyn is game, and looking forward to putting the piece together.

I’ve only just gotten the completed composition to her, this past Saturday, so she is busy learning it yet. We begin rehearsing the instruments alone, so that we can be a reliable accompanist for the singer in the full rehearsal, for two rehearsals late Sept/early Oct.

The accompaniment consists of:

flute
soprano recorder (doubling on tenor)
bass flute (doubling on picc.)
horn in F

This is the first I have written for recorder, and the most demanding chamber part I have yet written for horn, and the players have gently advised me that we may need to make some minor adjustments (which will not affect the fabric of the composition).

Though I’m the one saying it, I have been at the top of my compositional game for a good year and more, and any of my recent works, if it should have the ever-unlikely good fortune to have notice taken of it in the press, will present the composer to the world as a distinct and powerful voice. (Of course, when you’re nobody — and I am nobody — no one hears your voice.)

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 4:53 am

karlhenning wrote:You never know whom you might see in the woods, nor what music may result.

This is [some of] the music which resulted, a band piece I finished this past weekend, using only five pitch-classes (and the fifth of these, only sparingly):

All the usual MIDI caveats apply.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:21 pm

karlhenning wrote:
karlhenning wrote:You never know whom you might see in the woods, nor what music may result.
This is [some of] the music which resulted, a band piece I finished this past weekend, using only five pitch-classes (and the fifth of these, only sparingly):

All the usual MIDI caveats apply.

And the other music which was the result of that day in the woods:

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 12:32 pm

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a substitution:

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2015
12:15PM

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

Barbara Hill Meyers, soprano
Carol Epple, flute
Pamela Marshall, horn
Dan Meyers, divers recorders
Peter H. Bloom, divers flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet, drôlerie

Giorgio Koukl: Fylgjur, 1981 (flute unaccompanied)
David Leone: flute | clarinet in a + fixed media [2014 : 4] “... cathedral ...”, 2014 — première
Karl Henning: From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129 (text by Leo Schulte), 2015 — première

King’s Chapel
Tremont & School Streets, Boston

Voluntary donation

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Fri Oct 23, 2015 10:28 am

I've been making significant progress on the piece for double wind quintet, The Young Lady Holding a Phone in Her Teeth, Op.130.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:17 am

This is tomorrow, and (though I'm the one what says it) it will be a smashing show:

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2015
12:15PM

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

Barbara Hill Meyers, soprano
Carol Epple, flute
Pamela Marshall, horn
Dan Meyers, divers recorders
Peter H. Bloom, divers flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet, drôlerie

Giorgio Koukl: Fylgjur, 1981 (flute unaccompanied)
David Leone: flute | clarinet in a + fixed media [2014 : 4] “... cathedral ...”, 2014 — première
Karl Henning: From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129 (text by Leo Schulte), 2015 — première

King’s Chapel
Tremont & School Streets, Boston

Voluntary donation

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:22 am

karlhenning wrote:I've been making significant progress on the piece for double wind quintet, The Young Lady Holding a Phone in Her Teeth, Op.130.

Indeed, just about done with this. The group who are considering commissioning the piece will read through the first six minutes of the score at their rehearsal this Friday.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:08 am

karlhenning wrote:This is tomorrow, and (though I'm the one what says it) it will be a smashing show:

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2015
12:15PM

The k a rl h e nn i ng Ensemble

Barbara Hill Meyers, soprano
Carol Epple, flute
Pamela Marshall, horn
Dan Meyers, divers recorders
Peter H. Bloom, divers flutes
Karl Henning, clarinet, drôlerie

Giorgio Koukl: Fylgjur, 1981 (flute unaccompanied)
David Leone: flute | clarinet in a + fixed media [2014 : 4] “... cathedral ...”, 2014 — première
Karl Henning: From the Pit of a Cave in the Cloud, Op.129 (text by Leo Schulte), 2015 — première

King’s Chapel
Tremont & School Streets, Boston

Voluntary donation

And, the Op.129:

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 5:38 am

This was from March:

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:51 pm

From last night's Triad rehearsal (not my piece):

This, though, is my piece: https://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1/op ... 6-nov-2015

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 8:59 am

Audio of the entire 23 Nov 2015 Triad concert in Quncy, as a SoundCloud playlist.

Audio of the entire 14 Dec 2014 HTUMC Christmas concert [“It ain’t Trinity Wall Street”] as a SoundCloud playlist.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 7:22 am

This is only MIDI, a handbell choir arrangement of a traditional carol which will be part of our Christmas concert a week from tomorrow:

https://soundcloud.com/karlhenning-1/op ... -pat-a-pan

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 3:46 pm

From the 21 Nov Triad concert; not my piece, but the piece which I conducted.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:19 am

This, though, is my piece from that same Triad concert; a piece I originally wrote for, and which has been performed some 4-5 times by, the choir of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St Paul on Tremont Street.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Jan 02, 2016 1:51 pm

Happy new year, all!

On Hallowe'en, I began a quartet for clarinet, two guitars and double-bass called Things Like Bliss. Part of my new year celebration yesterday (start the year off right, and all that) was to finish the piece; just an interlude, really, a bit more than four minutes in duration. I was listening to the MIDI in Media Monkey (part of my QC testing process), and somehow I had left Media Monkey set on continuous play, so that at the end of the piece, it just started right back up. And I thought, in the case of this piece, that da capo actually works reasonably well.

At first, I really was thinking of a straightforward Da capo marking, and then a "second ending"; but I felt that instead I did want to have a (gently) through-composed repeat. As a result the new version is actually a tad more than twice the duration of the original, about nine minutes long.

And then, too, I felt that after all, I had no quarrel with the initial four-minute version of the piece, and decided that I did not need to choose between the two versions, but could let them happily coexist.

Thus, for your bemusement, listening pleasure, and consideration, we have the two versions of Things Like Bliss. Let me know what you think, especially if you think, What's this rubbish, Karl?

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:48 pm

karlhenning wrote:My latest orchestral piece, Discreet Erasures is done! And runs 9-½ minutes. It is a cracking piece, though I've no idea what orchestra might play it.

We still do not know when a performance may happen . . . but I have submitted the score to a call. If my piece is one of those selected, it will be read in NYC in June.

Notification one way or the other, expected by the end of this month.

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 1:24 pm

Yesterday, my phone's calendar buzzed me with a reminder, which at first was entirely opaque to me. Luckily, I did think to open the item . . . still, it took me a few seconds before it registered. Sometime last fall I sent Ear Buds to Charles Peltz, who wrote back that there may be a chance of a reading, and that I should remind him, mid-February. Glad I had the sense to set this automated reminder! Not definite yet, but still a good chance, and if there is room for my piece, he needs the parts this coming Friday.

So this morning, I am adding cues to Ear Buds. (The piccolo starts the piece with 66 measures' rest, e.g.)

I hadn't thought about the piece for months, in witness whereof when my phone buzzed an alarm for me yesterday which was titled simply "Ear Buds," I thought only of actual ear buds, and wondered what in blazes I meant.

On revisiting this piece, the chakra at my heart opens and warms, and I wonder at the fact that I wrote music which does this. (I hope this doesn't come off as self-congratulatory or twee, but that's the best I think I can express it.)

How did the piece come to me?

I think I've told this story at least in part before. I was walking at the pond, and there is a pine woods which is always one of my favorite places to visit. That day, there was a young lady seated on a stump, back at a good remove from the path, listening to something on ear buds.

My first thought was (of course I did not say anything to the youth), here you are in this beautiful place, surrounded by simple wonders, and you are sitting in a bubble, tethered to an appliance.

I continued on my walk, and then I thought, Perhaps I am very unfair to the youth. Perhaps whatever she is listening to, it is something which she needs to do at this time, and this is a beautiful, quiet place where she must do it.

Thus (and although I switched the gender, to "fictionalize/abstractify" the incident) I discovered the title Ear Buds (The dream of a young man in the woods, listening).

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 6:17 am

Music never dies.

Two Henningmusick premières this month:

Neither do I condemn thee, Op.132, two flutes (Orlando Cela & friend), 18 March, Boston, Mass.

Saltmarsh Stomp, Op.134, clarinet choir in 15 parts (the Troy University Clarinet Choir), 28 March, Troy , Ala. And 2 April, which is Clarinet Day!

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Mon Apr 18, 2016 7:10 am

karlhenning wrote:Music never dies.

Two Henningmusick premières this month:

Neither do I condemn thee, Op.132, two flutes (Orlando Cela & friend), 18 March, Boston, Mass.

Also from the 18 March concert:

Cheers,
~k.

karlhenning · Post by **karlhenning** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:05 pm

Just a bit of (sonic) fun:

Cheers,
~k.

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