tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post8229623559207428551..comments2024-02-07T05:15:23.169-05:00Comments on henningmusick: Still-Life with GroundhogKarl Henninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05801383101122527636noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post-90835471070121466532008-12-03T10:36:00.000-05:002008-12-03T10:36:00.000-05:00Thanks, Walter. Schuman, Persichetti, and Mennin a...Thanks, <B>Walter</B>. <B>Schuman</B>, <B>Persichetti</B>, and <B>Mennin</B> are all composers I first "met" in region or all-state bands. I'd say, <I>quite a formative time for me</I>, only really, all my time since has been formative, I am inclined to think.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>~KarlKarl Henninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05801383101122527636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post-57316030437403998452008-11-30T21:59:00.000-05:002008-11-30T21:59:00.000-05:00Your posting on the music of Peter Mennin was just...Your posting on the music of Peter Mennin was just brought to my attention. I have known Mennin's music for almost 50 years. I was in my early teens when I heard the first notes of his Sixth Symphony, and immediately knew it was for me. Over the years I have become acquainted with all his music, and still find it to be enormously rewarding. I think Mennin is one of the greatest American composers, and that his Seventh Symphony is possibly the greatest American symphony. However, Henning's observation about the similarities between the Fifth Symphony and the Canzona are irrefutable. In fact, there is a tremendous similarity--or, perhaps, more accurately, a common essence, and the way it is elaborated, to be foung in all of Mennin's music. Not at all unlike Anton Bruckner, Mennin was a composer who had a particular metaphysical vision, and pursued this vision and its musical realization in work after work, ever striving to achieve a more profound articulation of it. This vision and its musical realization were articulated in relatively simple form in his earliest works (say, from around 1945), and were expressed in progressively more intense and complex ways throughout his career. You don't turn to Mennin if you're looking for a lot of variety or a broad expressive range; you turn to Mennin when you want to tune in to his particular view of life-as-expressed-through-music.<BR/>Is this a legitimate way to construe one's identity as a composer? That is up to the individual listener to decide for him- or herself. But I don't believe that there is any requirement or prerequisite for a varied palette. What matters, to my way of thinking, is music that compels attention through its consistency and clarity of vision, and by the profound insights it offers relative to the human condition. These are some of the points I pursue in my forthcoming book on the music of Schuman, Persichetti, and Mennin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post-22632932018185489682008-11-21T15:54:00.000-05:002008-11-21T15:54:00.000-05:00I think it's imperative that one's ears change - e...I think it's imperative that one's ears change - even if it's just to change back. First and foremost, we are human beings, even before we are artists, and a fundamental component of being a human, so to speak, is to adapt to change. <BR/><BR/>Change helps us to grow, learn and become better at surviving - better at being human.<BR/><BR/>Bravo to you Karl for posting this. We have only one set of ears and cannot judge from another's hearing perspective (I remember the late John Clough saying exactly the same thing). But those of us with the ears that can stretch are those who use them best.Houston Dunleavyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13340631801731134739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post-11092339813665941952008-11-19T15:08:00.000-05:002008-11-19T15:08:00.000-05:00Thank you for your support.Cheers,~KarlThank you for your support.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>~KarlKarl Henninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05801383101122527636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688712006005012664.post-66854230168789474912008-11-19T13:15:00.000-05:002008-11-19T13:15:00.000-05:00I agree. (shrugs)I agree. (shrugs)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com