I don't own D. Gray-Man
For the words with asterisks (*) after them, they're music vocab that some people may not necessarily know. If you are one of those people who don't, please refer to the footnotes at the bottom~
This chapter is below par though, I can't write it the way I want TwT
/sobs
~~~Postludium~~~
Prelude and Fugue in B flat major
Consolation No. 3
Kanda snorted to himself. This was the second time that he saw the boy with the white hair. Allen Walker, he reminds himself, silently judging the white haired boy's performance. It was only during his sifting through of the various school documents that he found Allen's student profile.
Name: Allen Walker
Specialty: Keyboard instruments
Relatives: Cross Marian (Godfather)
Kanda closed his eyes, reminding himself of the purpose of the performance. It was the same every year, all the sophomores, juniors and seniors of the music department would watch as each of the new freshmen tried their best to impress them. Kanda looked at the amount of new students in disdain, their numbers would be halved by the next year and so on until only a handful of them would be left. Those who would survive would be the top of the top of the music world though, the best of the best.
And I'm one of them
Kanda thought, smirking. It wasn't news to anyone, even the freshmen that Yuu Kanda was a world-class violinist, making his debut when he was 14 with 16-year-old Alma Karma. At the thought of Alma, Kanda's smirk disappeared.
Alma who had been his first love, Alma who had taken his first kiss and many other firsts, Alma who died
But, Kanda had moved on and now here he was, with another five seniors, listening to the desperate freshmen.
And why were they desperate?
Well, the reason was simple. This would be their debut in the professional music world, along with one of the upperclassmen. In front of all the upperclassmen, they would play several pieces of their choice on their respective instruments, hoping to whatever god they believed in that one of the upperclassmen would chose them to apprentice them.
Well, apprentice was really a big umbrella term for showing them the ropes, guide them and perform with them as a summative task for their end of term report card that accounted for a big chunk of their marks that would ultimately determine whether they move on to the next year or not.
Simple
Easy-peasy lemon squeezy
Not
Kanda listened to one bland song after the next. Each year, this would happen and Kanda was bored. He never chose the person he partnered up with, it was beneath him really. He would listen out of politeness and good role modeling (he was the student council president, he had images to keep up!) and then just leave it up to fate to decide which unlucky brat would share the same stage as him.
It was like that for the past two years, a comforting routine in a way, but when Allen Walker stepped onto the stage, Kanda knew that this routine would be broken.
With a curt bow to the audience, Allen approached the piano. There were a few whispered murmurs in the audience, none of them recognizing Allen. It didn't help that Allen also had quite an unusual appearance.
He was, of course, an albino.
An albino with a jagged, red scar running down the left side of his face
Unlike the other performers before him, Allen didn't seem to be nervous. Kanda would have thought him cocky at first if it weren't for the glimpse of slightly trembling, gloved hands.
Is he going to play with gloves on?
Kanda didn't have more time to think as Allen struck the first note, beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in B flat major, the rapid toccata-like chords, reverberating throughout the room in a light and airy dance. This wasn't a particularly hard piece compared to the ones the other freshmen played. Unlike the massive phrases of Rachmaninoff's piano concerti or the heightened dynamics of Beethoven, Allen Walker had chosen Bach of all things to play to impress the upperclassmen.
But, Kanda had to admit, Allen Walker played his Bach pretty damn well. Each note clear and smooth, the running passages of notes flowing into each other, the prelude* was finished all too quickly for his liking. Then, the fugue* came.
This was the big fish.
This was a technical masterpiece.
The innocent start of the fugue in one hand, then the second hand joining in, each melodic line flowing like a singer's. It was as if each melody had its own voice, each one talking and communicating with the other, the dissonance, an argument, the harmony, an agreement. Kanda felt his heart pound. Even if Allen's piece wasn't as challenging, it was played superbly. Even though he, himself was a pianist, he could tell potential when he saw it.
It was almost as if…
Allen Walker was teasing them. Them, as in the whole audience.
Kanda was almost 100 percent sure that Allen could play something more difficult and challenging but had just chosen to play a simpler piece.
It was as if…
Allen Walker was goading them on; daring them to chose him as their partner to see his true potential.
The song changed to Liszt's Consolation No. 3. After the bright ending of the fugue, the starting note was soft and tentative. Whereas the prelude and fugue showed off Allen's technical ability and virtuosity, the Consolation showed off Allen's dynamic* range and his timing*.
He has a well-balanced program, Kanda thought to himself, reveling in the relaxing piece. The music flowed from Allen's gloved fingertips, producing an almost airy texture in some places and a firm, deep grip on the piano in others. When he brought the piece to a gentle close, no one even clapped; they had all been electrified by his performance (except for Kanda of course, Kanda never clapped for anyone).
After Allen's performance, each of the subsequent ones seemed dull. He could tell others felt like that as well, fidgeting in their seats with restlessness. Even so, Kanda just knew that the other upperclassmen wouldn't choose Allen because of his appearance and the ambiguity surrounding his background. They would go with one of the underclassmen they knew and were comfortable around. Kanda shook his head to himself in disgust, such a waste of talent.
"Please fill out your sheets with your selected underclassman," came Komui Lee's voice, echoing throughout the hall. Kanda was snapped out of his reverie. Smiling to himself (in his head of course), he wrote down only one name.
Allen Walker
A/N: And I'm done! Sorry for the wait, I've been writing down other ideas and I just wasn't sure how to write this chapter. I had like, an image in my head but I didn't know how to execute it in written form.
I rewrote this chapter like 5 times already TwT
I suggest you listen to the pieces mentioned in the chapter if you're in to classical music. The Prelude and Fugue in B flat major that is being referred to is from book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Glossary:
Prelude: A prelude is a short, improvisatory piece that's usually followed by a fugue. Bach was known for his preludes and fugues, writing one in each major and minor key twice. Aka, the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Fugue: A complex, technically challenging piece. Its melody is carried out by 'voices' that are, in a nutshell, separate melody lines. Fugues also have something called a 'subject', which is repeated (either in different keys or altered) throughout the fugue. The problem with fugues is bringing out the subject from all of the different voices and balancing the voices so that they don't overpower the others or the subject. Fugues are a pain in the ass to learn but are pretty fun in general.
Dynamics: The loudness and softness. You may have heard the terms forte or piano. They are the Italian words for loud and soft.
Timing: So, when you learn an instrument, your teacher tells you to 'count' to keep yourself in time so that you don't speed up or slow down or just cause your music to sound like dog crap. Some people don't count, some people do, and it's just a way to regulate the beat. In Consolation No. 3, the piece has a complex rhythm (if you've seen or played it, you'll know what I mean), it sounds spectacular but timing is no.
And thank you for the reviews~!