I had never thought of Adonie as a musician. Her hands were not merely nimble but were fluid, rapid, flowing, curving and morphing into shapes wonderful in themselves irregardless of the sounds they were producing. She swayed a little, not as much as many violinists and fiddlers, nor did she tap her toes. She kept her boots placed close together which made her black-encased legs look longer and all of her more slender; her hair loosened a little toward the end of the fourth dance. They called for another, but she shook her head, ready to set the instrument away.

"Play 'Ciel' for us," Molly said. She requested it quietly, but quiet enclosed the room at her words and the dancers stilled; some stood where they were, a few approached closer to Adonie.
"Yes, play 'Ciel' for us."
"Yes, do."
"We haven't heard it in so long."
I couldn't see who spoke. The words, like murmurs of water, seemed to come from the room itself.
Adonie hesitated, but briefly. "All right," was all she said and fit the violin under her chin again.
Then she played 'Ciel,' which I had never heard though it seemed all these other people had.

I watched her shoulders this time, rather than her hands; and how her head bent over her instrument, her wrists; I often focused on the musician communing with her instrument and within what they were creating as much as the music; as much as the music this process and transformation intrigued me. And now, with Adonie, I seized and savored every moment of this revelation for what it might tell me of her.
But I became lost in the subtlely building tapestry of sound, color, movement, echoes and reverberations which was 'Ciel.' I felt before I heard the stirring harmonics which issued from the instrument so cleverly only slightly but so strongly diverging from the main chords.
It seemed, almost, as though she sang close intertwined with the voice of the violin. It seemed, at times, as if this possible second voice came forth from a separate source and crossed some distance, some undefined direction through the room to encapsulate Adonie and her instument and join with them and augment them.

The others seemed to feel the same. The room of rapt people was still and silent as we gave ourselves to be taken by the silken fabric of the music.

Later I wondered who had composed such a piece as 'Ciel.'
Where had it come from.

I also wondered how it was Molly seemed to know Adonie. How had she known Adonie played the violin?

return to music center

return to the house