Denza/Schoenberg - Funiculì, Funiculà (1880, arr. 1921)

Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian composer. He 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 to London, taught singing privately and became a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in 1898, where he taught for two decades. He died in London in 1922.

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Funiculì, Funiculà (1880)
arr. in 1921 by Arnold Schoenberg for voice, clarinet, mandolin, guitar & string trio

Members of the SCHÖNBERG ENSEMBLE
conductor : Reinbert De LEEUW

Lieuwe Visser, bass
Pierre Woudenberg, clarinet
Bob Zimmerman, mandolin
Frank Wesstein, guitar
Janneke van der Meer, violin
Henk Guittart, viola
Hans Woudenberg, cello

Added lyrics are for reference only.

"Funiculì, Funiculà" was composed in 1880 in Castellammare di Stabia, the home town of the song's composer, Luigi Denza; the lyrics were contributed by journalist Peppino Turco. It was Turco who prompted Denza to compose it, perhaps as a joke, to commemorate the opening of the first funicular (a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope) 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, the sheet music sold over a million copies in a year.

Arnold Schoenberg arranged it and some other songs for his legendary May 27, 1921 Private concert for which he, Berg and Webern also arranged Walzer by Johann Strauss to be played by a chamber group with Berg at the harmonium, Webern, cello and Schoenberg at the violin. Ernst Steuermann was at the piano.

[SPscorevideos]

Oh, lol, it took me a while to understand that the lyrics were translated in Italian!

[Mousy]

exactly the mood that taking a cable-car should evoke

[alessandropalazzani]

Stasera, Nina mia, sono montato
Te lo diro`?
Cola`, dove dispetti un cor ingrato
Piu` far non puo`.
Cola`, cocente e` il foco, ma, se fuggi,
Ti lascia star,
E non ti corre appresso e non ti struggi
A riguardar.
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Funiculi funicula`, funiculi funicula`,
Via, montiam su la`, funiculi funicula`.

Montiamo-dalla terra alla montagna
Un passo c'e`;
Si vede Francia, Procida, la Spagna
E io veggo te.
Tirate con le funi - e` detto fatto
In ciel si va;
Si va siccome il vento, a volo, a scatto
E siam gia` la!
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Funiculi funicula`, funiculi funicula`,
Via, montiam su la`, funiculi funicula`.

Ell'e` montata, il sai, lassu` montata
La testa e` gia`;
E` andata sino in cima e poi tornata
E` sempre qua!
La testa gira, gira intorno, intorno,
Intorno a te
E il core canta, come il primo giorno,
Ti sposa a me!
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Lesti! Lesti! via, montiam su la`!
Funiculi funicula`, funiculi funicula`,
Via, montiam su la`, funiculi funicula`.

[lelandthorne]

I love rhythmic disbalance in first part before the chorus

[AlejandroDominguezParedes]

Un buen tema folklórico del sur de Italia, así lo creía Strauss que lo plagió...

[larsjohansson]

The score is in C, but the added song melody is written in Eb, and the text is another, which is a little confusing perhaps.
The "smart" thing that Schönberg has done is that he has compressed the originally four bars between the song phrazes to only three.
He makes a "hemiola" of 3+3 beats in three bars instead of 4+4 beats four bars, and thus creating an uncertanity of where beat 1 is.
It's also funny to see that he has written this really quickly on a piece of preprinted score paper, turned upside down, and with added handwritten notelines.

[nou]

this schoenberg guy is pretty good at music but he should write some more modern stuff imho

[reginabillotti]

The lyrics you display don't always match what he is singing :(