Wayne Fisher, Organist

Music of Wayne Fisher on SoundCloud

Robert Schumann: Sketch in F Minor, Op. 58, no. 3

Recorded at St. Paul's Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1973.

Schumann's four Sketches (Skizzen), Op. 58, were composed in 1845 for pedal piano. Schumann had rented a pedal piano in order to learn the fundamentals of organ technique. He and his wife Clara were studying counterpoint and fugue at the time, using Cherubini's Course in Counterpoint and Fugue (1835) as their "textbook." During this period, along with the Sketches, Schumann also composed his Six Fugues on the Name BACH, Op. 60, and six Studies, Op. 56, which are canonic in form, all for pedal piano.