Opus One: A Reader's Guide
Ryan Sylander
Act III: Chapters 19 through 27
WARNING: This guide contains big spoilers all over the place, so I strongly recommend reading Opus One before reading this document. I know it's not a murder mystery, so you won't perish if you read this first, but there's not much point in doing so.
If you are here looking for a piece of music, translation to a chapter title, song texts, or character lists, please look at part five, which is a spoiler-free appendix containing these elements organized by chapter, and has none of the random thoughts I've thrown in below.
Disclaimer One: This document contains links to videos of performances of the music described in Opus One. These performances are by real people, while the story is about fictional characters. No similarity of these real performers with characters in the story is implied in anyway, except that they are playing the same piece of music. The point of these links is to allow you to hear some of the music; it is not to suggest that the performers in the video were the basis for a character or a scene, nor should the videos be used as a representation of the characters' attributes. The videos are freely available on the web, and my links to them are a one-way connection. Please respect this fact.
Disclaimer Two: Regarding making recommendations about musical recordings and artists, I want to state that I have no financial interest in any of the recommended items. This document is not a commercial.
For those of you with slow internet, you might consider removing the '&fmt=18' (without the quotes) at the end of the YouTube links. This flag requests a better version of the video with higher audio quality, but may take longer to load on slower connections.
Act III: Chapters 19 through 27
Chapter 19: Mazurka
-A mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter. Chopin wrote many for the piano.
-Richard does poorly on his theory midterm, but does better in his lessons. Irina invites him to her house for Thanksgiving.
Richard finds out he has learned one of the Chopin Etudes with improper technique, which can happen when a teacher is not there to be a guide. The particular one, Opus 25 No. 10, is based around octaves. On a piano, the two keys that form an octave are 6.5 inches / 16cm apart. Easiest played with thumb and pinky, but if you also use your ring finger on alternating notes, the top notes of a series of octaves can be played smoother than if you just use the pinky each time. (Think of it as walking on two legs, as opposed to hopping on one.)
There's a video of this etude from overhead which shows this technique. In the first section, the ring finger is mostly used for black keys, while the pinky is mostly used on the whites. Later, during the more lyrical part, it's more mixed in usage. There is a slight mismatch in audio and video, but still worth a look if you want to see the technical aspect I describe.
Octave Etude, from overhead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Z4TLND4Us&fmt=18
Chapter 20: Passacaglia
-A passacaglia is a slow piece which works with a repeated bass pattern or chord progression.
-Richard helps on Irina's recording sessions, which leads to tiredness and a warning from Dr. Dobra. On the other hand, Sandra is asked to move to a higher level theory class. Richard is highly suspect of Dobra's request, and things come to a head with him and Sandra. A mistake at the recording session leads Dave to remove Richard from the team. Things get worse with Richard and Sandra, until she stuns him in theory class.
No new music in this chapter. How realistic is Sandra's talent? I've known a couple of people like her. It's quite rare, like Dobra says, and a different way of thinking. But they definitely exist.
Chapter 21: Canon
-A canon is a piece with a melody that is repeated or echoed soon after the start of the melody, so that the repetitions sounds against each other.
-Richard makes things right with Sandra, but things with Emily get weird. Sandra tries to help Richard with theory, while Emily goes out with Joel, and doesn't return for dinner.
If Richard's tutoring session with Sandra was confusing to read, good. Richard didn't understand her either!
Chapter 22: Traurig
-German for sad.
-Emily wakes up on Joel's couch. Walking home in the early morning proves to be a mistake. Richard and Sandra stick with Emily despite her infidelity. Emily's dad makes an important decision.
This was the last chapter I posted before my own real life got ugly. A number of deaths occurred in my circle, and the diagnosis of a close friend with cancer sent me into a funk. It took me nine months to get the next chapter out. There were times when I couldn't see myself working on the story ever again, so far gone were the characters from my head.
My friend successfully finished her chemo cycles in March with good prognosis. Still, writing was far from my mind at that point.
In the end, it took music to get me out of my depression. The Metropolitan Opera has been doing live HD broadcasts of some of their opera productions, broadcasting them in movie theatres around the world. In April 2008, I went to see Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at a local theatre, and that relit the fire. A reread of the story was all that was needed to get the trio talking in my head again.
Leaving the story unfinished would have been difficult on me, since I'd probably regret it for a very long time. Thankfully, the muse returned.
I find it interesting that I stopped just about at the halfway point in terms of word count. The first half took me about fourteen months to write, and the second half took me about four months. Go figure.
If you are interested in those live Met broadcasts, visit here for locations and dates:
At the end of this chapter, Emily's dad is working on Mahler's Symphony No. 3. Links to that will be provided in a later section.
Chapter 23: Moderato
-The Italian musical indication for moderately paced.
-Emily relives the events of the previous night, as well as some events from her past, while Richard and Sandra are there for her. A run in with Joel doesn't help the situation, but at last the miserable day ends quietly.
I never wanted the theft of the horn to be the focus of this episode, so I resolved that issue right off the bat in this chapter. Of course, there was some symbolism associated with the horn, but the story was not going to be a crime drama!
'The views of the characters do not necessarily represent those of the author, ' but in this case, the trio's view of multiple soul mates does agree with me.
Chapter 24: Ballet en Cinq Mouvements
-Ballet in Five Movements.
-The trio splits up for Thanksgiving. Richard enjoys the company of Irina's husband and daughter, while Sandra reunites with her ex-boyfriend for the first time since going to Wexford. Emily has to deal with her own admirer at Sandra's house. Emily sees another side to Sandra's musical talent. In New York, Richard's family gets a surprise CD in the mail.
I like throwing in odd writing bits at times. Sometimes I get complaints: the ellipses at the end of chapter twenty-three were confusing to some. Other times, people seem to like the weird stuff: the single-sided phone conversation at the beginning of this chapter got good marks for enjoyment from readers, since the girls' side was offered later on.
When Richard arrives at Irina's house, she is playing Chopin's Prelude Opus 45.
A version by G. Ohlsson (The video has another prelude at the end (at 5:00), not part of the Opus 45 prelude... ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKvBLWz2aUc&fmt=18
A bit faster, by R. Blechacz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_dnLtPi-SA&fmt=18
The music at Sandra's party is a bit different from Irina's. I'm a fan of many musical styles. Roanoke is a classic twin fiddle number.
Here's a version played by the classic bluegrass band, Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. This video has rather poor sound quality, but it actually captures an atmosphere well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXkwthWiMFk&fmt=18
Love the ending: "Boy, you can't beat that kind of music with a stick, now, I don't care what you say..." Many a classical violinist or bass player has tried to play bluegrass and failed (and vice versa, of course).
Chapter 25: Hymn
-A hymn is a song of praise. Here it refers to the movement of the Serenade the trio works on.
-Richard applies himself to theory lessons and improves in time for the final. The odd but brilliant Nelson Jackson lends a hand with the Serenade. Sandra's workload leaves Richard and Emily time to have fun. The eavesdropper is discovered at last. The trio contact Allison, and find out she will be coming for the recital. The semester ends well, but parting is hard.
Nelson was inspired by a real teacher I'd heard stories about, and Sandra's 'final' was inspired by some baroque pieces for single voiced instruments.
Chapter 26: Rhapsody
-A rhapsody is a loosely structured piece which often gives the impression of being improvised. Here it refers to the piece played by Richard and Arlene.
-Richard is back in New York, and is teased not only by his two lovers, but an ex as well. He's glad to see William, a fellow pianist, but not as excited at having to fend off a crazed Arlene. Then, surprise! Someone comes to visit.
The background music for Mr. Schatten's party is, of course, Puccini: Turandot. (This is actually one of the first operas I ever saw.) The most famous aria is Nessun Dorma, most famously sung by Pavarotti on the most famous Three Tenors album. Do a search on "pavarotti nessun dorma" and you'll find 623 videos on YouTube. Throw in other tenors, and it's more than a few results. I'm not going to sort through that to recommend one!
Here instead, are R. Tebaldi and J. Bjorling in 1959, in a scene from Act I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXszJSG_pHE&fmt=18
Here's a cut of the final scene, when Turandot finally gives in to Calaf, with the awesome G. Dimitrova as Turandot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xVcwBsfzEw&fmt=18
William was one of my favorite characters to write for. I finally had an excuse to use some of those ten dollar words in dialogue instead of prose, heh heh.
Arlene busts out a classic show piece for the party, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
First, a serious performance, by G. Cziffra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCu3ijRfaf4&fmt=18
The piece has also been used in two famous 1946 cartoons: Tom and Jerry, and a Bugs Bunny Episode (cf. William's rude comment about Arlene's show... ).
They didn't mess around at MGM back then: unlike the Bugs video, the notes Tom is drawn as playing are actually right! Well, in the beginning part anyway...
Finally, the musical comedian V. Borge used the piece in one of his skits. I suppose I ripped off the basic premise from him, but my version has a little extra, er, flirt.
Chapter 27: Romanza
-A sentimental and tender piece of music.
-Emily's visit proves frustrating as Richard sticks to his promise. Still, the short visit is not a complete loss. Back at Wexford, Richard has his own surprise planned, and a romantic evening ensues.
When I had this chapter pretty much ready, something kept nagging at me. Then it hit me: the girls wouldn't let Richard get through the night without a thorough explanation of all his planning! So I added the hot tub scene after the explosion.
I figured I'd give the trio one last night of bliss before I put them through the wringer in the second semester.
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