Robert Schumann, a Romantic era composer (b.1810-d.1856) composed music with great expression and lyricism. His Scenes from Childhood, “Kinderscenen,” written in1838, contains thirteen short character pieces with descriptive titles such as “Dreaming,” “Knight of the Rocking Horse,” and “Catch Me!” among others.
For this impromptu performance of “About Foreign Lands and People,” Aiden, my musically attentive companion joined me at the piano bench.
The opening “scene” number 1, has the soothing quality of a lullaby though the composer may have meant otherwise. From my perspective, the melody and harmonic frame are not in any way evocative of an exotic tonality as one might encounter in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sheherazade.” In truth, Schumann composed in his own vocabulary that was rich in sonority and musical poetry. His titles are his personal preference and may not always stereotypically match the music.
In any case, my cat was riveted to “scene one” through to the final cadence, at which point he was given a ride right up to the camera where he flirted with the lens, and then meowed once, before being hastened off to bed..purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
Tomorrow is another day, Aiden. Sweet dreams….
