Hye-jae: Book 2 - New Loves

Beautiful Life Part 2

A few minutes later, the 2 men had carried the rest of the glasses in-doors and while In-seo offered to help wash up, Hye-won indicated him towards the piano: 'play, In-seo.  I'd love to hear you play.  Anything.'

Seon-jae picked up a tea-towel to start to dry the glasses on the draining board and just smirked at Professor Jo -   don't look at me - she's the boss.  In-seo answered with a rueful shake of the head, as he walked towards the piano.  When he was seated, he played some running passages almost by way of re-acquainting himself with the sound of the piano - he has always had such a keen musical sensitivity - and then the first burst of flurries of the Aeolian Harp filled the room.  The couple stood transfixed in the moment of listening, their thoughts arrested, as In-seo's playing of this sublime music took them each to a place of waking dreams.

When the last flurry died away, no-one moved or spoke for a moment.  It was as if all 3 were without the need for words, the echoes of the music uniting them in a shared hush.  Eventually, In-seo swivelled on the piano stool and looked to the couple.  Hye-won responded first, walking towards her friend with a slow clap and a smiling shake of the head: 'In-seo, I don't know what to say.  Bravo, my friend, and thank you for that.  I don't think I have ever heard you play more beautifully.'

Seon-jae also clapped quietly from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter, his eyes still with a far-away cast to them, as though he was reluctant, or unable, to return from dreamland.  In-seo dropped his eyes to the keys again: 'I first learned that piece as a young guy - your age, Seon-jae,' Seon-jae smiled shyly, 'and I loved it, of course - who wouldn't?  But as I re-played it today - just as you said earlier, Hye-won - there were qualities jumping out of the music that I had never heard in my earlier days - an almost spiritual sense of a higher power, something bigger than any of us, whatever you call that - spirit, energy, love, magic - I don't know.  But a sense that there were depths to the music that I would never plumb, no matter how many times I play it or listen to it - I suppose that is the genius of Chopin.'

Hye-won laid her hand on In-seo's shoulder: 'well, agreed on Chopin but you gave a pretty amazing version that time and maybe that is all musicians can do - give the best of themselves in the moment to let the music sing through them.'

In-seo nodded, his eyes still locked on the keys.  Hye-won spoke again, a moment or 2 later: 'you know, your idea about a higher power makes me think of the way the Aeolian harp was often thought of during the period when Chopin was writing - that the sound it made could forge a link to heaven. I'm sure you know the story of Robert Schumann hearing Chopin play that Aeolian Harp.'  

In-seo nodded ruminatively but when she looked to Seon-jae, he shook his head and lifted his chin to invite her to tell the story.

'Well, it was with that interpretation of the link to the heavens that Schumann spoke, I'm sure.  He said that if you could imagine that the Aeolian harp could play all the scales - which, of course, such an ancient lute can't - and then was played with all the decoration imaginable but with a deeper meaning and harmony, that was how Chopin played the piece.  He said that after hearing it, you were left with -  I think he called it a blissful vision - like a half-remembered dream.  That sums up precisely how I feel now.'

Seon-jae just added: 'me too,' in a dreamy voice.

In-seo raised his eyes then: 'you know, the fact that Chopin called that piece a poem probably tells us a lot about how he felt about it too.  Certainly to me, playing it today for you 2, I felt that it was about as poetic as any piece of music can ever get.'

'Well, thank you for playing it so wonderfully, In-seo.  I...we,' she looked questioningly to Seon-jae, who nodded his assent,' we won't forget that in a hurry.'