TOM CIPULLO (b. 1956)Long Island Songs (2005)

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Jane Manning
Keyword(s):  
Family Background ◽  
Long Island ◽  
Italian American ◽  
Full Capacity ◽  
American Heritage ◽  
The Voice

This chapter examines Tom Cipullo’s Long Island Songs (2005). Cipullo’s Italian-American heritage, combined with a family background in jazz, makes for a potently individual brand of unabashed romanticism. His intimate understanding of the voice has enabled him to mine a vein of luxuriant lyricism without exceeding bounds of taste. His harmonies are richly sensual and the music flows freely through constantly changing metres, capturing fluctuating moods effortlessly. Arching phrases exploit the voice’s full capacity and highlight the sensuousness of language and timbre. These texts by William Heyen, set with meticulous care, prove to be ideal vehicles for his musical vision. Every nuance is calibrated, yet the effect is entirely spontaneous. One is sometimes reminded of the great French song composers, such as Debussy, in the use of sudden tender, floated pianissimi.

The Italian American Heritage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pellegrino D’Acierno
Keyword(s):  
Italian American ◽  
American Heritage

The Reciprocal Classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-226
Author(s):  
Roseanne Giannini Quinn
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Italian American ◽  
American Heritage ◽  
Life Work

The essay presents a comprehensive overview of Diane di Prima’s life work as reflecting her Italian American heritage. The essay links di Prima’s multicultural heritage to other Beat texts and includes numerous examples of how she uses di Prima’s work to teach writing and literature to traditional and non-traditional college students, many of them first generation.

DAVID BRUCE (b. 1970)That Time With You (2013)

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-23
Author(s):  
Jane Manning
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
American Heritage ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Breath Control

This chapter addresses US-born British composer David Bruce’s That Time With You (2013). This impressive cycle retains clear stylistic traces of Bruce’s American heritage. His basic idiom is tonal and strongly grounded, and also contains modal elements. It demands a well-schooled singer with a wide expressive range, stamina, and good breath control. The singer must also be calm and unflappable, so as not to be fazed by the relentlessly fast, irregular rhythmic patterns in the first and third songs. The vocal writing in general is warm, earthy, and womanly. The composer sensibly keeps within the voice’s richest and most rewarding middle range, avoiding extremes. This means that words can be heard easily, and a palette of sensual colours explored. Ultimately, the specially commissioned poems evoke an intuitive response. Bruce sees the cycle as belonging to the tradition of ‘sorrowful songs’ and, of course, the blues. In the first and third settings (‘The Sunset Lawn’ and ‘Black Dress’), the singer is the voice of Death, but in the other two (“That Time with You’ and ‘Bring me Again’), the outpouring of regret is more personal, yet somehow strangely distanced.

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