In Effect, Remembering Bill Goodwin

 Yes, I would wear a T-shirt that reads “Press and Hold for More Options.”

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Mr. Reiter nodded and sighed: “The worst barbarian is one sprung from the civilization itself. He knows from the inside precisely what he is perversely rejecting. The outside barbarian is jealous, and secretly wants to lose his barbarism, to become part of something greater, but his pride prevents it, like a child refusing to accept a lollipop. But the barbarian from the inside has experienced civilization, and still wants to destroy it. Yes, the civilized barbarian is the worst.”

— Leo Schulte

Whether one or more, or none of my pieces should find use in the Redeemer/First Christmas celebrations this year, I have very much enjoyed revisiting the pieces, and it is gratifying to have the music considered by sympathetic ears and eyes. Most especially, I am pleased to have reconstructed a piece which I had practically given up as lost—for yesterday I completed reconstruction of the Opus 61.

To recapitulate, then, I have lately “dusted off:”

The Snow Lay on the Ground, Op. 68
Reflections upon a French Carol, Op. 61
I Look from Afar, Op.60
Joseph & Mary, Op. 53

As suggested by the cluster of Opus numbers, these pieces are right in the “sweet spot” of music which the late Bill Goodwin generously afforded me the opportunity to compose (and indeed to conduct) at Woburn’s historic First Congregational Church. Bill was always enormously supportive, and pretty much made me free to write what I pleased. A list as near complete as dammit of music I composed for Bill appears in this post.

Le tombeau de W.A.G., Op.122

I thought of adapting the Op. 122 for our sextet for the Henning Ensemble next year, but I keep misremembering it as a piece for quintet, where in fact it’s a trio. Might still adapt it for April in King’s Chapel.

A Tweak and an Epiphany

 The Pirates of Penance (getting ready for Confess Like a Pirate Day)
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
— Karl Popper

It was well pointed out to me, that the “Plan B” program I devised yesterday presents two consecutive expressly elegiac pieces. I do want a rhythmically active piece to follow Kevin’s piece, which is mostly sostenuto. We can achieve this with an easy swap.

14 Oct @ King’s Chapel Plan B (modified)

Charms and Offertories

Karl Henning, Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a (première) [3:15]
Henning, A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2 [5:30]
Kevin Scott, Minchah (première) [11:00]
Robert Gross, Four’s the Charm (première) [5:30]
Henning, Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up, Op. 204 (première) [4:00]
Henning, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191c [2:30]

I should have liked to open the program with a guest composer, but Robert’s piece will make a good contrast after Kevin’s. I might have switched to have Kevin open the program, but it wouldn’t do to open the concert with such solemnity.

Also, nine years ago today (should I dig it out to float by Redeemer?):

I think I have finished the arrangement of In dulci jubilo for flute, horn, handbells, youth & adult choirs & organ. ’Tis but a modest project, true, but (I think) good fun. [18 Sep 2016]

And 15 years ago today:

Just booked my flight to Rochester for the première of the Viola Sonata Opus 102. [18 Sep 2010]

I’ve kept faith with the intent of working each day on the guitar part (the piece’s raison  d’être) of Aaron’s Uneasy Sleep, but the sense that what I’ve been doing is right has eluded me. My feeling yesterday was to plough my way out to the final double-bar, and re-touch/repair when I eventually got the line complete. However, I see the light today, that (while I shall hold onto the present line for consideration for a future piece) I need to write something of a very different character.

Pictured, an early version of the Henning Ensemble: Peter, Paul & Karl

The Beauty, Sadness and Fluidity of It All

 Once on a time I heard someone—a musician (!!!)—say, “... the best virtuosi in Hollywood, which is to say, the best virtuosi in the world.” The combination of fatuity and tunnel-vision here is of an exceptional order.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

“Where did you find this guy?” I whispered to Ludlow as the preacher fumbled through his Bible looking for some verse he’d forgotten to mark.

“Who do you want on two days’ notice?” my stepbrother replied. “Billy Graham?”

The wedding cake was a little dry, but I did think the black crepe paper Ludlow’s wife had hung from the ceiling was a nice touch. "Lincoln’s funeral probably looked a lot like this,” I said to Ludlow.

— Lewis Grizzard, If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I’m Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground

Kevin Scott has just sent me the finished piece. Over these past several weeks, the cloud of an old friend’s imminent passing has shadowed the composer. This friend having now regrettably shuffled off this mortal coil, the piece is more overtly a memorial than at first the composer planned. It’s a beautiful piece, elegantly written. It also sets me a bit of a puzzle. I probably asked for a 4-6-minute minute piece, and  Minchah runs eleven minutes. Plan A for the program:

Robert Gross, Four’s the Charm (première) [5:30]

Karl Henning, Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196c [6:00]

Henning, A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2 [5:30]

Kevin Scott, Minchah (première) [11:00]

Henning, Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a (première) [3:15]

Henning, Peace! The Charm's Wound Up, Op. 204 (première) [4:00]

Henning, Moose on the Loose, Op.165a [6:15]

Henning, Nostalgia Ain't What It Used to Be, Op. 191c [2:30]

... will not do for King’s, as it runs 44 minutes. Let me be clear: re-configuring the program to accommodate Kevin’s, beautiful piece is a privilege and a puzzle, not a problem, save in a mathematical sense

My immediate thought: bump Moose on the Loose to April. Probably do the same with Amorphous and Forward-Looking. That trims the program to 30-ish minutes, which is perfect:

14 Oct @ King’s Chapel, Plan B

Charms and Offertories

Robert Gross, Four’s the Charm (première) [5:30]

Karl Henning, A Dance Floor for the Introverted, Op. 178 № 2 [5:30]

Kevin Scott, Minchah (première) [11:00]

Henning, Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202a (première) [3:15]

Henning, Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up, Op. 204 (première) [4:00]

Henning, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be, Op. 191c [2:30]

With Robert’s piece, I am waiting for our first rehearsal (Saturday the 27^th) to see if the band feel that we can put it together in such short order.  Kevin’s piece, technically, I think should be manageable, although I will see what the band have to say.

On the theme of Ensemble feedback, when I spoke with Greta t’other day, she told me she had been practicing the Lamentatio, and her enthusiasm for the piece was highly gratifying.

I’ve knocked off nine pages of the Op. 61, so I’m better than half done and on track.

Last night, out of sheer discipline, I think, I also composed a minute of guitar music last night,  but my brain felt so out of it, it may have been the compositional equivalent of sleep-walking and I need to review it now to see if I think that it’s any good.

Looking from Afar at I Look from Afar

I believe I may just have thought of something.

In Boston early Tuesday morning, a rumor seemed to gain traction, that Karl Henning may just have thought something.

Critics were quick to respond, “What could he think? C’mon!”

An independent source has confirmed that what I just thought may indeed be something.

One thinker, who just may own the rights to something else, threatened legal action.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

...good, good with cutlery, good with silver. Alfred Hitchcock knew what he was doing.

— Mel Brooks, remembering the lunches

I got up for class today ... Aaron gave a lecture-demo at BU at 9:30, and seeing that I cannot go hear him in Newport on 12 Oct, this was a fortuitous opportunity. It did require, however, that I remove my head from the pillow rather earlier than is my wont, so I’ve now finished my supplementary nap.

I did not need to rebuild the score of I Look from Afar, Op. 60. I already had a Sibelius file, from 2002. My 2025 guess is: having recently switched from Finale, I used this piece as practice with grander scores in my new notation home. I suppose I also wanted to show the piece to Mark Engelhardt, although mostly the piece puzzled my friend, I think, my setting differing so completely from the Palestrina Antiphon by which I came to know the text. For my part, the peculiar thing is, that while singing the Palestrina with the St Paul's choir the morning of an Advent I long ago was the occasion for the text making such an impression upon me that I was soon determined to compose my own setting, after decades of my brain associating my own music with the text, I don't recognize the Palestrina, practically at all, at all. As the Sibelius file was at the ready, all I needed to do was quickly edit the brass parts. I’ve now sent the performance set to the musical powers that be, and we shall see,

I have finished three pages (of 16) of the Op. 61 Reflections upon a French Carol. I believe I shall try to knock down three pages per day.

I am also keen to wrap up Aaron’s Uneasy Sleep, Op. 203, so my daily plan is: see to three pp. of the Op. 61. Compose 60 seconds of guitar music. If I can hew to the plan. both projects should be complete this weekend.

Watch This Space.

Christmas Ho! and Opus 201 Codetta

Failed Business Model #47: Nyet-flix (”We have no movies”)

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Probably my favorite exchange in Independence Day:

“I’m not Jewish.”

— “Nobody’s Perfect.”

With the Redeemer concert behind us and rehearsals for King’s Chapel not beginning until the 27^th, this is the perfect "pocket" for me to dust off Christmas scores for consideration at Redeemer/First. (The conversation on the name of the new entity, the one united congregation, is about to begin.) Since losing the job at Holy Trinity, and my subsequent failure to find some other similar position, I had not much thought of my folio of musica sacra, so I am grateful even for the possibility of the pieces finding a voice here. While I am raring to pursue the work of both Aaron’s Uneasy Sleep and the Simple Music, getting new, unfamiliar music to the organist & al. as early as possible is de rigueur, so let the sleighbells ring, as it were.

 I am enormously pleased that Eric thinks so well of I Look from Afar. But then, it was probably my nerviest writing for brass quintet to date. Indeed, my setting is so great a musical distance from the chaste Palestrina Antiphon whereby I came to know the text, that I think it rather baffled my friend Mark when I showed it to him. Timpani will not be practical in the present case, so I was thinking of dropping the timp. line from the score entirely, but on cooler consideration, that measure were too extreme. Mark the timp. part optional, and I'll see if I need to add anything to make up for its possible absence. Overall, I think this will be a lightish task.

Rather more work is involved in reclaiming the Opus 61 Reflections upon a French Carol (clarinet, bassoon, trumpet & organ.) All I had was a peculiarly illegible PDF file. No knowing at this point what its story is, but I had the thought of printing hard copy to see if I cannot manage to decrypt it. We shall see.

I sent four of the Opus 201 duets which I thought best suited to recorders to Greta and Josh, who returned to me with notes. Thus even after I thought I was done, I made suitable modifications, and sent the revised scores around.

It looks like we’ve got an April 2026 date at King’s Chapel (the 21^st.) and my friend Dennis Bathory-Kitsz is going to write us a piece.

Joseph & Mary Resurgens

 The tone of “Please don’t shoot the piano player” comes across as a bit endearing, perhaps just a bit jokey, and that is well.

A sign reading “It is forbidden to shoot the piano player” risks being taken for practically an invitation.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Your pedal extremities are colossal.

— Fats Waller

I pretty much finished reconstructing the score of Op. 53, Joseph & Mary yesterday. In mistaken zeal, I nearly phased out the clarinet part. I had played in the original, but am not as yet fit to play this year. The zeal was mistaken, because another clarinetist is likely to be available, In part today’s finishing work was therefore making certain the clarinet line was properly restored, and partly practically complete reversion of the organ part to to Ur-text. I could not speak intelligently (at this remove) as to why the Danvers edition of the piece went in a different direction with the organ writing, and the original has Vaughan Williams-ish planing chords which I fancy rather. Talking with Eric and Greta today about my Christmas music, I was gratified to hear such enthusiasm for I Look from Afar, to which I shall begin to attend tomorrow (the only significant modification will be to drop the timpani. I also remembered, but did not speak of, The Snow Lay on the Ground, Op. 68. So the rest of my work today was adding bassoon and trumpet thereto. All in all, a highly productive day. And now, done with work for today.

Closing In on the Opus 203

 Smiling at the musical oxymoron of including Monk’s “Crépuscule with Nellie” in a “Morning Jazz” playlist.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Persons attempting to find a Motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a Moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a Plot in it will be shot.

— Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Happy birthday, Arnold Schoenberg!

Fourteen years ago, I performed the Irreplaceable Doodles in the New England Conservatory’s Williams Hall

And, eleven years ago today:

This morning, I made a good start on The Mysterious Fruit, mezzo-soprano & marimba, Op.124, for Carola Emrich-Fisher & Sylvie Zakarian, text by Leo Schulte. 

But, enough nostalgia! Yesterday I mixed to my satisfaction the fixed media component of Aaron’s Uneasy Sleep. I think it likely that once I finish reconstructing the Op. 53 score, I shall apply myself to the guitar part. I was looking forward keenly to hearing Aaron’s performance in Newport on 12 October, but a necessary Henning Ensemble rehearsal has become pinned to thar date. No Ocean State for me, that day.