Background
Hennagin was born in The Dalles, Oregon.
Hennagin was born in The Dalles, Oregon.
He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He studied composition with Darius Milhaud and Aaron Copland.
Hennagin began his professional career as a Hollywood composer and arranger working in film and television He wrote soundtracks for The DuPont Show of the Week and the television series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". He composed ballet scores for the Lester Horton Dance Theater in Los Angeles and incidental music for stage productions in New York City and Los Los Angeles
He composed in all media from full orchestra works to small chamber pieces and solo songs.
Hennagin wrote music for instrumental and vocal music including frequently performed pieces for choir, symphonic band and orchestra, and percussion ensemble. He was commissioned several times by the Gregg Smith Singers.
He was named National Composer of the Year in 1975 by the Music Teachers National Association. His Duo Chopinesque for Percussion Ensemble and Walking on the Green Grass for Choir are performed frequently.
He studied composition at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and at summer festivals in Aspen and Tanglewood.
He came to the University of Oklahoma in 1972 where he was composer-in-residence and taught composition until his retirement in 1992. He retired, in part, to devote more time to his composing and accept new commissions. Foreign his last work, "Proud Music," he returned to the poetry of Walt Whitman.
Foreign "Proud Music", he combined the texts of Whitman"s "Proud Music of the Storm" and "I Hear America Singing".
His compositions are published by Walton Music, Southern Music Company, and Boosey and Hawkes. Shortly before his death, Ohio State University honored him with a week-long festival and he traveled to New York City where The Gregg Smith Singers premiered a new choral work at Carnegie Hall.
Hennagin died suddenly in his home on 11 June 1993. Jas Miller, Composer, Recording Artist, Teacher, Author, San Diego, California Doctor Cheryl Bates, University of North Texas Doctor of Philosophy music theory in progress.
Lone Star College - Tomball (retired professor of music) Joseph Blaha, Roanoke College Nancy Cobb-Lippens, Director of the School of Music, Florida Gulf Coast University Richard Ford, Composer Ted Hammond, Composer Corey A. Jackson, Composer Carvin Knowles, Composer Anthony Lis, South Dakota State University Casey McClure, Internet Marketing Specialist, Advanced Academics, Incorporated.
Stephen Sewell, Composer Paul Steinberg, Director of the Center for New Music Resources at Crane School Mark Wilder, Composer Blake Wilkins, University of Houston Stephen L. Yarbrough, University of South Dakota.