Piano and Keyboard Performances of
Kenneth Kuhn rev. June 5, 2026
On this page I
present various live recordings I have made over the years playing the piano or
electronic keyboard. All of these recordings were made on cassette tape
and some have a few tape issues. Right now the page is Spartan as it is
being developed. It will eventually have more information including the
composers.
Adagio Tranquillo e molto
Dramatico (34:13) This was recorded late one evening in the first week
of June, 1974. This music came spontaneously to me in 1973 and I this was
the final version that I later wrote down. The recording served as a
memory jog. The title is truly a description of the work -- no other title
would be right. This work is very unusual in that the first playing of the
work a year earlier I just watched my hands perform the piece as I had no clue
as to where it was going. This final version is true to the original
except cleaned up a bit. This is a deeply personal work that
parallels my life. Later analysis of the work revealed that the
introduction is a beating heart and the main theme (representing me) is
incomplete and is on a quest to find a proper ending and attempts a number of
routes through companion themes but fails. The very traumatic middle
section represents ultimate despair and I listened in amazement as my hands,
unguided by me, first played this in 1973. Peace comes in the closing
section of the work as the main theme finally does find its proper ending -- an
event so subtle that it could easily be missed. Even the introduction
finds its proper ending too in the highest notes of the piano and in the softest
that the piano can be played. Some of those notes are inaudible in this
recording although you can hear them in your mind. The final chord
includes D above the highest C on the piano and thus can not be played -- but is
inferred.