Persephone - Again...
CHAPTER EIGHT
All of a sudden, it was time for mid-terms.
First year mid-terms were very important. If you did poorly, you did not move on. In fact, if you did poorly, you left. From what Persephone had heard in the hallways, this set of examinations was more important than almost everything else in the curriculum. The musical performance elements made up seventy-five percent of the grades, so it was imperative that all repertoire was note-perfect.
Persephone had been signing up for every possible time in the over-crowded practice rooms. She and Calla took turns as accompanist and vocalist for random songs from the repertoire list, and Persephone was feeling that she was pretty secure in her piano skills. She was more challenged by the vocal requirements of filling an entire auditorium with her voice. Calla’s challenge was completely the opposite.
“I just can’t keep my right hand going if my left hand starts up,” Calla complained, flopping down into the old chair next to the piano stool. “I never have this problem with my viola! I’d be fine with the guitar even, but the keyboard is going to be the end of me!”
Having heard this before, Persephone understood that she was not expected to respond. She flipped through her repertoire file looking for something that she still needed to practice. “I wonder if I can sign up for more time in the auditorium. I’m still not sure that I am singing loud enough to be heard across the room.”
Calla heaved herself off the chair and opened the door. “I know what that means. Let’s go sign up for any remaining time and then get something to eat. I’m starving!”
Persephone and Calla gathered up their instruments, repertoire lists, and stray bits trash that they had brought into the room. The rules of practice room use were strict, and everyone knew who was where when. There was no chance of leaving a mess without consequences. They moved down the hallway past their cohort rooms and towards the auditorium.
“I wonder why we have to do these tests here,” Persephone spoke out loud. “I don’t plan on running many music therapy groups in large spaces.”
“Maybe if you can project enough to fill up this room, you can sing anywhere,” Calla replied.
“Maybe.”
There was one more space left on the sign-up sheet before the examinations started. Persephone grabbed her stylus and wrote her name in small letters in the last open spot. Calla grabbed her arm and off they went, away from practicing and towards shepherd’s pie.
CHAPTER NINE
The day of Persephone’s examination started with a fire drill. The alarms went off at 2:52 am. Persephone staggered out to the safe zone with her resident mates, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and still trying to remember song lyrics. She had six hours until her examination, and she had not planned on this interruption.
“All clear, you may return to your rooms.”
Persephone walked up the stairs to her room and thought about trying to get some more sleep, but she felt a bit too awake for sleeping again after the trudge out of the hall and back again. She opened up her repertoire folder and started to play her keyboard at a very quiet volume. She ran through all of the songs on the list before breakfast. Following her usual custom, she went down to breakfast at the first possible moment. She grabbed a variety of foods including the makings of a peanut butter sandwich for later, and sat down to eat.
“Bad luck about the fire drill, hunh?” Calla sat next to her, sighing about the morning. “It figures that this would happen when we’re up for our exams. Nothing happened yesterday for the first batch. You’d almost think it happened on purpose to catch us up.”
Persephone shrugged, finished her water, and left to fill up her bottle for later. She loved being around Calla, but there were times when she needed to escape from her friend to concentrate. She gathered up her materials, wished Calla luck on her exam, and walked to the auditorium.
Settling into a seat, Persephone spent some quiet moments reviewing her song selections before others arrived. Not only would she be taking her examination in front of her instructors, her cohort would also be present. Singing in front of 200 pairs of eyes was a bit intimidating, but Persephone felt that she would be fine. Well, as long as she could get that first note out.
The first day of her cohort examinations had been long as an audience member, but it had been interesting as well. As a 27, she would be going pretty quickly. After her music examination was finished, she could use the remaining time to work on her term project for Continuum. As long as she sat quietly through the other performances, she could get most of her work finished. She could use the time since she had spent most of yesterday’s examination comparing herself to the members of her cohort.
That one is wobbly. Ooh, should have tuned your guitar before you started.
Once the thoughts started, Persephone found it difficult to turn them off. They had made it through 25 examinations during yesterday’s time frame. She would be second to go today.
The examination itself was pretty straight forward. Each student had to submit a list of repertoire which was categorized by musical style, possible therapeutic use with clients, and pitch. The lists had been submitted to the faculty two weeks prior to exam week.
“Number 2427?”
Persephone took a deep breath and moved to the stage. Waiting for her were a piano, a guitar, and a microphone. Her job was to sing and accompany herself for any of the songs that the faculty selected from her list.
She had worked hard to memorize all the songs. Her selections were based in her own musical experiences. She had picked songs that Gram enjoyed, and some that Evander had asked her to learn. There were songs from classic rock up to now music, and Persephone loved each one of the songs on her list. She had submitted her list of 30 songs and felt that she would be pretty decent.
“Breathe.” Persephone whispered to herself as she watched the faculty members sitting in the back of the auditorium scanning her list. “This will all be over soon.”
“Please play The Great Pretender by Buck Ram. You may select your instrument and key for this song.”
The disembodied voice echoed through the auditorium. Two hundred students sat as quietly as any large group of people. A sniff here and a cough there came to Persephone on the stage. She sat at the keyboard, decided to play the song in E-flat, and took a deep breath.
“Oh yes, I’m the great pretender…”
The words rang out, a bit wobbly to start, but Persephone seemed to find her confidence as soon as she remembered why this song had been included on her list. The lyrics often described her own feelings, especially now that she was in school.
“Pretendin’ I’m doin’ well…”
She finished the song, heard the applause from her classmates, and waited for the voice from the back.
“What key did you play that in?”
“E-flat.”
“Please play it again in A-flat.”
Persephone stopped for a moment. This was not something that anyone else had done, but it was an expectation delineated on the examination preparation list. She ran through the four chords – A-flat, D-flat, and E-flat seven – and found her opening pitch. This key was a bit too low or too high for her voice which is why she hadn’t selected it to begin with, but she made it through the song without bobbling any of the chords.
“Please select a song from your list to play on the guitar. You will play this song in the key of E major.”
Persephone moved to the guitar and checked the tuning. That B string was always a bit off, so she corrected the tension in the string and started her next song.
“Oh, I’d like to visit the moon…”
This was one of Evander’s favorite songs. He had requested it so much that Evelyn eventually decided that he could only sing it when everything else was finished in his sessions. If he finished his work, he could sing the song. If he didn’t, then no song. He had asked Persephone to learn the song so he could hear it whenever he wanted without having to do the work. She had been singing it for as long as she could play an instrument. He would sing, using his voicebox to croon the story first sung by Ernie and the Muppets.
The song finished to more applause. Three more songs to go unless the transposition meant that there were only two more. Persephone waited to hear what would be next.
“Please sing Night Breezes acappella.”
What? No one else had to sing without accompaniment. What was going on? Persephone took a deep breath, started a body percussion beat (pat, stomp, pat, pat), and started to sing the song.
Night Breezes was a song that had become popular during the first pandemic of 2020. Between the Arms and Me, the group that had performed the song, had been a one-hit wonder. Persephone had loved the song the first time she had heard it, and it was a natural for her list.
When she had finished, the audience applauded her again. The voice from the back said, “Thank you. You are finished.”
Persephone walked off the stage and picked up her bag. Finished? Did that mean that she had passed or failed? Finished? She hadn’t remembered what the faculty had said at the end of the others’ examinations. She found a seat towards the back of the auditorium, took out her tablet and styluses, and started to write.
For better or for worse, at least I am finished.
The theory of Persephone in music therapy looks pretty promising. I play the piano, and the violin and I could relate to what you say. Music therapy is not something that anyone can master but can be enjoyed by everyone alike. Turning key notes into soothing music is one way to bring peace and comfort into a song.
ReplyDelete