Ken's Music Page

revised May 17, 2008

This is the top page for music on my personal web site. There is so much material that I decided to break it up into several sub pages. The main focus of these pages are my compositions but this particular page is devoted to information about me and the music I like.

See  The Revelation of Nature  for a detailed description of this orchestral epic tone poem that took me nearly thirty five years to compose and has a performance time of nearly two and one-half hours.  The mp3 files are there too.

A picture of me with Slinky at the Korg keyboard in my home office

I am an electrical engineer who grew up on Classical music and have had an interest in composing since 1959 when I was five years old. I wanted to be a composer but that was just not to be. So I became an electrical engineer specializing in analog electronics design instead and do composing on the side. I received my B.E.E. degree from Auburn University in 1978 and my M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham in 1990. I have been on the adjunct faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UAB since 1988. My feline friends and I have lived in the Vestavia area south of Birmingham, Alabama since 1986.

My interest in Classical music began as a child watching cartoons that employed Classical music. General music classes in school also influenced me. No one steered me into Classical music - it was something I discovered for myself and liked. I took piano lessons for about five years but never became very good. I also played the clarinet in the high school band. I hated football season but loved concert season. I was always eager to be involved with new music. Some of my favorite band pieces were Sequoia, A Tone Painting by Homer C. LaGassey, Dedicatory Overture by Clifton Williams, and The Universal Judgment by Camille de Nardis (arranged by Caferella).

I have posted a recording I made of Sequoia on my Korg synthesizer as sequoia.mp3 in the following link: sequoia.htm on this website.

There are two mp3 recordings for download and more information about The Universal Judgment (alternate misspelling for searches, The Universal Judgement ) at the_universal_judgment.htm on this web site.

I attribute a lot of my success in life to Classical music. To truly succeed in life requires a serious thought process. Listening to and studying Classical music develops the ability to think deeply. The circle of this is that deep thought is best expressed in music so I am driven to compose music. I compose purely for enjoyment and for fulfillment in life as any money I might make someday from my music will likely be minuscule compared to what I have achieved in other arenas. It is interesting that as I think deeply in my area of specialty, electronics engineering, I also have some piece of music (whether composed by me or someone else) going on in my mind at the same time.  The music augments the thought process -- I could not do engineering without it.

Some people have referred to me as a Renaissance man although that is quite generous. But, in that spirit, I have broad interests in Classical music and composing, science and engineering, economics and investing, philosophy, and nature.

The first work of Bruckner I heard was his third symphony in 1971. I knew from the opening trumpet theme that this was going to be a work I would like very much. I knew I would have to own every Bruckner symphony after hearing his third.  The next symphony I heard was his sixth and I liked it a lot too.  Then I heard the ninth and the discussion below is about what became my favorite.  Next were the fourth and seventh and I enjoy those too.  Later came the second and it wan an immediate favorite.  Some years later I finally heard the eighth and it was more of a challenge to understand.  Each time I listen to it now I understand more but I do not get to hear it very often because I do so many things.  Of his pre-numbered symphonies, the Symphony in F minor is good.  What has been called Symphony No. 0 is interesting only in that it reveals early Bruckner.  That symphony was a precursor to his third where he got it right.  I do not think I have heard Symphony No. 1.

In 1972 I discovered Bruckner's ninth symphony which ultimately became my favorite work. This was another situation in which I knew this was going to be a great work from the opening phrase.  For many years I hoped that someday I would be able to hear a completion of the fourth movement as Bruckner left over 200 pages of sketches for it. My wishes were answered by William Carragan who did a very fine job. Although he did this in 1983, I did not learn of it until September, 2002. A 2-CD recording of this is available (CHANDOS Chan 7051, Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D minor with finale completed by William Carragan plus the original sketches of the fourth movement, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Yoav Talmi conductor). The second CD has the Carragan completion of the fourth movement followed by the complete Bruckner sketches with a brief silence between gaps in the sketches so you get to hear Bruckner's original material.

When I first heard the finale (Carragan's 1983 version), I was a bit disappointed as I had imagined that Bruckner would have opened the movement in a very grand style with large and slow Bruckner chords and built from there. In reality the opening is very agitated and classic Bruckner misterioso and is even frightful. But, having listened to it many times I now like it very much. Probably, I understand it much better now as it is quite difficult to follow on a first hearing. Themes from earlier movements are recalled but are varied so that they are barely recognizable as such. All of this develops and builds in typical Bruckner style up to the very triumphant close. The world will never know for sure how Bruckner would have brought the movement to a close but I think Carragan's very educated guess is excellent.  If I had any complaint at all it would be that Carragan may have erred on the side of being a bit too conservative rather than overdoing what Bruckner would have done. Carragan's conclusion is probably somewhat shorter than what Bruckner might have done and has simpler orchestration but that is exactly the right way to approach this. The result is that most of the finale is either pure Bruckner or Bruckner as orchestrated by Carragan with only a minimum of Carragan's personal writing in the style of Bruckner.

Mr. Carragan has a 2006 revised version (Delta Classics, Akira Naito conducting the Tokyo New City Orchestra in a live recording) available from abruckner.com .  That site is an excellent source for a lot of information on Bruckner recordings. This revised completion is excellent!  The flow of music is identical to the first version with some additional material particularly in the latter half of the movement.  The orchestration is much more complex with a number of new parts -- very much like Bruckner.  The tympani is used to great effect throughout the movement.  This movement really sounds like the Bruckner I know.  The conclusion of the movement has been extensively re-orchestrated and is the ultimate Bruckner.  Whereas the first version was conservative, this one goes all the way -- the result of years of research and study.  But Carragan has been very careful not to overdo Bruckner and if one did not know otherwise, could easily believe the revised Carragan completion was totally original Bruckner.  I think if Bruckner could hear this he would nod his head and say, "Excellent!  That is very close to what I would have done if I had lived."  The live performance in a concert hall is also excellent.  The brass parts really stand out in the cathedral style performance.  This is the ninth completion to own!

As for other completions to Bruckner's ninth -- I have a recording (NAXOS 8.555933-34) of the 1996 version of Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca version and it is interesting (especially the coda) but seems to deviate from the Bruckner I know -- a bit overdone.  But I definitely recommend you listen to it.  The Harnoncourt performance of Bruckner's sketches (BMG CD 82876 54332 2) is also interesting -- one unique aspect is that he leaves a certain dissonance in tact rather than correct a possible error on Bruckner's part as Carragan did.  Bruckner experimented more with dissonance in his last two symphonies and what sounds more like an error might be intended but it seems too out of place.

In my music the emphasis is on melody that paints a picture - in other words, a tone painting. I really think that someone good at music interpretation could readily identify what my music was about even if the title and description were withheld. Most of my music is very easy to listen to (my hope is that it would be enjoyable too). I describe the style of my music as new old music - it is music that could have been written decades ago but wasn't as far as I can tell.

How I compose

I used to use manuscript paper and many of my early works and arrangements are written that way. Writer's cramp would always set in and that limited how much I could produce. Before committing a work to manuscript I would have the complete music worked out in my head and playable on piano. I would make a recording of the final version so that I would not have to depend on memory. For a number of years I have been using Cakewalk (which is now SONAR) to keep track of partial compositions and to assemble complete compositions. This is much better since my memory is not as good as it used to be. Another big advantage is that I can easily edit and revise what I have written. Now I can compose music beyond my feeble piano skills. I use a Korg 01/Wpro synthesizer which has allowed me to venture into orchestral music which is where I really want to be. I barely have time to just enter the music into the computer much less to do a complete orchestration. My short cut method is to program the Korg to be a statistical orchestra including the ambiance of a concert hall and then work on a single track in Cakewalk. Real musicians will cringe at this but the only alternative for me was to get much less done and I am already way behind where I should be. The statistical orchestration often does an acceptable job and it provides me the opportunity to hear my music as intended. I will consider converting these files to multi track after I have entered all the music that I intend to write. I certainly hope I live that long. See statorch.htm for a description of the Korg settings for the statistical orchestra.

My Music

See Musical Works of Kenneth Kuhn for a description of my compositions, MIDI files for over twenty completed works, and plans for future compositions. There is enough material to keep you occupied for hours including over seven hours of mp3 files of my music.

See  The Revelation of Nature  for a detailed description of this orchestral epic tone poem that took me nearly thirty five years to compose and has a performance time of nearly two and one-half hours.  The mp3 files are there too.