Cantabile 4-- — Crack

Elias turned. His eyes were the color of old piano keys, yellowed and cracked. "If I play it, the note will hear itself. And once heard, it cannot be unplayed."

He set the bow to the strings.

The first three movements had been difficult. The Cantabile 1 required him to play a single note for ninety seconds while slowly detuning the string—a falling that never landed. The Cantabile 2 was played entirely on the wood of the bow, not the hair. The Cantabile 3 had no pitch at all, only rhythm: the heartbeat of a dying man, accelerating. Cantabile 4-- Crack

Ilona began to cry. She did not know why. The tears came not from sadness but from recognition —the way a dream recalls something you never knew you remembered. Elias turned

This is what I was afraid of, Elias thought, but the thought was not his own. It belonged to the music. The music was afraid of itself. And once heard, it cannot be unplayed

"Music," he said.