Marilena Cucchiara
Bergmann Edition: 2 pages
Born in Sicily, this talented 29 year old guitarist has now composed several pieces, two of which are published by Bergmann, and this Lullaby is the first I have seen.
It is a short piece of only 40 bars long, set in A major, and marked Poetico, moving between 4/4 and 3 /4 with an occasional 2/4 too. As much as I would love to say that this is a wonderful piece of writing, I must be honest and say that the opening theme, which, let’s be honest, is the first thing you play and hear is a little odd and frankly, not very memorable, diving around the fingerboard as it does from one end to the other in what seems a rather unnatural way.
Unfortunately that situation continues throughout. The harmonies themselves are completely tonal and not at all unusual in themselves but the actual melodic content is not convincing to me at all, and therefore as such I find it hard to recommend as a piece you might like. Don’t get me wrong, it is O.K. but that’s all, and it didn’t make me want to play it again, nor did it really sound very lullaby-ish.
I’m sure that the writer will have written other pieces that are great music, but, for me, this one isn’t one of them.
Chris Dumigan