After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

Post by 222333 »

*
Yes, Pathetique. I LOVE its second movement. If we'll ever have a final place for this story, we can put a link to the audio.

But I'm at a loss about your last sentence. What did he see? What do you have in mind?

S
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

Post by cindyrae77 »

I know that when I used to play, one of the things that 'happened' to me when I thought about a piece I KNEW how to play (because I'd read the sheet music for it) was, I saw the sheet music. Like a picture, almost, but notes instead of an image of flowers or something.

The thing Miss Kendrick "gave" Rolley was the gift of being able to read that. Before, she said he had an "empty gift." (I'm the scene in CM where he's sitting with the moonlight sonata on the piano, struggling to read the notes, but doing it, later.) That was the gift Miss Kendrick gave him. It wasn't the ability to play, (he already had that) and it wasn't the ability to 'hear' the beautiful things he was repeating, ("Rolley Parrot" already had that, too.) It was the gift of being able to see the notes, and translate them as to where his fingers touched.

It occurs to me that broken Rolley kept thinking "I can't hear it no more," thinking his gift was gone. But that was Rolley Parrot's gift. Miss Kendrick gave him something that could overcome the inability to 'hear' the music. She gave him the ability to read it. To see the notes on a page and understand what they meant, in terms of sound. (He's not remembering how to play again. He's remembering how to read again. Like someone who once knew how, but has been kept away from books, for years.)

So I was thinking what Rolley might be seeing was the sheet music for Pathetique. We can jump right to that (lovely!) second movement if you like, or we can make him play the first one too, since Doris Kendrick would have insisted he do it that way.

Beethoven is 'tough' for time signatures, since he used 'uncommon' ones, sometimes. But I LOVE the idea of the swinging legs setting the metronome like tempo.

If the idea that he's "seeing sheet music" sounds too pat for you however, or if it's too soon, we can change it. Where did you want it to go from here? Any ideas?

Love and hugs,
Cindy
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

Post by 222333 »

*
Cindy, you floored me.
Did you have this in mind since the beginning?
It’s… wonderful.
Yes. Parrot Rolley is dead, music is silent into him. Precisely for this, he can now become a real, responsible human being, thanks to Ms. Kendrick’s gift.
He’ll have to work hard to dust off that gift, and that way grow and become both an adult and a musician. That’s what he needs now, after he sort of “resurrected” from his drug days, but he’s weak, without a purpose, without the gift that he thought was the only valuable thing he owned. Now the music box is empty, but he has the tools to fill it again, for good, if he wants.
I am thoroughly… enchanted.
It’s a moral facet I did not see coming. But which I LOVE.
Thank you SO much.

I don’t have the foggiest idea about how to develop this idea, but it’s there, and that’s enough to enjoy it for now.

Perhaps I’ll put the ball in your courtyard again with a very very short paragraph of mine, we’ll see.

By the way: I have just uploaded the page of Chamber Music in the BatBforever Script and Transcription website. The Script is interesting, as usual. Ron Koslow is a great writer. Too bad they made a lot of dialogues much simpler than what he first wrote. The Parrot Rolley concept, for instance. Ms. Kendrick explains it much better. {*Doris* Kendrick?? where did you find that name? It's nowhere in the episode or in the script, but it's =perfect= for her!}

And finally, I just love the performance of Garland Spencer, young Rolley. Also of old Rolley, a lot. Terrance Ellis (who remembers and loves B&B) is extraordinary, his acting is heartwrenching. But the child is incredible for me. I love that subdued acting, not a single useless movement, conveying all the intensity of what he was living anyway, his almost painful shyness where you can see a nuance of pride in his gift though… Fantastic.

And… I was surprised to see what he’s become…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns_4_gt-xX4

Ciao,
S
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

Post by cindyrae77 »

I can honestly say I did not have this in mind since the beginning. It's dueling with you that 'took' me there, and presented the idea. I like 'resolutions' for characters, be they good, bad, or indifferent. CM always left Rolley (who was such a fascinating character) in that awful 'limbo' of still being an addict, with half of Cathy's hundred in his pocket, carrying the guilt for Miss Kendrick.

Unintentionally I think we 'set' this up very close to people who had a plan. (Big smile)
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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*
The music. The music sheet. “Pathetique Sonata”, in great convoluted cursive characters. By the same guy (“Musician, Rolley! Don’t call Beethoven a guy, for heaven’s sake!”) of the Moonlight Sonata. Three flats in the key of first movement, four in the key of the second movement, the one he was hearing in his head now, prompted by the swinging legs metronome. The one that was broken, incomplete in his head though. That his fingers were struggling to remember, and now stopped, mesmerized at the idea that there was no need to struggle. Four flats, tidy and reassuring, and all the notes, and the tempo, and the keys. Black on white. All there. Not incomplete, not broken, nothing to remember. That’s what he could see flashing in his head. The music sheet. That Ms. Kendrick had taught him to read.

.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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Four flats for the adagio. Adagio. What did that mean? His mind struggled for a definition, and Miss Kendrick's voice came to him. "Relax, Rolley." He'd tried to slump his shoulders a little. "No. Adagio. It means to relax. Play slowly. Leisurely. It means 'at ease.' So he played at ease, remembering the words, remembering the sheet music, and the conversation. "What language is that?" he'd asked her. "It's Italian," she'd replied, smiling. And he'd walked through the adagio with her, leisurely, as she pointed out the various changes he'd need to make with his hands. Left hand slow. Easy harmony, almost too easy. Almost child-like, in its simple bearing. His left hand began the rudimentary back and forth between two fingers, seeing the sheet music in front of him.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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*

Blurred. After the easy beginning, easy to remember, easy to play, easy to see on the sheet in his mind, the guy, Beethoven, had let his music take flight. The sheet music became a confused flash of white where those elusive little black signs were dancing on the lines (“Pentagram, Rolley, it’s called pentagram”). Memory was not enough to see it clearly. He finally opened his eyes. He realized that his fellow leg swingers had stopped their motion, and were looking at him. Perceiving something had happened. Something important. Wondering what. Zach put a tentative hand on his thigh. “You okay, Rolley?”

.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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For a moment, Rolley couldn't answer, his obsidian dark eyes still fixed on a distant point. Not just a distant point, a past point. He was at the piano where he and Miss Kendrick used to practice, and the smooth, hard bench seat was firm beneath his backside. The seat where they kept his music books. The seat that lifted on a hinge and held his childish handwriting, as Miss Kendrick had taught him to translate the Italian words into English, and the notes into... magic. Was he okay? He wasn't sure how to answer that. Or even if it required an answer. The guy, the dead white guy Beethoven, was still down in the tunnels, resting in the lid of a piano bench.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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*
“Zach… you helped with the piano, right?” No need to say more. The piano. The grand piano. Polished, tuned and ready. In the chamber he had stayed carefully away ever since he had come back… home. He ignored the spark of excited interest flashing in the boy’s eyes while he frantically nodded. Adagio. Slowly, please. He looked down at his hands. Firm hands. Ready hands. “You saw any music sheets around?”

.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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Zach shrugged, but kept his hopeful smile. "I just polished it while one of the helpers tuned it. Rebecca might know. She was helping, too. There was nothing on the front, on the stand in front of the keyboard." Adagio. Was he really considering this? He flexed his fingers, feeling the tension in the ligaments. He'd owe a ton of work in scales if he was considering this. And no, there wouldn't have been music on the stand. Miss Kendrick had been very specific about that. Always put the music away, after practice. Always. Sheet music was valuable, and the lid that lifted on the bench used to hold treasure. The swinging of the legs slowed some more.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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*
And then the enormity of what he was thinking struck him. Delusion bigtime. Adagio? No amount of Adagio is enough, ex junkie. The swinging legs now still, he tucked his hands under his thighs, regretting what he’d said, regretting the laughter, regretting the dangerous hope, wishing hard to be alone, staring the void again, the hopeful look on Zach’s face unbearable. Please, leave me alone. Too late. You don’t understand. Sorry, Ms. Kendrick, so sorry… Sorry, Beethoven guy. Sorry, everybody. Past tense, too late, too… The voice of Pascal quietly interrupted his frantic thoughts. “There’s a bench.”

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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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Then oddly, Anthony's voice. Anthony's? Dead Anthony's and not Dead Miss Kendrick's or Dead Beethoven's? "Bunch of dead white guys, who gives a shit?" Anthony had dismissed Rolley's talent. "Bunch of dead guys." And worse, "dead white guys," about his composers. Rolley knew better than to try and explain, knew better than to argue, lest Anthony's fist come down. Bunch of guys. Dead guys. Dead white guys. Is that where Rolley had learned to characterize them, why he called Beethoven 'that one guy' after Miss Kendrick had corrected him? And then his own voice, timid and unsure, asking Miss Kendrick one day... "They all dead?" as if that was the important thing, thinking that if he could find a living composer's name on the sheet music, that would prove their worth.

"Yes, Rolley, they are all dead. But that isn't important. Death comes for all of us. It's the beautiful things they made in their life that we remember them by, not that they died." Had she said that, to him? Could that be right? The junkie's voice still nagged, and Anthony's voice derided. Could anything rise above that din? Could he hear Miss Kendrick's voice, dear, sweet dead Miss Kendrick's voice, again, giving him encouragement?

(Sorry I took two paragraphs. I had the idea that Anthony, the horrible brother whom Rolley loved and feared, and who'd killed Miss Kendrick, had to make an appearance, and because I'm trying to drive a bit at the point that the important thing about Beethoven wasn't that he died, (and maybe, just maybe, Rolley finally starts to hit on that's not the important thing about Miss Kendrick, either. It was that she lived, and that she touched him, and have him the gift of being able to read the music, of being able to read something immortal. We're getting there!)

But scratch me back a paragraph if I've overstepped. We can add it back in, later, if the duel keeps going this way. Unless you have a different direction for it, of course, in which case we can visit that.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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*
See if this may be okay. I changed the last sentence of my previous paragraph, and put it after your two new paragraphs:

---
And then the enormity of what he was thinking struck him. Delusion bigtime. Adagio? No amount of Adagio is enough, ex junkie. The swinging legs now still, he tucked his hands under his thighs, regretting what he’d said, regretting the laughter, regretting the dangerous hope, wishing hard to be alone, staring the void again, the hopeful look on Zach’s face unbearable. Please, leave me alone. Too late. You don’t understand. Sorry, Ms. Kendrick, so sorry… Sorry, Beethoven guy. Sorry, everybody. Past tense, too late, too… He closed his eyes again, cutting off the present, back to his lonely listening to echos long gone.

Then oddly, Anthony's voice. Anthony's? Dead Anthony's and not Dead Miss Kendrick's or Dead Beethoven's? "Bunch of dead white guys, who gives a shit?" Anthony had dismissed Rolley's talent. "Bunch of dead guys." And worse, "dead white guys," about his composers. Rolley knew better than to try and explain, knew better than to argue, lest Anthony's fist come down. Bunch of guys. Dead guys. Dead white guys. Is that where Rolley had learned to characterize them, why he called Beethoven 'that one guy' after Miss Kendrick had corrected him? And then his own voice, timid and unsure, asking Miss Kendrick one day... "They all dead?" as if that was the important thing, thinking that if he could find a living composer's name on the sheet music, that would prove their worth.

"Yes, Rolley, they are all dead. But that isn't important. Death comes for all of us. It's the beautiful things they made in their life that we remember them by, not that they died." Had she said that, to him? Could that be right? The junkie's voice still nagged, and Anthony's voice derided. Could anything rise above that din? Could he hear Miss Kendrick's voice, dear, sweet dead Miss Kendrick's voice, again, giving him encouragement?

But it was the quiet, very much alive voice of Pascal that came to interrupt his frantic thoughts. “There’s a bench.”

---
S
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

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The bench. Yes, there was the bench. He knew about the bench. Knew that it had a hinged lid that lifted, and a metal bar that made it stay open while you rummaged. Knew that like many piano benches, it had a velvet lined compartment where every student who had ever learned a whole note scale kept their primer. Middle C. The place you stick both your thumbs. The place you begin. When he first met Miss Kendrick, she'd had her copy of the sheet music for the Moonlight Sonata in her hands. He'd been playing Chopin by ear, being "Rolley Parrot." Miss Kendrick's had asked him... what was it? "Do you know about Chopin?"... "I know he's dead." Even then. Even in their beginning, that fact had been uppermost in his mind. Dead meant gone. Dead meant you didn't matter. The piano bench was where the dead men lay in a tiny, wooden grave. A grave with hinged lid.
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Re: After "Chamber Music" DRAFT

Post by 222333 »

*
Zach said, puzzled: “Yes, there’s a bench. So what?”

-

I assume everything is accepted in the paragraphs before? Can I copy them in the "Clean Copy"? No glaring mistakes in my parts? (I can't believe it, please take a closer look).

S
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