God in heaven! A whole moment of bliss!
Is that not sufficient even for a man’s entire life?...
Is that not sufficient even for a man’s entire life?...
Comes the dawn—A Beginner’s Guide to Henning’s White Nights
I began work in 2003 on a full evening’s ballet after the Dostoyevsky novella
whose title I need not repeat in this paragraph. I began by re-reading
my source, drawing up a fairly extensive outline, and composing the Overture.
As I had no collaborative organization or ensemble, and was pursuing
the project for my own artistic benefit; I periodically set the ballet aside
to compose music for which there was a more immediate prospect of
performance. Nevertheless the finished portions
of the ballet steadily accumulated over time until, more than a decade later,
the end was in sight. I did indeed revisit the work at intervals,
so I assured myself that there was musical continuity in spite of the prolonged
production. At last, I completed my White Nights, Ballet in Four Nights
and a Morning on 5 April 2020
whose title I need not repeat in this paragraph. I began by re-reading
my source, drawing up a fairly extensive outline, and composing the Overture.
As I had no collaborative organization or ensemble, and was pursuing
the project for my own artistic benefit; I periodically set the ballet aside
to compose music for which there was a more immediate prospect of
performance. Nevertheless the finished portions
of the ballet steadily accumulated over time until, more than a decade later,
the end was in sight. I did indeed revisit the work at intervals,
so I assured myself that there was musical continuity in spite of the prolonged
production. At last, I completed my White Nights, Ballet in Four Nights
and a Morning on 5 April 2020
Karl Henning (10 Apr 2020)
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