Response #1 The Cellist (page 1-44)

The cellist witnesses 22 people killed by a shell while waiting in line to buy bread. He decides to play Albinoni’s Adagio on his cello at the same time every day for twenty two days. One Adagio for each victim. He will play while sitting in the crater made by the shell, in an open square, target to shelling and sniper fire.

I believe the cellist plays every day because the music restores his hope. There are some days when even the music cannot make him feel better about his beloved city that is falling to pieces around him, and these are the days when he plays the Adagio. I don’t know why the Adagio never fails to make him feel better. Even on the worst day he can be certain that after playing it, his hope will be restored. The cellist thinks that “each time he’s forced to the Adagio it becomes harder, and he knows its effect is finite.” I think the reason it becomes harder and harder for him to play the Adagio is because he knows that every time he has to play it, it’s because all his hope has left. He is desperate to find a new way to restore hope, but cannot find one. “There are only a certain number of Adagios left in him, and he will not recklessly spend this precious currency.” Why, then does he decide to play an Adagio every day for twenty two days if “he won’t be sure he has enough Adagios left.”? His Adagios are numbered because he only has so much belief and faith in mankind left in him. Why does he play? Does he play for himself? Does he play for the people who have died? Or for the people who haven’t died? What does he hope to accomplish? Maybe he plays because it is all he knows how to do and he wants to do something. Maybe he does not expect to accomplish anything.