Throughout his life, David remained wholly committed to his calling as a composer, creating over 150 works, many of which were recorded.  The Society is planning to bring out by the summer of 2011 a CD of some of the more important of these long unavailable recordings. Titles being considered are the Landscapes for Soprano, Flute, Oboe, and String Quartet to poems of T.S. Eliot, the Diptych for Violin and Piano, the Four Christmas Choruses in the performance by the Margaret Hillis Chorale, Ash Wednesday, for Cello and Piano, the Ritual for Concert Band written for the Yale Band, and excerpts from his large choral works The Betrayal and Drumfire.  This disc will not duplicate any of the piano works on RANDOM WALKS (see previous page).

When the new CD is available, we will announce on this website how it can be ordered.

Kraehenbuehl's legacy as a piano pedagogue consists of two independent piano-teaching programs, one published by the Frances Clark Library for Piano Students, the other by the National Keyboard Arts Associates (NKAA), an organization he founded in 1967 together with Richard Chronister, Thomas McBeth, and David Loerke.  Both programs were promoted at workshops held throughout the U.S. and Canada, and consist primarily of series of booklets devoted to theory, piano technique, and hundreds of carefully graded--and very attractive--pieces composed by Kraehenbuehl, who possessed a wonderful affinity for the imagination of children.  The NKAA materials also include a complete teacher-training program and a monthly magazine for teachers, Keyboard Arts, for which he wrote some 75 short articles on piano-related topics.

In 2008 the Society donated to the Yale Music Library a virtually complete set of the NKAA material that had come to us from former NKAA teacher James Lyke, and in 2010 Martha Braden made a similar donation that included the Frances Clark publications. When catalogued, all this is to be listed on the Library's website (see previous page, top) under The David Kraehenbuehl Papers / Additions.  We are happy that these superb and highly original materials, which constitute a very important side of Kraehenbuehl's creative life, now have a permanent home where they can be studied by all interested parties.  

Larry Dissmore, our new Secretary-Treasurer, is Director of Orchestras and Professor of Violin and Viola at Evangel University in  Springfield, Missouri.  In 1985, while teaching at Viterbo College in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Larry formed a close musical relationship with David, and the two often performed together.  Larry earned a DMA in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Missouri, for which he wrote a thesis on Kraehenbuehl's orchestral and band music.  We warmly welcome another performer to our Board--one who continues to conduct performances of David's music.

Vanessa Hawes completed her doctorate in 2008 at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.  Her thesis, "Music's Experiment with Information Theory," grew out of a long interest in mathematical models of music, among which Coons and Kraehenbuehl's work on information theory was of particular importance for her.  Now a lecturer at Middlesex University, she maintains a busy schedule of speaking and publishing on theoretical topics, many of which are related to Coons and Kraehenbuehl's ideas.  The Society's Board is very happy to have a member who is both a scholar well versed in Kraehenbuehl's theoretical work and our representative in the UK.

Edward Darling, now a teacher of English at South Burlington High School in Burlington, Vermont,  studied piano with Richard Chronister while a student at Westminster Choir College, thus beginning a life-long relationship that allowed him to gain an intimate knowledge of the piano-pedagogical material that Chronister and Kraehenbuehl later developed.  An experienced teacher of all the NKAA programs, he is currently working on a book that will bring together all of Kraehenbuehl's Keyboard Arts essays (see above).   We are most gratified to have on our Board one so expert in the Chronister/Kraehenbuehl method and its literature.   

The Journal of Music Theory was founded by Kraehenbuehl at Yale in 1957, and is still edited by the music faculty there. The first of its kind, it greatly influenced the subsequent blossoming of the field of music theory in the United States.

In honor of the Journal's fiftieth anniversary, the present editor, Ian Quinn, announced the establishment of the David Kraehenbuehl Prize, to be given every two years for the best article in the Journal by a scholar untenured at time of submission.  The Prize carries a cash award of $2,000.  Young scholars, take note! 

"Remembering David Kraehenbuehl" was the theme of a conference held at Yale on April 21, 2007, jointly sponsored by the Yale School of Music Library and the David Kraehenbuehl Society. Vanessa Hawes submitted the following report.

The day started with a series of paper sessions in the austere setting of Yale’s Sudler Hall, concentrating on Kraehenbuehl’s scholarly work. The first paper of the day, Edgar Coons’s “The Genius of David Kraehenbuehl: His Life and Works”, was a brilliantly personal paper. Professor of psychology at New York University, Dr. Coons spoke passionately about Kraehenbuehl’s music and about him as a friend, reinforcing the audience’s awareness of the genius of the man and the incredible elegance and originality of his ideas about music.

It was Coons and Kraehenbuehl’s collaborative work that formed the basis for my own paper, “Information as a Measure of Structure in Music: A Formal Triad”. The "triad" also appeared in Larry Dissmore’s paper, “'The Triad as Symbol in the Mature Orchestral Works of David Kraehenbuehl”. Drawn from Larry's DMA thesis, this was an incredibly thorough analysis, with an emphasis on its practical applications.

The last paper of the morning was a highly entertaining presentation by Richmond Browne, Emeritus Professor of Music at Michigan University. In “Always Different, Always the Same”, Richmond took the audience through Kraehenbuehl’s theories and philosophies with characteristic swagger and frequent demonstrations at the piano. In the afternoon session, held in the less formal setting of the Neighborhood Music School, the emphasis was on Kraehenbuehl’s teaching. An “oral history" segment chaired by Vivian Perlis saw contributions from Marie Kraehenbuehl, Sylvia Kraehenbuehl, Charles Burkhart, and Alvin Lucier, and a roundtable discussion followed. Voice recordings, including one of Kraehenbuehl himself, punctuated the session.

There followed a masterclass led by Martha Braden, Kraehenbuehl’s piano-music champion. Martha and children from the School presented short music classes, and the children treated the audience to some excellent performances of Kraehenbuehl’s teaching pieces. This was followed by an interesting paper on piano pedagogy by Edward Darling. Ed introduced Kraehenbuehl’s pedagogical philosophy and gave a report of how it was being used in musical education and in plans for the future.

Martha then gave a wonderful performance of some of Kraehenbuehl’s piano music, a particular highlight of which was “S/D” from the 1958 work, A Formal Triad. In the evening there was a performance of Kraehenbuehl’s Drumfire: A Cantata Against War at Battell Chapel, performed by the Amor Artis Chorale and the Orchestra of New England, conducted by Johannes Somary. Drumfire is an incredibly powerful oratorio based on a poem by Goff Owen, Sr., a soldier in the First World War.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, made even better by the wonderful people who had gathered at Yale that day to celebrate the life of a great composer and a great man.   

In 2009, our longtime Artistic Director Martha Braden retired from the Society Board.  One of the founders of the Society, Martha--as pianist, teacher, publisher, and lecturer at innumerable workshops--was an indefatigable advocate for David's work, first demonstrated by her publication of her own edition of Kraehenbuehl's chronological catalog of works.   Her superb CD of David's piano music, RANDOM WALKS, crowns a lifetime of dedication.  This recording, together with her 107-page volume of sheet music dovetailing with the CD, received the highest critical reviews. (To acquire this CD and/or the sheet music, click on page 2.)

No one in the Society could approach Martha either in her knowledge of David's piano music and its performance, or in her tireless efforts to bring it to a wider audience.  Her resignation is a source of deep regret to all members of the Board, and we wish her the highest satisfaction in her retirement projects.    

Our beloved colleague, Goff Owen, a founder of the Society and member of the Board, died on August 29, 2010, in New Haven CT, after coping with serious heart disease for many years. He was 78. Goff studied under Kraehenbuehl at Yale School of Music, where he earned the B.Mus. degree in 1957. Possessed of a lovely tenor voice, he was active both as a choir director and soloist, and also was owner of Goff Owen Associates insurance agency in Princeton, NJ. Goff was unstinting with his time and ideas on behalf of our mission, and we of the Board, deeply saddened by his death, will miss him greatly.