The Cellist's Notebook

by Kittie Lambton

  When Nana was not teaching piano lessons, Emily returned to her cello practice. Nana said that her progress in learning the cello was very good, and after the first week Nana had shown her how to place the bow on the strings, using just ‘a half bow,’ which meant that instead of her hand being at the heel of the bow, it rested half way along. This technique helped Emily get used to using the bow on the strings and developed the stamina required to practise the ‘up’ and ‘down’ bowing correctly.

  Nana shared her love of music recordings and introduced Emily to many different cello and classical music composers. Emily listened to all the great works, such as the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, the Bach Cello Suites and Beethoven Cello Sonatas. They listened to the recorded orchestral and chamber music through the open music room windows, during the afternoon when they were both outside in the garden. Nana Rose enjoyed sharing stories of her childhood, growing up in a happy home with her parents and life with her brother Leni before the war.

  Nana taught Emily to play the C and G major scales and played them through on the piano to assist with her intonation so she would learn to play them in tune. The routine and structure for Emily’s cello lessons were to start with learning the scales, followed by some technique exercises and then working through two or three melodies that she had picked out from a selection that her Nana had played to her previously. Emily would often take the cello up to her room to continue her practice between the lesson times.

  Emily dreamt of cellos when she slept and started to draw them at the kitchen table instead of always drawing costumes and dresses. She would close her eyes and think of the beautiful melodies, of concert halls and duet performances, of the life of a cellist touring the world.

  One day when she was laying on her bed, daydreaming wistfully, Nana Rose could be heard playing the baby grand piano downstairs in the music room. Emily noticed that she was only playing the right-hand melody. She listened intently waiting for the left-hand bass part to be added with the right hand but the music would stop in the same place each time and was only played with one hand. Emily listened for some time before her Nana stopped playing and then she ran downstairs to find her Nana getting up from the piano stool and closing the lid. ‘Nana, why did you not play the music fully with both hands?’ Emily asked. Her Nana led her out into the kitchen and settled at the kitchen table with Babu at her side.

  ‘I remember your Great Uncle Leni playing the repeated melody that I was just playing. It was his own music composition. He used to play it on the cello, and I would accompany him on the piano. I would tell him that I thought it would be a major hit in the classical music world and that he should publish it,’ she chuckled. ‘It’s very distinctive don’t you think?’

  ‘Yes it is. Nana, where is the music for it?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ her Nana responded, ‘I looked on the shelves and couldn’t find it. It must have disappeared, it was such a long time ago,’ she said. Nana Rose stroked Babu and kissed his nose.

  Emily jumped up and said, ‘Nana, would you like a cup of tea?’ Slightly taken aback with Emily’s haste and sudden rushing about, her Nana said, ‘Oh yes dear, that would be very nice, thank you.’

  Emily opened the Aga plate lid, filled the kettle and made her Nana a pot of tea. She chopped a thin slice of plum cake and placed the teapot, teacup and cake on a tray and brought it to the table for her Nana to savour. Leaving her Nana to enjoy her afternoon tea, Emily disappeared upstairs to the attic where the cellos had been stored for so many years. She could not contain her excitement as she entered and grabbed the leather satchel, she had discovered that first day she had ventured into the room.

  Emily took the satchel to her bedroom, dusted it down with a towel and took out the music notebook inside. This must be the music that Nana was playing, she thought to herself.

  Emily returned to the kitchen where her Nana was busy washing up.

  ‘Nana, can you come into the sitting room?’ Emily called from the door. As her Nana walked into the room, she saw the leather satchel on the coffee table. She recognised it immediately. Sitting down on the sofa, she reached forward and gently touched each of the initials on the case. She opened the satchel and pulled out the manuscript notebook from inside. Delicately and slowly she opened the notebook and read the first few bars of the piano and cello composition. Tears silently streamed down her face and she brushed them away and smiled lovingly at her granddaughter who was sitting, eyes wide open and sparkling bright.

  ‘Is this the music Nana? The satchel was behind the chest of drawers in the attic.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ Nana replied. ‘Let’s go and play it.’

  They both went into the music room and Nana played the unfinished composition without a note out of place on the piano. Throughout the summer months, Emily hummed and whistled the tune in the bath, shower and outside in the garden. When she took her skipping rope outside, she skipped in time to the melody. There were a number of music pieces in the little notebook, but this was by far her favourite and, as it turned out, the favourite of her Nana Rose.

  Emily continued to lug the cello up and down the stairs throughout her summer holiday practising, sometimes twice daily, but only for short periods in order to rest her fingers which were a little sore until she got used to pressing the strings down on the fingerboard. What she enjoyed most was learning little hornpipes with her Nana playing as a duet with her. On the telephone to her mother, Emily spoke of her daily progress and her parents agreed that she could have cello lessons following the summer and would look at the adverts for teachers in the local music shop in Norwich as soon as they arrived home.

  On the last day, before the long drive back, Emily awoke to her Nana playing the piano downstairs and to the happy little tune discovered in the notebook. She lay on her bed with her eyes open, looking out to the oak tree from under the open gap in the sash window. The centuries old branches swayed in the gentle breeze as if moving to the soft lilting sounds of the piano.

  At midday the family arrived, entering noisily into the house with Emily greeting everyone with a warm hug. The whole family were tired from the long drive and Lizzie sat straight down to drink the freshly prepared lemonade in the kitchen.

  ‘So how did you get on?’ Emily asked her big sister.

  ‘It was amazing, Lucille was great fun and we went all over the place visiting every gallery and museum. We walked our feet off. We went to the Louvre, the Pompidou Centre, Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower and we had lots of picnics so we didn’t have to spend too much money on eating out. It was good because Lucille’s parents are really laidback so they just let us travel on our own and her mum prepared lunches for us so we could sit in the lovely parks there.’

  ‘I hope you were safe and stuck together at all times,’ Lizzie’s mum asked in a slightly worried tone.

  ‘Yes, we got on really well and it was great because Lucille travels quite a lot on public transport so I was able to use my French skills to buy tickets and find out where we needed to go by asking for directions, so I really think I improved my French and by the end of it I was speaking quite fluently. I think I understand more than I can actually speak though.’ Lizzie was very mature for her age and looked much older in age than she actually was so people tended to treat her more like an adult.

  ‘Where did you stay and what was it like?’ Nana Rose asked as she prepared lunch for the family. ‘The French have such great style. I love their clothes and love of art and their aesthetics,’ she said.

  ‘We stayed in their house which is north of Paris on the outskirts. It’s really easy to get into the centre but it was nice to be away from the busy streets. We spent some time at Lucille’s grandfather’s house which wasn’t far from their own home. In fact, we cycled around the parks and visited his house a few times. Lucille is very close to her grandfather and often her mum would cook a meal and she would carry it round to his home on the front of her bike so we spent a lot of time cycling
over there. The whole family are lovely people, you would really like them Nana.’

  ‘I’m sure I would!’ Nana replied, serving the Caesar salad and settling down to eat lunch. ‘So when is Lucille coming to stay with you all?’ Nana asked. ‘October holidays for just over a fortnight,’ Lizzie answered.

  Lizzie’s mum asked politely, ‘Nana Rose, we were thinking of spending the first week taking Lucille to the North Norfolk Coast for walks along the beach and to show her Norwich and take her to the castle, the cathedral and museums but thought that the second week, we could come and bring her up here. Would that be ok?’

  ‘I’d be delighted,’ Nana said. ‘Does she like horse riding? Maybe we can organise a couple of mornings taking the girls out riding on a trek?’

  ‘That would be so cool,’ Lizzie and Emily answered in unison delighted at the idea.

  ‘I’m sure she would love it!’ Lizzie replied. ‘She plays the flute too so I’ll ask her to bring it along and I’m sure she would enjoy the fresh Cumbrian countryside air.’

  ‘We can take her on one of the motorboats for the day on the Norfolk Broads too,’ Emily’s father added. Bruce loved being on the water, no matter what type of boat, whether a sailboat or motorboat. He knew the Broads like the back of his hand and often sailed with his friend Tom. ‘Do you think Lucille would be interested in learning about the waterways? Maybe we could find a good spot for drawing and take along a picnic perhaps if the weather is nice?’ Bruce nudged playfully into Emily who was busy serving lasagna and seemingly lost in thought.

  ‘An adventure holiday the first week and relaxing in the Cumbrian country house the second week sounds like a good plan,’ she nodded. The family continued to chatter tucking heartily into their meal following the long drive. During dessert, Emily announced, ‘Well I have a surprise for you all. After you have eaten your lunch, I’ll show you!’

  Excitedly the family gathered in the music room. Emily and her Nana sat down to play the cellos and performed a short duet together.

  ‘I have been learning the whole summer and I know a few tunes now!’ she declared.

  Her parents marvelled at the beautiful sound Nana and Emily made together.

  ‘It’s so lovely to see the cellos being played again,’ Emily’s Dad reflected, knowing there were cellos in the house somewhere that belonged to Uncle Leni whose disappearance was never discussed during his own upbringing due to the heartbreak felt within the family.

  After playing two pieces, they ended their performance and as they were putting the cellos away, Nana Rose announced to everyone, ‘Emily, I am so pleased that you are learning this precious instrument. I know you don’t have a cello of your own, so I would like to give you this one to take home to practise and to keep up the good work of learning each day.’ Emily could not believe it and hugged her Nana tightly. ‘Look after it and bring it back with you when you visit so we can play together again soon.’ Emily was beyond excited and swore to herself that she would dust it and safely store it in the case and take good care of it. She knew she would practise every day and looked forward to being able to play cello pieces with her Nana accompanying her on the piano.

  As the family departed, the cello case had to be laid across the knees of both Lizzie and Emily all the way home on the journey. Not wanting to ask to borrow the music notebook from the house, Emily had taken photos, using her iPad, of her favourite melody and hoped that she would be able to play the music herself to show her Nana next time she visited. The family drove away and Emily turned to wave out of the back window. She saw Babu, who had wandered down to the paddock to see them off.

  Chapter 7

  It was not until the October holidays that Lucille arrived to spend what was just over a fortnight for her French exchange at the Peters’ home in Norfolk. Picking her up from the airport Emily was under strict instructions to talk only in English so that Lucille could practise the language. Happily, she was quite fluent already and Emily was the first to run into the house showing her each room to make her feel welcome and at home.

  The fifteen-year-old friends were already close, and they soon hung out together in Lizzie’s bedroom listening to music and watching TV. Their mum had prepared a detailed itinerary for their plans over the course of the trip and first up they went to the North Norfolk coastline for a long walk. Driving into Burnham Overy Staithe, the family walked along the narrow path with the tide out and saw all sorts of birds and wildlife. They had taken along their small sketchbooks and drew the landscape with the boats sunken into the mud. There was a multitude of all kinds of birds busily searching for food in the falling tide. The beautiful Norfolk Broads were a great place to see otters and kingfishers, so Emily went sailing with her Dad whilst the girls sketched from the shore.

  Walking at dusk along the pebble beach near the small village of Kelling, the family were delighted to see a seal pop its head up out of the water as they were strolling along. Emily whistled the tune she loved hearing at her Nana’s house and the seal bobbed up for a couple of minutes before diving down into the water for about five minutes to feed, before returning back to the surface again. Lucille was sure that it was the tune that kept the seal from swimming away, so joined in to see if the seal would stay longer with them. The seal kept returning to the surface, but it was the girls who needed to head back before it got dark, so they waved the seal goodbye.

  One day they took a trip into the city and Emily headed over to The Classic Cafe with her mother whilst the other girls went shopping. She loved hearing the classical music that played as backing music in the cafe and the wide beams across the ceiling. They met up to go to the cinema that was not far away and travelled back later in the day.

  Emily practiced her cello most days and one day Lucille came into the music room and asked her about the instrument.

  ‘In France we say, ‘violoncelle’. You are playing very well,’ she said, clapping in appreciation.

  Emily had been attending weekly lessons and loved learning with her cello teacher, Lotte. She showed her the G major scale which uses the same notes going up and going down; she learned the A minor melodic scale which has notes that go up differently to the notes going down.

  ‘I am trying to play this tune,’ Emily showed Lucille the iPad with the music she had photographed back at her Nana’s home. ‘It is quite difficult, but I can play the first part. I do not have the ending because the music was never finished, but I love the melody on the cello.’

  ‘Why was the music unfinished?’ Lucille enquired.

  Emily explained the story of how she had discovered the cello in the attic at her Nana Rose’s house; how she had found an old satchel with a music notebook inside and also explained why the music composition had not been completed. Lucille went upstairs and returned with her flute and tried playing the little tune herself. The register was higher but with the same notes, and the melody was still as catchy and memorable. Lucille was able to sight read the music quite easily. Lucille took photos of Emily with her cello and videoed them both playing the little melody so that she could show her friends and keep a record. She had to prepare a presentation of her visit so she took her camera everywhere.

  The family travelled up to see Nana Rose for the second week of the French exchange. Emily’s mother drove the three girls up on the long drive and they took a slight detour so that Lucille could see the beautiful variety of countryside in England as they weaved their way towards Cumbria. Emily’s favourite was the Peak District with its purple heather adorning the fells and dark peat soil darkening the landscape. Lucille loved the tiny villages and the changes of the terrain. The family sang along to songs from the radio and they played ‘I spy’ in French and English to test their vocabulary.

  Nana was part way through a piano lesson when the family arrived, so they settled in the kitchen until she was finished for the day. The autumnal months brought a change to the garden and an assortment of new fruits and colours. There was always a stiff breeze up on top
of the hill at that time of the year so the front door had to remain closed and Babu preferred to be inside apart from joining Emily when she went out for her walks around the garden and up to the oak tree.

  ‘Bienvenue,’ Nana Rose beamed welcoming Lucille. Nana Rose spoke fluent French and felt an immediate connection with Lucille as she also liked cooking and Lucille loved baking. This was a time to exchange recipes and Lucille was very keen to cook on the Aga and prepare food for the family. The larder contained plenty of ingredients to work with and Lucille also took delight in looking through all the items in the well-stocked fridge to see what was available before flicking through Nana Rose’s huge collection of cookery books. With the girls stroking Babu in his chair, Lucille took lots of photos and said that it would be a good idea to create a blog of her visit for her school project. Nana Rose agreed to playing the backing music on the piano for any video clips and Lucille would collate the photos from her visit. Emily was tasked with taking photos of the garden and Lizzie and Lucille would create a dialogue in French and English.

  ‘A busy bee’s work is never done,’ Nana proclaimed, her favourite saying, as the girls gathered round the table to set out their plans.