Robert Kahn: Tagebuch in Tönen: selected pieces for piano

Meyn, N. and Hughes, B. and Grünzweig, W. (2024) Robert Kahn: Tagebuch in Tönen: selected pieces for piano. RCM Editions, London.

Abstract

Selected pieces for piano by Robert Kahn (1865-1951) edited by Brian Hughes and Norbert Meyn, with introductory texts by Werner Grünzweig and Norbert Meyn. This edition has been prepared for the research project ‘Music, Migration and Mobility - The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain’, a performance-led and multi-disciplinary project that aimed to better understand the significance of migration and mobility for music. Born into a wealthy Jewish family and educated in Mannheim, Robert Kahn had early success as a composer, enjoying the support of Joseph Joachim, Hans von Bülow, Clara Schumann and especially Johannes Brahms, with whom he spent several months in Vienna in 1887. As a composer of Lieder, chamber music and choral music he was widely performed and published by major publishers until his vilification by the Nazis, who removed him from his position at the Akademie in 1934. In 1939, when he was 73 years old, Robert Kahn and his wife Katharina emigrated to the UK, where he lived in Biddenden, Kent and Ashted, Surrey. Having lost his position in public life after the Nazis came to power in 1933, Kahn withdrew to his country residence in Feldberg, about 85 miles (135 km) north of Berlin, his Haus Obdach (house refuge). Here he began to write piano music, surprised by the ‘sprudeling fountain’ (bubbling fountain) of inspiration (as he put it in a letter to his brother Paul) that kept bringing forth this music. At the point of his emigration to Britain in early 1939 he had written 211 pieces. He continued to write an average of almost 2 pieces per week for the next 10 years, reaching the staggering total of 1160 pieces. For this taster-edition we have chosen a small selection that includes some of the stand-out pieces alongside those that represent important structural points, including the first five pieces, the pieces written immediately before and after Kahn’s emigration to Britain, number 500 (variations on no. 1), the piece marking the end of the war, and the final three pieces written in 1949. ***** COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This edition is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0 licence. © 2024 Royal College of Music, London (graphic rights only). Robert Kahn’s music is now in the public domain.

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