The Moose Is Again Loose

 One Boston bar had a Monday evening event titled “Geeks Who Drink.” (Just reporting the fact.)

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Science has never made me doubt the existence of a loving God, but some Christians have.

— Jn Fugelsang

I first reported the composition of Moose on the Loose here. As the Ensemble no longer boasts either a horn or violin, I must re-score the piece if we are to revive it. I have done so today and the Op. 165a is scored for Piccolo/C Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet & Bassoon. In this post, I suggested that I ought to add bassoon to Amorphous & Forward-Looking, and that task, too is done (Op. 196a) I also swapped bassoon for the string bass to yield an all-winds Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be (Op. 191c.) I’m toying with another idea, Tell you about it tomorrow.

Advancing on “Retreat”

 The Light shineth in the Darkness, and Nuts to the Darkness!

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Fantasy Football? My football fantasy is that those guys get a real college education and don’t play football at all.

— Paula Poundstone

Somehow, flush with pleasure over Dark Side of the Dance Floor, I am thinking now of the orphaned Opus 199.

When I wrote this for Julian, he was on the faculty of Jacksonville Univ, but Florida vying with Texas to see which state is in a greater rush to embrace MAGA Whackjobbery, the University heads having hollowed out the school’s intellectual and cultural capital, Julian left that position and sought employment elsewhere. He's now working with less experienced singers so that Retreat is not a realistic ask. It occurs to me today to try to find another opportunity for the Première. I reached out to another former Triadian, and lo! a trombonist has just joined her choir, so there may be cause for optimism.

One fun note from Friday’s concert: One attendee who did speak kindly of the program as a whole, singled out Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be as their favorite. Of course it would be flattering to hear someone speak of any piece of mine as a favorite. I am especially pleased if this one makes an impression.

I haven’t given up on trying to “break in” to the Binghamton Phil. I think my New Year’s Day project will be a chamber orchestra version of the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Fantasia. And you know, if they don’t like it, Chas Peltz may.

Greta won’t be available for the April King’s Chapel date, so we shall go on as a trio.

And, eleven years ago today:

All right: A Song of Remembrance, commissioned by the Framingham State University Chorus, for three-part mixed chorus (SAB) and piano, on texts from the Mass and from Walt Whitman (9'30) is finished. That's a wrap on the Opus 123.

 

Dark Side of the Dance Floor II

 Posted by an Australian friend: When you blow your nose in the main reading room of the State Library of Victoria, you can still hear it 10 minutes later.

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

Pam dialed in from over sea:

Bom dia from Portugal!

Hi everybody,

Thank you for the excellent concert last night! It was tough waiting
until midnight for it to start but it was musically enriching and worth
the wait. Carvoeiro Clifftop Walk is sounding better than ever -- well
done! Karl, your music continues to be beautiful. As always it grows on
me with every hearing (just as it did with every rehearsal in the old
days )

If I had a tenner for every time, after we’ve concluded a concert at King’s Chapel, and we of the Henning Ensemble have said amongst ourselves, “That was great. what a shame to put in all that work of preparation, and play the program only once.” Therefore, one of the chief ideas behind the Dark Side of the Dance Floor program was that we get more than one performance out of all that hard work.

Another, closely related purpose was to “break open” new venues, especially as our bassist, Dave Zox’s techingh schedule frequently conflicts with the Tuesday lunchtime of our customary King’s Chapel events. To be sure, the beautiful Woburn Public Library is not a venue new to us, so the desire was to make appearances there a more regular happening.

The Dark Side of the Dance Floor program was the most ambitious program the Henning Ensemble has dared to date; and we have now at last successfully repeated a program in quite short order. Last night’s concert went splendidly, we had a good audience who received it well, there were some eight-ten parties who tuned into the Zoom livestream and the church is eager to have us back.

It is not too early to start thinking about another brace of concerts in the spring od 2026, but right now, to get ready for 14 October at King’s Chapel.

Moose Update

 Farm noir? The Big Sheep.

Turducken in Metuchen?

Arugula galore

Ineligible Vegetable

Breakfast of fear: Dreaded Wheat

Keen on quinoa noir

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

Eric Idle: Well, we did do the nose.

Terry Jones: The nose?

Eric Idle: And the hat. But she's a witch!

As noted, yesterday I had crawled (as it seemed) to m.45 of Moose on the Loose. today, it isn’t that the work is rapid, but I have perhaps gotten into the groove: 101 measures now,.so, marginally better than half done. Dress rehearsal tonight. Physical Therapy, a bit of rest, and the concert tomorrow. Therefore no further Moose-work this side of Saturday.

Just Making a Start on a Chore

 Be fearless. But be good.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Watching somebody’s tight-assed view of themselves just...disintegrate, has great significance.

—Alan Arkin expressing the Zen of The In-Laws

This will be a contender for Least Glamorous Post on this blog, but here goes:

In August, I noted my plan to revive and re-score Moose on the Loose, Op. 165 for our October program. Somehow, the Sibelius file has gone missing, so here I am rebuilding it. Re-creating the original, which I shall then adapt to our present voicing. It feels like slow work. Here I’ve got just 45 mm. out of 192 done.

No Composer Is an Island

 Neither a brewer nor a vintner be....

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Mikey: Will he [the Messiah] bring the Giants back to New York?

Abe: Not only that, he’ll throw out the first ball!

— Rod Serling, The Messiah on Mott Street.

My excitement over last night’s excellent rehearsal, for the fact that we shall be in excellent shape for Friday’s concert, and over our being able to bring the same program to audiences at two separate venues within two months during what historically been the Ensemble’s Off Season; This morning it has brought home to me how no composer does it alone and how very much I owe to these marvelous colleagues of mine.

Rehearsing and A-Chronicling

 Where the druids were, they drew ids.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.

— William Carlos Williams

Whilst I saw the Light some time ago, so that I am now keeping a responsible log of Henning Ensemble performances, it is only occurring to me now (and this Dawn ought to have broken back in June when Paul Carson created the première of the St Petersburg Nocturne) that I ought to keep a log of performances (as and if I should come to know of them) of Henningmusick in which I am not directly involved. This is, after all the Goal: performances of my work which needn’t depend upon my own sweat. Don’t get me at all wrong: I love conducting and singing, and I long for the restoration of my left hand so that I shall play clarinet again. But only a select fraction of the planet will be able to hear those performances of my music which require my personal organization and participation.

The evidence of the program of our 8 April King’s Chapel concert is that we have performed the première of Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196. I do not, will not deny the documented fact, but only report the (probably embarrassing) fact that somehow, in the back of my mind, I came to believe that the piece still awaited its première, and that this mistaken notion is largely behind my intention to include it on our October program. However:

A. There’s nothing wrong with giving the piece a second performance, and

B. I was thinking that, better than having Greta sit that piece out would be adding a bassoon to the score. Watch This Space.

Greta has found the score to my arrangement of the Christmas Carol Joseph and Mary, whereof she and Eric have retained such fond memories still, the passing years notwithstanding. Greta found only the bassoon part and not a score to the Op. 61 Reflections upon a French Carol for clarinet, trumpet, bassoon and organ. However, I do have a typographically compromised PDF file of the score, which at a guess I tried to resuscitate when there was a “Finale Lite” product called Notepad, so perhaps a restoration is in the offing, after all.

One takeaway from chatting with my excellent friend and fellow Triad alumnus, Julian Bryson today, is that we shall at some point have the Henning Ensemble play a Bryson piece.