Episodes
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The Broken Mirror of Memory, Part 2
The Broken Mirror of Memory is now released! (Fanfare!) And the best place to get it is straight from the artist. (That’s me!) In this episode is one track from the new album. This is part 2; you heard part 1 in the last episode. The bass clarinet has a kind of talking quality throughout part 2...
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The Broken Mirror of Memory, Part 1
The Kickstarter project for The Broken Mirror of Memory has passed its first major milestone! I’m now able to pay for printing the CD, and distributing in online music stores. Huzzah!! In celebration, and as a huge thank you to all the awesome backers who have pitched in so far, I’m posting part…
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Chopin Preludes 4 and 9 (as a pair)
Visiting the house of my composer friend Matthew Smith (who has an outstanding CD out now, by the way), I noticed the score to Chopin’s E minor prelude out on the piano. It turns out that his wife, children’s book illustrator and author Lauren Stringer, is taking piano lessons, and she has been...
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Nomade à Clef
I don’t usually write jazz tunes, but my friend Todd asked me to write one for him. It sounded like fun, and he had written several great pieces for me, so I took up the challenge. Nomade à Clef is the result. Todd premiered it at this year’s Keys Please, with David Edminster on tenor sax, and I...
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Manic Dance (rough)
Things may have been quiet on the blog, but I’ve been doing tons of music work lately. The recent round of Zo went well: I took a bit of a risk playing mostly pieces that were fresh out of the practice oven (or, in a couple of cases, still baking), but people seemed to enjoy it, and I was…
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Bach Sinfonia 5 and Schumann Bunte Blätter 6 (as a pair)
As I went through some old recordings, I found that these two make a nice pair. Arranging nice little transitions like this is one of my favorite parts of doing a concert. It’s the same little pleasure as assembling a mix CD or playing DJ: even the simple act of ordering songs is a kind of...
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Todd Harper: Questions
Perhaps it would have been better if I’d just admitted to myself (and the world) that I’d be taking the summer off from In the Hands. But where’s the fun without the suspense? Here’s what I currently have in the pipeline (not necessarily in this order): Some newly composed pieces of my own. A new...
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Northwoods Police Report
After a cold (which left my voice in bad shape for podcasting) and MinneBar (which was a great pleasure), it’s back to In the Hands! I’m continuing from last time the series of recordings I made recently with soprano Kim Sueoka of songs by Todd Harper. For several years, Todd has been writing…
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First Autumn Night
Here, for the first time in a long time, is something I wrote — but it’s not the music! A couple of weeks ago, I recorded some of my friend Todd Harper’s songs with Kim Sueoka, a marvelous local soprano who sings with (among others) the Rose Ensemble and a first-rate voice/guitar duo called Voce…
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Carei Thomas: The Usual Topic
Here is a second selection from this year’s Keys Please to follow Todd’s little musical rattlesnake adventure. This is an improvisation by Carei Thomas, the rattlesnake’s narrator, now on piano. I thought — and he said afterward — that there was a little nod to my own funny little improvs in this...
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Todd Harper: Rattlesnake Song #2
Things don’t look good for me to create more new piano recordings in my home studio in the immediate future, so I’m going to have to stall — but I figure I might at least stall with something good! This is a piece from the most recent Keys Please! concert. It adds a nice little bit of variation…
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A new audio logo!
Sorry for the long hiatus. It’s been a busy time: my latest sabbatical is running to its end, I’m broke, and back to job hunting. So I’ve been having to put aside the music and be all practical lately. Still, I have not left In the Hands completely neglected. Listening to some other podcasts —…
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Song for Lost Things (rough)
I’m doing something today that I haven’t done in far too long: sharing a recording of a new composition in progress. I’ve been working for some time on a set of piano pieces, all of them dances in one way or another — and all of them, in one way or another, full of the feeling of entropy, full of...
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Schubert Impromptu D899.4, played by Don Betts
This is a very familiar piece (to piano aficionados, anyway) — but you’ll find Don’s performance a little refreshingly unfamiliar. It’s not a wild departure from custom, but there’s just a subtle tip in the balance in his performance that makes the feeling of the piece quite different. In the…
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Schubert D946.1, played by Don Betts
I’m a fellow of diverse musical tastes, and there are a great many composers I love who don’t appear in the meager list over on the right of this page. So it’s a delight to post this recording, because I get to add a “Schubert” category. Yay for Schubert! This is another one of the recordings I...
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Schumann Arabesque, played by Don Betts
In the Hands is primarily for my own recordings, but today I have a special exception to make: over the summer, I recorded Don Betts, my piano teacher, playing in his home. Don has made a great many excellent recordings over the years — including the Chopin album available on this web site — but...
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Niobrara (Interstellar Medium Remix)
My recent mastering experiments have been all about reproducing … well, not the literal sound, but the musical spirit of real-life piano — but of course there’s another side to this software I’m using, and it seemed a shame not to play with it! So I went and had some fun with Niobrara. (Some...
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Mastering Experiments, Part 2: EQ & Imaging
This is the second half of the thrilling chronicles of my attempts at mastering the piano recordings. (Here’s part one.) ▶️ Mastering Experiments, Part 2: EQ & Imaging Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Mastering Experiments, Part 2: EQ & Imaging (12:42 / 15.4 M) I’m constantly...
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Mastering Experiments, Part 1: Reverb
Loyal readers of In the Hands might reasonably ask: “Paul! Where the heck are you? What have you been up to?” Well, there are many answers to that — preparing my McKnight fellowship application and visiting my parents in Colorado among them — but the piano recordings have not been neglected. I…
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Disembodied Dance (very rough)
I have been busy applying for a fellowship, and also writing writing writing more music. Here is a new one in the set of dances I’ve been working on — as with the others I’ve recorded, a rough performance (there’s a section in the middle that is horrendously hobbled together), but enough to give...
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Improvisation: Smoot
What do you do when your piano’s a touch out of tune? You record an improv like this. Or at least I do. ▶️ Smoot Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Smoot (0:58 / 1.6 M) Oh, you say you wanted a piano improv with actual notes? Well then, check out Chris Morris’s very...
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Chopin Ballade No. 3
I wrote recently about the the danger that virtuosity can make us neglect the virtues of simplicity, and even neglect the music itself. That is true not only of a simple masterpiece like the prelude I was talking about, but also of technically difficult pieces — such as the Chopin ballades. In...
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Chopin Prelude 4
To conclude this trip down prelude memory lane (at least for the time being), here is the veeery first piece I worked on with Don Betts. I’ve actually hardly played this one since that first year of lessons, but I found it came back quickly. Is playing a piece like riding a bicycle? Maybe a…
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Chopin Prelude 20
As long as I’m on this Chopin prelude kick…. Frédéric Chopin ▶️ Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 (in C minor) Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 (in C minor) (2:19 / 3.2 M) This piece is easy to sink one’s teeth into, I think, very dramatic and engaging on the first…
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Chopin Prelude 6
We live in a time of superhuman performers. The stars of the classical piano world do things that hardly seem humanly possible — certainly that are far beyond me — and people love it, demand it. It’s a mixed blessing: on the one hand, it’s amazing to hear the most difficult works performed with...
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Chopin Prelude 9
An old favorite, brought from the past to the present for your listening enjoyment. Frédéric Chopin ▶️ Prelude Op. 28 No. 9 (in E major) Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Prelude Op. 28 No. 9 (in E major) (1:36 / 2.4 M) I love the steady outpouring of energy, the unbrokenness of the...
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Improvisation: Rozer
Today’s improv is a bit of fun with one of my favorite sounds from extended piano technique, made by damping a low string with a finger or two at about the point where the copper winding ends. This sound also makes a prominent appearance in the second movement of The Broken Mirror of Memory. ▶️...
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Dance for Remembering and Forgetting (rough)
Here’s another piece from the suite of dances I’m working on, the same set which also includes the Entropic Waltz and Cradle Waltz. The composition, which was tricky, has actually been done for a while … but learning to play it has proved quite a bit of work! Though it may not sound like it, the...
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Bach WTC Book 1 Prelude 1, à la Hewitt
As long as we’re conducting experiments on the familiar C major prelude… Some years ago, Don and I heard Angela Hewitt play a marvelous concert of Bach and Messiaen. (There’s a combination!) She gave the most unusual performance of the C major prelude I’ve ever heard: very fast, very light…
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Bach WTC Book 1 Prelude 1, à la Hendrix
So here’s the deal with the mystery recording (Ahree got it right): It is, of course, a familiar Bach prelude. I learned to play the piece backwards — that is, playing the notes in reverse order — recorded it that way, then reversed the recording. Got it? So even though you hear the strange sound...
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A ridiculous surprise
Here’s an amusing little idea Joel and I came up with while talking on the phone. Why did I do this, you ask? Because it’s the internet. Because I can. Johann Sebastian Bach ▶️ Mystery recording Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Mystery recording (2:12 / 3.0 M) The first one to…
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Improvisation: Jelm
Crystalizing, particle by particle. ▶️ Jelm Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Jelm (2:24 / 3.2 M) That’s the last of the January improvaganza. I’ve been composing day and night (and it’s a perfect night for it tonight: new snow and a near-full moon!), and that will...
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Improvisation: Natrona
A sudden outpouring with no resolution! ▶️ Natrona Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Natrona (2:08 / 2.9 M) I sat down and played this once, then for some reason started it again a couple of times — perhaps trying to find a resolution that wasn’t there to be found.…
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Improvisation: Wyarno
I can’t decide: is this one emotionally charged, walking in an unfamiliar place, breath held? Or is it something moving without human intention, like water flowing beneath the ice, seen through human eyes? ▶️ Wyarno Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Wyarno (2:59 / 3.9...
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Improvisation: Alcova
Shelter. A safe place. ▶️ Alcova Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Alcova (2:37 / 3.5 M) I’m returning from Colorado tomorrow, but it will likely be a while before my piano is back in tune and I’m recording again. Will the blog go silent, you ask? Fear not! I recorded…
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Improvisation: Sublette
Bells? The memory of bells? A fanciful description of the memory of bells? ▶️ Sublette Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Sublette (2:03 / 2.8 M) Maybe not bells at all.
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Brahms Waltz Op 39 No 15
At the New Year’s Eve party my family has been attending for the last … oh, at least 20 years, we have a tradition of doing waltzes. By “doing,” I don’t much mean dancing — sadly, only a few brave souls do that — but playing them, since it’s a musical crowd and it’s easy to form a pickup group....
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Improvisation: Ethete
This one’s for all you Gregorians out there, celebrating the new year: ▶️ Ethete Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Ethete (2:09 / 2.9 M) A mysterious song, still unformed and incorporeal, full of potential!
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Chopin Etude 25.1
The word “étude” means study — a practice piece, designed to exercise a particular technique. Études for musicians are generally dry, repetitious pieces, not music to perform, but just exercises for practice. So Chopin’s choice of that title may seem a little understated, or even ironic: his…
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Brahms Ballade 10.4
I’ve been meaning to record this one for a long time. Johannes Brahms ▶️ Ballade Op. 10 No. 4 Paul Cantrell, piano ⬇️ Download audio file for Ballade Op. 10 No. 4 (11:48 / 14.0 M) This is one of those mysterious and introspective pieces like Chopin’s nocturne 15.3 that has a strange logic all its...
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Improvisation: Uinta
▶️ Uinta Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation ⬇️ Download audio file for Uinta (5:44 / 7.1 M) Cold, thin air. Winter light. A solitary high place.
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Bach Invention 6
I love the word “invention” — it may capture what’s going on in the pieces of music it names better than any title I know of. What’s this? It’s just an idea, a creative spark. Bach has fun, and he’s sharing. Just an idea: one scale coming up, one going down, alternating steps. And from that idea…
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The Broken Mirror of Memory (cello version), 4th mvmt
Here is the fourth movement of The Broken Mirror of Memory, with Diana Frazier on cello. The second movement, the one from Saturday’s post, comes straight out of the cello, and all the extraordinary sounds it can make. (It also serves as a break for the pianist, who has rather an exhausting job…
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The Broken Mirror of Memory (cello version), 2nd mvmt
This is one movement of my cello piece, The Broken Mirror of Memory. Unlike most of the recordings in this blog, this isn’t a recording from my home studio, but rather from a concert at Macalester. And yes, I admit, it’s actually an old recording (2003), which is sort of cheating on this whole…
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Noah’s Song
I wrote this piece for a former piano student of mine. He was (and presumably still is) exceptionally thoughtful, patient, and sensitive for an eight-year-old; in fact, he had the better of most adults I’ve known in those respects. I wanted a piece that would give him a chance to be really…
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Chopin F minor Fantasy (introduction)
Here’s a preview of a piece I’m working on — this is the march that opens Chopin’s Fantasty. The whole piece is quite an epic (about 14 minutes), and rather difficult, so I’m not going to be posting the whole thing in the near future. This opening, however, is neither so long nor so difficult…
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The Walking Concert
Here’s a little composition from my tender youth. I remember that I was a little befuddled at the time about how to write down the rhythms! This piece thus lived only in my head for a long time, yet I still remember it quite clearly. It will be obvious why when you hear it — it’s kind of catchy....
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The Monster's Theme
In college, I won an award from the Math/CS department for being the most outstanding procrastinator of my senior class. I don’t think it’s exactly fair to say that I procrastinate, though; I’m just perpetually late. My life is like a finely tuned Swiss watch that’s set to the wrong time. So I...
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Thoughts at 4 AM
Here’s a little gem of a piece that my dear friend Todd Harper (of Keys Please fame) gave me as a present for my 25th birthday. Naturally this charmed my socks off. So tonight, with my socks back on (no shoes, though, as usual at the piano), I recorded it to share with you. He has it marked…
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Improvisation: Niobrara
The Niobrara River starts in Wyoming and flows through Nebraska. Wikipedia tells me that the original native name in the Omaha-Ponca language, Ní Ubthátha khe, means something akin to “water spread out horizontally” or “wide-spreading waters.” I did not know that when I chose the title; the…
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Paul Cantrell's music weblog
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Paul Cantrell
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