This week, we're welcoming author DM Denton, whose latest title is A House Near Luccoli. The author will offer a free copy of the book to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:
Over three years since the charismatic composer, violinist and singer Alessandro Stradella (1639 – 1682) sought refuge in the palaces and twisted alleys of Genoa, royally welcomed despite the alleged scandals and even crimes that forced him to flee from Rome, Venice, and Turin, his professional and personal life have begun to unravel again. He is offered, by the very man he is rumored to have wronged, a respectable if slightly shabby apartment and yet another chance to redeem his character and career. He moves in to the curiosity and consternation of his caretakers, also tenants, three women whose reputations are of concern only to themselves.
Donatella, still unmarried in her mid-thirties, is plainly irrelevant. Yet, like the city she lives in, there are hidden longings in her, propriety the rule, not cure, for what ails her. She cares more for her bedridden grandmother and cats than overbearing aunt, keeping house and tending to a small garden, painting flowers and waxing poetic in her journal.
At first, she in awe of and certain she will have little to do with Stradella. Slowly, his ego, playfulness, need of a copyist and camouflage involve her in an inspired and insidious world, exciting and heartbreaking as she is enlarged by his magnanimity and reduced by his missteps, forging a friendship that challenges how far she will go.
A House Near Luccoli focuses on chance encounters, beautiful music, and the paradox of genius through an imagined intimacy with one of the most legendary and undervalued figures of Italian Baroque music.
One of the most surprising things was discovering Genoa as
a fascinating place and perfect setting for the story I wanted to write. Up
until then I knew it as Christopher Columbus’ birthplace, otherwise—if most travelogues
of Italy were anything to go by—for passing through on the way to somewhere
else or avoiding altogether. La Superba (The
Superb One) is a vertical city, back-dropped by the Apennine Mountains, surrounding
a bay looking out past its famous Lanterna
(lighthouse) and the Ligurian Sea towards the eastern Mediterranean. It has splendid
churches, palaces and villas; but, also, in its medieval center, a labyrinth of
narrow caruggi (alleyways) full of
poverty, danger and sudden beautiful entrances to half-hidden palazzi. It is a conflicted place with,
as Stradella’s chief biographer, Carolyn Gianturco, wrote, “a climate of public
puritanism and private crime.” The novel is about human contradictions, too:
Stradella’s, of course, but also Donatella’s. Genoa has been called “the most
English city in Italy”, and so proved an apt location, as Donatella is a ‘daughter’
of both countries.
Diane (DM) Denton is a native of Western New York State, where she currently resides. Her writing life began as a child retreating into the stories and poems that came to her. Early on she developed an interest in history, especially European history, while her participation in and appreciation of music was encouraged through memories shared about her maternal grandmother, who was a concert pianist in Chicago in the 1920's. Some of the most defining years of her adult life were while she was studying and living in rural England, in a yellow-stoned village with thatched cottages, a duck pond, and twelfth century church and abbey turned Jacobean manor house. In addition to writing, music, art, and cats, she is passionate about nurturing nature and a consciousness for a more compassionate, inclusive, and peaceful world.
**Q&A with DM Denton**
Thanks to
Lauren Scott, Christine Moran, Ina Schroders-Zeeders, Kim Zollman Rendfeld,
Angela Nevitt, and M.M. Bennett for their excellent questions.
When and how
were you first introduced to Alessandro Stradella?
I first heard Stradella’s story and—knowingly—his music
while driving to work in 2002 and listening to a Canadian classical music radio
station show called In the Shadows. By
the time I arrived at work, I could only remember his first name! Don’t tell my
former boss but as soon as my computer booted up I Googled composers named Alessandro,
scrolling down all the entries for
Scarlatti to finally find a few mentions of ... Alessandro … Stradella!
In time I found out why Stradella—a celebrity in his time
who produced a body of work that set him alongside the greatest Baroque masters—was,
at best, a footnote in music history. Unfortunately, in the decades and
centuries after his death, Stradella’s alluring ‘story’ took on an almost
exclusively cloak-and-dagger slant in novels and operas, eclipsing his importance
as a composer until his music was rarely performed. Only recently, thanks to a
dedicated biographer and cataloger and some enlightened musicians, has that
begun to change. In fact, I just discovered that Stradella’s “Sonata in D Major
for Trumpet and Strings” was included in the soundtrack for the movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
How did your
interest in Alessandro Stradella grow to the point of wanting to write about
him?
From the first, I was drawn to him because of the contradiction
between the discipline of his work and recklessness of his behavior. It evoked
a special connection for me, for I had personally seen the potential of talent
and purpose sabotaged by incautious, even self-destructive behavior. The more I
learned about Stradella’s triumphs and failures, and all the hard work and missteps
in-between, the more I became fascinated by a personality at once charming and
creative, intelligent and indulgent, cultivated and itinerant—an adventurer who
made a few messes but also many masterpieces along the way.
Finally, in the summer of 2005, I really met Stradella in
the intimacy my imagination created: observing him behind the scenes in great
and small ways, surrendering to his charisma, and enjoying his self-determination
while exploring why he so often put his career and life at risk. I often
thought how much easier it would have been if there were more details available
about his appearance, personality and the events of his life, but I also realized
his obscurity offered an opportunity to discover him in less public ways:
through his letters, even his handwriting, and especially his music that knew
the ‘rules’ but pushed the boundaries.
Is the house
near Luccoli of the novel’s title an actual residence?
There is the possibility
that the last place Stradella lived in Genoa was a house near the Luccoli district.
The house was most likely owned by Guiseppe Maria Garibaldi, one of the Genoese
noblemen who supported Stradella. I couldn’t find any specific details regarding
this house—such as its exact location or whether it still existed—but for the
purpose of the novel put it on the map and set to ‘building it’ based on what
my research and imagination came up with. I knew from the beginning that I wanted
to create a domestic setting for the meeting and developing relationship between
Donatella, my fictional female protagonist, and Stradella; one that allowed the
reader behind the scenes of his career and persona. The novel does, at times, escape
such close quarters into the magnificence and mayhem of Genoa; but, I think,
essentially remains an interior study of character and circumstance.
What surprised
you the most in your research for the novel?
One of the most surprising things was discovering Genoa as
a fascinating place and perfect setting for the story I wanted to write. Up
until then I knew it as Christopher Columbus’ birthplace, otherwise—if most travelogues
of Italy were anything to go by—for passing through on the way to somewhere
else or avoiding altogether. La Superba (The
Superb One) is a vertical city, back-dropped by the Apennine Mountains, surrounding
a bay looking out past its famous Lanterna
(lighthouse) and the Ligurian Sea towards the eastern Mediterranean. It has splendid
churches, palaces and villas; but, also, in its medieval center, a labyrinth of
narrow caruggi (alleyways) full of
poverty, danger and sudden beautiful entrances to half-hidden palazzi. It is a conflicted place with,
as Stradella’s chief biographer, Carolyn Gianturco, wrote, “a climate of public
puritanism and private crime.” The novel is about human contradictions, too:
Stradella’s, of course, but also Donatella’s. Genoa has been called “the most
English city in Italy”, and so proved an apt location, as Donatella is a ‘daughter’
of both countries.
Were you tempted to write yourself into
any of the characters?
I
was more than tempted. I knew I was there from the opening lines, disguised and
revealed in the character of Donatella. Like me, she is Italian and English, a
writer and artist, gardener, companioned by cats, wrapped up in solitude,
contradictions, moods, and memories, and addicted to music’s presence in her
life. Certainly, I could understand her struggle with surrendering to Stradella’s
charm, talent and impetuosity; how it felt to be amazed, flattered and
bewildered by such an attraction; and that in the end so much and so little
changed for her through knowing him. This was a very personal story for me to
write. Even more so once it was published, life imitating art when Donatella’s quiet
grief and onward journey became my reality, too.
How did you write about music and are you a musician
yourself?
I knew the most important thing to do was listen—constantly listen, Stradella’s music a soundtrack
to the conceptualizing, researching, and writing of the novel until I was
living with and even haunted by it like an invisible presence. Of course, I did
refer to academic sources, and the notes on CD sleeves were also a great help. I
used some musical terminology as it offered imagery the poet in me found too
lovely to resist!
I have played the piano, guitar and Celtic harp, and sung
a little. The pleasure I find in trying
to translate music into words might come from my regret at not having pursued a
musical career. I suppose writing about music is another way of participating
in it. I found it very satisfying. I never set out to try to imitate, explain
or even describe music, but somehow convey its elusive existence in the heart
and spirit.
This question makes me think of the 1991 French movie
about the 17th century composers Marin Marais and Sainte-Colombe, Tous les Matin du Monde that asks: “What
is music?” Sainte-Colombe insists words cannot describe it—that it is the sound of
the wind, a painter’s brush, wine pouring into a cup, or just the tear on a
cheek. I agree that it is impossible to express the essence or the effect of
music in words, but I hope my readers experience something of its beauty and
power through what I have written, especially as it is inexpressible.
How long did
it take you to find a publisher for the novel, and what are you currently
working on?
From completion to publication of A House Near Luccoli took about four years. Initially, I had
submitted to literary agents for a year or so, but—perhaps sooner than I should
have—gave up; except for creating a website, which was eventually noticed by
the novelist Mariana Julia Neary who was influential in my signing with All Things That Matter Press. My
affiliation with this small publisher has proved to be one of the best things
that has ever happened to me, not only because of their willingness to publish
the novel, helping me to make it the best it could be while honoring its vision
and voice even to the extent of using my own artwork and design for the cover;
but also because of the dedication and ongoing patience and encouragement they
extend to all their authors.
I am currently working on a sequel to A House Near Luccoli which I hope to
have completed by late spring or early summer. I continue to write poetry and
small prose pieces accompanied by artwork for my blog, and have just published
an illustrated poetry journal entitled, A
Friendship with Flowers.
A House Near Luccoli is her first published novel. She is currently working on a sequel set in late Restoration England, and has also published an illustrated poetry book, A Friendship with Flowers.
A House Near Luccoli is available in Paperback and Kindle Edition at amazon.com and as a NOOK Book at barnesandnoble.com; soon to be an audio book.
Diane invites you to visit her website: http://www.dmdenton-author-artist.com, where you can find more information on her publications, view her prose and poetry portfolio and artwork. Diane has a blog: http://bardessdmdenton.wordpress.com that features her work.
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