Genius of a Performing Arts High

Act 8: Lively 3

Cantabile.

If translated, it meant something along the lines of ‘as if singing’. If this was written on the music sheet, it was like a request from the composer to perform this song ‘as if singing’.

It was strange wasn’t it? What did it mean to perform ‘as if singing’?

The things Chloe was pressing were the keys of the piano, so how could she sing with a piano? However, even if it didn’t make sense, we still had to do it.

Perform as if singing.

To become a top pianist... or rather a top musician of any instrument, it was a problem that had to be overcome.

I stood blankly from the enlightenment that struck me like a bolt of lightning and only woke up when Chloe spoke with a questioning expression.

“Cantabile?”

“Yeah. As if singing – the thing we were talking about before. I thought there was something lacking in the piano, and I think that was the problem.”

“Uuun...?”

Seeing Chloe tilt her head, I felt my heartbeat quickening up. Right, a month ago, I didn’t know what it meant when we were looking into it together but it just suddenly hit me.

Didn’t I say it myself that piano was another part of the chorus? After thinking of it in that way, all my thoughts connected like there was a string going through a mix of marbles.

Singing with a piano.

I quickly sat next to Chloe and opened my mouth.

“They’re telling you to sing with a piano but opera students like me can just sing normally right? I was thinking about what the difference was and compared them.”

I reached out with my awkward hands and played a few notes. The piano let out a few dinging sounds.

There, I added ‘nice-to-meet-you’ as the lyrics and gently voiced the notes while playing the piano.

“Like this, for a melody, in opera, we add words to every single note. That’s why a note is a word, and groups of those words become sentences.”

When I naturally let out a breath, it flowed out like water and a song with the lyrics ‘nice to meet you’ escaped my lips.

“And like this, we sing in sentences. Likewise, the piano has to be played in sentences, by like, grouping notes into phrases. Those sentences add up to form songs and the legato to connect those phrases is important in the piano as well right?”

“Ohh...”

I grinned slightly after seeing Chloe opening her mouth in admiration and slowly pressed on the keys.

“Now then, Legato – how would we gently transition the notes? I thought about it and... normally when we say ‘notes transitioning to other notes gently’, we are not talking about rapid changes in the notes right? Like how it sounds off to sing loud and suddenly go soft, the magnitude of notes should be connecting softly like riding a gentle wave right?”

While explaining, I touched the keys lightly in a crescendo.

Soft and then strong.

The sound that was gradually getting louder did not stop and gently reached up high. During that, my shoulders slightly touched Chloe’s and the warmth of her skin was relayed over.

“And now, this is why it’s hard to sing with a piano but... a piano is a keyboard instrument right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why, the moment we press a key, we cannot change the notes ourselves. Even if we smash it down as hard as we could, it comes out loud before slowly getting softer.”

“Ah!”

Ding–

Listening to the gradually softening sound of the piano, I grinned.

“Just like that. That’s why it was hard to gently connect the phrases. This is the difference between opera and piano, because in opera, we can just manipulate our breaths to finely control the magnitude of the notes. So what should we do to sing with a piano...?”

Slurring the end of my sentence, I stopped and thought. Sing with a piano?

...So how do we do that?

“Hmm...”

I don’t know.

Blinking my eyes, I thought and felt like I had a brain-freeze.

So... it was good that I found out what the problem was after getting enlightenment from the keyword, ‘chorus’.

However, I had no idea what the solution was. I haven’t even officially learned a piano yet, and although I did learn one or two things over the shoulder, it wasn’t anything special.

I could only play around a few chords and compared to Chloe, it was like a citizen and a Queen.

I quickly racked my brain. What should I say...? If I said I don’t know~, after pretending to be a know-it-all...

Glancing at Song Mirae, Yu Minji and Chloe who were staring intently at me, I stiffened but suddenly, Chloe who had been blankly sitting next to me brightened her eyes and became lively again.

Her expression of doubt was soon filled with life and joy entered her large green eyes. From within that change resembling the blooming of a flower, she formed a smile under the fluttering blonde hair.

“Like thiss!”

When I faced a curious gaze at her, Chloe rapidly turned towards the piano then postured herself seriously before closing her eyes.

Then, her hands fell.

“...”

The sorrowful sound of the piano flowed out. Like a wave, it endlessly repeated a gradual increase and decrease in sound and at the same time, it was filled with fast jumps and appeared difficult.

In fact, it was a difficult song. It was that same song which even Chloe couldn’t play perfectly before.

But not anymore.

The fingers dancing rapidly above the keys was satisfying to watch as the mindful presses of the pedals were dynamic.

Like that, the sound flowed out of the piano.

That sound definitely dug into my eardrums, gently without holding back. It felt like the piano was whispering, asking if this was right; is this how you do it; and is this the correct way –

To perform as if singing

“...Great.”

A smile appeared unknowingly.

Great – it was a lot better than before. If this was the previous Chloe, it would’ve just ended with an evaluation that it was good, but now the sound was digging itself straight into the listeners’ ears.

Besides, it wasn’t just me as I could see Song Mirae and Yu Minji sitting off in the distance making startled expressions.

Perhaps, that was the same expression as my own.

Silently, I closed my eyes and focused on listening to the performance.

I could hear Chloe’s voice inside the piano. With her unique voice, she revealed her jumpy charm and sang.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that she had perfectly expressed ‘Cantabile’. Compared to the previous rigid piano, it was an achievement unthinkable for a high schooler.

To think she could change this much from just one word of mine... Feeling proud of her, I stared at her as the performance came to an end.

“Genius...”

Perhaps she heard my words but Chloe flicked her head towards me and our eyes met.

Her face that had been in full concentration was seen relaxing realtime. She had an appearance resembling an ice cream melting before a warm wind.

How should I describe her face? I guess if the word ‘thanks’ could be expressed with the face, it would be just like her current expression. Chloe who had been staring at me with that strange expression whispered quietly.

[Yunjae... Thank you.]

[...I didn’t do anything...]

[I was able to develop further thanks to you. There’s nothing I can give you apart from my gratitude.]

...Why was she so stiff all of a sudden? There wasn’t even anything to be grateful for because she just learned things on her own...

I scratched my hair feeling slightly awkward when Chloe quickly returned to her usual expression after a smile.

“Do you want to learn the piano as well Yunjae? It will be fun! I will teach you. Huhuh.”

Feeling a little relieved, I joked.

“Wow really? Our genius pianist, Miss Chloe is going to teach me? For real?”

“For real~ I think you’ll do well!”

The moment our eyes met again, a smile appeared on my lips.

I felt joyful.

This felt good. Just watching Chloe grow up felt nice and more so because I had helped a great pianist in drawing her future. Because I wasn’t able to leave anything behind in the past, it felt all the more joyful.

Besides, this was able to make me feel more confident about the song presentation. Our accompanist suddenly had a breakthrough and we would have more practice time, plus a better harmony than Kim Sukwon’s group...

At this point... it would be impossible to lose even if we wanted to right?

“Ha...”

A smile sneaked past my lips.

Ahh I want to present the song right now! I feel like we could win against anyone!

*

Song Mirae sat blankly and stared at the front.

She could see a fancy dining table. On top of that were fancy sets of cutleries placed neatly, with small plates of delicious food and wine glasses brightly reflecting light.

Staring at her own reflection that appeared on the wine glass, Song Mirae thought back once again, on what had happened just a few hours ago.

A sigh of admiration left her mouth.

‘Wow... how is our Yunjae so good at teaching piano as well?’

Song Mirae closed her eyes. It seemed like she could still hear Chloe’s performance in her ears. She could first hear the bland performance at the start, soon changing with Jo Yunjae’s guidance.

‘Such a lively performance...’

She, who had attended a performing arts middle school while also following her uncle to several concours could tell that a performance at that level wasn’t something that could be easily seen.

Those were things that could only be heard from the top pianists that had nationwide fame. It was a performance that resembled the unique, personal songs of those bigshots.

‘He made that happen with just a few words?’

After some thought, Song Mirae raised her head in a flash and looked forward. She could see her uncle Song Muntak boorishly chewing on a piece of steak.

“Uncle.”

“Hn?”

“Is it... I mean, I have a question... I want to know whether this is easy or not.”

“What is? Is our little princess curious about something~?”

Seeing Song Muntak giving a wide grin, Song Mirae sipped on the grape juice that had been poured into the wine glass.

“I told you I was working with an upperclassman from the composing department right?”

“Yeah you did. Yu Minji right? She’s good at composing and besides, she’s a girl.”

Song Muntak was nodding away with a satisfied smile when Song Mirae opened her mouth.

“Un. There’s this boy I’m performing with...”

“A boy?”

She saw Song Muntak’s startled expression and frowned.

“Stop cutting in please.”

“...Ah, sorry...”

Song Mirae then started talking about what happened. She talked about a boy that taught Han Dasom and Han Dasom who reached the finals of a concour after a rapid development, as well as how he defeated an upperclassman of the composing department in a debate and awakened Chloe’s talents.

When she ended her words with a question asking whether this boy who made all that happen was normal or not...

Song Muntak’s expression turned serious.

“...From the opera department was it?”

“Yeah. He’s good at singing as well.”

“Hmm...”

He tapped on the dining table before squinting his eyes. Light flashed through his pupils.

“If what you said is correct... he’s gifted with a nurturing ability. Bringing up a kid in the lower ranks to the finals of the Future Central Concour in a short period... even a famous lesson teacher won’t be able to do that, or rather, I have never seen such a person.”

“It’s that great?”

Song Muntak looked at her with a calm gaze.

“Of course, it might have been a fluke. However, there was another successful case right? Besides, if he suppressed a composing department upperclassman with words... at least he is above a second-grader in terms of knowledge in music theory.”

His eyes turned bright.

“Judging from his knowledge and the results he made... it is impossible to call that a fluke.”

“Right? Right? He’s really amazing!”

Seeing Song Mirae making a bright smile, Song Muntak made a serious expression while resting his chin on his hand.

“Right, it’s amazing. Impressive. With those talents, rather than opera, education would be... no, even better than that, the conducting department would suit him more because conductors need to bring the most out of the members’ abilities... oh yeah, what did you say your friend’s name was?”

Song Mirae scoffed in response and stabbed a piece of meat with her fork.

“Hmph. Are you trying to look into him and stop me from meeting someone again? Don’t~ wanna~ I’m not gonna tell you~”

Song Muntak’s serious expression crumpled all of a sudden.

“No... that’s not it and I just wanted a new talent in the conducting department...”

“I know that’s what you did every time to stop me from meeting people! So annoying. If you do it again this time, I’m going to be really angry!”

“...”

Clicking his tongue inwardly, Song Muntak thought.

Because his niece was a middle-school student, he had interfered every time saying that it was too early for romance and... she seemed to have found out. Should he have been more careful? It was wrong of him to assume that it would never be discovered just because she was a little foolish.,.

After thinking up to that point, he leaned back and let the chair embrace his body.

It didn’t matter.

It was fine because his niece had fortunately let several clues out during the conversation unknowingly. He silently sat and reminded himself.

‘The song presentation...’

Let’s see who in the world that guy was.