Chapter 2: Bit by bit 7
Lee Suh-ah picked up her phone and fidgeted with it. It seemed that she had prepared a soundtrack for the song.
“Then let’s start with The Creation. Do you all have scores?”
“Yeah.”
“I remembered it.”
“Umm…”
Seeing Han Dasom not know what to do, I searched through my bag and handed her the sheet.
“Here.”
“Thank you…”
We stood in a straight line within the small practice room. It felt a little strange having our shoulders touching.
Hmm… now that I think about it, it’s been a while since I’ve done a quartet, because normally, I was either singing alone or singing with a large group. There was a charm unique to quartets different from large ensembles, but I hoped I hadn’t forgotten all that.
More individualistically than ensembles, and yet with harmony. While I was gathering my thoughts, Lee Suh-ah gave us a sign with her eyes.
Along with the sound of a touch, the music started to flow out.
The introduction had a subtle sound of violin in the background, to which an oboe was placed on top of, and following that was Lee Suh-ah’s high voice.
“Mit stau-nen.”
Haydn’s The Creation.
Just like what oratorios were usually about, the content was simple. Rejoice in the joy of the creation… that kind of usual hymn.
And because of that, the theme itself was straightforward.
Joy and hymn. Singing with those simple yet shining emotions, Lee Suh-ah wore a relaxed expression. She had straight, far-reaching high notes, an elegant, unshakable timbre and a magnificent resonance.
It was a radiant voice, indeed matching the role of archangel Gabriel.
‘As expected of Lee Suh-ah.’
Those words came out unconsciously. But for real, there were no flaws for me to point out on, and to be honest, she had aspects that were better than me before I travelled back in time.
Better than me, who had 20 years of experience.
‘It might be a bit late saying this, but she really is a monster.’
I decided to just sit back and appreciate the song.
Lee Suh-ah quickly travelled up and down the notes. Sixteenth note – during that small amount of period, she accurately hit each note. Even whilst doing that, her voice stayed elegant and clear with no signs of sounds being forced out.
It was the proof that she had completely mastered her vocalisation.
“Lob des zweiten Tags –!”
At the end of that overwhelming performance, we harmonised.
“Und laut ertont aus ihren Kehren.”
Releasing most of the breath and lowering the larynx, I had immediately reached a high note at F4. I thought this would be risky, but it had worked. Perhaps the few days of intense training had shown effect and hitting a high note for a little bit served as no problem. It was difficult to hold it though.
While I was somehow squeezing my part out, I still did not relax and listened to the voice parts from nearby to further harmonise our chords.
Because this was a chorus.
Bass – he had the tendency to pronounce ‘u’ sounds quite dark – I matched it by slightly adjusting my own.
Soprano was, as expected, very good. She ends her notes with a descent, so I followed and similarly lowered mine.
After paying attention in that manner, I could feel the harmony slowly taking its place. The ringing was not bad, and a light smile crept out.
And, the highlight.
“Ah——-!”
Lee Suh-ah’s voice sliding up the scale hits the summit.
C6.
A high note with twice the frequency of C5.
Lee Suh-ah had made such a note without any uncomfort, in a casual manner. There was no sharp screech tearing the eardrums apart, only an elegant voice.
“Lob des zweiten Tags!”
The four voices rang in harmony,
And finally, the song had ended.
While listening to the subtle soundtrack continuing after the song, Lee Suh-ah looked through her bag and took out a speaker.
“I recorded that just now so let’s sing Gloria and compare.”
The portable recording tool dangling off her phone entered my eyes.
That’s an expensive one.
Looking back and forth from the recorder and the speaker with jealousy, I clicked my tongue.
But why does she have good tools for everything else but an old phone?
Noh Jusup asked while I was tilting my head.
“Is there a soundtrack though?”
“It’s probably on youtube.”
As expected of youtube – it was there when we looked it up. When Lee Suh-ah pressed on one video, some music started to flow out. There was the background of a church shown on it.
While I was slowly appreciating that music, a sudden spark of thought flashed inside my head.
“Should we slow down the tempo?”
“Un?”
As I watched Lee Suh-ah blink her eyes, I made a quick, rough calculation. Place our voices on top of the flowing music and lengthen it a bit…
I gave a nod.
“Yeah. Let’s sing slower. Not allegro, and more allegretto.”
“You want to change the song?”
It was something I thought up on the spot but it seemed okay from another simulation. A little bit slower gave off a more appealing flavour, and it should be able to emphasise Han Dasom’s timbre even further.
“Should be okay.”
“Then let’s slow down the music a little… how do you slow down youtube videos?”
“Pass it over.”
Because Lee Suh-ah was struggling with her phone, I pressed on the cogs and searched through the settings. Soon I found a playback speed setting.
I knew it.
Although it was 20 years in the past, I thought there had to be something like this, and there really was. Pulling the bar and slowing it down to around 0.9 times, the music became more likeable.
Lee Suh-ah tilted her head.
“Is there a meaning to this? Wouldn’t it become too saggy?”
“So we need to verbalise accurately to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Easy to say.”
After giving a scoff, she placed the phone in my hands, gesturing to me to do whatever I wanted. A strangely old phone – and from the logo, it seemed to be even older than my own. Is she not that interested in phones?
Giving a shrug with my shoulders, I started counting.
“Then, I’m playing it. Three, two, one.”
The music began.
A bright violin sound, a characteristic of Vivaldi’s style, and on top of that, there was a light oboe sound mixed in skipping through. An array of notes were placed at the end of the introduction that sounded like the chirping of birds.
A chorus from the start.
Immediately following my eye gestures, four voices went in at the same time.
“Quoniam tu solus sanctus!”
After one round of practising, I had finished roughly analysing their sounds. Now what I had to do was to match them. Matching other parts, I pulled and stagnated the notes and twisted my resonating chambers.
Singing only for others.
That alone was enough to perfect the chord.
The feeling of several voices intertwining. Noh Jusup layed a firm bottom on which Han Dasom and I softly sang on. There were also the magnificent high notes of Lee Suh-ah.
Harmony. The sound unique to quartets that soloists would never feel echoed through the room.
Good, it was really good, and was even better than I had thought. A smile crept out on its own. The tenor and bass that could accidentally be suppressed by Lee Suh-ah was warmly being embraced by Han Dasom. Lee Suh-ah who had also felt it had her expression relax and surfaced a smile.
And now, I could feel it reaching the most important part.
I quickly read through the score in my head.
Dynamics p. Piano. Softly.
“Tu solus Altissimus –”
As if the song at the front was a lie, it had turned into a quiet voice. Softy soft. Relaxed and warm like when patting a head with a hand, yet having a rich resonance.
The four quiet voices rang together and from within, Han Dasom’s voice carefully raised its head. It wasn’t protruding out in an unpleasant way, and was just a little curve – a timbre that could be called her characteristic.
A weak girl-like and at the same time, like a silk curtain flowing by the wind,
Soprano lirico’s timbre.
My eyes closed by themselves.
Lirico. It was a timbre that did not bring shame to the meaning, ‘lyrical’ behind its name. Who could possibly shake their heads in front of that sound? Even during my 20 years of living in opera, I had never heard such a rich heart-ringing sound.
It was that magnificent…
“Uh?”
The voices of three members came to a sudden stop.
It was the feeling of a bright world filled with light being broken and torn apart. After being forced back to this world we blinked blankly before turning our heads.
At the end of our gazes, there was Han Dasom smiling awkwardly.
She said.
“Sorry… I stood out too much… right?”
*
Flash.
Opening my eyes, I could see the dark room in front of my eyes. Putting my hand around the pillow, I searched and felt a solid texture on my fingers. I immediately raised it to my eyes, resulting in a bright light overwhelming my eyes.
[7:00]
I actually woke up like a machine.
After vacantly staring at the numbers for a while, I slowly put on my PE uniform and left the room. Placing my hands into the pockets and leaving through the dorm’s automatic doors, a rather cold morning air wet my lungs.
Breathing in deeply I moved my feet.
March. It had been around one week since I was thrown into the spring of my life from the winter of December. I felt like I was doing somewhat fine.
After gazing up at the skies from the empty land in front of the dorms with little signs of grass, I began a light jog. My hair fluttered in the wind.
A while after I began jogging, the happenings from yesterday came to mind.
“Fuu…”
Yesterday.
During the time when the song was the most bright, in that climax, Han Dasom had killed her sound. Right, killed. That was the correct expression, as the beautiful sparkling timbre had suddenly turned tasteless.
After that we received a shock and stopped our own singing…
I suddenly got angry and kicked the ground hard.
No, but how could you make such a beautiful sound and just kill it immediately? Do you not feel its a waste? Do you not have any self-pride? An opera singer should never behave like that. They had to have responsibility in their own sound, in any situation…
After murmuring for a bit like a grumpy old man, I stopped.
What happened had happened. We tried playing the music again and sang but the previous sound had never been repeated. Han Dasom was too nervous that the timbre showed no signs of coming back.
Then, we left.
“…”
Well, it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand her.
Han Dasom was not from a performing arts middle school, which meant she did not have much experience singing in front of others. There really wasn’t much opportunity to sing in front of people in this modern society. A girl without stage experience becoming nervous during singing was natural – it was in fact weird for them to not be nervous. I was also trembling like crazy when I just started singing.
Right, lack of experience.
In the end, it was just that.
It was something that would be solved after lots of singing. From how Han Dasom had appeared on the TV in the future, it was something she had gone through in the past. A little bit of treatment should be able to fix it.
Suddenly I thought of what had happened when I first came to Future Arts High – what teacher Kwak Jungsoo made me do when I said I couldn’t sing in front of others.
I grinned.
After jogging until my legs felt wobbly, I returned to my dorm and looked into the mirror. A face I was still not used to was reflected.
“Hmm…”
Perhaps thanks to one week of eating well, sleeping well and exercising, it seemed that my complexion had bettered. Did I gain some weight – I wasn’t sure about that one.
In any case, I had to gain some weight quickly, to strengthen the resonance even slightly. After washing the sweat-filled body, I changed into some clothes with a refreshed feeling and headed towards the cafeteria.
“What’s today’s breakfast~”
I hummed and read the order of meals listed on the cafeteria entrance, which read toast and yoghurt. Ah I wanted some rice.
Flicking my head across and looking inside, it was relatively empty due to it being a weekend. Did a lot of them go back? I walked towards the area where they provided the meals with some complaints about the menu.
Placing two toasts on top of the still-expensive-looking tray, I gazed around. It felt a little weird eating by myself but because all of my group members had returned, there was no-one to eat with. I observed the cafeteria until a familiar face entered my eyes.
A blonde hair shining under the morning sun, large green eyes, a white skin and a tidy uniform. She appeared almost like a person from another world. Seeing as there was no-one around her, it seemed I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
“…”
Remembering the prank from the first day, a little smile started to come out. Maybe she still thinks I can’t speak French
“Hello.”
When I placed the tray down on the other side of where she was sitting, Chloe became startled and looked up at me. After observing for a while, she made a welcome expression that seemed to remember me.
“hEllo.”
Her pronunciation was still a little strange, but I guess it was natural since it hadn’t been that long since she had come over. Did she stay behind because her house was far away?
It might be considered rude so I didn’t ask that.
“You’re up quite promptly.”
“Prompt?”
“Ah, you’re up early?”
“Yes! Every day… Un… I wake uup like this.”
Hmm…
After a little conversation I felt like I could tell why this girl had no friends.
She was slow.
She had the tendency to slow down the end of her words and when it came to words she was not used to, things were even slower. Her speed in forming sentences was slow on top of that.
Feeling like I might get cancer from talking like this, I added some subtle French inside.
“Chloe was from the piano department right? Judging from how you came in as a [high-achiever], you’re good at piano?”
“N, no. I’m not… that good at it.”
Did she not realise it?
Maybe she thought it was a proper noun. Seeing the innocent smiling Chloe, I hid the smile threatening to come out.
“Is that so, [You’re performing in two weeks? I’m looking forward to it].”
“Yes… yes?”
Chloe tilted her head seemingly finding something weird. She had a frown and was in a deep thought wondering about something.
[Why, is there something on my face?]
When I asked like I had no clue, she then understood and pushed my shoulder with a laugh.
[What, you’re good at French!]
After conversing for a while, I realised that she was quite the talkative person. Throwing out all her grievances of being unable to talk for the past few days or something, she poured everything on me so I asked some questions to avoid.
[Were you living in France the entire time? Where?]
[Paris. It hasn’t even been a month since I came to Korea. It was because my dad suddenly said we needed to go…]
[Paris huh. I went there a lot as well…]
Then, I remembered that I had not visited with this body… but it was already late, as Chloe was pointing her large sparkling eyes at me. And I couldn’t just just swallow my words either… Aye whatever. When I shamelessly talked about my visits, Chloe made a gesture and seemed to like it.
[I knew it. You talked like a Parisian]
[Yeah I went there a few times but it’s really good. ‘Plenders’s bread is really famous so I went there and it was really good.]
[Sorry? Where?]
Was my pronunciation not good? I repeated it but it seems she did not understand at all.
[You don’t know Plenders? There are a lot of people there.]
[Uh… Sorry, first time hearing it.]
[Hey how do you not go there while living in Paris?]
While clicking my tongue, I typed Plenders on my phone. Plenders is a famous place that is known for being sold out 1 hour after opening…
“Uh…?”
It’s not there.
No matter where I looked it wasn’t there.
While I was trying to find it through google maps, Chloe watched over with a warm gaze. Those were the eyes of a person covering for a show-off friend that had failed in his bluffs.
[Perhaps it’s not registered on google yet.]
“…Ah.”
This place opens 5 years from now.