Viola creates an interesting dynamic when the story begins, she speaks of her father as being a world-renowned cellist. A man that people would flock to take pictures with, listen to him play, and take classes from. He all of his children to play and it was a house full or prodigies. The love that her father had for her mother was like poetry. She reminisces about when her mother was pregnant with all of their children her dad would take his cello to the hospital and he would play in her room and people would gather outside just so they could listen to him play and experience the joy and passion that he had with every stroke of his strings. What Viola realizes later in life after her mother dies and her father slips into a deep depression is that the person she admired the most was also the person who hurt her the most. When her mother unexpectedly dies, and Viola is left to care for her father she takes solace in making money the only way that she knows how by playing her violin in the subway. But when her father eventually tells her that no respectable violinist would ever play in the subway she is forced to see her father for exactly who he is. Many years later when she becomes a mother unfortunately the cycle of emotional abuse continues when she forces her daughter to play the violin. But it is when her daughter reminds her that she is not her father and tells her how she makes her feel that Viola realizes and comes to terms with her childhood. A beautiful story of the love that a father has for his wife and his children that manifests itself through the playing of music into a physical and emotional abusive situation. But as Viola learns with therapy and the passing of time it is possible to heal these wounds and become successful human beings.
Heartstrings
(Viola, a beautiful woman opens a folder and arranges music on a stand. The then hums as she flips through a few of the pages refamiliarizing herself with the melody.) My father was a doctor. Not a Doctor of Medicine or a Doctor in Education, he was a Doctor of Music. It almost felt like we were the Jacksons when I was a child. (Laughs, does a little dance of the time.) There were even moments when we would dance like them. But we were different. Our father was a musician, but he was a classical musician, trained. He played the cello. He was what they called a classical cellist. (Beat, smile) When I was a kid, I would say that, and it just sounds like the equivalent of a heart surgeon. Someone who has the ability to create absolute magic, to save lives by the sounds that he is able to thread together, and for my father it was playing the cello. He would always tell us the story of when our mother was pregnant with all of us, he would play to her belly for hours a day. When she went into labor and was in the room waiting for us to come into the world, he would talk about how everyone on the floor would come down and listen as he played for her until we made our entry into the world. He believed, he truly believed that he was going to create brilliant musicians and amazing people by incorporating music into our lives before we were truly old enough to appreciate it. Sometimes I think of myself how much my mother's womb was such a safe space but that when I heard my father play it did something to me. It made me want to be like him. (She picks up her violin, it is as precious as gold, and she begins to play.)