The Healing Life of a Music Genius - Chapter 54



Only Krnovel

54 Two bells

* * *

“This is student number 1. let’s begin.”

Today, the first entrance exam student started playing.

But not long after, a cheerful bell rings twice in quick succession.

The quiet silence that follows.

At the end, a student’s cries are heard.

However, there was no change in the expressions of those sitting in the audience. It’s rather annoying, as if it’s nothing.

A woman sitting in the middle of the audience spoke to the man next to her.

“It seems like there are a lot of applicants to the piano department this year. “It’s already been two days since the exam, and I haven’t even passed half of it…”

“oh my. Teacher Yang didn’t hear you. This year is almost twice as much as last year. Is there a pianist drama that was popular a few years ago? Because of that.”

“oh my god······.”

“With the children’s application fees, we can finally build another building. Otherwise, we can at least pay for our dinner this time. really. “Who benefits from that drama?”

“excuse me···. By the way, Teacher Ma.”

“yes?”

The woman gave a little notice.

“A lot of people from outside have come, but please be careful about your words and actions.”

“Oh~”

The man looked at the people sitting in the same row and waved his hand. “Ahahaha,” he let out an awkward laugh and continued the rest of his sentence.

“But that’s not a lie. We also need to receive application fees to run the school smoothly. That’s the only way to invite such prominent people. I’ll also bring you some seaweed. “There’s no reason you can’t talk about it.”

“······.”

‘He’s someone who usually doesn’t pay attention…’

When I looked at Teacher Ma’s words and actions, there were times when I was slightly surprised.

In addition to Sulwha’s affiliations, several external figures were invited to this practical test.

A total of seven people.

Most of them are people who have taken a position at a university or active musicians who are still performing help with the practical evaluation.

The judging panel consisted of a total of 10 people, including 3 current Sulwha Arts Middle School teachers and 7 external figures.

For reference, the student who rang the bell twice a moment ago was eliminated without even giving a score.

Four missed touches.

If it is more than that, no matter how good the performance is, you will be eliminated.

There was no disagreement.

The practical exam schedule was very tight, as each student was given 12 minutes, and review time was also required afterward.

Of course, there may be some outstanding students among those who are eliminated.

However, folk tales have their own rules.

We could not continue to give opportunities to students who did not meet that standard.

Number 1, number 2, number 3.

The turn passed quickly.

“This is student number 4.”

“I hope I do better this time.”

“I wish I didn’t have to cry.”

At that time, the two teachers were whispering softly.

Student number 4 slowly began to play.

The people in the judging table lost their voices in that split second. And his eyes lit up.

No matter how the 12 minutes were used, it was up to the students.

Usually, I simply relax for about 20 seconds and then start playing. However, sometimes there were students who were so nervous that they couldn’t manage their time properly.

Of course, even if you couldn’t complete the performance, you were eliminated.

Fortunately, student number 4 completed the two songs safely, and the judging continued immediately.

Total up each item on each evaluation sheet. Then, after subtracting the highest and lowest scores, the average is taken to determine winning or losing.

Student number 4’s final score was 6.92 points.

Usually, 7 points is the standard, but with this score, it is not yet possible to predict the result.

“This is student number 5.”

But this student was a little unique. The sound of a chair being dragged is heard, and the player immediately starts playing. Thanks to this, the judges quickly silenced their voices.

No matter how urgent it is, it usually takes more than 10 seconds, but student number 5 had no hesitation.

and.

‘······ You’re pretty good at it, aren’t you?’

The practical exam started yesterday.

It was the most outstanding performance I’ve heard so far.

The first of Chopin’s four improvisations.

Even though this song can be said to be the most difficult among the entrance exam songs, Student No. 5 continued to play it skillfully.

It felt like a machine was playing.

If you were to give this piece to a professional pianist and instruct him to minimize his interpretation as much as possible, I don’t know if he would perform something like this.

‘It’s almost… optimized for competitions.’

Student number 5 suppressed his emotions as much as possible. And the tempo and dynamics (strength and weakness) followed the score instructions exactly.

And only in the most common way.

If you perform like that, it is easy for the judges to give you a score.

Due to the nature of the practical test, which mainly checks points deduction factors, all you have to do is simply listen to the performance comfortably.

A decent performance like that will naturally lead to a high score as long as there are no deductions.

Great strategy.

However, Teacher Ma didn’t seem to like that.

“Eh… this isn’t fun. “If you’re going to do that, just listen to AI music.”

In fact, the evaluation criteria are slightly different for each judge. So, in order to be as fair as possible, as many as 10 people split the review process, and the highest and lowest scores are also deducted.

‘But… most of you seem to be okay.’

Most of the judges looked at his performance with satisfaction. They didn’t move their pens. In reality, this means that there are not many points to be deducted. A somewhat high score was expected.

Student No. 5’s second performance was Bach. There was not a single error in the flow of the performance, as if to demonstrate the basic skills properly.

In Yang Woo-joo’s opinion, it seemed like student number 5 would probably get the highest score in today’s practical test.

After the performance was over, the scores began to be added up.

The final average score was…

“It’s 9.07 points.”

It was the highest score among all entrance exam students.

There were also some unusual details there.

The person who gave student number 5 the lowest score was Teacher Ma. A whopping 4.5 points. It was a lower evaluation than the student who had made a mistake earlier.

On the contrary, the person who gave student number 5 the highest score was teacher Taehyuk Son, who was always in charge of class C. A whopping 10 points. This was the first time a perfect score was given in this practical exam.

But because of this…

“under. I guess Mr. Son’s hearing hasn’t gotten any better. 10 points for playing this machine? “You can just retire at this point.”

“Then why don’t you retire? 4.5 points? No way… your ears are like Beethoven…”

“For what?”

Unfortunately, Yang Woo-joo couldn’t find his place properly and ended up stuck between the two. She tried to ignore the teachers sitting on either side of her and just started focusing on the students’ performance.

After number 5, the mediocre performance continued. Some students were eliminated after 3 minutes, and others were eliminated after 10 seconds because they did not play the first octave well. There were some students who barely got over 7 points.

The evaluation was boring.

It’s usually like this.

Although students are given several entrance exam songs to choose from, they tend to pick easy songs and skip over them, so they have to listen to the same songs countless times a day.

Because of this, as time passes, the judges’ emotions become increasingly dull. For that reason, it is often said that the first number is better when drawing lots.

“It’s number 10.”

But this participant was also a little strange. The exact opposite situation from number 5. Even though I thought I had a good chat with Mr. Ma, I still hadn’t started number 10.

‘Are you nervous?’

If that’s the case, then there’s nothing much to see.

The time has already gone down to 10 minutes.

Usually, it takes 10 minutes to play two songs.

If you interpret the song at a slightly slower tempo, you won’t be able to catch up with this difference.

9:50

I might have given up altogether.

It’s common.

It was a very burdensome task for elementary school students to take such a test.

9:40

But then.

Feeling a little goosebumps,

The melody of the first words of Chopin’s Impromptu No. 1 rang out on the stage.

The same song as the song that student number 5 played a little while ago, which was quite impressive.

Chopin – Impromptu, Op. 29No. 1 in A flat Major.

However, the atmosphere was 180 degrees different.

If number 5 was a mechanical performance, number 10 was full of the performer’s emotions.

A romantic melody that starts in A major.

The emotional melody that follows the gentle touch of the keyboard made Yang Woo-joo’s head stand on end.

In this song, the left and right hands play different melodies.

The melodies played independently form one harmonious piece of music, creating sweet emotions in the listener.

It can be said to be one of the major characteristics of Chopin’s improvisations.

If you cook it with just sugar, it becomes a simple candy, but if you mix it with eggs and whipped cream, you can make a great custard cream.

Likewise, when several melodies are combined into one, a new harmony is created.

A pianist must somehow infuse his or her own personality into the performance. But the task is very difficult.

Most students of this age receive guidance from a ‘teacher’. Typical examples include standardized academy education or lessons from professors specializing in entrance exams.

As a result, it was difficult to find individuality in playing, and it was common to only pass the level required to enter school.

however.

Student number 10’s performance clearly had its own personality.

This is like…

It felt like I was watching this student’s recital.

There was no tension to be found in his music. It wasn’t as hard as the music in number 5, and even felt soft and relaxed.

‘I wonder if they don’t think that there are judges…’

Student number 10 was just playing happy music.

This student’s music was very warm.

Yang Woo-joo turned his head as he was curious about the other judges’ reactions.

“······.”

Teacher Ma, who had been creating a light atmosphere just a moment ago, was staring intently at the blackout curtain with his mouth closed.

He even held his breath. Even his facial expression looks quite serious. I didn’t have the courage to talk.

On the contrary, Teacher Son was frowning. She said he also held his breath, but it seemed like he had a different reaction than Mr. Ma.

Yang Woo-ju decided to focus on the student’s performance. He felt like it had been a long time since he had come to see a concert. He was nervous whether he knew it or not that the students would make mistakes, but the tension soon went away.

When Chopin’s performance ended, there was a moment of silence.

And a few seconds later, Beethoven’s performance continues.

The preparation time between songs was not long. Even though the emotions of the two songs were completely opposite, they were able to control their emotions skillfully.

Beethoven – Rondo A Capriccio in G major Op. 129.

Among Beethoven’s songs, this is a very witty song.

But this time, the tempo of the performance was very fast.

Although this song has a simple composition, it puts a huge strain on the left and right hands.

Technically it is also quite difficult.

‘You think we can continue at this tempo to the end…?’

In all the years I have been at Sulwha, this is the first time I have seen an entrance exam student like this. Usually, you practice based on passing, so once you reach an appropriate level, you don’t want more than that.

But number 10 was different.

A performance that seems to pursue perfection after perfection.

Even the interpretation was plausible.

I slightly lifted the beat and added some unique wit here and there, which was also fun.

‘You have good sense. I don’t think I came from a domestic competition…’

Is it an overseas group?

The feeling of learning music abroad was clearly evident in the performance. Or maybe I took a long lesson from a famous professor. Or it could be the child of such a person.

Everything was just guesswork. The evaluation sheet left on the desk did not contain any personal information about the student.

Today’s date and number 10, that was all.

The 10th performance was already coming to an end.

‘It was the only performance I could listen to comfortably today…’

I felt a little disappointed.

There was no feeling of comfort when listening to performance number 5. The dry piano performance of No. 5 only continued to remind us that this was a place of courtesy.

On the contrary, playing number 10 was very comfortable. I feel like I’m at a concert, so what’s the point of scoring? Moreover, there was not even a small miss touch. However, even if there were one or two mistakes like that, it didn’t seem like it would have much of an impact on my passing.

The tonality changes and the first theme is repeated again.

This time it became much lighter.

It seemed to show that dynamics could be controlled to this extent. The sound of a pen whizzing was louder than the sound of a piano.

The faded music gradually began to fade away.

small.

Smaller.

As we reached the end of the decrescendo, which seemed to continue indefinitely, the performance finally came to an end.

Yang Woo-ju immediately checked the time. He is a student who started playing late, perhaps because he was nervous at first. If he ran out of time, he could have been eliminated.

Yang Woo-ju checked his watch and laughed helplessly.

00:03

00:02

00:01

00:00

At the same time, the exam end bell rings.

Number 10 finished playing with only 3 seconds left.

Was it luck?

Or was all of this intentional?

There was no way to know right now.

But then.

match!-

A huge applause was heard exactly once from the side. I turned my head and saw that it was Teacher Ma.

Sudden, unexpected behavior.

Before Yang Woo-ju could ask, Teacher Ma answered first.

“If you are an audience member, you should clap. That’s polite. However, for the sake of fairness with other students, I gave it only once. “Is this reasonable?”

“······.”

People you don’t know even if you know them.

Yang Woo-ju shook his head and looked at the evaluation form.

It’s grading time.

The judges began to chatter more than ever.

* * *

match!-

‘It’s a surprise!’

I heard the sound of mosquitoes being swatted from somewhere. Audience seats? what?

The supervisor next to me also opens his eyes wide. I guess it was unexpected. Still, he quickly gave me the finishing instructions.

“Uh, you can leave. Thank you for your effort.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I headed to the back of the stage feeling a little dazed.

Some students waiting there look at me blankly. I ignored them and passed by.

.

.

.

“hey. “Did he get hit by lightning or something?”

“No, I think I fell from the plane.”

“really? And then it happened like that? What kind of skills have you suddenly gained…”

“This is crazy… I have to hit him next?”

“Please enter number 11.”

The shout of an abusive supervisor.

Student number 11 went up to the stage in a daze.

And after a while.

As always, two bells rang on stage.