Word: dictions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...readers who tend to veer away from poetry find themselves propelled toward the work of Derek Walcott. It's not just because the West Indian Nobel laureate has the classic gift of mixing ease with eloquence and of deepening, dignifying his most private moments with the high and burnished diction of a sunlit Shakespeare. Even more, Walcott has strained and struggled all his life to match sun and rain, to marry the world of autumn leaves and opera houses that he learned to love on paper with the unrecorded "pomme-arac" and fireflies of his long-colonized islands...
...Pynchon's new novel is in some ways even more difficult than its famously challenging predecessor. This time out, the author renounces contemporary English speech altogether and casts the entire narrative in the 18th century diction allegedly spoken by a clergyman named Wicks Cherrycoke; he is the one who tells aloud the tale of his one-time acquaintances Charles Mason (1728-86) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-79) over what must have been an incredibly long night in Philadelphia during the Christmas season of 1786. Cherrycoke is given to utterances such as the following: "The Pilgrim, however long or crooked...
...trademark narrative rhythm, Thomas Pynchon?s new novel (Henry Holt; 773 pages; $27.50) is in some ways even more difficult than its famously challenging predecessor, 'Gravity's Rainbow.' This time out, the author renounces contemporary English speech altogether and casts the entire narrative in the 18th century diction allegedly spoken by a clergyman named Wicks Cherrycoke; he is the one who tells aloud the tale of his one-time acquaintances Charles Mason (1728-86) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-79) over what must have been an incredibly long night in Philadelphia during the Christmas season of 1786. For all its whimsical...
Under the direction of Jameson Marvin, the huge chorus had a rich, full sound and excellent diction. After the especially gorgeous Amen in the last section of the piece, the chorus and conductor looked physically exhausted--as if they had poured themselves wholly into the performance...
...strings shone throughout the piece, though the winds experienced some intonation problems. The chorus was amazing: Their sound was beautiful and perfectly controlled, and their diction was even better in this piece than in the previous one. The blissful expressions on the performers' faces showed how deeply moved they were by the power of the music...