Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 139
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 139
Johann rubs his back.
“Haven’t you gotten too rough while I was away, sis?”
“Want to get hit more?”
As Johann shuts his mouth, Sophia calms her racing heart.
‘He has a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend.’
The moment of their first meeting that comes to mind whenever she sees Johann.
“So what brings you here on a weekday?”
The day Johann comes for lessons is the weekend, Sunday.
Except for when he came recently to get advice about chant restoration, he hasn’t broken this pattern in the past 4 years.
“It wouldn’t be to listen to chants in the piano room…”
“That’s right? Wait. Relax your fist.”
“Explain properly. I know you have an audio room at your house.”
Johann’s audio room, decorated with speakers and sound equipment more expensive than Father Esa-Pekka Salonen’s audio room.
“To properly understand the genre I’m trying to challenge this time, I needed a space this high and wide.”
This space designed to make sound resonate widely and loudly like a cathedral.
He came to feel that sensation that even the most expensive speakers couldn’t provide.
By the way, he got permission from Esa-Pekka Salonen who went fishing.
“Genre?”
“Combining Gregorian chant and rock.”
More precisely, combining medieval chants like Gregorian chant with rock.
“…Are you insane?”
He was crazy when they first met, but now he seems completely insane.
With her limited knowledge, it’s an absolutely impossible combination.
“If you’re going to do that, you should go to a cathedral instead!”
“It’s a personal matter.”
He couldn’t borrow a sacred space like a cathedral for such work.
“You’re only sensible at times like this.”
“Haha.”
Sophia furrows her brow as the sudden topic gives her a headache.
‘If it were a combination with classical music, there’d be no need for such worries.’
Chants that numerous orchestras frequently perform.
In classical music, chants can be considered a genre.
Like how rock and R&B are genres within popular music.
That’s why she becomes curious.
“What do you think chants are?”
How does Johann, who has tremendous talent in both classical music and rock, think about chants?
She suddenly becomes curious.
“To combine the two, you need to know their fundamentals.”
Can you combine things without knowing about each other?
To this, Johann answers immediately as if he doesn’t need to think.
“The greatest music made with the instrument called the human voice.”
Music that first proved that the human voice is also an instrument.
Music that made humans into instruments solely for the purpose of praising the Lord.
This is something he learned while restoring chants this time.
“Huh? Hmm? Wait.”
Suddenly his mind starts tingling.
‘Why did composers of that time treat the human voice like an instrument?’
It’s not like there were no instruments back then.
“Hmm…!”
Johann stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“To ask!”
To the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
He could easily find out by accessing the library, but first he wants to know what the clergy think.
And the knowledge they possess.
“Crazy! I’m coming with you!”
A heart-pounding event that suddenly emerged from daily life.
She too was just an 18-year-old young girl.
* * *
Click!
In a small room with a bed and desk, Cardinal Levada, who was locking a suitcase full of luggage, looks at the young priest.
“Who came?”
“Sir Johann Jefferson has come to visit.”
“He wouldn’t have come to see off this old servant…”
Cardinal Levada is heading to the Vatican today.
For reasons of personal safety and such, very few people within the archdiocese know about this, so Johann couldn’t have known and come.
While he’s away, the bishop will act as diocesan administrator to handle the affairs of the Los Angeles Province.
“Did he state his reason?”
“Well, that’s…”
“It’s fine, tell me.”
“…Phew. He’s curious about why chants from before Gregory minimized instruments, why they used voices as instruments. And… why the Catholic Church created chants. I’m sorry!”
The young priest makes the sign of the cross immediately after speaking.
The question itself seems like distrust toward Catholicism.
But Cardinal Levada’s reaction was different.
“Oho…”
‘This is a good phenomenon!’
As such questions accumulate and get resolved, one comes to find the Lord.
‘The angel sent by the Lord has such questions!’
What a moving thing this is.
“Let’s go.”
He had to hurry and resolve Johann’s questions.
That was the duty the Lord had given him.
“Where is he now?”
“He’s in the cathedral.”
Pause!
“…Wasn’t today the day for chant practice?”
“That’s correct.”
“Haha!”
The timing is good too.
Cardinal Levada quickened his steps.
The high and wide, solemn cathedral that demands reverence.
Da-da-da-da-da-da!
Suddenly the piano accompaniment changes to something lively.
-I Will Follow him-!
The back of the conductor priest fluttering his sleeves while conducting the choir, and the smiling faces of the choir clapping and moving in rhythm speak out.
‘Isn’t it fun? This is the kind of joy Catholicism has!’
Near the entrance, Sophia sitting beside him also sways her shoulders.
‘As expected, the cathedral is art.’
The greatest art and architectural art of Catholicism.
Even without microphones or any amplification equipment, their songs and hearts reach clearly.
The question ‘How?’ arises.
‘I think I’d know if I accessed an architect…’
There have been several architects he’s accessed so far, but none of them designed this kind of structure.
Swoosh!
“Quite liberating, isn’t it?”
Johann looks to the side and chuckles.
“I’ve already experienced this kind of sales approach before.”
Sophia’s father Esa-Pekka Salonen, and ‘the tiger of the keyboard, Martha Argerich’ had drawn him into classical music in that way.
“That’s how I came to properly learn classical music.”
“Oh.”
Cardinal Levada looks at Sophia who has stiffened up.
“Ah, that’s…”
“Are you Catholic?”
“Pro, Protestant.”
“Oh, you’re a sister from the neighboring community. May God’s grace be with you, sister.”
“Th, thank you!”
It’s a blessing from a cardinal no less.
Even though their ways of believing are different, she can’t help but be joyful.
“You said you came because you had questions.”
“Yes. But I didn’t expect Your Eminence to come out.”
A clergyman with enough knowledge to answer his curiosity would have been sufficient, but suddenly the final boss had appeared.
“I probably know best.”
“Is that so?”
“To reach this position, there’s a lot to learn… That’s why even now I study for two hours every evening. Haha!”
Cardinal is not a position you can reach simply by having long tenure.
That level of ability is required.
The same goes for bishops.
“Because it is the Lord’s will?”
“Because it is the Lord’s will.”
To always guard against laziness and strive forward.
Cardinal Levada grabs the chair in front.
“First… there are several reasons and hypotheses for why instruments were minimized in Gregorian and earlier ancient chants, and one of them is this.”
Because they were persecuted at that time.
Flinch!
Johann looks at Cardinal Levada.
“During the early church period, due to Rome’s oppression and persecution, it wasn’t easy to openly sing praises and play instruments.”
That’s why they made the human voice into an instrument.
So they could praise anywhere, anytime.
“But much earlier than that, instruments weren’t necessary.”
A time when calling God’s name itself was praise.
Instruments weren’t particularly needed. His name spoken aloud by humans, His name swallowed inwardly – all of it was praise and hymns.
“Then, through contact and various exchanges with the music of Greece and Rome of that time, we speculate that the foundation of the chants we hear today was created.”
In 313 AD, when the Roman emperor officially recognized Catholicism, it was able to develop into the Catholicism of today.
“Then churches sprang up like mushrooms after rain, and they all began to cry out praises in their own ways.”
It became so excessive that Apostle Paul even gave warnings.
What then shall we say, brothers?
When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
“It was to the extent that he had to say this, but anyway, whether because of that persecution or not, we speculate that even after such exchanges, they were cautious about using instruments excessively.”
For fear of being persecuted again.
What started then has continued to this day.
Going through transitional periods that made people frown, periods when it was used as a means of showing off.
“Hmm.”
“There’s this hypothesis, and there’s also the hypothesis that instruments weren’t used at first because they were things the devil transmitted to humans.”
Things born from the hands of those who weren’t clergy blessed by the Lord. Things that both please and harm humans.
Therefore, to counter this, they refined the voices of clergy who served God’s will into instruments to praise God and drive away demons – that hypothesis.
“Isn’t it interesting?”
Words that would be endlessly interesting to a 16-year-old boy.
Johann’s eyes light up as if agreeing.
“I don’t really know what the truth is.”
Even if there are scriptures, since we didn’t live in that era.
Since there might be omissions.
We can’t help but not know what the single truth is.
We just continue to study and research to find out.
‘I see.’
Johann nods and asks his final question.
“Then why did Catholicism create chants?”
“For evangelization.”
This can be stated definitively.
“It was created to bring even one more lamb, one more believer into the Lord’s embrace.”
At that time, chants were a means to captivate the masses like modern pop or rap.
“R, rap?”
“Of course.”
Did they think there were no songs back then?
“No matter how many flowery words or historical materials you attach, it was ultimately for evangelization.”
Songs that people of that time could easily accept and enjoy.
They created them filled with religious colors.
“You could also call it black gospel or Christian metal.”
“Wow… is it okay for you to say that?”
As Sophia also nods repeatedly, Cardinal Levada smiles warmly.
“Because that’s the truth.”
Because it’s the truth, he’s confident.
‘I suppose I don’t need to mention that the donations from a single believer are directly connected to survival.’
For now, it’s time to see and hear only the fun things.
“Hmm…”
‘It’s similar to classical music.’
‘The tiger of the keyboard, Martha Argerich’ had said ‘Classical music was the latest music of its time.’
‘And it was a representative symbol of the nobles’ classism and elitist ideology.’
Not just music, but art including fine arts, architecture, and fashion.
They used it as proof that you and we are different from birth.
‘Well, this doesn’t matter.’
“Pop, rap…”
-vi-chi-mae pa-scha-li
The chant changes.
From joy to holiness, and then again to sublimity.
‘Praise the Sacrifice of Pascha?’
“Praise the Sacrifice of Pascha. It’s one of the representative chants of Gregorian chant.”
It’s a chant presumed to be the work of Wipo, an 11th-century priest from the Burgundy Region.
“Shall I tell you a secret? That chant was used in a movie made in a country called Korea. I heard it’s going to be released soon.”
I heard this while talking with Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan of Korea.
“Do you know Korea?”
“How could I not?”
From the Catholic perspective, Joseon was a very mysterious country. Korea is the country that inherited that Joseon, which could only be explained by God’s will.
“Joseon was a country where people sought, believed in, and acted according to God’s word on their own, even though no Western priest had ever evangelized or missionized there.”
“Ah.”
I didn’t know that much.
“That’s why they probably didn’t know chants either. If they had known, perhaps Joseon’s own chants would have been created.”
Like the Mozárabe chant of Spain, the Sarum chant of Salisbury, the Ambrosian chant of Milan, and the old Roman chant (Cantus Romanus).
“Since they too were brothers who believed in and followed God.”
Surely God would have given them talent for that.
“Just like how Wipo, a priest from a humble monastery, composed chants.”
Perhaps if priest Wipo had been familiar with various instruments and had heard many chants from other regions, he might have left behind more diverse chants.
“Hmm.”
‘Would that really be the case?’
A small doubt arises.
‘If that were the case… what would he think if he heard today’s music?’
If he encountered modern music that has grown so much, with countless instruments invented and numerous genres of music created and spread.
‘I can find out, I suppose.’
Johann closes his eyes and enters the library.
“Wipo, the composer of Praise the Sacrifice of Pascha.”
Swoosh!
From far away, a nearly pure white beige-colored orb flies over.
‘Oh, it’s big?’
An orb slightly larger than Josef II’s.
In the 11th century.
In that age of barbarism.
A brilliantly shining orb. So dazzling that one might hesitate for fear of contaminating it, Johann carefully catches it with both hands and pushes it into his chest.
Then…
“I think I can do it?”
A combination of Gregorian chant and rock.
A possibility close to the correct answer flashed through his mind.
* * *
‘What is he thinking about?’
Johann with his eyes closed, lost in thought.
What kind of realization did he gain during our conversation that made him immediately fall into such contemplation?
What will he say when those eyes open?
I’m filled with anticipation.
That’s when it happened.
His trembling eyes open and his topaz-like pupils shine brilliantly.
“Excuse me, may I use the piano over there?”
“…You may.”
It happened to be break time.
“Thank you. Sister, help me out. I need you.”
“Huh? What, what did you say?!”
“Just wait there.”
He hurriedly runs out and comes back carrying an electric guitar and a small amp, then heads to the piano next to the choir platform.
Sophia and Cardinal Levada follow behind him.
Looking at the puzzled Sophia, Johann suddenly asked.
“The song we just heard, can you play Praise the Sacrifice of Pascha?”
“…I suppose so?”
Although it’s a chant without piano accompaniment, she could certainly play it.
“Could you play it 1.26 times faster?”
“Hmm… I’ll try.”
“Yeah.”
“The outlet is over there.”
“Thank you.”
What on earth is he trying to do?
Cardinal Levada’s eyes shine even brighter.
Meanwhile, Johann, who had connected his guitar to the amp plugged into the outlet, looks at Sophia.
She places her hands on the piano. Soon, ‘Praise the Sacrifice of Pascha’ begins to be played on the piano.
‘Oh?’
The piano spits out the lyrics.
It makes one naturally recite the lyrics in their head.
‘Praise the sacri-fice of Pas-cha…’
Zing!
“Hm?!”
Suddenly, the sound of a guitar joining the performance.
Not just Cardinal Levada.
The priest who had performed earlier, and the choir members who had been moving their lips, all urgently look at Johann.
Suddenly, goosebumps rising all over their bodies make their eyes widen.
It steals the will of their ears.
The sounds layer.
The sound of modern instruments joins the great and holy chant.
Modern instruments softly and sharply penetrate the praise of Christ’s resurrection, becoming holy together.
It leads their hearts.
What on earth is this?
“Oh God…!”
Cardinal Levada could only cry out to God.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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