storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2009-06-02 03:48 pm
storypaint) wrote2009-06-02 03:48 pm
Gentleman's Musician (Layton gen)
Title: Gentleman's Musician
Length: 486 words
Prompt: Professor Layton (Anon) Fan Meme: Anyone from the series being a musician, bonus points for drums.
Pairing: Layton and Luke gen
Other: nerdy music references
Excerpt: Layton played the snare drum with the same calm and precision that he solved puzzles.
Layton played the snare drum with the same calm and precision that he solved puzzles. It had been a particular hobby of his in school and he'd sat first chair percussion in the school orchestra.
There was something very pure about a beat, something one couldn't quite pin to paper with music notes. With the sticks in Hershel's hands, marches came alive with inner pep and exacting flams, slow songs bled with smooth drum rolls, and the band played on, drumbeat at its heart.
It was not the conductor who led the band; he passed the tempo back to the percussionists, and they could follow or derail as was their desire or skill level. Everyone listened back to the drumbeat to find the time. Hershel was a wonderful leader, pushing and pulling, arguing with the woodwinds at times but never with the conductor's desires.
It was something Luke knew nothing about until the day he stumbled into the hall closet and knocked down a heavy circlet of metal, which swiped at his hat as it fell and might have done him damage otherwise. The drumsticks fell after, rolling off the shelf one by one and striking Luke's shoulders.
Layton heard the clatter and was in the hallway in a moment. After making sure that his apprentice was okay (and retrieving the boy's hat from the drum pin it had snagged on), he picked up the old snare and laughed a little, tapping it with his fingers.
"Did you play, Professor?" Luke asked, eyes bright. In answer, Layton took the drumsticks from him, propped the drum carefully in the circle of his legs on the floor, trying not to deaden the snare too much, and he played the drum solo from Holst's Jupiter.
Luke had never thought of playing music as being similar to solving puzzles. He'd never had much interest in music. But the way that the professor played, he wanted to fill in all the notes around the clean thwap of the snare, wanted to find all the tricks and teases in the song. There were pieces missing, and he wanted to hear what fit in the measures that Layton counted behind his teeth so naturally.
The song ended, the spell broke. Layton picked up the drum carefully and placed it back in the closet, resting the snare against the cloth it had evidently slipped from, and then the drumsticks followed at the drum's side. He reached down and ruffled his apprentice's hair. Luke still hadn't moved from his place on the floor, clutching his hat like a lifeline.
"Can you teach me to do that, Professor?" he blurted.
"One apprenticeship at a time, my boy," Layton said, with a soft smile, and he shut the closet door. School orchestra had been a very long time ago, after all.
Sometimes he still dreamed his puzzles had a beat behind them, though.
***************
And here's where I prove I'm a dork. The music I'm referring to can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CIEhJ4XUMI. Listen from about 2:42 to 3:16 to get the drum section I'm talking about. This is a marching band arrangement, because the orchestral arrangements I'm finding don't have snare drums in them at all (and really suffer for lack of it, in my opinion).
Length: 486 words
Prompt: Professor Layton (Anon) Fan Meme: Anyone from the series being a musician, bonus points for drums.
Pairing: Layton and Luke gen
Other: nerdy music references
Excerpt: Layton played the snare drum with the same calm and precision that he solved puzzles.
Layton played the snare drum with the same calm and precision that he solved puzzles. It had been a particular hobby of his in school and he'd sat first chair percussion in the school orchestra.
There was something very pure about a beat, something one couldn't quite pin to paper with music notes. With the sticks in Hershel's hands, marches came alive with inner pep and exacting flams, slow songs bled with smooth drum rolls, and the band played on, drumbeat at its heart.
It was not the conductor who led the band; he passed the tempo back to the percussionists, and they could follow or derail as was their desire or skill level. Everyone listened back to the drumbeat to find the time. Hershel was a wonderful leader, pushing and pulling, arguing with the woodwinds at times but never with the conductor's desires.
It was something Luke knew nothing about until the day he stumbled into the hall closet and knocked down a heavy circlet of metal, which swiped at his hat as it fell and might have done him damage otherwise. The drumsticks fell after, rolling off the shelf one by one and striking Luke's shoulders.
Layton heard the clatter and was in the hallway in a moment. After making sure that his apprentice was okay (and retrieving the boy's hat from the drum pin it had snagged on), he picked up the old snare and laughed a little, tapping it with his fingers.
"Did you play, Professor?" Luke asked, eyes bright. In answer, Layton took the drumsticks from him, propped the drum carefully in the circle of his legs on the floor, trying not to deaden the snare too much, and he played the drum solo from Holst's Jupiter.
Luke had never thought of playing music as being similar to solving puzzles. He'd never had much interest in music. But the way that the professor played, he wanted to fill in all the notes around the clean thwap of the snare, wanted to find all the tricks and teases in the song. There were pieces missing, and he wanted to hear what fit in the measures that Layton counted behind his teeth so naturally.
The song ended, the spell broke. Layton picked up the drum carefully and placed it back in the closet, resting the snare against the cloth it had evidently slipped from, and then the drumsticks followed at the drum's side. He reached down and ruffled his apprentice's hair. Luke still hadn't moved from his place on the floor, clutching his hat like a lifeline.
"Can you teach me to do that, Professor?" he blurted.
"One apprenticeship at a time, my boy," Layton said, with a soft smile, and he shut the closet door. School orchestra had been a very long time ago, after all.
Sometimes he still dreamed his puzzles had a beat behind them, though.
***************
And here's where I prove I'm a dork. The music I'm referring to can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CIEhJ4XUMI. Listen from about 2:42 to 3:16 to get the drum section I'm talking about. This is a marching band arrangement, because the orchestral arrangements I'm finding don't have snare drums in them at all (and really suffer for lack of it, in my opinion).