2025 in Henningmusick

 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 25 Surfing 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 25 Dark Side of the Sun, Op. 193, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première)
6 Aug 25 A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2, Carol Epple & Peter H Bloom, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première)
6 Aug 25 Fantasia on a Theme by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Op. 197, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA (Première)
6 Aug 25 Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191, Henning Ensemble, Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA
17 Aug 25 Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, Op. 34 № 2, Ryan Patten, Grace Episcopal Church, Malden, MA
24 Aug 25 Barefoot 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:

Recent Idleness

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’s Hamlet, 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.

Latest Laggard Post

“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.

Also:

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