Sommes-Nous Devenus Sixtuor?

 Ribald gerbil

The vowels of the wolves.

Ouija squeegee?

Baroness in a burnous

—Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

If there were no sun, you would have this song
to give warmth and light and to keep you strong.

— Rahsaan Roland Kirk, “Theme for the Eulipions”

Since my stroke and my subsequent extended separation from playing an instrument, I have been alive (shall we say) to the lack of clarinet in the Henning Ensemble. Of course, recently Dan Zupan has stepped into that gap and I do not mean at all to slight so capable and bold a colleague. I am only at present referring to an old dream, as it were. For at first, years before we were fortunate enough to recruit Dan, the clarinetist I should have greatly wished to bring into the fold was Todd Brunel. And lo! what should happen but Todd’s most gratifyingly powerful affection for the Op. 197 Rahsaan Roland Kirk Fantasia has caused the realization of the old dream. Furthermore, by most peculiar but altogether felicitous coincidence, I have also succeeded in recruiting an old friend, bassoonist Greta Rosen. (Now, if only there were money to recompense them for their talents.)

For the time being, therefore, I am shelving composition of new pieces, and creating parts for Todd and Greta in pieces already in line for our two Woburn concerts. Indeed this morning, literally before dawn, I expanded the scoring of Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be. On to the next ....