Quiet Cathedral – Kenny Drew, Sr.

An impressionistic ballad, full of colorful and unexpected harmonies. The form is 18 measures long, divided into two 9-measure sections. The melody is very smooth, using stepwise motion and common tones to connect the unpredictable changes. The root motion is also often stepwise, sometimes through the use of inversions. For example, the last three measures of A have a sort of "V of V" into G major with chromatic bass motion: A/C♯, D7/C, G/B. This is followed by Gm/B♭ to get to D/A, which starts the B section; the first four measures of this section are a pedal point alternating D and E♭ triads over A.

On the G/B and Gm/B♭ chords, the melody is the same in the two measures and answered two beats later by the bass. The B section melody begins with a variation of that of the A section a whole step lower, and the fifth through seventh measures of B are a transposition of the seventh through ninth measures of A up a minor third, again with bass answering the melody. B♭m/D♭ in the last of these measures resolves to F and finally to D minor. The coda makes this a Dm6 chord to resolve to a final E major triad to end—the first chord of the form.

Kenny's solo piano version is even more impressionistic, with a slow intro alternating forceful low-register chords and light high fills clip. This intro could be a reference to Debussy's La Cathedrale Engloutie. The head is played rubato, without the bass responses to the melody figures. Kenny then improvises a chorus with a triplet-based feel, and continues this until the fifth measure of the next chorus which becomes rubato again. He plays the melody out from B, playing the "bass" responses in the same octave as the melody. Instead of the coda from the original version, he returns to the texture from the intro at the end.