To Robert

Last night we gave a solid performance of the first movement of Schumann's E-flat Piano Quartet for an audience of alumni in a small but cozy hall - very much fit for this kind of music.

To anybody who is has been raised by the textbook music education in theory, history, and ear training, it would seem Robert Schumann comes from left field a lot of the time. His handling of forms, his unexpected (and often unprepared) modulations, and even his orchestration (which many times needs to be helped) all point to something you wouldn't expect out of such a figure. Yet, Brahms considered him as a master of the times. Brahms, who is very calculating and precise in his form, who loved the order and grandness of Bach... why did he have this respect for Schumann?

Here is clearly a point where art overcomes what technique cannot explain. Which is what so many theory and history classes I have taken have missed with Schumann. I recognize that it is hard to teach music history, but it is no secret that Schumann is one of the greats and it simply does not seem so from these courses, textbooks, and the people who give them full faith.