It all started in the fall of 2014, when baritone and voice teacher Tim Krol made a house call to work with Rita Greenstein, a new voice student. After their first session, Greenstein asked, “Have you ever heard of Robert Franz?” Krol shook his head. Greenstein showed Krol a tattered old songbook, Fifty Songs by Robert Franz. She then walked over to her piano, opened the book, and invited Krol to read through a few of the songs. Soon Krol found himself marveling at how beautifully and uniquely each song reflected the text of each poem. It was a revelation for him after 30 years of studying voice, 20 years of teaching voice and learning countless songs in countless genres. Seemingly, Franz had transformed the poetry into music just as brilliantly as Schubert, Schumann, or Wolf. Yet Franz challenged that paradigm with a fresher, more experimental approach, diving head-first into the emotional core of each poem, honestly reporting on what he saw, heard, and felt without any unnecessary fanfare. Interestingly, most of Franz’s songs are relatively short. Some may consider this a weakness, especially Franz’s 19th-century audiences, whose musical tastes were shifting towards larger, more dramatic works. However, in this day and age of Twitter, where brevity is the name of the game, perhaps the 21st-century listener is perfectly suited to take on the music of Robert Franz! The digital audio release, ROBERT FRANZ: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Songs: Album One, is the first installment in a series of albums dedicated to bringing Robert Franz’s music back to life. For Album One, Krol and Greenstein focused on curating Franz’s most concise songs, each one averaging about one minute in length. It includes 39 Franz songs and five songs by Franz’s wife, Marie Hinrichs.