The Coma Patient Was a Musical Genius

Coma Patient Was a Music Genius
Episode 002

Installed tripod.

And Yoo Hye-seong sitting on the piano stool.

People began to gather little by little.

When I counted them quickly, there were about five or six of them.

Even though the performance hadn’t started yet, my curiosity was piqued by taking pictures with my camera.

They were murmuring.

Yoo Hye-seong’s maternal uncle, Bae Hyeon-seo, was worried when he heard the noise.

‘I hope you don’t show it even if you’re disappointed.’

In fact, it is true that Hyesung had talent when she majored in piano following her older sister.

He had such sensitive ears that he could hear the chirping of birds even in the noise of the city.

He had perfect pitch and expressed that chirping sound on the keyboard. At that time, my sister and I opened our mouths wide in amazement.

okay.

You’re talented, Hyeseong.

But that only applies to ‘elementary school students.’

A gap of three years. Already at the age of looking at a high school student. Hyesung was no longer an elementary school student.

People will only see the results, so I told them not to expect too much.

‘If you take a break for three years, it’ll be hard to start again.’

Also, that’s why I couldn’t easily answer the question of whether I was a major.

Given the nature of the art field, a three-year gap was fatal.

“I see you playing.”

“This time, let’s take a look at it with a camera.”

“Well, it’s not like it happens once or twice.”

People who were used to playing the piano here passed by without much interest.

Just then, two people passed by, and the pedestrian following them gave them a sidelong glance and continued on his way.

Yoo Hye-seong pressed a key firmly.

At the same time, Bae Hyeon-seo’s head tilted.

‘…uh?’

It was just one note, but the sound quality was different.

In the midst of the cold winter, an illusion arose that a gentle spring had arrived.

Phrase.

The notes that I still had not lifted my fingers from began to pierce through the frozen keys and sprout like spring flowers.

‘It’s different, the sound.’

Thanks to having an older sister who is a piano major, Bae Hyeon-seo has some expertise in piano.

So I heard that. That subtle, but huge difference.

‘My older sister was like that too. Even if you press just one key, the sound the pianist makes is different… .’

However, although Hyeseong majored in it in the past, he is by no means a pianist.

How can it make different sounds?

Bae Hyeon-seo looked on as if observing.

“… … .”

And then I realized.

The tension with which a key is pressed, the position of the key pressed, and the pressure of the fingertips sweeping down from top to bottom were all delicately controlled.

The damper comes to life.

The strings vibrate.

The sound blooms.

While Bae Hyeon-seo’s head was blank, the pedestrians began to turn around and take their places.

There were eight people gathered like that.

Even though the performance hasn’t started yet.

They couldn’t even explain why they came here until they turned back the way they came.

Although I am not familiar with classical music, I was entranced and my feet moved as if I was possessed when I heard the deep sound.

But because I didn’t know, I treated it like this.

“Oh, the atmosphere is great.”

“Something different?”

“I have a feeling you’ll be good at playing too.”

Bae Hyeon-seo came to his senses at the word ‘performance’.

By the way, what song does Hyesung play?

There was no conversation.

I didn’t even bring the sheet music separately.

‘… I came here spontaneously, so I didn’t ask about that.’

Again, that’s a full three years of gap.

There was a high possibility that I had forgotten the songs I had memorized before.

I wonder if Hyesung doesn’t remember the sheet music either.

He had his head tilted back slightly and his eyes tightly shut.

It stayed that way for a while.

If I really don’t remember, there was a moment when I thought, ‘The school bell is ringing.’

“·…·?”

Open your eyes.

The raised fingers fall onto the keys.

A steady ascending scale follows.

The moment he realized the song, Bae Hyeon-seo’s jaw dropped.

A song by a composer who, when asked to compose a song, drew a picture with musical notes.

A difficult piece that even a pianist would have difficulty mastering.

A song by Franz Liszt.

“… … Mazeppa?”

Franz Liszt was struck by an idea while reading Byron’s epic poem.

Mazeppa, the hero in ‘Byron’.

A longing for home, an unyielding will.

In an attempt to express it in music, he filled the score with music, and the result was ‘Mazeppa’.

And then, the moment Mazepa stepped onto the meadow.

The moment when the piano’s ascending scales swirled.

“!!”

The peaceful scenery of Nodeul Island over the weekend was shattered in an instant.

The audience was thrown into the middle of a vast, anxious plain.

Mazepa looks at the horizon with deep eyes.

A low growling sound began beyond the horizon, at the left end of the piano, at the lowest note.

Something huge is awakening down there.

Mazepa closes his eyes tightly.

Let’s live.

I will definitely not die.

He places his hand on the horse that is kicking the ground next to him and nods.

let’s go.

Please, let’s go home together while still breathing, Ferenta.

The melodic line that begins in the low register of the keyboard quickly soars up the scale.

The performer’s forehead wrinkles and a shadow appears between his frowning eyebrows.

The sound of horses’ hooves galloping across the open wilderness, and Mazepa riding on top of them whipping them fiercely.

The performer’s hands whip across the keyboard.

“…What is it, now?”

“This, that, no, the musician… .”

“oh my god….”

The bass, full of anger and screams, moves over to the right hand and pours out a passionate melody.

Leaping notes, sharp, soaring arpeggios.

The audience holds their breath at Mazepa’s dangerous run.

As Mazepa reached the hill beyond the Zipeng Line, the playing became steeper.

Irregular rhythm, constant beat changes.

The phrases, which even resembled the sound of rapid breathing, did not give the audience a moment to rest.

Mazepa confirmed the ‘existence’ beyond the hill.

Fear and dread take over.

The hunched shoulders of the performer narrow.

His fingers walk precariously over the keys, spit out a cadenza that seems ready to collapse at any moment.

It is Mazepa’s terrified breath.

I’m anxious.

I don’t think I’ll be able to come back alive.

no.

He runs through the wilderness again, screaming desperately to overcome him.

A death rhapsody that threatens life at every moment.

Yoo Hye-seong flinches on the chair.

The back is slightly bent.

Still, his eyes remained fixed on one spot, and his hands did not stop running at a maddening speed.

Even though my breath was ragged and my heart felt like it was going to explode, the performance had to go on.

Mazepa had to keep running.

To return home.

“…What is this now?”

“Wow, he was hitting this?”

“I, of course, thought the pianist was doing a guerrilla concert.”

A crowd gradually gathers.

They would occasionally make eye contact and confirm each other’s shock and awe, but soon they would keep quiet.

On this stage, not a single word of noise could be permitted.

This place, Nodeul Island, has long been a place for solo concerts.

The mad dash began to die down.

As if wounded and exhausted, the pianissimo flowed out faintly.

In line with this, the performer’s eyes take on a strange color.

Because the pain, sadness, and Mazepa’s will to overcome it were clearly felt.

But the storm soon returned.

The low notes began to howl like thunder, and the top notes began to crash down like thunder.

32nd notes and 64th notes poured out without pause.

The heavy chords gave off a rough breathing sound.

Both hands crossed fiercely and squeezed the keys.

Now Mazepa was crossing the wilderness, the rugged mountain range of densely packed musical scores.

It snows on the winding mountain road.

White snowflakes fall, covering the branches of the lush trees, and the winding mountain path gradually turns into a pure white silk road.

A tranquil landscape of blooming snow flowers unfolds, accompanied by the sound of the wind blowing from afar.

“……eye.”

And, it snows here on Nodeul Island too.

No, it was snowing, that was the correct expression.

Since when did it start?

Bae Hyeon-seo, who was absorbed in the performance with his jaw open, only realized it after a snowflake landed on the bridge of his nose.

‘This is… … .’

I remembered the performance Hyeseong had shown at the youth competition.

Although he didn’t win every time, he never missed out on an award.

It means that you were doing well originally.

But, this is going too far.

Moreover, even the pianist who played the same Mazeppa in a recital performance failed to make one’s palms sweat.

Are you perhaps moved by the performance of your nephew who just woke up from a coma?

That could be the case.

But looking at the reactions of those around me, it seemed more likely that it wasn’t true.

“See? Do you see it now? Who is the pianist? I don’t think he’s an ordinary pianist.”

“… … This is the first time I’m seeing you?”

“Hey, what?”

Before I knew it, the area around the piano was bustling, and the man who had just arrived was startled and immediately shocked.

Bae Hyeon-seo wanted to logically judge the situation in front of him.

It was impossible.

It was because the music coming in through my ears kept taking my mind off of it.

To smell, just hold your breath.

Just close your eyes to see.

Hearing cannot be blocked voluntarily… .

‘Oh, I guess I can just block my ears.’

Of course, I never covered my ears like I was crazy while my brother was playing.

‘Are you crazy…?’

Yoo Hye-seong’s eyes sparkled as she played.

The last page, the climax.

The notes pouring from the keyboard soar with breathtaking madness, and the chords vibrate the heavens and earth, engulfing the audience.

His fingers move precariously on the keyboard as if Mazepa is spitting out blood, and his weary breath rises up to his throat.

The storm has died down.

The intervals between the notes grew further apart. The melody, steeped in pain, grew fainter.

Mazepa collapsed in a vast meadow with his hometown in front of him.

Still, the breath that does not go out, the two eyes that look at home.

The deep bass grabs the other side of consciousness.

A delicate melody sprouts like a sprout.

It was a recollection of the days I lived.

Mazepa groans weakly.

Ferenta.

Leave me and go alone.

When you get to your hometown, tell me about it.

Mazepa’s voice began to die down like a dying ember.

The performance, which has reached its climax, subsides.

Bam-

The hand reaching out towards home falls to the floor.

The boy’s fingers fall to the keys of the piano.

My hands did not leave the keys until the sound had completely stopped.

In his heavy breathing, winter breath rose and disappeared repeatedly.

“… … .”

“… … .”

Silence. Stillness. A breathless audience.

That too for a moment.

A warm round of applause began to erupt, swallowing up the winter.

Yoo Hye-seong smiled and got up from her seat.

In the meantime.

Beetle-

My body swayed once.

My head feels a little dizzy.

A ringing in my ears was making me feel irritated.

It was a performance to burn away the stuffiness of being confined to the hospital room, so I think I pushed myself a little too hard.

‘Could it be that this body is also weak?’

But now was not the time to worry about that.

Yoo Hye-seong suppressed her headache by pressing her temples.

‘I wonder if it’s really necessary to see it if I just want to hear applause.’

So I turned around.

To check the changed audience numbers.

As expected, it was like that.

The crowd formed a thick semicircle, forming a wall.

This was the conclusion of a performance that started with five or six people.

‘Oh.’

It’s snowing.

I didn’t realize it because I was playing, but it was snowing.

Yoo Hye-seong absentmindedly tapped both shoulders.

The snow didn’t fall enough to pile up, so it melted in the heat as soon as my hand touched it, having just finished playing.

Soon, he sees the sight he had longed for so much, and smiles leisurely as he faces the countless gazes directed at him.

“No encore?”

Is everyone satisfied with this?

That’s not it, is it?

Franz Liszt, who first established the recital, a solo piano performance, was better than anyone at reading the minds of the audience.

As expected.

The pedestrians on Nodeul Island, who had now become the audience, began to shout out ‘Encore’ loudly.

It was something I had hoped for so desperately, but it was something I never thought of because it wasn’t an official stage.

“Oh, it’s snowing.”

Yoo Hye-seong looked up at the sky and held out his palm. Then he blinked several times as if reminiscing.

“Snow, we need to clear it.”

He suddenly says those words and sits down at the piano again.

What does that mean all of a sudden?

Are you clearing the snow?

Are you a child who hates snow?

The audience was puzzled.

But now, among the crowd, there were people who were interested in classical music.

When the second performance started, I could tell what it meant.

―Franz Liszt, The Last of Us.

Clearing snow.

[Bright tone piano]

[Yoo Hye-seong, Noddle Island Street Piano Performance (Mazeppa + Snow Clearing) (14:33)]