The Soloist - Chapter III
The completed Chapter III is now on FF! Here is a little snippet for ya!
The Soloist - Chapter III
Danny Elfman: “The Piano Duet”
…
The piano.
There was Kurt, sitting, back straight, right hand positioned above the black and white keys with a kind of formality that Blaine’s hands would never have, at the concert grand piano, intently plucking out the introduction of the sweet duet Blaine had heard so many times… and looking… a little sad.
Blaine wasn’t sure what made him do it. He wasn’t thinking at all, really. He was just walking, humming along with the melody in his mind – the melody he knew so very well – until he had reached the piano and had taken a seat by Kurt’s side.
Kurt’s long, slender fingers graced the surface of each key as he played those seven somber bass notes, leading into the upper part…
Right hand loose, slack, but still precise, Blaine played those same seven notes, three octaves higher. And for the first time since he had sat down, he and Kurt made eye contact.
Without breaking that contact, Kurt brought his hand blindly back to the keyboard and played a rearrangement of those same seven notes, this time, more acceptance. More finality. Without saying a word, Kurt was begging Blaine to play more.
An octave higher Blaine went, this time with both hands, and played nine notes that were so similar to those previous seven, would have been almost exactly the same, had it not been for the lift from a dark, grave, minor key, to a suddenly hopeful, almost inquisitive major key.
A smile played at one corner of Kurt’s lips, but he held it back as he finally took his shining blue eyes off of Blaine and onto the keyboard as he used both hands to lay down the final poignant, regretful chord of the introduction.
Perhaps a little bit earlier than the time signature indicated, both of Blaine’s hands jumped back into the piece, and he was twinkling away at the highest possible octave in that spirited, yet slightly suspicious little tune. The one that marked where this ever-mysterious piece truly began.
And that was when Kurt smiled. He looked straight into Blaine’s eyes, his own dancing with the reflections of the spotlights high above them, and smiled.
Beaming back at him, Blaine continued bouncing along playfully in the minor key, easing right into the six notes of the waltz timing…
And Kurt came in strong and powerful with the lower part, every note resounding a hundred times over in the empty theatre as Blaine’s fingers flew up and down the keys, the impossibly quick changes of his right hand producing the endless allegro that was the soul of the song while Kurt’s deep, commanding melody was the body.
Within a few seconds, the song’s climactic pinnacle began to quiet down, and before Blaine knew it Kurt’s fingers were flying at high-speed up the keys, one note following the next in record timing until he was leaning directly over Blaine, reaching far so that his index and middle fingers could trill the B and C, like the buzzing of a bumble bee or the flapping of a hummingbird’s wings.
He gradually eased out of the endless drumming rhythm of the trill, smiling into Blaine’s eyes and realizing that their faces were now just inches apart.
