Nocturnes

Kevin was sitting on his bed, cradling a guitar in his lap. It was dark outside. He had been strumming chords for a long time while singing, finding musical ideas. He already had a portfolio of ten songs he wrote, sitting in a book on his desk.

“They can never stop me if I try~” he was singing while progressing through chord changes.

After a while, he stopped. He got his phone out and decided to message Marina.

“Hey, it’s Kevin. ” he messaged.

An arbitrary number of seconds passed. Then a message came back.

“Hey, I was wondering when you’d message me,” replied Marina.

Kevin almost instantly messaged back.

“What music do you like to play on the piano?”

“I find Chopin’s Nocturnes very fascinating to listen to and play. Have you listened to them before?”

“I was expecting Villa-Lobos, but no, I haven’t listened to Chopin in depth before.”

“Because I’m Brazilian? That’s very funny, Kevin. Anyways, I’ll send you a recording of all of them. I think 7 and 9 sound the best to me, they’re very blue.”

And like that, Marina sent a video of a pianist performing the nocturnes. Kevin thought the piano tone sounded deep and warm. Seeing “Bösendorfer” written on the side of the piano confirmed his thoughts. Listening to it, he did imagine scenes in the night. The dark, cavernous quality of the Bösendorfer sound was almost alluring to him, the way the lonely heart of a woman was. It almost sounded like tear drops in rain.

Kevin thought to himself, that Marina had more artistic depth to her character than he initially expected.

“Wow, this is amazing,” said Kevin.

“Isn’t it? Hey, you told me you study at the Con, right?”

“Yeah, for classical voice.”

“I tried auditioning for it, but unfortunately I failed to get in, so now I’m studying Arts at UQ. What is it like studying there?”

“I’ve definitely learned how to sing better by a lot, and performing is something I enjoy a lot. However, everything else is boring to me, though, and you’re sort of forced to fit into a box they want you in. It’s either you join some choir or you teach. I want to be independent. And most of the other singers have a massive ego to top off their manufactured ambitions.”

“That’s an unusually negative perspective, I didn’t expect that. I’ve considered auditioning again, but I don’t have the confidence.”

“Financially, you’re better off spending your money on a good teacher and good piano and theory books, in my opinion. If you enjoy university in general, then you’d get a lot out of it. You can try auditioning, but it’s very competitive and you can’t predict which years will get more or less competition.”

“I see. What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“What kind of music do you like to sing?”

“I like Wagner’s operas. It has a real star quality to it. As for music outside of my degree, I like to listen to a Kazakh singer called Dimash Qudaibergen, his voice is unreal. I am attracted to music with a star quality to it.”

“Dimash Qudaibergen? I’ve never heard of him. You’re going to have to send me some of his best singing.”

“Sure, here’s him singing SOS d’un terrien en détresse and Samaltau, you might enjoy these ones.”

Kevin sent Marina the Dimash recordings.

He waited.

He waited.

He realised she was listening to both songs in their entirety.

She replied back.

“I love these very much! I think Samaltau sounds slightly similar to Chinese music.”

“Does it? I’ve never thought about that.”

“Yeah, my parents might be from Brazil, but most of my ancestry is Chinese. We use chopsticks to eat at home. My surname is Kaczynski, so I’m also part Polish! What about you?”

“Me and Nina are mostly Irish, but we have some Russian and Finnish mixed in.”

“So that’s how you’re very blond! My hair is very dark, it’s the opposite of yours.”

“I think your hair looks very beautiful.”

“You really love throwing compliments around, don’t you?”

“Can’t help it, it’s true.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Cool. Back to music, though, are you free in the afternoon tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ve only got class in the morning tomorrow.”

“Good. I’m performing a small concert at the Con, and then afterwards I’m catching up with Nina and Xavier. Did you want to come and watch me sing?”

Kevin waited. His heart rate increased slightly and his breathing became a little more intense.

“Sure! I’ll also invite my friends and see if they’ll come along, too!”

“Amazing, are they the ones you mentioned earlier today?”

“Yeah, my friends Sabrina and Matt. Sabrina is the drummer and Matt is the bassist. They’re very good, trust me!”

“Sweet, I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’ve got to go, so I’ll send you the details for tomorrow. It was nice chatting with you tonight, Marina. See you,” Kevin messaged.

“It was lovely talking with you, too. See you tomorrow!” replied Marina.

Kevin then sent Marina the concert details, and then he put his phone to the side and continued strumming chords on his guitar and singing lyrics he had written earlier.