Today's Piano Puzzler

​We have a new one this week.  And a first after years of posting these “Piano Puzzlers”.  This week’s contestant is Finn Mikeal calling from Euless, Texas.  And the reason it’s a first here is that a few weeks back I received an email from Ms. Mikeal to say – well, let her explain herself.  She wrote:
 
“hi, i was the contestant for the piano puzzler from 3/19/2025 and i would love to see if you would be interested in covering it since i know you post mini reviews of the puzzlers!! i’m a big fan of reading them along with when i play and would love to know what you thought because i had a lot of fun. thanks!”
 
Well, of course I would not only be interested in covering it, but I always do and will – and am.  I’ll get to what I thought in a moment, but first (for added perspective) some words on how I did.
 
When I saw this episode was 13 minutes, I thought I might be in trouble, and she, as well, since that’s a long one, which means there were likely some replays of the tune and extra discussion.  And when the song began, I didn’t have a clue about any of it – but after about 20 seconds, the hidden song kicked in and I got it almost immediately.  Because, well, I’m me with my knowledge of such obscurities.  But I knew not everyone would, since it is not a well-known song at all, though there is something about its – well, let’s call it its “provenance” (so as not to give anything away) – that is well-known.  As for the composer style, it wasn’t my area of expertise, and there are usually only two composers with that style that I reasonably know.  I thought it might possibly be one of those, and almost guessed it.  However, there’s a third composer who is similar, but I don’t know well at all, and usually never guess.  But on a whim, I thought I would this time, since it didn’t strike me as exactly the person I was going to guess.  And…I was wrong – it was the person I was going to guess!
 
As for how Ms. Mikeal did – for starters, her interview was charming and even a bit funny, when talking about the pressure her family put on her for her appearance.  I was impressed by her guess for the composer style – it wasn’t right, but it was “right next-adjacent,” for reasons I knew immediately, and which pianist Bruce explains.  Personally, I didn’t hear the connection she did – but that’s all the more to her credit, given how incredibly “adjacent” her guess was.  And so, when told how close she had been and why, she got it on her follow-up guess.  As for the hidden song, when she didn’t get it right away I knew she’d be in trouble with it.  In fact, host Fred Childe didn’t know it either.  That’s how little known it is.  But after getting a bunch of clues, she impressively did guess it.  So, even though it took the clues, given the song’s relative obscurity (though not its “provenance”…), she gets major points for figuring it out.  And so, overall, did very well.
 
I will add just one additional comment.  And I say this quip completely with my tongue-in-cheek.  But my only other comment is that I believe Ms. Mikeal’s keyboard has a broken Caps Lock…

ADDENDUM:  After writing this, I sent an advance copy of the text to Ms. Mikeal, rather than unnecessarily make her wait weeks.  And among her thoughtful and charming responses was noting at the very end -- "Also fun fact, my laptop keyboard was in fact broken at the time of my initial email haha!"

So, I was right!!