... I felt a hesitation about plunging into this muddy tide of human activity and pastime. It suited me better, for the present, to linger on the brink, or hover in the air above it. So I spent the first day, and the greater part of the second, in the laziest manner possible, in a rocking chair, inhaling the fragrance of a series of cigars, with my legs and slippered feet horizontally disposed, and in my hand a novel purchased of a railroad bibliopolist.
— Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Progress is good on Cape of Good Nope, nearly at the three-minute mark. Stravinsky and Miles are both in the musical DNA of the intro, particularly, but I've also re-immersed myself in the first season of Twilight Zone, so Bernard Herrmann is certainly in the wings, too. I know where to take the piece from here, but I think I shall chip away at the Janky Juke Joint, now. Here, meanwhile, is the MIDI demo of Chris’ superb piece.
The guy with rosary beads dangling from the rear-view mirror didn't feel he was obliged to stop for the pedestrian in the crosswalk. (Just reporting the fact.) Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
Listen! I will be honest with you, I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes, These are the days that must happen to you: You shall not heap up what is call'd riches, You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve .... — Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”
In some ways, I began thinking of our April concert in King’s Chapel last year, as I invited divers friends to compose music for it. Chris Forbes wrote his exquisite Pillars of Creation in impressively short order. Frank Warren’s Quartet № 3, Op. 119 looks to be done soon. There is still ample time for both Dennis Bathory-Kitsz and myself to compose our respective pieces. I’ve probably more or less planned on having the third of the Opus 178 flute duets, Janky Juke Joint, ready for Peter & Carol to play in April, but it seems I also want to write a new quartet. While no actual musical theft is involved, Frank’s piece gave me an idea which I have been mulling pretty much since I reviewed his score on New Year’s Day. An introduction to the piece came to me either in a genuine dream, or as my brain was in pre-sleep twilight last night. So the hunt for Cape of Good Nope, Opus 206 is on.
What the man said while on his cell phone was, "A car just tried to run me over." What the man did while concentrating on his cell phone was, just step off the curb without regard for his personal safety. Too dumb to live? You make the call....
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.
— Fyodor Dostoevsky
apart from my own pieces (among those listed here) in 2025 the Karl Henning Ensemble, now 32 performances strong, presented premières of Alan Westby’s Quiet Girl, Pam Marshall’s Carvoeiro Clifftop Walk, Robert Gross’ Four’s the Charm and Kevin Scott’s Min’khah: In Remembrance Shoshanna C. Winson. My auld friend, Christopher Gordon Forbes has already composed a beautiful piece for us for this season: Pillars of Creation. And another friend, here in Boston, Frank Warren, has composed his Quartet № 3, Op. 119 for us, a thoroughly charming piece. Yet another friend, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz is writing a piece for us, and both Alan Westby and Pam Marshall are working on new pieces for us.
Another big piece of 2025 news viz. the Ensemble, of course, was the welcoming of two superb colleagues: clarinetist Todd Brunel and bassoonist Greta Rosen into the band.
Because I composed it on New Year’s Day (ten years ago today, in fact) I always recall Things Like Bliss on this day. Originally, it was one of those “well, it seemed practical instrumentation at the time” scorings: clarinet, two guitars and double-bass. “Hold my beer,” said the Universe.
The lady motorist with the license plate frame assuring us that Happiness Is Knowing Christ, certainly drives as if keen on meeting Him at the earliest opportunity. Also—courtesy of a friend: Drive like hell and you'll get there!
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
... and here have I the daintiness of ear to hear time broke in a disordered string. But in the concord of my state and time I had not an ear to hear my true time broke. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
— Richard II
2025 in Henningmusick
8 Apr 25 Music for the Un-Hip Hop, Op. 178 № 1, Carol Epple & Peter H Bloom, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA, (Première) 8 Apr 25Surfing an Earthquake, Op. 190, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 8 Apr 25 Snootful of Hooch, Op. 159a, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 8 Apr 25 Yesterday’s Snow, Op. 160a, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 8 Apr 25 Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 8 Apr 25 Fantasy on When Jesus Wept, Op. 162a, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 13 Apr 25 Fantasy on When Jesus Wept, Op. 162b, Eric Mazonson, Calvary UMC, Middletown, RI (Première) 18 Apr 25 Fantasy on When Jesus Wept, Op. 162, Redeemer Recorder Consort, St Paul Lutheran Church, Arlington, MA (Première) 18 Apr 25 Fantasy on When Jesus Wept, Op. 162b, Eric Mazonson, Calvary UMC, Middletown, RI (Première) 7 Jun 25 St Petersburg Nocturne, Op. 11 № 5, Paul Carlson, Loft 112, Lowell, MA (Première) 6 Aug 25 Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road, Op. 149b, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA 6 Aug 25Dark Side of the Sun, Op. 193, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première) 6 Aug 25A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2, Carol Epple & Peter H Bloom, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première) 6 Aug 25Fantasia on a Theme by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Op. 197, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première) 6 Aug 25Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA 17 Aug 25Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, Op. 34 № 2, Ryan Patten, Grace Episcopal Church, Malden, MA 24 Aug 25Barefoot Amid Dandelions, Op. 4 № 1, Eric Mazonson, Calvary UMC, Middletown, RI (Première) 5 Sep 25 Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road, Op. 149b, Henning Ensemble, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Woburn, MA 5 Sep 25 Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels, Op. 117a, Henning Ensemble. Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Woburn, MA 5 Sep 25 Dark Side of the Sun, Op. 193, Henning Ensemble, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Woburn, MA (Première) 5 Sep 25 A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2, Henning Ensemble, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Woburn, MA (Première) 5 Sep 25 Fantasia on a Theme by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Op. 197, Henning Ensemble, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Woburn, MA (Première) 5 Sep 25 Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191, Henning Ensemble, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Woburn, MA 14 Oct 25 Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a, Greta Rosen & Dan Zupan King’s Chapel, Boston, MA, (Première) 14 Oct 25 A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2, Carol Epple & Peter H Bloom, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA 14 Oct 25 Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up, Op. 204, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA (Première) 14 Oct 25 Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191, Henning Ensemble, King’s Chapel, Boston, MA 10 Nov 25 just what everyone was expecting, Op. 114 № 1, Jarom Coleman & Glenn Webb, Utah Tech University, St George, UT 21 Dec 25 Joseph & Mary, Op. 53, Redeemer Choir & al., Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Woburn, MA
And, simply because a friend just shared this video:
Damned elves, defacing or obscuring the initial S on all the SELF-SERVE BAR signs.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
Throughout everything you write there’s a shadow of your own life.
— Richard Matheson
As I make my way through the Royal Shakespeare Co. DVDs, I’ve realized that I hadn’t ever watched Olivier’sHamlet, Henry V or Richard III. Also that another reason to do so, is Wm Walton’s scores. It’s all great stuff which does not require judgment from me, so I forbear to comment at present.
I’ve been revisiting (especially) two Jethro Tull albums: Thick As a Brick and Passion Play. Without pretending that they are somehow perfect, I simply love them both still. Their imperfections (which I consider kind of beside the point)do not mar the overall impact. And most of all, I admire Ian Anderson’s nerve and I applaud the bold result. Both albums are (especially after the critically acclaimed watershed album Aqualung) rather on the abstruse side. Queer beast that it can be, the “rock press” fixes on an idea and pats itself on the back for the idea upon which it has fixated. E.g. they lauded Aqualung as a great “concept album.” Hang on, quietly murmured Ian Anderson, I thought it was just a collection of songs. And further thought, I’ll give them a concept album. The conceit of Thick As a Brick (which succeeds as much as a baffling hoax as a concept album) is an extended poem putatively written by a precocious 14-year-old and which is snubbed by a local poetry contest. The resulting album is not going to be everybody’s cup of Assam (heck, I should not be surprised if it came near to alienating some Tull fans, but as a You thought that was a concept album, eh? riposte, it’s undeniably bold. It were overstating the matter to call the album symphonic, yet much of the musical material on the album springs from the folksy opening, whereof Anderson thought sufficiently highly to include it, as“Thick As a Brick Edit #1” on the compilation album M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull. There are passages which return rhythmically varied, and overall, it is more musically ambitious than your average pop music album. Likewise A Passion Play, whose superficial gravity is delightfully punctured by the whimsical children’s-story entr’acte, “The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles.” As with Thick As a Brick, Anderson curated extracts to include on both M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull & Repeat— The Best of Jethro Tull Vol. II.
Other idle pursuits this Christmastide include a deep-ish dive into Vincent Price, and celebrating Zappa’s 85th birthday.
“I close my eyes softly.” ’Tis a line sweet enow. But if there’s another way to close one’s eyne, I’ve not mastered it.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
The American poultry industry had made it possible to grow a fine-looking fryer in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result usually tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear.
— Julia Child, My Life in France
Two colleagues out west gave the Utah première of Henningmusick on 10 Nov 2025: just what everyone was expecting.
Presently shaking off a cold, an inconvenience which compelled both the cancellation of two Henning Ensemble rehearsals, and my absence from the instrumental rehearsal of Joseph & Mary.
Very Nearly a Zappa Title N° 19: The Talk Show Never Stops
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
“Immediately, why? Will it spoil?”
—“No, but you will. Once you delay, you're lost, believe me.”
— The Twilight Zone (“The Chaser”)
... but what there is, let me dutifully report. In Where Does the Time Go?...nine years ago today was my first rehearsal of The Young Lady Holding a Phone in Her Teeth with Kammerwerke.
As to the present: At our inaugural reading, with the Redeemer/First Lutheran (new name t/b/d) choir of Joseph and Mary, there was an entirely reasonable request for a choral score with fewer page turns. Did that today. I mentioned yesterday a possible fresh pair of eyes for the Opus 200, and indeed, the colleague to whom I sent the score and MIDI demo and upon whom I count for the piece’s embassage, has responded with gratifying enthusiasm.
