“How did you correct your bad habits?”
Musicians tend to have at least one bad habit. When he was young, Beethoven had a problem with his back curving like a question mark when he played the piano, and it is said that in Russia, Bashillin’s fourth finger trembled like it had tendonitis when he performed trills. Anna, like them, also suffered from a disease called a habit. However, “It was just a moment.”
Didn’t she fix it like a ghost? As if she had become a different person.
“I still can’t forget that day. It would be the same for Erik from Northern Europe, Zhang Yan from China, and William from the UK. That day was like a miracle for them as well. It’s presumptuous to say, but no musician I have ever met could act like that.”
What was she talking about?
“In a short moment, he found all the problems just by listening to our performance. I can still vividly remember his voice. Erik, do you know that one of your shoulders slightly drops when you play the violin? Zhang Yan, you unconsciously slow down when you play legato. How much? Hmm, about the size of a bean? At first, his words sounded confusing. Because they were problems that even we, who had played a hundred times, hadn’t realized.”
The students sitting in the auditorium listened intently. It was an interesting story. Moreover, the speaker was a promising violinist from the Moscow Conservatory. There were even rumors that she would surpass Andrei.
“But we realized it was true from the moment he started correcting our performance. It was really a continuous dreamlike time. It felt like we had broken free from invisible shackles that had been binding us. Even the proud William from England shed tears of joy.”
The students could be felt whispering. The story was hardly believable. It was then.
“We all realized that day. Even though we came to compete, the opponent in front of us was not a competitor. Perhaps those who met Mozart in their lifetime felt similar emotions to us. It felt like facing an insurmountable wall. But we were happy instead. The fact that we were living in the same era as him.”
Gulp, the sound of swallowing saliva could be heard as an inexplicable tension filled the room.
“You asked how I corrected my habits, right? You may know. The legend of Chappelle. That day, for sure.”
Of course, Chappelle in Brussels was a sacred place that musicians couldn’t not know. “I met the god of music.”
Suddenly, I thought of the alchemists searching for gold. In the 17th century, the alchemist Henning Brand believed in the existence of the Philosopher’s Stone and thought it could be found in human urine. But what came out of the urine he collected over 60 days was phosphorus, not gold. He ended up becoming the first person to discover an element. Moreover, phosphorus was sold at a higher price than gold, so he did find a gold mine in a sense.
Why did he believe that gold could be made from urine? Probably because they were both yellow.
‘A 20th-century Henning Brand.’
It was safe to say that the quirky nature of the doctors was due to the preferences of the senior doctor. Moreover, they seemed to spend more time enjoying tea time among themselves than wearing lab coats and handling reagents. It was hard to tell if this place was a chemical laboratory or a gossip lab. Moreover, the general manager, Vladimir Tikhonov, even encouraged it. To the extent that I wondered if I had mistaken him for someone with the same name.
“Gregory Tikhonov, the father of chemistry, said this. The era of industry will change its paradigm focusing on chemistry. And I firmly believe that ‘Graphene’ developed by Mr. Kang’s Dongju will be at the center of it.”
Indeed, it was not a wrong statement. The paradigm of the industry will change in the future, and one of the main sources of national competitiveness will be source technology of materials, so chemical materials will become indispensable like the filling in a red bean bun. Moreover, it makes no sense to talk about South Korea, which focuses on exports, without mentioning chemical materials.
By the way, who is the father of chemistry? Is he a renowned scientist?
“Is Mr. Gregory Tikhonov a Russian scientist?”
It was a name I had never heard before. At that moment, Tikhonov proudly shook his head while touching the bridge of his nose.
“He is my father. He is making our country prosperous as a hero of primary industry in Saint Petersburg.”
So, he was saying his father was engaged in agriculture and forestry. But since Dr. Tikhonov himself was an extraordinary person, his father was probably not an ordinary farmer either.
“Carbon is smaller, lighter, and has very strong bonding compared to other elements. Moreover, it can be infinitely assembled due to its four bonding sites. But no one dared to develop a new material using carbon as the source. As they say, Moscow wasn’t built in a day, the development process of Graphene must have been extremely tough. Who would have thought of successfully achieving a two-dimensional covalent bond of a hexagonal planar carbon ring? I collapsed and cried on the spot when I heard the news about Graphene. Graphene, with its extreme physical properties, is indeed the key to opening a new era of chemistry.”
The doctor’s face, speaking rapidly, was filled with deep emotion akin to the Wright brothers who crossed the sky.
My father was unsure how to respond to the excessive praise, but it was not wrong. As the doctor said, the emergence of new materials has always been a tool for changing the times. Didn’t a chemist say when the commercialization of Graphene was just around the corner that humanity had taken another step forward? It was not an exaggeration. Rather, Dr. Tikhonov was seeing the future one step ahead of others.
“What do you think, Hyun? You’ve been looking around our lab with a keen eye for a while now.”
At that moment, the chatterbox doctor looked at me.
“I agree with your opinion, doctor. If the 20th century was the era of silicon, the 21st century will be the era of carbon. However, I am cautious about whether your lab can open that era. The commercialization and industrialization of chemical materials require many steps, and I am doubtful about the capabilities of your synthesis equipment and skilled workforce.”
Deliberately, I spoke in Russian so that my father wouldn’t understand. My father had no expertise in business. He was someone who couldn’t say unpleasant things in front of others.
Indeed, I had to be careful even if I had to cross a stone bridge. I couldn’t just scout him because he had the same name as someone I remembered from my past life.
“As expected, Hyun, you were mysterious from the first time I saw you. After spending a few days together, I can clearly see. That boldness and extensive knowledge that are unlike a child. It feels like you have various names like an allotrope. You smell like a renowned chemist. Of course, I understand Hyun’s concerns. But I am confident. If our lab is scouted, Dongju will not regret it. But to prove this, first, Mr. Kang’s evaluation is necessary, right?”
Finishing his words, Dr. Tikhonov looked at my father. Now, it was time for me to step down. Whether Dr. Tikhonov’s research team could commercialize Graphene was up to my father, the researcher.
As we stood up together, my eyes met Dr. Tikhonov’s. But his gaze was…
“Hyun, have you ever thought about becoming a chemist instead of a musician?”
Wasn’t it similar to the gaze of the old cunning man?
“Father, I will stay at the hotel today.”
There was nothing I could do at the chemical lab anyway. Moreover, whenever I went to meet Dr. Tikhonov with my father in recent days, the chatterbox doctor wouldn’t let go of me for a long time.
It was as if he was trying to teach me as if I were his disciple. I almost became a chemist, something not in my fate.
After my father left, I started moving slowly.
“Tchaikovsky?”
The taxi driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror with a puzzled look. It was understandable, as an Asian boy who just came out of the hotel suddenly asked him to go to the Moscow Conservatory in fluent Russian.
And that wasn’t the end of it. In Russia, taxi drivers and passengers haggled over the fare, and they particularly overcharged foreigners.
“200 rubles.”
“Hey kid, it should be at least 300 rubles!”
“200 rubles.”
When I firmly demanded 200 rubles, the bearded driver eventually gave in. Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten into the taxi without first knowing the fare.
How long did we drive? After high-fiving the old glory of Lenin seen a few days ago and passing through several complex intersections, the statue of Tchaikovsky finally came into view.
“Even though it looks like… 250 rubles…”
“200 rubles.”
As we reached the destination, the bearded driver glared at me again. I handed over the money without hesitation, and the bearded driver laughed helplessly. He couldn’t frown at a little boy, so it was probably frustrating for him.
Outside the car window, students carrying instrument cases were seen everywhere. Even the faint sound of music could be heard. The scent of classical music was already thick in the air.
In truth, visiting the Moscow Conservatory was the main purpose of coming to Russia. Spasiba Russia―!
I waved my hand at the departing taxi and started walking.
“Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Rubinstein.”
As expected of a world-renowned conservatory, portraits of famous musicians adorned the concert hall walls as if they were watching over to see if the performances were good or not.
How did I get into the conservatory?
It was a lucky day; a free concert was being held. Thanks to that, I could easily get into the building without being stopped by security. Of course, I still felt the sharp gazes on the Asian boy.
It was then.
Thud.
A faint sound was heard. My steps moved on their own, probably because of the faint sound.
The sound was weak, but it was definitely a piece by Schubert. It was a piece I had played countless times in Korea. It felt like meeting an old friend in a foreign land, so my steps moved naturally.
Thud-thud-thud―!
The practice room was located away from the concert hall, and since the concert hadn’t started yet, the performance continued. The door was slightly open, and before I knew it, my body reacted. At that moment, I saw a young man sitting in front of the piano, crying.
“Hmm.”
Tears were dripping between his rapidly moving fingers. The young man looked like someone who was angry about something.
The Wanderer Fantasy required great emotional restraint. It was one of Schubert’s most technically challenging piano pieces, requiring burning passion and continuous patience due to its high level of difficulty.
Moreover, the young man’s posture was wrong. The moment the performance ended.
“Is there something urgent?”
The young man flinched and turned his head at my voice. He looked at me as if he had seen a ghost, probably not even realizing I had entered.
“Sorry, the door was open, so I came in without thinking. But why are you hitting the keys like that?”
“What does that mean?”
The young man’s tearful eyes were still filled with confusion. It was probably because an Asian boy was speaking fluent Russian and behaving confidently.
“Like someone with an urgent appointment, your tempo speeds up. Especially when you enter the second movement, you ruin the most important part, losing the rhythm that runs throughout the piece. And what’s with your right hand? If someone saw it, they’d think you got hurt boxing. It doesn’t look like you have tendonitis.”
Before the young man could say anything, I approached the piano.
Consider yourself lucky. I corrected the young man’s crooked posture by tapping his back and even sat next to him. The young man looked bewildered at the sudden turn of events.
“You handle the pedaling. From now on, you will play with your left hand only. Put your right hand on the back of my hand and follow the feel. How about it?”
What was this sound? The young man’s eyes seemed to say. “Shall we start?”
