Na Nina: Fantasy on an Italian Lullaby
(2017) for full orchestra
The impetus for writing Na Nina came when my mother asked me to copy down a simple melody so that it would never be forgotten. I immediately recognized the tune as one that she sings to her grandchildren when they are upset - with its simple two phrases rising and falling, repeating slowly yet incessantly until my niece or nephew finally gives in to sleep - but it was a song that I never really gave much thought to before. My mother explained that she also used to sing it to me when I was a baby, and her mother sang it to her, and her grandmother to her mother, and so on, going back many generations to the Abruzzo region of Italy where that side of my family originated.
The more I reflected on the melody, the more powerful it seemed to me, despite it being comprised of only six notes and two syllables. Not only does it hold within it the stories of my childhood and my family throughout history, but the melody never seems to fail to bring calmness to both the singer and the listener. Its beautifully haunting minor mode makes it the kind of lullaby that acknowledges pain and suffering, rather than trying to cover it up. It transcends space and time, and it heals.
Na Nina is in many ways a piece about contrasts. Thematically, I juxtapose the calming lullaby theme with sections characterized by their need for healing. The first of these sections is the antithesis of the lullaby, a cacophonous storm of individual voices adding up to chaos and confusion. I follow this section with a statement of the lullaby in its purest form. The following material that contrasts the lullaby is full of rage, frustration, and even violence, and the third as mourning or grief. Completing the overall ABCBA form, the piece reaches its climax with a collage of variations on the melody, representing the many stories attached to it as it has been passed down for generations.
My goal for Na Nina is simply to share this melody with others in the hope that they, too, find it powerful and calming. The ideas present in the piece, while not adhering to a specific narrative, are universal in their portrayal of suffering and healing. Whether one relates to it as a description of the current state of our world, as an examination of one's own mental battles, or perhaps as an exaggerated illustration of what a fussy infant might be feeling, my hope is that Na Nina, like the lullaby on which it is based, can connect to people across time and space.
This piece constitutes my Masters Thesis, completed in fulfillment of the degree requirements of my Master in Music from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.