Vow Silence. Painful, agonizing, heart-rending silence. The tension is tangible, terrible and tempting. I stand, favorite baton gripped tightly in hand. I realise I am trembling. Facing the lushly carpeted white floor, I attempt to steady my frantic heart. A hand smothers the light shining in my mind, dimming my surroundings. However, simply grasping a light will still allow a dull red light to bleed through-and that is how I am able to feel it. Mesmerizing and enthralling, every beat reverberates through my body, making the bitterness of my useless ears fade into a feeling I can almost forget about. Unbidden, the tip of my baton begins to sway to and fro-a metronome beating out the steady heartbeat of the first few brave, solitary notes. The audience suddenly seems less important than it was a moment ago-in the end, I realise, it is truly only the music that matters the most to me. …show more content…
The passages flow over my skin smoothly, gliding effortlessly through the air like an orca glides through the deep, frigid sea. Today's piece can only be described as snow in the frigid arctic: the notes are beads of ice tumbling and shattering among the wind, wailing and screaming, that is the melody; the harmony is the unrelenting snapping and cracking of ice as it tears itself slowly apart; and the various accents and articulations tie it all together, miniscule specks of life among the harsh, inhospitable terrain. It is the coldest piece I have encountered so far-I can almost feel the chill from the music traveling up through my baton and into my body, numbing and freezing, until I am not sure if I can remember what warmth feels like anymore. Then there is the lurking undertone-a dark, distant feeling I would rather bury-humming gleefully as it slithers within the bass line of the piece. This does not stop me, however, from