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Play it with Claire

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As promised, here is one of the scenes from the defunct Pattern Opus. It requires a bit of setup. Claire was to be the only major new character in the book. She is a friend of Cheri's from school and an excellent classical pianist.

Claire's real problem is that she is an only child of parents who are overbearing about her music. They are the musical version of those annoying little-league parents.

Claire, in finding out that her friend's dad is not only a rockstar, but has a freaking Steinway in the basement has become a fixture in the house after school. Often coming to use the piano for practice.

This is the scene where Tony finally gets a bit tired of it, and tries to steer her in a different musical direction.

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Tony sighed heavily and dropped the textbook he was reading into his lap. The first few times it had been relaxing, studying in the basement while Claire played. Now it was starting to get on his nerves. He stared up at her. In another minute she felt his eyes on her and stopped.

"What is it Tony?"

"What is that Claire? What are you doing?"

"It's Chopin…"

"I know what the music is; it's the Etude from Opus 10. Why are you bothering with it?"

Claire rolled her eyes. It was easy to forget that Tony was classically trained, by his own sister. "I have a recital next month, this is my assigned piece."

"Oh, a recital," Tony said in a mocking tone. "That's why I feel like I've just stuck a piece of sheet music in my ear."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Tony took a minute to gather himself. He didn't want to be too harsh, but still. "Claire, we've only known each other for a few weeks, but I'm pretty sure you were done with recitals by the time you were twelve. Are you really still doing them?"

"Well, yeah. This is what my teacher assigned me."

Tony shook his head and stood up. He walked over to the piano, took the sheet music from in front of her, then placed it face down on top of the piano. "Now play it," he said.

"But…"

"What? You know it already right? How many times in your life have you played that piece?"

"But I want to make sure I get it exact, for the recital."

"And that is the problem," Tony said. "You're so concerned about exactness that you won't feel it."

"Oh pulleease Tony, 'play it with passion?' From you?"

"No! Play it with Claire. If you feel passionate about the piece, then, by all means, play it with passion. If you hate it, play it with hate. Assault it like you hate it if you want, but don't recite it. It's beneath you."

"Assault it?" Claire asked.

"Do you like the piece Claire?"

"No, I think it's a bunch of presumptuous bullshit actually. It's not much more than variations on scales."

"Then perform it that way. Don't blindly recite it. Reciting is what a God-damn tape recorder is for."

"Tony, how do you play a piece like you hate it?"

"I doesn't matter how I play a piece like I hate it. What matters is how you play a piece like you hate it."

Claire stared at Tony a minute, trying to comprehend what he was telling her to do. She began to play again, starting to play an interpretation of the piece, and not a very flattering one. She emphasized each note that appeared in her practice scales while subtly softening the others. It was pure mockery of a rather famous and revered piece of classical music. She looked a question up at Tony after a few bars with a mischievous smile on her face.

"I like it," he said grinning back.

"Tony! I can't play it like that. My parents would disown me!" Claire replied stopping her playing.

Tony sighed. "Well," he said. "I've been known to take in strays."

Claire rolled her eyes and shook her head at him.

"Well, at some point it needs to stop being your parents' music Claire. It needs to be your music or you'll never be happy with it. Yes, they provided the lessons and probably kicked you in the ass a lot when you were younger to make you stick with it and practice, but you're sixteen. You can recite Chopin the rest of your life if you want to spend all that time and effort just to do that, or you can perform Claire. It's up to you." Tony went back to his seat and picked up his textbook.

Claire began fiddling with a melody then added bass chords. Tony was only listening idly at first. The piece began soaring upwards then dropped melancholy for a few bars only to soar again. He'd never heard the piece before. "That, I like. What is it?"

"Claire," the teenager replied flippantly.

"Really? That's yours?"

"Yeah, it's something I've been working on to go with some lyrics I have. It's called 'A Sky to Reach'."

"Oh yeah? Sing it for me."

"Tony," Claire replied with exasperation. "I sing like Cheri plays the violin."


---

Tony does, in fact know a vocalist or two that might help Claire out (in this case Anita). And that's where this was going (Anita wants to do her own album).

I'll post another in a day or two.

Ezzy

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