"Funiculì, Funiculà" (, en, "Funicular Up, Funicular Down") is a
Neapolitan song
Canzone napoletana (), sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song ( nap, canzona napulitana ), is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language, ordinarily for the male voice singing solo, although well represented b ...
composed in
1880 by
Luigi Denza
Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian composer.
Career
Denza was born at Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples. He studied music with Saverio Mercadante and Paolo Serrao at the Naples Conservatory. In 1884, he moved t ...
to lyrics by
Peppino Turco Giuseppe “Peppino” Turco (7 March 1846 – 14 October 1903) was an Italian songwriter.
Turco was born in Naples. Initially he was a renowned journalist and poet, collaborating with the satirical newspaper ''Capitan Fracassa'' in Rome an ...
. It was written to commemorate the opening of the first
funicular
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ...
railway on
Mount Vesuvius. It was presented by Turco and Denza at the
Piedigrotta festival the same year. The sheet music was published by
Ricordi and sold over a million copies within a year. Since its publication, it has been widely adapted and recorded.
History
"Funiculì, Funiculà" was composed in 1880 in
Castellammare di Stabia, the home town of the song's composer,
Luigi Denza
Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian composer.
Career
Denza was born at Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples. He studied music with Saverio Mercadante and Paolo Serrao at the Naples Conservatory. In 1884, he moved t ...
; the lyrics were contributed by journalist
Peppino Turco Giuseppe “Peppino” Turco (7 March 1846 – 14 October 1903) was an Italian songwriter.
Turco was born in Naples. Initially he was a renowned journalist and poet, collaborating with the satirical newspaper ''Capitan Fracassa'' in Rome an ...
.
[ It was Turco who prompted Denza to compose it, perhaps as a joke,][ to commemorate the opening of the first ]funicular
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ...
on Mount Vesuvius in that year.[ The song was sung for the first time in the Quisisana Hotel in Castellammare di Stabia. It was presented by Turco and Denza at the Piedigrotta festival during the same year and became immensely popular in Italy and abroad.] Published by Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Ro ...
, the sheet music sold over a million copies in a year.[
Over the years the song has been performed by many artists including ]Erna Sack
Erna Dorothea Luise Sack (née Weber; 6 February 18982 March 1972) was a German coloratura soprano, known as the German Nightingale for her high vocal range.
Biography
Erna Weber was born in Spandau, Berlin. As a child, her voice attracted attenti ...
, Anna German
Anna Wiktoria German-Tucholska (14 February 1936 – 26 August 1982) was a Polish singer, immensely popular in Poland and in the Soviet Union in the 1960s–1970s. She released over a dozen music albums with songs in Polish, as well as several ...
, Mario Lanza, Beniamino Gigli, The Mills Brothers, Connie Francis
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937),
known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...
, Haruomi Hosono (with lyrics translated into Japanese), Fischer-Chöre (with lyrics translated into German), the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
, Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numero ...
, Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...
, Rodney Dangerfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks or simply The Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for novelty records in 1958. The group consists of three ...
, The Wiggles
The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, C ...
, and Il Volo.
In 1960, Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman wrote a new set of English lyrics to the melody of "Funiculì, Funiculà" with the title "Dream Boy".[ ]Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the orig ...
included the song on her album of Italian songs titled ''Italiannette'' and also released it as a single that became a minor hit.
Adaptations and unintentional plagiarism
German composer Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
heard the song while on a tour of Italy six years after it was written. He thought that it was a traditional Neapolitan folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
and incorporated it into his ' tone poem. Denza filed a lawsuit against him and won, and Strauss was forced to pay him a royalty fee.[ Russian composer ]Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
also mistook "Funiculì, Funiculà" for a traditional folk song and used it in his 1907 "" (Neapolitan Song).[
Cornettist Herman Bellstedt used it as the basis for a theme and variations titled ''Napoli''; a transcription for euphonium is also popular among many performers. Modernist composer ]Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
arranged a version for ensemble in 1921.[
In 1933, Arthur Fields and Fred Hall published a parody of "Funiculì, funiculà" titled "My High Silk Hat". This parody has been republished several times, including in the 1957 ''Gilwell Camp Fire Book''.
In 1947, in the ]Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
film '' Fun and Fancy Free'', Goofy and Donald sing to the chorus of this song.
In 1964, song parodist Allan Sherman's album ''For Swingin' Livers Only!
''For Swingin' Livers Only!'' is the sixth and final studio album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Brothers Records in 1964. The title is a play on the 1956 Frank Sinatra album ''Songs for Swingin' Lovers!'' and Jackie Gleason's 1954 mood mu ...
'' included "America's a Nice Italian Name" which uses the melody.
In the late 1970s and in the 1980s the song was performed more than 20 times by the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
during tunings.
'' Earthworm Jim 2'' has various bonus levels which use a variation of the tune as backing music.
The Japanese anime franchise '' Girls und Panzer'' uses an adaptation of the song by composer Shirō Hamaguchi as the theme song for Anzio High School, a school based on the Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
.
The Christian animated series, '' VeggieTales'' used the tune in the silly song, "Larry’s High Silk Hat".
In the 2002 game ''Mafia'', a band plays an instrumental version of the tune during the post-race celebration in the chapter "Fair Play".
The Dutch Carnival song "Handjes, handjes, bloemetjesgordijn" by Lamme Frans is also based on the chorus melody of "Funiculì, Funiculà".
The song "Vempair Survaivors" from the game ''Vampire Survivors
''Vampire Survivors'' is a roguelike shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Luca Galante, also known as poncle. Following an early access period from December 17, 2021, it was released for macOS and Windows on October 20, 2022. Ports ...
'' is an instrumental remix of this song. It was used as the background music for the game's version 1.0 launch trailer.
Lyrics
Original Neapolitan lyrics
In Turco's original lyrics, a young man compares his sweetheart to a volcano, and invites her to join him in a romantic trip to the summit.
Traditional English lyrics
Edward Oxenford, a lyricist and translator of librettos,[ wrote lyrics, with scant relationship to those of the original version, that became traditional in English-speaking countries.][ His version of the song often appears with the title "A Merry Life".
Some think the world is made for fun and frolic,
And so do I! And so do I!
Some think it well to be all melancholic,
To pine and sigh; to pine and sigh;
But I, I love to spend my time in singing,
Some joyous song, some joyous song,
To set the air with music bravely ringing
Is far from wrong! Is far from wrong!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Echoes sound afar! Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Some sing the world is set for freedom dancing,
But not so I! And not so I!
Some sing our eyes could keep from finally glancing,
Upon the sly! But not so I!
But all we're so amazing and so charming!
Divinely sweet! Divinely sweet!
And shortly, there's no time for pace and harming,
In nimble feet! In nimble feet!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Echoes sound afar! Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Ah me! 'Tis strange that some should take to sighing,
And like it well! And like it well!
For me, I have not thought it's worth the trying,
So cannot tell! So cannot tell!
With laugh, with dance and song, the day soon passes
Full soon is gone, full soon is gone,
For mirth was made for joyous lads and lassies
To call their own! To call their own!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Listen, listen, echoes sound afar!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
Echoes sound afar! Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la!
]
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
"Funiculi, funicula"
1904 Victor recording by Ferruccio Giannini in ''Discography of American Historical Recordings'' at University of California, Santa Barbara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Funiculi, Funicula
Neapolitan songs
1880 songs
Internet memes introduced in 2015
Songs about Naples
Mount Vesuvius