#1: A challenge for Nina
Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeriesPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2007
12:18 pm — …Nina
appeared on the rostrum.
She froze for a moment under the lights. Up
until that point it had all seemed horribly unreal, almost though it had been a
bad dream, but now she realised she wasn’t going to wake up. Mr Denny really was
ill and she was really going to have to conduct the orchestra waiting
expectantly in front of her.
The audience rustled a little behind her,
waiting for the music to begin. She fiddled with her baton, trying to fight the
panic rising inside her. She could imagine what they were saying and it did
nothing to soothe her nerves. She was the school’s star musician, she couldn’t
fail at this and yet she could not bring herself to do it. It wasn’t like
playing the piano. The piano was completely under her control, it would not do
anything she didn’t tell it to. The orchestra, as she had found at out the
disastrous rehearsal that morning, was not. She fought the rising panic as she
remembered how Stella Johnson had started the flute cadenza too high and prayed
that Stella wouldn’t do it again. She remembered the awful feeling as the
orchestra had ground to a halt on passages they had played a thousand times and
that there had been nothing she could do to stop it.
A thump sounded
behind the curtain breaking her reverie. She had to start, and she had to start
soon. Nina took a deep breath and looked down. The score was still unopened.
Just as well she hadn’t raised her baton to start, she thought. She opened it
and looked down at the music which she had spent the last six hours studying so
intently. She saw “Overture by Tristan Denny” printed at the top of the first
page and had to choke back tears. This was the first time Mr Denny had composed
a special overture for the pantomime and he was too ill to conduct. Nina keenly
felt the unfairness of it all. It wasn’t right that Mr Denny had put so much
work into this piece and it should now be left to the hands of a novice
conductor.
She heard the familiar music playing itself in her head,
allowing the tempo to establish itself until it pulsed through her body. Raising
her baton she found that her hands no longer trembled. She lifted her chin,
smiled at the orchestra and prepared herself. Nina knew what she had to do. She
beat a bar and brought the strings and flute in. There was authority in the
sweep of her baton and the girls felt it.
#2: Author: Fiona
Mc, Location:
Bendigo, AustraliaPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2007
10:24 am — Thanks
Fran. Its nice to see what Nina was feeling and thinking before she conducted
for the first time at the Panto. I know i wouldn't have liked to have done
it
#3:
Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern USPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2007
4:56 pm — Thank
you, Frances. That's lovely.
