Forte
She smiled and closed her eyes. Determinatin. What a plump, clean word. What a complexity! And what a truth for her future. She opened her ears to listen. He said, "You do not fail, but you achieve." She heard--believed these words--and they changed her. She was happy. Everything was new to her, even him. And that is what she values most. Hark! She speaks! "No more!" is the cry. "No more!"

Da Capo
It was in the quiet of the practice room that it all began. The walls begged to be filled with her notes, but she sat still,silent, and refused.She was frozen because they were listening. "Well?" they said. She shook her head slowly from side to side. "I'm waiting," she told them. "On the music." And she looked them in the face because she knew. For some, the music never came. And that possibility gave her a cold, harrowed feeling. She couldn't cope with the questions that hung in the air. But they seemed to know her. "Seek," they told her. "and you will find." Her voice was thick. "I wish I could." Then the walls went deaf. And the music knew they weren't listening.

Tacet



Scherzando
Scales. Eb. Bb. C. Cut time. Key change. Eighth notes. Major. Minor. Four flats. A sharp. Missed one! She rises. She falls. She begins again. And again. He stands by her, listening, and nods.

Morendo
Hiding. Under the cover of a whisper. Speaking, but never with a voice of her own. Her dream is to show her face, but her face reddens in the heat. All that searching for nothing. She stops plucking the rose from the vine when the thorn pricks her finger. No one will ever see it, or so she thinks. Her secret is what she has found. His secret is that she is more visible than she knows. But now she is gone.

Accelerando
She is pushed. Out into the cold. There alone. Nowhere to hide. Quickly! Quickly! What will she do? Faster and faster she moves. Adrenaline speeds through her veins. With hammering heart and everything she has, she--quickly!--takes her chance.Faster than the speed of light. Her moment of rapture. She lifts her face upward. Quickly, now! Quickly!

L'istesso
Is it all fantasy? In vain? Nothing new. Nothing to lean on. Violent mockery. Illusion. Shame for embracing that illusion. She falls. But he crashes for her. She vows to make herself worth his injury, and refuses to hit the ground.

Poco A Poco
She returns

Maestoso
She is here. She finds it. Her music. With the world as her witness, she arrives. Passion. Swirling over her head. Sweet victory lingers in the air. She cannot let go. Her song. The one she has been waiting for. His duty is done. And hers has just begun.