Master of Music: The Bardic Isles Series: Book One by Marla Himeda

Author:Marla Himeda [Himeda, Marla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marla Himeda
Published: 2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

That evening, after his composition session with Niall, Kaelin brought his adjudication sheets to the Master. “I also added some more comments on the first trio during lunch,” he said apologetically.

“Let’s have a look at them.” Bergid took the papers Kaelin handed to him and glanced over his comments on the first trio, then looked up and nodded. “Not bad, especially for a first attempt. You missed a few things, of course, but you listened well, even if it was from somewhere up in the clouds. A good commentary,” he said approvingly. “Now, defend it.”

“Defend it?” the apprentice echoed in surprise.

“Do you think my Bards will meekly accept whatever score I give them without analyzing every point of it? If my scoring does not match my comments, I’ll have a line of Bards at my door, pestering me with endless questions.” He indicated one of the lines on Kaelin’s sheet. “As an example, you wrote that the balance was off in the development section. What was off about it?”

Kaelin scrambled to remember. “Well, the pipes were too loud for the flute’s melody to come through as well as it should have.”

“And whose fault was this? The piper’s or the flutist’s?”

The apprentice frowned in thought. “Mostly the piper’s.”

“A significant lapse in balance, which this was, carries a penalty of five points. How many of them belong to the piper? How many to the flutist? What about the harpist?”

Kaelin’s brow furrowed. “Three to the piper, two to the flutist,” he decided. “None to the harpist.”

“Why?”

“Because although the piper should have been softer there, the flutist could have projected his tone better as well, since he had the melodic line. The flute fingering there is difficult, which caused the flutist to be too tentative. That’s hardly the time for the piper to increase his own volume and nearly drown him out. The harpist did nothing to disturb the balance, so shouldn’t be penalized.”

The Master nodded in approval. “Then that is exactly what you should have written, and what I, in fact, did. The comment you made was not specific enough for the players to know why, if you were actually scoring this, you docked more points from the piper than you did the flutist, and none from the harpist. Make sure your ensemble comments very clearly explain your scoring by imagining reading them from the point of view of each player.”

Kaelin nodded ruefully. “No wonder your hand is hurting, Master.” He had noticed his Master rubbing a balm into his hand after dinner.

“And yours doesn’t hurt as much as it should,” the Master said sternly. “See what you can do to rectify that tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, let’s go through the rest of your comments, and then I’ll explain the scoring system you’ll be using for the solo performances.”

They worked together until late that night. Finally, the Master’s sheets were put safely away, to be distributed to the Bards in the morning, and Kaelin’s sheets went to feed the fire. Soon he was leaning against his Master’s knee as they looked into the flames together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.