Chapter Text
“Music talents” Cleff began, addressing the fairies gathered around him. “As you all know, in a few weeks we will celebrate Queen Clarion’s Arrival Day with a grand concert.”
Somewhere in the back, panpipist Trill excitedly nudged her best friend, percussionist Cadence, who smiled back. This concert was going to be like nothing they had ever performed before.
About a month ago, shy Trill had been responsible for an enormous uproar within the Music talent. When her panpipes had broken, she had found all kinds of new sounds and instruments to use – a Music talent can never be kept from performing their art, not even by a broken instrument. But when she had proposed using these instruments in the upcoming Oceanside Symphony to change its eternally fixed program, Cleff, the conductor and natural leader of the Music talent who valued tradition over innovation, had dismissed her. This had resulted in a breach within the Music talent, with those in favour of tradition on Cleff’s side and those who were intrigued by Trill’s new sounds and innovative thoughts on hers.
It could have culminated in disaster when during the Oceanside Symphony Trill spontaneously decided to conduct her musicians while Cleff lead his – but it hadn’t. To everyone’s astonishment and delight, the music from both groups had blended into one beautiful symphony, showcasing the best of both worlds.
Afterwards, Trill and Cleff had made up. And while Trill had admitted that she had gone too far, Cleff had acknowledged that the combination of tradition with innovation was what had made the concert such a success, and he had become more open-minded since then.
The Oceanside Symphony was usually one of the biggest performances the Music talents had during the year. They mostly played in smaller ensembles, to accompany Queen Clarion’s seasonal reviews, to lighten up someone’s Arrival Day, or to accompany the Story-telling talents at their performances.
This year, though, Queen Clarion, impressed by the renewed Oceanside Symphony, had requested another grand concert for her Arrival Day celebration. And they would be using the new instruments!
“This is of course an enormous honour” Cleff went on, “and after the success of our most recent Oceanside Symphony, I am sure that we will be able to perform a royally magnificent concert together.”
The Music talents all nodded in agreement.
“Now, for the program” Cleff said. “It seems appropriate to start on the Arrival Day song: that way, all fairies can join us in wishing Queen Clarion a most wonderful Arrival Day. I have made an arrangement of the song that incorporates our full orchestra.”
Cleff went on to list the other pieces for the program. Cadence subtly nudged Trill’s side.
“Lots of new pieces this time” she whispered.
“I know, I love it” Trill whispered back. “Hopefully it brings a bit of a challenge.”
Cadence rolled her eyes. “That would be welcome.”
Trill smiled apologetically at her. As a percussionist, Cadence rarely got the most daring parts. She had her moments, of course, but mostly the focus of a piece lay in the melody, the flutes, panpipes and violins, and rarely in the percussion section.
“Trill” Cleff suddenly called out.
Trill immediately leant away from Cadence, afraid that he was going to reprimand her for talking.
But Cleff probably hadn’t even noticed that. “Will you be using your new panpipes for the concert?” he asked.
Trill hunched her shoulders a bit so she wouldn’t be standing out too much – it still made her uncomfortable. The truth was that she didn’t know. She loved her old panpipes, the ones she had gotten after her arrival. But now that she was used to her new ones and able to get a decent sound out of them, she loved them too. They had more of an airy, sharp quality to them.
“I… I haven’t decided yet” she said timidly. “It depends on the music.”
Cleff nodded. “Very well, then I’ll hear about it later. Jango?”
Jango immediately launched into an enthusiastic explanation of how much more vibration his new spider silk harp could give, now that Strad and TinkerBell had found a way to keep the strings from sticking to him.
In the end, there seemed to be a reasonably even division between traditional and new instruments to be used in the concert, which seemed to satisfy Cleff. After all, Queen Clarion had requested a concert like their last Oceanside Symphony, which had also been a mixture of both.
“Very well” he said. “We will start rehearsing in three days, after breakfast. I will make sure your parts will be delivered to you beforehand so you have time to look them over and practise. Thank you.”
Slowly, the crowd of Music talents dispersed, all of them talking enthusiastically about the upcoming concert. They didn’t often get to play so many new pieces with the entire orchestra.
Trill was on the verge of taking off when she noticed Cleff making his way towards her.
“Trill!” he called, coming to a stop in front of her. “Trill. It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you, too” Trill murmured, shyly returning his smile and quickly checking if her flower crown was still centred on her head – it might not matter to others, but she knew how much neatness meant to him. While they had come out of the Oceanside Symphony in good terms after their disagreement, Trill didn’t want to provoke him again.
After Cleff and Strad had given her her new quill panpipes, Trill had spent most of her time in solitude, looking for quiet places so she could practise. While she was an accomplished panpipist, a new instrument always took some getting used to, and she didn’t want to play it in public before she was happy with her tone. At the same time, she didn’t want to lose her tone quality on her old bamboo panpipes, so she had to keep practising them, too. This meant that over the past month, she had only seen Cleff a couple times over breakfast, and they had barely spoken.
“Listen, Trill – our final piece, Winds Of Change, is a panpipes solo. And I’d love for you to play it.”
Now Trill was feeling stupefied. While she had of course played some small solos within pieces, she had never been the main soloist – everyone knew she usually preferred to stay blended in with the orchestra.
“Me?” she managed to get out. “Really?”
“I can’t think of anyone as well suited” Cleff said, smiling kindly.
Trill really was taken aback. The idea of being featured like that frightened her, but it was also exciting. Maybe being a soloist wouldn’t be so terrible. After all, she’d never spoke up before the last concert, and it had brought the Music talents so much when she did.
“Er… okay” she replied shyly. “I’ll do it.”
Cleff grinned broadly, an enthusiastic glint in his eyes. “Perfect. I’ll send the part over to your room right away.”
“Why… why me?” Trill asked quickly, before he would fly away.
“Because I recently discovered that you are a natural at the front of the stage. And because that way I can be sure you won’t pull a stunt like that again” Cleff replied with a chuckle.
***
“Soloist! You? Wow!” Cadence exclaimed in awe.
As soon as she had received her parts, Trill had spent most of her day practising them, wanting to be fully prepared when they would start rehearsing together. After dinner, she had gone to Cadence’s room to tell her friend.
“I know, I was blown away, too” she said. “I still am.”
“Are you nervous?” Cadence asked.
“A bit” Trill admitted. “I’ve always been an orchestral musician. But I learned from our last concert that working through the nerves can bring some wonderful results.”
Her friend smiled, lovingly caressing the brush sticks next to her practice drums – where Trill always sought quiet, desolate places to practise, Cadence did so right in her room. Which was why she had been given a room at the very end of one of the longest branches of the Home Tree, with no others in its immediate vicinity. “Which panpipes are you going to use?”
Trill felt her face fall a bit. “I don’t know… I’ve been practising all day, but I can’t decide. My quill pipes have that sharp quality that I need to stand out from the orchestra in Winds Of Change –“ she grabbed her sheet music to demonstrate, as she didn’t know the piece by heart yet “– but I like the soft, more mellow sound of my bamboo pipes more for the Evening Song.”
Cadence raised an eyebrow at her. “Why not use both?” she asked, when Trill had put both instruments down again.
“At the same time?” Trill replied, frowning. “How would you envision that?”
“Of course not. I mean taking both to the concert, and switch between pieces. Or even within a piece.”
“Can that… can I do that?”
“Of course!” Cadence cried. “I’m not going to use one type of mallet either, I’m taking them all!”
Trill looked at the rack with mallets next to Cadence’s drums. While she had been busy practising both her panpipes, Cadence had sought far and wide for mallets that could produce a whole range of sound. As a result, now her old wooden sticks were accompanied by not only the paintbrushes, but with mallets in all shapes and sizes. There were sticks made from birch, mahogany and rattan, sticks with metal balls at the end – courtesy of TinkerBell, of course –, sticks with tapered ends, and some thinner twigs bound together into two bundles, which made a particularly interesting sound when used on a drum. Cadence had even gotten one of the Sewing talents to cover the ends of some mallets in cloth, feathers or woven yarn.
Not all drumsticks were equally useful on the big kettle drums Cadence usually played, but she often lend a pair to other percussionists for them to get the perfect sound.
Nevertheless, Trill wasn’t fully convinced. “Do you think Cleff would accept that?”
Cadence smiled. “Of course he will. In the end he just wants the music to sound well, to reach the audience, just like us. If you believe using both instruments will give you the best sound, he’ll be fine.”
“Okay” Trill decided. “I’ll use both my panpipes. Thanks, Cadence.”
“Anytime” Cadence grinned.