Chapter 3: Passionately 6
When listening to the Improvement Concert, one had to write down things called evaluation sheets.
Evaluation.
It was literally about listening to the students’ performances and writing evaluations before posting on the forums, but although it said evaluations, you did not need to write a detailed one. The things that had been done well, things that had been bad, parts that could be improved and how the expression was, etc.
Overall, it was like a book review except it was music.
“You know that the evaluation sheets are also included in the behavioural marks right? The teachers will be checking all of it so please write sincerely. If you’re seen mucking around, then you could be deducted marks so please keep that in mind.”
“Yes.”
Right before the Improvement Concert was about to start, a tense nervousness filled the crowd after teacher Ku Mingi’s brief explanation. With a glance, I could see the dark hall being filled with the silhouettes of the audience. Not just the students but also the teachers and parents… were looking forward to the Improvement Concert that was about to begin.
“…”
After glancing through them for a while, I connected onto the school website with my phone.
Let’s see… was the Evaluation Forum on the Student Field?
With a click on the ‘compose’ button for a new post, a clean, empty screen appeared. Finishing the settings like categories and whatnot, I first planned out the format of the evaluation.
Strong points, weak points, parts that could be fixed and things that could be applied to myself… after some planning, it appeared quite decent.
If I copy this… then it would be easier to write.
I fidgeted around on my phone for a bit longer until the preparations for the concert had roughly come to an end, and raised my head to face forward.
“We will now begin the freshmen’s Improvement Concert.”
Along with the teacher’s words, a male student who I did not know the name of was seen entering. Watching him greet, I quickly moved my fingers.
The evaluation sheets.
They counted towards our behavioural marks, but I was planning to write properly from the very beginning. Students all had their own advantages, with at least one point that could be learned from, after all.
For example, the boy who started off on the piano as the first performer – I had no idea what the song was, but the powerful performance, filled with strong echoes rapidly changing to a soft tone was quite impressive.
I quickly typed up.
Strong points – good at dynamics. Being good at dynamics meant having a tremendous talent in touching others’ emotions. If I trained in dynamics, I would be able to earn that kind of skill as well…
Like this, listening to other students’ songs and absorbing their pros and cons into themselves was the objective of the ‘Improvement’ Concert. Of course, there were some kids that used this time for something else.
“Snore…”
“Ah… seriously…”
Catching up on sleep is… important as well, yes.
Seemingly finding the snoring Noh Jusup embarrassing, Han Dasom was hitting his shoulders to wake him up. Gazing away, I focused on the evaluation sheet.
If you continued writing this kind of evaluation, then it was bound to raise your expression skills.
You can express sorrow in that way as well huh; rather than just singing loud to express anger, it is also possible to maximise the effect with a crescendo huh, and etc.
It was also quite interesting appreciating the unique analyses done by others. Also, if you were to evaluate every performance you heard even outside of Improvement Concerts and made that a habit, it would definitely teach you a lot.
“Yunjae…”
While I was typing away on my phone, listening to the piano performance, Han Dasom asked with amazement.
“Un, why?”
“Have you learned piano before?”
“Not officially, no.”
“Then how are you evaluating…? I don’t even know the terminologies in piano so I can’t really write…”
Stopping my fingers for a bit, I stared at Han Dasom.
Terminologies…
Actually, we did not need to use any jargon on the evaluations. We are not like professional books and movie reviewers writing our thoughts right? Just a few tips and tricks was enough.
I suddenly remembered the tedious days of uni. How many evaluations did I write back then? Organising the know-hows in my head, I gave her a reply.
“Just write whether the song is fast or slow, whether the sound is loud or soft, timbre – bright or dark, or whether the rhythm is on the point or is an off-beat. You just have to write it like that by adding a few decent words. Don’t think too much.”
“Uun?”
It seemed that she did not understand. When I was about to reopen my mouth, loud rounds of applause could be heard as the hall was filled with claps. Glancing up with curiosity, I saw a girl walk up onto the stage. She had a white dress that brightly reflected the light, with blonde hair that covered the dress from above and green eyes that gave off a bright aura.
Chloe.
Sighs of admiration were heard from all around.
“So pretty…”
“She came from France?”
“She’s like a doll.”
She seems to have dressed up a lot for the Improvement Concert and there were some signs of makeup as well.
I cheered for her loudly.
“Chloe! Try your best!”
With a flick, Chloe turned her gaze towards me. When I waved my hand with a happy expression, Chloe soon located me and gave a bright smile. A smile made her look better.
After hopping up to the centre of the stage, Chloe started to explain the song with a stutter, and with my eyes still pointing forward, I tapped Han Dasom.
“It’s good to include those things in the evaluations as well. If you write the background of the song, and how the executant had analysed that and stuff, the teachers love it.”
“Un…”
During the conversation with Han Dasom, Chloe seated herself in front of the piano. Watching that, I opened a new post on Chloe’s performance. While I was setting the categories and stuff, Han Dasom gazed over and watched what I was doing.
Done with her preparations, Chloe raised her hands
And smashed them down.
“Ohh…”
I could hear Han Dasom let out a murmur of admiration. It was natural. The Arpeggio following the short and powerful introduction was soft like a sparkling star.
Beethoven Piano Sonata no. 26 – Les Adieux (The Farewells)
It was a song describing Beethoven’s experience of meeting a special person before a separation and the eventual reunion. Inside, there were three movements, with each being the Farewell, the Absence, and the Return, and from those, Chloe had chosen the 3rd movement, ‘Le Retour’.
The Return…
Reflecting on the word, I followed the melody entering my ears and wrote the evaluation.
“…”
First, it had a light touch. In alignment with the bright and ambient theme, the fingers touching the keys were precise and active. As if running towards a friend reuniting after a lifetime, Chloe played it with a light, innocent emotion.
The timbre and emotional expressions were brilliant enough to draw that rough image in the head.
Dynamics – she expressed the strong parts properly with the chords perfectly supporting from behind. Both the crescendo and the decrescendo successfully formed a tension with the pulls and drops.
Legato – the quick steps on the pedal allowed not only a connection of notes but even a soft feeling overall.
As expected of the top student of the piano department.
After carefully performing the last part, she increased the speed rapidly like a joke and slammed down on the keys as the finish.
Loud claps resonated.
“She’s great.”
“So pretty…”
Glancing to the side, I saw Han Dasom facing a stunned expression at Chloe. Whether she meant that Chloe was pretty or the timbre, was something I did not know.
Maybe it was both, I thought and turned back to the stage to find Chloe bending her back. Greetings and farewells were also a part of the performance and were likewise important. The smile hanging on her lips appeared likeable so that was another positive.
After creating an evaluation sheet filled with positive feedback, I turned over to Han Dasom.
“Just write like this.”
“…”
Han Dasom faced her cold gaze at me before heaving a deep sigh.
Why is she like that after I tried teaching her?
With a shrug I went over to the next part of the evaluation – the negatives. Of course, Chloe also had her share of weak points. In general, they were the lack of basics and stamina.
The perfect expression gradually crumbled slowly towards the end and during sudden jumps, the timbre showed a little faltering. This would require a diligent practice.
Also like Chloe, I became good at managing breaths for short periods of time but I was weak at sustaining them for a long time. The book training method proposed by the teacher was not so good for stamina so should I allocate less time in it and prepare another training method…
*
Staring at Chloe leaving the stage, Kim Munchul that had been sitting at the judges’ seats shared his admiration.
“Iya… this year’s students are really superb. I heard there were two geniuses from the opera department so I wasn’t expecting much else but, the top student of piano is also extremely highly skilled.”
“…”
There was no reply.
Feeling a little embarrassed, Kim Munchul scratched his head and turned to his side.
Ku Mingi.
He could see Ku Mingi staring into the phone without a single word. Seemingly in total concentration, it appeared that he did not hear Kim Munchul’s words at all. After staring blankly for a bit, he opened his mouth.
“Teacher Ku Mingi…?”
With a start, Ku Mingi raised his head.
“Ah, sorry. I was captured by the evaluation sheets for a bit.”
“Evaluation sheets?”
“It’s a student I’m interested in, but his evaluations were quite intriguing.”
Ku Mingi handed the phone over to Kim Munchul with a smile.
The Evaluation Forum. The posts that could only be viewed by the students themselves and teachers were listed on the screen. New posts were being made every second.
Why evaluations all of a sudden?
Blankly receiving the phone, Kim Munchul tilted his head.
“It’s just a freshman’s evaluation so how could it… un?”
His eyes that had been turned over to the phone turned circular. There was a screen full of words, and judging from the scroll on the side that went down with ease, it was different from other evaluations in terms of sheer volume.
Slowly going through, he found out that the words were even more staggering.
After listening to performances that were less than 6 minutes long, an analysis with a complete dissection had been written. The introduction was like this and that with the strong points and somewhat unfortunate parts, while the following pages had even more words written.
And that continued throughout, until the end of the song.
A list of information that was hard to believe to have been written by a highschooler after only one time of listening was there. Besides, there was not a single wrong bit. Starting from their own analysis of the song to the executant’s analysis were flawless.
As if he was a student trained for more than 10 years…
“Great, right?”
“Please give me one second…”
Quickly finding the name of the post’s author, Kim Munchul entered the name onto the forum search bar.
Jo Yunjae.
There was already a new post. Seeing the title, he could tell that it was the student that had just performed… Without even a time lag, it appeared that he was writing all of that on the spot.
He checked it just in case, but it was full of a perfect analysis just like the previous post.
“…”
After reading all the evaluations, his eyes were lit on fire, and flicking across, he met his eyes with Ku Mingi. Then, he opened his mouth with words that sounded more like growls.
“Please send him to the Conducting department.”
“Conducting department, is it.”
Staring at Ku Mingi who was giving a dubious smile, Kim Munchul started his fierce storm of words.
“This guy… he must conduct. He has the talent. His ears are extremely sensitive and is skilled in musical analysis as well. Let alone theory, he seems to have some knowledge on the instruments as well… We can probably place him straight onto the position of a conductor and he’ll be able to tune up the musicians. If he is like this as a mere highschooler than in the future…”
“I don’t know.”
Cutting off his words, Ku Mingi turned behind and saw Jo Yunjae glaring forward with serious eyes – with his eyes glued on Kim Wuju on the stage, focusing to not miss a single bit of his song.
A while after staring at Jo Yunjae who was not moving a tiny bit, Ku Mingi opened his mouth.
“Try persuading him.”
Kim Munchul beat his chest as if finding it heart-wrenching.
“I mean… aren’t there lots of great kids in the opera department? Kim Wuju is not even Pavarotti but is singing Nessun Dorma, and Lee Suh-ah is also great so just one student…”
“It seems that you have misunderstood me. What I meant was…”
Thinking of how to put his thoughts into words, Ku Mingi hesitated before sparkling his eyes at the discovery of Jo Yunjae’s evaluation post that had been newly created. Click, with a light touch on the post, a writing shorter than he thought had appeared.
Or rather, could this even be called a writing?
[Kim Wuju evaluation – Nessun Dorma]
Perfect.
Becoming intrigued by it, Ku Mingi lowered the scroll and read the words written below. Underneath, a detailed comparison between himself and Kim Wuju was written.
No, more specifically, it was a comparison of his weak points with how Kim Wuju had overcome those as Jo Yunjae lamented his own lack of skills. Just by reading the post, he could feel the post author’s feelings coming across and finally, the post that had been deprecating himself with tears of blood ended on a calm note with a sentence.
[If Kim Wuju had more experience, he would be able to leave his name in history.]
Ku Mingi felt his gaze deepen.
Tapping on the chair for a bit, he then scratched his chin and smiled.
These words… were quite interesting if one was to delve in deeper. Didn’t this mean that Kim Wuju was currently lacking in experience?
After staring at the audience that was still filled with claps despite time passing since Kim Wuju’s song, Ku Mingi turned to find Jo Yunjae once again.
Jo Yunjae was clapping while glaring daggers towards the stage.
Ku Mingi opened his mouth.
“First, let’s wait and see next week.”
“Sorry?”
Looking at Kim Munchul make a confused expression, he gave a smile.
“Conducting and singing – shouldn’t we at least see which one he is more talented in? He’ll be performing next week so we can see then.”
“… I understand. Is he perhaps better at singing?”
“I’m not sure about that.”
Re-reading the post, Ku Mingi laid his hands on top of the word, ‘experience’.
These kinds of words would come out subconsciously…
What an interesting guy, thought Ku Mingi.