Piano Recital.

[realmrsreynolds]

The show's about to start, and Sallie's dressed up for the occasion, waiting for the players to approach and sit in the front row.

The decorations turned out well -- Christmas lights lining the rows of chairs, a candelabra on the piano and music stands holding corrected programs for anyone to grab if they so desired.

Having borrowed the microphone to the PA system, Sallie clears her throat and speaks.

"Hello everyone! The recital will be starting in five minutes, so please, make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the show."

[OOC: Players, please tag directly under the post. Audience? Tag your reactions under the player's individual tags.]

Comments

[mogget_cat]

When the time comes, Yrael makes his way to the piano, gives a slight bow to the audience, and sits.

Brahms' Intermezzo in A Major is a soft, sad piece, beautiful in its delicacy. Often shaken by heart-wrenching sorrow, the melody progresses only by clinging to a thread of hope. In the silver threads of notes weaving their tones of grief, there is still strength left, determination resolute and unyielding, and the promise of something better. Hope shines through like the rays of the sun through prison bars.

It promises peace beyond the struggles of life, and rest.

[realmrsreynolds]

After Sallie's conversation with Teja, Sallie's mind is still elsewhere.

Eventually, she manages to focus on the song itself and it doesn't take long to melt back into smiling, even if the song itself is melancholy.

When Yrael finishes, Sallie's the first one to applaud.

[cutting_edgex23]

X, who did not precisely mean to attend the recital, frowns slightly as she listens.

Some things she simply does not understand.

[queenofmay]

Marian sat in her chair filled with awe. Aside from practicing her song with Sallie, and some small examples outside of that during practice with Sallie, she'd never seen or heard of a piano before.

The music made her ache, making her eyes tear up in places, and she clapped with a passionate enthusiasm at the end.

[smallestopener]

Ingress watches Yrael play, and can't help but wonder if he can play anything when in cat form. She decides she'll ask, next time she has a chance.

Subtleties are lost on eight-year-olds. She thinks the piece is very pretty, though, and played beautifully.

[shewasright.livejournal.com]

Claping when Yrael was finished, Chad couldn't help but smile. It was a piece he hadn't heard in a very long time and the man did quite well at it.

A piece like this is hard to convey all the emotions that wraps the notes. Kap had to wonder if Yrael was a master player as well.

[visible_sariel]

There's a girl in one of the back rows who's looking equal parts highly impressed and shaken as Yrael plays. When the piece ends, there's appreciative applause from her direction as well as, just possibly, a discreet wiping of the eyes when no one's watching.

Guess who had absolutely no idea her friend the notcat could do that?

[ostro_goth]

It is a piece that is very much after Teja's heart.

A softness and slowness that calms the soul; a sorrow that is deep, heartfelt, a state of being rather than a temporary emotion; then, the brief burst of brightness, of hope and determination.

This music paints in notes how he himself feels, Teja muses -- grieving for all that was lost in his life-long war, bitterly missing his friends; but also the determination to still stand and fight again, and the overwhelming hope for his people that got away alive.

When people clap, Teja is still too far away in thought to join in immediately; then, of course, he does.

[slasherofprices.livejournal.com]

It's a nice enough piece.

But it makes Skinner, private cynic and dealer of grief as he is, rather uncomfortable.

Of course, anyone looking on wouldn't have the slightest indication of how he feels. To the outside world, he's simply listening with rapt attention.

[slasherofprices.livejournal.com]

It has literally taken Skinner years to perfect playing Danse Macabre (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzxK027Sxeg), and decades of practice to keep it up. As he delves into the grim, frenetic song, it's easy to see why it requires so much practice: fingers flying across the keys, over each other, not unlike a more graceful version of a keyboardmash. The usually easygoing Skinner is now fully concentrated on the song he's playing (naturally; even a millisecond of not paying attention might cause his fingers to fly off the keys and crash into the nearest tree, or whatever in-bar stands in lieu of a tree).

He manages to make it through the song without any major mishaps. Thank heavens for that.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie applauds -- she'd never heard of this song before, but it's so fast and technical in a way that Sallie's never really played before.

"Bravo!" Sallie calls grinning, proud of a word from Earth-that-Was Lilly taught her.

[cutting_edgex23]

X doesn't frown as much during this song.

It might have something to do with the frenetic intensity.

It might also be the result of a slowly dawning understanding that the whole point of this is to sit and listen.

X is good at listening.

[queenofmay]

If awe had bee her reaction to the this first piano piece, Marian found herself drawn into the intensity of the second piece. The music, both the way it was played physically and the way it sounded, had a fierce, dark force to it.

The piano was truly an amazing instrument to give these things.

It was so compelling that Marian found herself needing to breath deeply come the end, even as she smiled and clapped.

[mogget_cat]

This song has Yrael grinning. With many teeth.

Nice.

He applauds as loudly as any.

[smallestopener]

Ingress doesn't know the serious man playing, but she likes the song. Her feet tap to the quickening rhythm, and when he finishes, she cheers.

"Wow, that was good," she whispers to Tom and Door.

[shewasright.livejournal.com]

Another hard song to play! By the end Kap was claping along with the rest of the audiance with a large grin upon his face.

The practice that Skinner had years of playing the piece had done him well.

[ostro_goth]

It starts randomly enough; for the first half-minute or so, Teja wonders what that man is doing.

Then, it gathers meaning, speed, and darkness -- and turns into a fierce piece of great complication and expressiveness, grim, fast, and strong.

Again, it is a piece very much after Teja's heart; but one he doubts he would be able to play on his harp, even after listening to it more than once, with great concentration.

This time around, he claps sooner, not lost in reverie as when Yrael played.

[queenofmay]

Marian waited in the first row, smiling as she watched the other performers, until it was her turn. She rose and stood besides the piano, giving a graceful nod to the audience. She repressed her amusement at the quiet sound of knuckles being cracked behind her, and waited through the piano introduction for her cue from Sallie.

Her song, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Song, was a sweet, playful English carol focused on the life of the savior from his winter birth to his sacrificial passing.

Having been unsure about whether she should before she arrived to the recital, Marian was thankful to find herself both smiling at the audience and enjoying herself as she sang the longer notes.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie's having fun with the music -- it's not as complicated as she worried it might have been, and she doesn't get the chance to play for others much.

At the end of it all, she's smiling as well.

[cutting_edgex23]

It is, so far as X can tell, not a very complicated song.

But Marian is singing.

So she doesn't frown this time, either.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael loves a lovely voice. He smiles as he listens, eyes half-closed. He does not know much about the subject, but the melody is one he can enjoy.

[smallestopener]

Ingress steps up to the piano bench, dressed in red velvet with her hair up in a bun. She looks almost grown up, until she giggles and curtsies.

Then she sits down and begins playing Deck the Halls.

She plays with much gusto, and a few jarring chords, but on the whole she does well.

When she finishes, she looks to the audience, a huge smile on her face.

"Happy Christmas, everyone!"

[cutting_edgex23]

X frowns again, watching Ingress play.

Does the girl want to be here? Are they making her perform?

Why is she not as good as the others?

These are the quandaries that make up X's life when she attempts to be 'normal'.

[shewasright.livejournal.com]

And as the mun finally rolls in from work...

Chad, for the most part, had been nervous all day about the recital. Call it a habit from when he was growing up and always being put on the spot by his grandparents. So sitting on the front row, waiting his turn, was enough to make him a little antsy.

When it was his turn Kap made his way up to the stage giving the audiance a respectful bow before taking his place at the piano. No sheet music stood infront of him- he knew the words and notes by heart.

He started to play softly after a moments pause, the words soon following the opening chords of Ave Maria (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw4ZKOwYDuw).

[badinlatin]

It's been a long time since Mal's been in a church.

He can appreciate the song, though, and applauds at the effort when Chad finishes.

[roger-ratcliff.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly more content than he's been in a long while, Roger's step is spry as he makes his way towards the piano, setting a hand gently on its edge as he turns to bow before sitting down at the bench.

He takes a few moments to adjust it, and, upon settling down, sets his hands in his lap.

It's just a few more moments until his hands are on the keys, right hand starting the low trill at the beginning of his piece: Rhapsody (http://youtube.com/watch?v=5O7qZnqflxM) in Blue (http://youtube.com/watch?v=V0DMEqtAKGo&feature=related).

[cutting_edgex23]

X fidgets a little during this song.

Parts are very loud, and her ears are sensitive.

Then, too, it's very long.

[oh-wowee.livejournal.com]

Toki was nervous, but he'd cleaned himself up, tugged his hair into a ponytail, and went ahead and put on a nice shirt for once. He wanted to look good.

He took one look to the audience, and gave a weak smile and wave, before sitting down and setting his fingers on the keys.
His song, Nocturne in G Minor (http://www.box.net/shared/bbib31dvna) was played lightly and carefully, and had a bittersweet sound to it. He had only just gotten back into playing after coming into the bar, and this was played for the people that coaxed him back into playing.

[sed-en-ta-ry.livejournal.com]

Darcy was there, grinning from ear to ear, she'd clapped for everyone else of course, because it was polite, and most of them were quite good, but Toki got the wild applause, enough to make the fringe on her red-and-white striped dress shimmy and knock her stole cockeyed.