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I\\u2019m just back today from a wonderful, wonderful trip to NYC and New Haven, CT, which was a reminder of just how wonderful family and friendship are. And although I\\u2019m really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed (I\\u2019ve been up since 5:20 AM Minnesota time), I did manage to edit and master tonight something I\\u2019d recorded beforehand for you.

\\nRobert Schumann\\n
\\nBunte Bl\\xe4tter No 6\\n
\\nPaul Cantrell,\\npiano\\n
\\n\\u266b\\nDownload\\n(2:06 / 2.9 M)\\n

As I mentioned last week, I\\u2019m working on a set of short pieces, and in that set, I\\u2019m thinking constantly of Schumann. He wrote many sets of short pieces like Bunte Bl\\xe4tter (the title simply means \\u201ccolored leaves"), with sudden shifts in mood and odd contrasts between pieces that ought to make the whole set seem disconnected and nonsensical, but instead make perfect intuitive sense and create a pleasing unity of contradictions. To me, they\\u2019re more like late Beatles albums than typical mid-1800s suites. I\\u2019ve been reading through Schumann lately, searching for the secret of unity in contradiction, and this recording comes from that effort.

Today\\u2019s piece is just one from such a set, of course, so I guess it\\u2019s hard to judge that previous paragraph unless you already know Schumann. Well, perhaps I\\u2019ll record some more, and then you can all quibble with my Beatles comparison. (Or if you do already know all about Schumann, you can get your quibble on right now! That\\u2019s what the comments are for.)