Luigi Denza
Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 in Castellammare di Stabia – 27 January 1922 in London) was an Italian composer.[1] Denza was born at Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples.[2] He studied music under Saverio Mercadante and Paolo Serrao at the Naples Conservatory.[2] In 1884 he moved to London, taught singing and became a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in 1898.[1][2]
Denza is best remembered for "Funiculì, Funiculà" (1880), a humorous Neapolitan song inspired by the inauguration of a funicular at the summit of Vesuvius. Neapolitan journalist Peppino Turco contributed the lyrics and may have prompted the song by suggesting that Denza compose something for the Piedigrotta song-writing competition. "Funiculì, Funiculà" was published the same year by Ricordi and within a year had sold a million copies.[3][lower-alpha 1]
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In addition to "Funiculì, Funiculà", Denza composed hundreds of popular songs. Some of them, such as "Luna fedel", "Occhi di fata", and "Se", have been sung by Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, and Ronan Tynan.[citation needed] He was also an able mandolinist and guitarist, and for these instruments he wrote such compositions as "Ricordo di Quisisana", "Come to me", "Nocturne", and several others.[1] Denza also wrote an opera, Wallenstein (1876).[lower-alpha 2]
Notes
- ↑ Six years after its publication, German composer Richard Strauss took "Funiculì, Funiculà" for a traditional Neapolitan folk song and incorporated it into his tone poem Aus Italien as "Neapolitanisches Volksleben".[4] Rimsky-Korsakov made a similar assumption and arranged it as "Neapolitan Song".[5]
- ↑ Based on Schiller's play.[6]
References
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External links
- Free scores by Luigi Denza at the International Music Score Library Project
- Free scores by Luigi Denza in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Luigi Denza (composer) in Discography of American Historical Recordings at UC Santa Barbara
- Lua error in Module:Internet_Archive at line 573: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Works by Luigi Denza at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
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- 1846 births
- 1922 deaths
- 19th-century classical composers
- 19th-century Italian musicians
- 20th-century classical composers
- 20th-century Italian musicians
- Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
- Italian classical composers
- Italian classical mandolinists
- Italian male classical composers
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