Chapter 3.7 - Passionately 7 (2/2)
Tapping on the bench in thought for a bit, I opened my mouth.
“The diction is… it’s not wrong but slightly different. This song is from a musical but inside the play, it is an opera song with the singer being an opera singer right? Then, shouldn’t it be sung like an opera?”
“…like an opera? How…?”
She blinked her eyes and appeared clueless. Do I have to explain from there? She would get it immediately if I could just sing and compare but with my throat in this condition…
Having no other choice but to explain it in words, I glanced up at Han Dasom.
“Dasom. What’s the difference between opera and normal singing?”
Han Dasom tilted her head.
“No mic…?”
“Yes. Opera doesn’t use mics while musicals, and other singers do. That’s where all the difference lies.”
Standing up from the seat, I walked around and continued.
“Without a mic, opera singers must fill a hall of over a few hundred metres in diameter with their own sound. Just screaming won’t do anything. That’s why we use the resonating chambers in our bodies. Mouth, nose and chest – using the resonating chambers in these areas we amplify the sound. Ah–! Like that.”
When I suddenly made a loud sound, Han Dasom was startled and pulled her head back.
Ouch, that was all I did but it still hurt my throat. While massaging my throat for a bit I resumed talking.
“To properly manipulate these resonating chambers, it is important to make the sound circular like a ball. Between a ball and a cube which would go further? Of course a ball, right? So our objective is to make every sound spherical and to push it through a long connected passage. The first step, is unifying the vowels.”
IEAOU, IEAOU.
I started continuously pronouncing the vowels, while Han Dasom stared directly at me with concentrated eyes.
“IEAOU. If you try pronouncing those, you’ll feel like the sounds towards the end are different. Like the feeling that they’re coming out from deeper within? You’ll feel like that. However, that shouldn’t happen during opera. IEAOU, they must all have the same resonance. The ‘I’ sound must consciously come from deeper, while ‘U’ sound must intentionally be shallower, to form a perfect circle.”
“IEAOU…”
She repeated those vowels. IEAOU. Every time she practised, it was evidently seen how her pronunciation was getting better. Indeed, from how her learning speed was extremely fast, she seemed to be a part of those geniuses as well. Judging from how she did not know about the basics, it apparently hasn’t been a while since she had started learning opera though…
Was she previously into popular music before coming into opera? Why did she come to opera in the first place though? During my short contemplation, Han Dasom opened her mouth.
“I’ll try.”
“Un.”
I saw Han Dasom breathe in deeply through her nose while standing still.
Preparation.
Closing her eyes, she laid her hand on her chest. Her small mouth started to gradually open as her hair fluttered in the wind showing her clean forehead. I could see a glimpse of her future self – the Han Dasom that sang before a crowd of tens of thousands.
In that instant, she opened her lips.
“Think of me–…”
I could hear a clear voice – a voice with a resonance different to before and it dug in deep into my eardrums.
More spherical, and more straightforward. The vowels were becoming one, but even then, the proper shape of the mouth supported the diction. A softer echo amplified by the resonating chambers shot up in a line.
That alone was enough to send her song away to a far, faraway place.
I felt my lips slanting up.
This girl, her maschera is amazing.
“…promise me that sometimes you will think…”
I could see the students in their dorms opening their windows. The students walking by in a distance halted to take another look while the normal people on the other side of the school fences turned over.
In the midst of all that, Han Dasom sang. With her eyes closed, not thinking of anything else, and only singing her song.
“Of me–!”
Silence.
Staring blankly for a while, I then turned over. The opened windows were closed, the students resumed their feet and the normal people glanced at us a few more times before carrying their feet.
The song had ended.
“Ah…”
Coming to myself, I gave her a round of applause.
Clap, clap, clap. The sound echoed through the gardens before eventually disappearing.
“Well done.”
She wore a bright smile.
“Thank…”
“Well done but, in this musical, the female protagonist is passing the soprano audition with this song. So shouldn’t we sing it with more enthusiasm? To give off the feeling that she’s about to go crazy from her happiness. But then if she were to show it too much then it wouldn’t be like an actress so just enough, yeah?”
After staying quiet for a bit, she replied.
“…Un, I’ll try to be crazy.”
*
Jun Shihyuk leaned onto the windowsill.
From outside the closed windows, he could still hear some echoes of a conversation. A high voice and a low voice – Han Dasom and Jo Yunjae.
It was the voice he had been listening to until just then.
Tap, tap. After tapping on the windows for a while, he made a frown.
Jo Yunjae…
The scene he just saw was a bit strange. It was a scene that was totally different to the previous image he had of him. Those skills in teaching Han Dasom, the naturalness of it, aura and the passion.
Those weren’t things that someone who didn’t even practise one bit should have.
“…”
He remembered the in-depth description on vowels – Jo Yunjae who had explained it in a clear way without a single hesitation or a block.
Vowel unification.
Of course, Jun Shihyuk had mastered it, and if he was told to explain it, he definitely could. However, whether he would be able to explain it softly, like an experienced lecturer was a different question.
And yet that Jo Yunjae was able to? That guy who didn’t even have the basics?
Jun Shihyuk’s expression turned stiff.
“Let’s see.”
He slowly turned over the calendar. After quietly going through the dates with his fingers, he started to calculate.
Until the next Improvement Concert…
There was less than a week left.