I've always been fascinated by the depth of expression in the song cycles of Robert Schumann, and have tried, in these two pieces, to emulate that using the trombone. Why the trombone? Well, it has a rich history of being 'paired' with the voice in choral music but, if I'm really honest, as a trumpet player I've always been a little bit envious of the trombone's lyrical elegance. The music, in both of these works, has a lot of 'dialogue' between the trombone and piano, I really did think of them as communicating - only without using words.