Bells and Drum by Himring

Bells and Drum

Features my recurrent OFC, the Telerin flute player Solosimpe.
(It is not relevant here that she is Maglor's wife).

‘Listen,’ Salgant remembers Solosimpe saying.

She walked over and settled herself in front of the big drum. She started slowly. Ta-dum-ta. And then she worked up the sound, louder and faster, until it rose in a big wave that filled the room and Salgant’s head. It lifted him up. He wanted to move. He wanted to dance, jump, do great things. Yes, even he, Salgant—the small deprecatory voice in the back of his back was drowned out by the sound of the beating drum. Then the wave receded again, slowed. The room was silent, although Salgant’s thoughts were still reverberating with the last of the drum beat.

‘Now, listen again,’ said Solosimpe.

She walked over to the wall where there was an arrangement of gongs and bells. Starting with a gentle touch, she produced an entirely different sound. It swelled out gradually, unhurriedly from under her fingers, but continued to unfold, a slow solemn sequence of sounds that calmed and seemed to open up spaces in Salgant’s head, settling him back in his skin and clearing his eyes. He noticed the way the light was falling into the room.

‘Wonderful,’ he said reverently. ‘I thought your instrument was the flute!’

‘Thank you,’ said Solosimpe. ‘I was not trying to impress you, though! There are others here that can play these better than I. I was trying to demonstrate the difference between the moods, how music can match itself to what the occasion offers and enhance it. You knew that already, of course, and you can do both on any instrument, including the flute, including your harp. But it is easier to hear the difference on the drum and the bells.’

Gently, thinks Salgant, playing his harp on the morning of Tarnin Austa, letting his harp notes ring out softly. It is time for the bells now.

Later today, it will be time for the drum.

Chapter End Notes

Inspired by a snippet of Chinese Taoist theory that I had come across, but I have focused more on the musical than on the philosophical side of things here!

The piece also owes a lot to the lovely sound images of Gondolin created in my head by the series of prompt posts for Gondolin week this year.