Short Story, Song, Theme Prompt, Writing Prompts

Only One Way

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge –
to write a story, poem, etc. using the
prompts shown below.  Here’s my response,
based on my experience with pedantic piano teachers.

Image by Me & Copilot

“You changed the fingering on the third movement.”

It wasn’t a question. Maestro Hollmann stood at the piano’s curve, arms folded, his judgment arriving before his words did.

Kristina kept her hands poised over the keys. “It felt more natural. The phrasing actually breathes that way.”

“Breathes.” He repeated the word as though she’d said something faintly embarrassing. “Cortot fingered that passage in 1923. I have taught it the same way for thirty-one years. It does not need to breathe.”

“Cortot himself revised his own editions. Multiple times.”

Hollmann’s expression didn’t shift. That was the thing about him – disagreement never landed, it simply deflected. “What Cortot did privately is irrelevant. What I teach is the method. The method works.”

Kristina looked up. “For whom?”

The room tightened.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It works for you. It worked for the students who are built like you, who hear like you.” She kept her voice level, almost gentle. “I’m not you, Maestro.”

“No,” he said quietly. “You’re becoming something worse. Someone who trusts feeling over discipline.”

“Someone who trusts herself.”

He moved toward the door; today’s conversation for him was finished. “When you play ‘Nocturn’ correctly next week …. the way Cortot intended it to be played …. we’ll say no more about it.”

Kristina turned back to the keys. She played the passage her way …. unhurried, the phrase opening like a hand releasing something it had held too long.

Hollmann paused at the door. Something crossed his face. Not softness, exactly.

A flicker.

Then it was gone, sealed over, and so was he.

Kristina played it again, her way.

NAR©2025

Nancy’s Notes: Reena has given us several word prompts to work with; I have chosen to explore dogmatism (emphasizing the rigid, unquestioning adherence to one’s own beliefs), cognitive rigidity (a psychological term for inflexible thinking patterns), and doctrinaire mindset (stressing the strict, almost ideological enforcement of one’s views).

This is Chopin’s “Nocturn” in E flat Major, Op.9 No. 2 played by Alfred Cortot

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #428

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.



23 thoughts on “Only One Way”

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