The Winter's Tale in Woburn

 Incendiary indecency from a sociopathic cœlacanth

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

Seen on Threads: I am a lawyer. The common misconception is that we’re all very intelligent. Giuliani and the other election deniers from 2020 have done a good job of clearing that up.

Watching a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Winter’s Tale was (in addition to the interest of the play itself, of course) a good mental exercise for me. I’m out of practice approaching those plays with which I am not already familiar. Something I last did in Ray McCall’s Shakespeare class at the College of Wooster. (I wasn’t yet familiar with The Tempest, either, and why I plugged right into that one were an interesting q.) At one point, my ear so lulled by the environment of the language, I might almost have nodded off. The production itself was a bit of a hodgepodge, or, that was my impression. I don’t mean that derogatorily. That aspect might have made it more of a challenge for me to get an overall sense of the dramatis personæ (see “good mental exercise” above.) Were I more of a critic I might point at this or that element to serve a thesis that it is not one of the best plays, perhaps. But instead I found it engagingly entertaining, and isn’t that the point? Yes, Shakespeare wrote several plays which are monuments in English letters, but that doesn’t mean that I need look down my nose when he simply spins an entertaining yarn. The Tempest has really got in amongst me. But also, on a trivial level:  In the Firesign Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes spoof, The Case of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, one character is a businessman with a pignut plantation and a pig-oil beer brewery. (A Chicago mobster observes, “this pig-oil beer runs through you like a hot car.” So I am delighted at last to learn whence the Firesign pignut came.

And a friend/colleague, although presently on tour with one of his ensembles, took time to listen to and comment upon the Op. 200:

Terrific work! I enjoyed the many iterations of fugue, your inclusion of the BACH motif, the slowly stated fugue theme at about 9:59. Your elegant percussion parts, delicately blended in, are the perfect spices for this Shakespearean romp and meditation., Bravo!!!

As a result, I am revisiting it myself and finding that I am still highly pleased with the piece. 

Yuja Wang and Domingo Hindoyan in Boston

 Championing the unconscionably under-sung Loganberries of Wrath.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

... when I waked, I cried to dream again

— Caliban, The Tempest

Domingo Hindoyan leads Boston Symphony in fearless Bernstein, Prokofiev, and Copland, pianist Yuja Wang solos with brilliance

From the Archive: Espying the End of The Nerves 25 Oct 2016

 When a man is invested in lies, he is never grateful to the person who tells him the truth.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Groucho: You want to be a public nuisance?

Chico: Sure. How much does the job pay?

Symphony Update: Approaching the end of the first movement

Presently, the two pieces I have not been actively working on, yet not entirely neglecting are an arrangement of Away in a Manger for two recorders and, of course, Janky Juke Joint. Life is busy, and overall in agreeable ways.

From the Archive: Discretion-in-Progress

 Oxymoron du jour: “partial zero-emissions vehicle”

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Thus spake Eeyore: We can’t all, and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it.

16 years ago today:

Erasures coming along very nicely. [24 Oct 2009]

The Unexpexted 2025 Zappa Orgy Part X

 Yes, Walt Whitman did show us that lists could be put to poetical purpose. Nonetheless, I think we have to give Billy Joel the Atomic Turkey Award for Least Inspired Opening Words to Any Song for All Time with:
Harry Truman, Doris Day....
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

… and there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murderous bastard.
— David Carradine in Kill Bill

If The Roxy Performances had been Great Unexpextations (and it was) There was Absolutely No Surprise to my bringing in the One Size Fits All 50^th Anniversary box. Quoth Zappa: I spent a long time on this album. I was in the studio for four months, ten to fourteen hours a day.

After the original album, Disc 1 contains Additional Sizes: Session Outtakes and Vault Oddities. A Rough Mix of “Inca Roads,” three tracks of “Ralph Stuffs His Shoes,” which was the working title of “Can’t Afford [None]” and then the Instrumental Mix, Master Take of “Can’t Afford No Shoes” (the lyrics not yet finalized.) Altogether an interesting work-in-progress to listen to.

Take 6 of the Basic Tracks of “Sofa № 1,” followed by an early mix of the Master Take.

Disc 2 is therefore headed Additional Sizes: Session Outtakes and Vault Oddities continued. Illuming to hear “Evelyn, a Modified Dog” being workshopped. The outsized presence on this disc is “San Ber’dino,” with two tracks under its working title of “Bitch, Bitch, Bitch” as well as three Rough Mixes. One notable early idea was, Napoleon Murphy Brock singing it in first person. Don van Vliet’s harmonica is in on II & III, As is Johnny “Guitar” Watson. We enjoy Rough Mixes, too of “Something/Anything,” (proto-“Andy,” with Brock singing) “Andy” (Watson singing) and “Sofa № 2.”

Discs 3 & 4 present a 28 September 1974 concert in Rotterdam’s Sports Palace Ahoy with the OSFA sextet, and as One Size Fits All would be released in June of 1975, both “Inca Roads” and “Florentine Pogen” are still in “Road Test” mode. Closing out Disc 4 are two bonus tracks from a 25 September 1974 concert in Göteborg, Sweden (“Ralph Stuffs His Shoes” and “Po-Jama People”). From the top, though: the “Tush Tush Tush” riffing is entirely in line with what we consumers of “The Helsinki Concert” a/k/a You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 might expect. “Stinkfoot” is straightforward save a coy wink to us classical aficionados in that the place he knows is around the corner “by Edo de Waart’s house.” The characteristic individual invention and collective chemistry of Geo. Duke & Zappa makes each iteration of “Inca Roads” a new delight. also some very nice percussion by Ruth Underwood & al. for the outro. Zappa then explains the scheme of “Approximate” before its execution. To know it better is to love it all the more. Also, a juicy wah-wah-modulated solo. A “Cosmik Debris” of a more pesante character than average and with a glancing “Ralph Stuffs His Shoes” reference, a delicious electric piano solo giving way to Zappa, whose solo begins in quietude and ultimately waxes majestical. Zappa then introduces “Florentine Pogen” as “Chester’s Gorilla.” Rather than make myself unfittingly tedious through repetition, I remark simply that each new (to one’s ears) guitar solo is a fresh delight because Zappa never phoned it in. There then follow a beeswax-sweet “Montana” and after an Intermission (not reflected on the CD a no less dulcet “RDNZL” Another element this concert has in common with the above-mentioned Helsinki event is, “Dupree’s Paradise” opens with finger cymbals, and Geo. Duke pretending to hurt himself. Between the intro and “Dupree’s Paradise” proper is Geo. transition to an improv “Blind Mice Blues,” a not insignificant digression. The two parts of “Dupree’s Paradise” proper (with “We Can Share a Love” interpolated—yes, more continuity with Helsinki) runs a grand 27 minutes and a half. In Part 1, Geo. uses a flute-ish timbre on the synthesizer which combines intriguingly with Napoleon Murphy Brock’s genuine flute. Tom Fowler takes a nice bass solo (or rather, duet with Chester Thompson.) Probably stating the obvious, but the joy in “Dupree’s Paradise” is always the emergents of the day as much as the “head.” Great gritty solo in “Pygmy Twylyte.” The “Room Service” tomfoolery is fun but inessential. The same description probably does no great injustice to the Swedish diptych, “Ralph Stuffs His Shoes” and “Po-Jama People.” whose chief interest consists in their being “road tests” preparatory to the album. On the dolby atmos mix of the album and the bonus surround tracks (“Sofa № 1” and “San Ber’dino” which are included on the fifth (blu-ray) disc, I have not the equipment to experience nor therefore to comment on. The video bonus, “Inca Roads” and “Florentine Pogen,” videotaped 27 Aug 1974 at LA’s KCET-TV studios are both impressive and fun, for all the expected reasons. And the array of instruments in both Geo. Duke’s keyboard station, and Ruth Underwood’s percussion section (dig her playing duck call near the end of “F. P.”) speaks both to the supple dexterity and mental agility of those brilliant musicians, and to Zappa’s resourcefulness as a composer. And for those of us who have loved the album for decades, and wondering what in blazes “Chester’s gorilla” was about: Marty Perellis (Zappa’s road manager) in (yep) a gorilla costume, with a comb and a mantel clock. It can be witnessed but probably never satisfactorily explained. And who wants too much satisfactory explanation in the world of FZ, anyway? One of my biggest takeaways from absorption of the Roxy and OSFA boxes is, how horribly I had undervalued Napoleon Murphy Brock as a flutist.

Before My Stroke, the Nerves

 Can’t decide on tattoo: map of 1919 East Prussia, HR Giger Easter Bunny, Spaceballs poster, Triceratops skeleton, or topographic map of Minnesota.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Americans don’t need somebody to play more Brahms or Beethoven. They need to know that there is very important music out there that they’re not listening to—because our ears and spirits need constant renewal.

— Conductor James Conlon (remarks occasioned by the Britten centenary)

Nine years ago yesterday:

An unusual day: a second Symphony Update.

 I did indeed lay some more work down, adding yet another 70 seconds, in fact. There is now some four minutes and change of the first movement, which is now a bit more than half finished. [22 Oct 2016]

Supper Was Ready

 Ezekiel saw the wheel,

His equal saw the eel.

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

That’s the damndest example of good citizenship I’ve ever seen.

Peter Falk to perp Louis Jourdain: In an episode directed by Jno. Demme, who would later direct Stop Making Sense

Last night, we heard/saw the legendary Steve Hackett play in the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, Mass. It was the least comfortable seating of any musical event I have ever attended in my life, but the company and musical experience were of such surpassing excellence, that trivial consideration mattered not in the least. After a medley commemorating the 50^th anniversary of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Hackett and his crack ensemble concluded the concert with “Supper’s Ready,” “Firth of Fifth” and a delightfully transmogrified “Los Endos.” I’ve seen Genesis live twice, but after the point at which Hackett had exited. So, a “Bucket List” kind of concert, hearing the man himself present those definitive Genesis DNA numbers.

That was after an excellent Henning Ensemble rehearsal in the afternoon. We have modified Tuesday’s program somewhat, and although it was not the prime consideration, we have inserted a satisfactory buffer between the two elegiac works:

Charms & Memorials

Karl Henning (1960) Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a (2025. première)
Henning, Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up, Op. 204 (2025, première)
Kevin Scott (1956) Min’khah: In Remembrance Shoshanna C. Winson (2025, première)
Henning, A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2 (2025)
Robert Gross (1973) Four’s the Charm (2025, première)
Henning, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191c (2024)

Peter H Bloom, C Flute, Alto Flute
Carol Epple, C Flute
Greta Rosen, Bassoon
Dan Zupan, Bass Clarinet

Henningmusick Here, Henningmusick There

 As Stockhausen once conceded, “I know when I’m Licht.”

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Here lies Edmund Blackadder

and he’s bloody annoyed

At church this morning it was confirmed that Yun plans to have the choir sing the Alleluia in D (indeed, my publisher rang last night to tell me he has shipped the order) at the church which is now at the point at which a new name for the newly combined congregation must be settled upon. Also I learnt that there are earnest plans to put Joseph & Mary together, which requires aligning a few planetoids.

And this afternoon was our Henning Ensemble dress rehearsal for King’s Chapel on Tuesday. not only an enormously productive rehearsal  musically, but we found a date for a February concert to recapitulate this program, and two rehearsals in November to start refresh and expansion.

Nine Years Ago Yesterday

I’ve just learnt of an ensemble formed by “a dozen restless artists.”

I still don’t feel at all guilty for getting to bed early last night.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

When they reject it, study it; and if you still love it and see validity in the piece—hang in there, and maintain respect for your own work.

— Rod Serling

It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and I take this opportunity to thank so many of you for all the good, warm, positive vibes you have sent in response to my announcing the beginning of my symphony-in-progress. I got good work laid down over the weekend, and the first movement is nearly two minutes done (with the understanding that I still may tweak, modify, recombobulate the latest 15 measures). As I wrote, I am in no rush to get the movement finished, but I was keen to get a certain “critical mass” of the piece formed, so that it should be an independent object which exists not only in the ephemera of my imagination. I'll say I am really pleased with the start, which spurs me (in the best way) to make certain that the movement as a whole carries out that promise.
So what is different this week? The fact is, that the thought crossed my mind perhaps six times in the past: “I should write a symphony. I know I’ve wanted to.” Once, I even made several sketches (none of which I am using in the present piece, for whatever reason). The key difference at present is, I feel entirely capable of composing a symphony. This feeling, arguably, may prove illusory. But I am for the moment going to continue to enjoy living into that illusion.
Thanks again, all!

Rare, Though Perhaps Not Strictly Unique « That Ain’t No Way to Have Fun »

 Every little text she tweets is magic ....

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Avatar, the Good: I wonder if I packed my scotch.

— Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards

This is a story of Not My Song, but certainly My Ears. It occurred to me lately, as I listened to a certain Three Dog Night song (albeit written by Randy Newman) several times this week, just how peculiar my personal history is, with “Mama Told Me (Not to Come).”  Three Dog Night released the song in 1970, so the song got lots of radio play when I was a young teen. then five decades passed during which time I near literally never heard it a single time. Then out of the blue, when I was 64 a local cover band perform the piece in a local park, and methought, Yes, I really liked this song back when, and lo! I love it e’n more now.

Ladies and gentlemen, there has been a (tactical) change: After Wednesday’s rehearsal of Kevin’s piece, which is long-breathed, I received an entirely reasonable request from the non-trebles of the band for a break afterwards. I have, therefore (only with the consent of the flutists, naturalmente) moved the flute duet between our guest composers’ pieces. This means that the program begins with the two memorial pieces, but my Lamentatio is sufficiently active that there is nevertheless contrast.

Charms & Memorials

Karl Henning (1960) Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a (première)
Kevin Scott (1956) Min’khah: In Remembrance Shoshanna C. Winson (2025, première)
Henning, A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2 (2025)
Robert Gross (1973) Four’s the Charm (2025, première)
Henning, Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up, Op. 204 (2025, première)
Henning, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191c (2024)

Peter H Bloom, C Flute, Alto Flute
Carol Epple, C Flute
Greta Rosen, Bassoon
Dan Zupan, Bass Clarinet

 Kevin Scott: https://klscottmusic.wordpress.com/

soundcloud.com/klscomus

Music of Robert Gross: https://tinyurl.com/RobtGrossSampler

More Henningmusick at: https://snipurl.me/HenningmusickonYT

More about Henningmusick at: https://karlhenning.com/

Ever so much more (can you even stand it?) at: https://henningmusick.blogspot.com/

Surprise, Musical Antiquities Division

 Fab brick softener

And God created grey twails

Illegal igloo

Elastically elegiac

Home, home on the orange ....

Myth America

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

There was nobody inside but a miserable shoeless criminal, who had been taken up for playing the flute, and who, the offence against society bring been clearly proved, had been very properly committed by Mr Fang to the House of Correction for one month....

— Dickens, Oliver Twist

My friend and colleague Carson Cooman afforded me a delightful surprise a couple of days ago by uploading a lovely recording of a piece written so long ago, I nearly do not remember it, the Canticle of St Nicholas.

Red Letter Day

Oh, the chords you'll noodle!

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Shared by my friend, the late Ivan Moody:

...even from the concentration camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic...many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

— Karl Paulnak

The 7^th of October is somehow a big day in Henningmusick. Eleven years ago today we created the Première of The Mystic Trumpeter. And four years ago today, the fabulous Rose Hegele & al. did likewise for The Orpheus of Lowell.

Or, Maybe ....

 Pluto, the Gaoler of Nigerian Princes

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

Uglier things have been spotted in the skies, but not by reliable witnesses.

—the late, great Douglas Adams

I suggested, or it may be, declared yesterday that I would stay creative work until I had got the parts laid out for the Opus 200. Well, one changes one’s mind sometimes, and my mind is changed, I’ve decided to modify the Saltmarsh Stomp for a local conductor’s consideration. So there.

Also, 17 years ago today:

told ya: all done with The Mousetrap. “The more I look at it . . . the more I like it. I do think it’s good—” [4 Oct 2008]

After-Wail

 Seeking abandoned hurricanes for research into how an eagle flies in the eye.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

No, no, no, no, don’t tug on that: you never know what it might be attached to.

— Peter Weller, to Jeff Goldblum in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

Now, ’tis true that composition of Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail, Op. 200 is done. There is as yet no knowing when (or, leave us candidly own) if the opportunity for a performance may arise. Still that is the point and the as-yet-living hope, so I am taking some thought for the preparation of parts hereafter. The Sibelius template I used for the score I derived from The Nerves, first movement of the Opus 148 Symphony for Band. That piece I wrote with the Charles River Wind Ensemble (hereinafter CRWE) and so the scoring for the Op. 148 I predicated upon the personnel listed in the program booklet of that very first CRWE concert I attended in the spring of 2018. The template includes two rare auxiliary instruments—contralto clarinet and bass saxophone—which I do not, offhand, recall seeing on the stage during the last several concerts I have attended. This is no great matter: I have marked each of these parts Ad libitum in the score. So far, so fair. I have another consideration whereof I must confirm that I have taken sufficient heed, to whit, does the piece provide employment for everyone in the Ensemble? Setting aside the instrumental rarities above noted. I made certain to populate the music with notes for five flutists (one doubling on Piccolo, and one playing Alto.) I obviously made sure that three clarinetists and a bass clarinetist do not go begging for material. It is among the brass mostly whereupon my musical gaze must fall. I am thinking Horns 3 and 4, and Trombone 2 particularly.

Since this process must likely (I feel) result in more notes in the score, I’m f the opinion that I must see to this task (and may as well lay out the parts, add cues &c.) before moving on.

And whereon do I move, when I do move on? There are both the Opus 179 chamber orchestra piece (which the completion of the recent band piece leaves me enthusiastic to wrap up before Thanksgiving. And the conclusion of the “flute duet triptych,” Opus 178 № 3, Janky Juke Joint, on which I have made the scantest of starts, but for whose continuation I expect I shall undertake much more perfect diligence practically upon the instant.

My old friend Eric Mazonson is playing the Ravel Piano Trio with, as you surmise, two other fine musicians in nearby Bedford Mass. in a coupla weeks.

And another gentleman, Music Director at a nearishby Unitarian parish, whom I met at about the onset of summer has written back, and we have arranged to have a cup of tea together soon.

Also: this afternoon 16 years ago today, I played the Studies in Impermanence at King’s Chapel. It is a piece I ought to send to Todd.

All Bewailed Out

 Little Miss Muffet sharing her curds with the spider? No whey!

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Experience is a good teacher, though her fees are terribly high.

— William Ralph Inge

I was sufficiently industrious, and my plan for the coda sorted out so very satisfactorily, that I reached the final double-bar of Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail, Opus 200 this afternoon. It occurs to me that on reading this post from yesterday, and its report of Let’s snitch this from one piece, and snaffle that from another (nor will reporting today that the coda consists of the Point of Imitation of the Opus 204 do anything to quell such a, erm, construction) that one mighr suppose the newly completed piece to present some sort of Frankensteinian patchwork. Episodic it is, I do stipulate, but I find it musically coherent, and highly colorful. Although the MIDI “realization” has more than its share of æsthetic excrescences, I have been doing to Listen to Destruction test, and I stand by the piece. I am entirely pleased.

Although I have not yet watched Weird: the Al Yankovich Story, the following occurs to me:

Growing up in the Midwest and learning to play th accordion—not weird in the least.

Having a lively wit which at times expresses itself in parodymg popular songs—not weird in the least.

Succeeding in building an international career out of those raw materials—weird, and in the best possible way.

Always Fresh Notions

 If anyone has Mahler on the celestial hotline, let him know I’ve got his Fifth Symphony playing as Music to Fold Laundry By

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

One of life’s great dilemmas is, you can’t get a job if you have no experience, and you can’t get experience without a job. God creates things like that, I think, to build our character and teach us frustration.

— Lewis Grizzard, If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I’m Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground

The process of creating Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail has been fascinating for me. Partly, it has been a matter of composing fresh material in line with a verbal schema I drew up. Partly, as Bach, Handel, Beethoven and Shostakovich did before me, of including/adapting material from other works in the Henning catalogue. To a degree, then, the experience of creating the piece is a kind of you’re there already vibe. One of the results of (A) having composed a fair bit of music (some of it—a considerable quantity of it, really) completely neglected by potential performers plus (B) having cast a fair amount of it onto YouTube is: that streaming platform sometimes reminds me of music of my very own which I had forgot. Thus while I’ve been working on the Opus 200, I was revisited by I see people walking around like trees, Op. 120. Now, the fact is that I cannot regard this piece as in any sense unfairly neglected. The scoring (Flute, Clarinet, Frame Drum and Double-Bass) that there cannot be many other groups on the planet for whom it could be suitable. Not even the least sympathetic critic could fault me for drawing from its material, in the first place, and since I’m working on a score for symphonic band, I have built the material out, which I have borrowed. As I was at work on this assimilation, it occurred to me to incorporate the brass choir fanfare, Lord of the Things, Op. 195. Well for a precedent in the literature, there is Aaron Copland’s much-celebrated Fanfare for the Common Man, which he incorporated into the final movement of his Third Symphony. So I feel entirely happy with my own roughly comparable adaptation/infusion. In between these “appropriations” I have a kind of theme, as indicated in my outline, and then, after Lord of the Things, that theme against an inversion of itself. As of today, the Opus 200 thus runs nearly nine minutes. Since I have planned on a 12-minute piece, I am close to the end, then. I have another “borrowing” in mind for a coda. This will not prevent me from approaching that final pilfering with fresh material in accord with a line (or two) in my schema.

Also, twelve years ago today:

Pleased to announce that I have been appointed Music Director at Holy Trinity United Methodist Church in Danvers, MA. Let the singing begin! [1 Oct 2013]