Don’t ask me what the title means, ’cause I have no idea.
La Canzone Della Bella Cigna by philadelphic has become one of my absolute favorite fics out there. Lately I seem to have been reading a lot of the Edward’s a man-whore, Bella’s the strong woman who puts him in his place kind of fics. And it’s a good story line really, but I’m bored with it. Everything about this fic is refreshing, from the author’s use of style and diction to characterization and plot.
Canzone finds Bella after she’s graduated high school and gone off to music school to be a voice student. It turns out it’s not quite as easy as she’s expecting. Excerpt:
“I’m going to level with you right now, because it’s the right time to do it. I took you on as a student because you have a very good instrument, and when I say that I mean your voice. You had a good GPA in High School and placed out of all the general undergraduate requirements for music majors. Now for the part you don’t want to hear: in High School, music was easy. You memorized a solo and a few songs with your choir every semester, won a couple of medals, and everyone told you how talented you are. But your parents weren’t musicians, and you have no idea what’s expected of you. So you need to get serious, do anything we tell you to do, and get tutors to catch up where you’re behind. Some other voice teachers will accept sloppy musicians as voice students, but I’m not one of them. Fair warning.”
He’s standing now, and folds his arms.
“You understand?” he commands. “Slack off and you’ll find that there are more sopranos than there are people in the world, and every time you compete for a role you’ll be up against most of them.”
I nod, terrified.
“Good. In the future, the pianist I have assigned to you for lessons and practices will come at the thirty minute mark, after we have finished our scales and arpeggios. Today, he’ll just come in for a minute so you’ll recognize him the next time you see him. Edward is in the doctoral program, but he’s young, and he’s a musical genius. He’s easy on the eyes, but very hard to impress. Don’t slack off and you’ll learn a lot about music just by watching him in action.”
He keeps on talking, and a moment later we’re interrupted by a brisk knock on the door.
“Come,” intones Dr. George.
The door opens a little and my knees start wobbling again. I hadn’t noticed that they’d stopped. Easy on the eyes, my ass. Halfway in the door stands a breathtakingly pretty teenage boy of about 17 or 18. He seems barely old enough to be in college, let alone a doctoral student. Then I remember he’s a prodigy, so he’s probably just as young as he looks. At first he looks like he might come in, but then he narrows his eyes at me and scowls at Dr. George.
“Bella Swan, this is Edward Cullen. You’ll be working with him.”
There are a lot of things I love about Canzone, but it’s hard for me to pinpoint them. I’ll say this: pliladelphic knows what she (I’m assuming she, I could be wrong. Don’t hate me) is talking about when it comes to the music school stuff (not that I would be able to tell if she didn’t, but still). Her style and diction blended with the use of present tense create a pretty unique tone (when it comes to ff at least). And let’s not forget the music… it’s such an intregal part of this story, as you might imagine. Philadelpic always posts links to the music in her ANs, which you should definitely check out while you read. The whole thing is such a unique experience, which is why I’m reccing it this week.
Anyway this fic is rated M (I know M-rated stuff isn’t for everyone… it’s just what I tend to read. I’ll try and get something lower for next week), AU, slightly OOC. Updated pretty often. OH and if you leave a review you get a teaser for the next chapter ^_^
Blah. Sorry for the less than stellar writing on my part. But it’s like 5:30 in the morning and I haven’t slept so… *yawn*
~Britt
