Luigi Denza

A portrait of Luigi Denza

Luigi Denza (24 February 1846 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian composer.<ref name=Bone/>

Career

Denza was born at Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples.<ref name=funi/> He studied music with Saverio Mercadante and Paolo Serrao at the Naples Conservatory.<ref name=funi/> 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.<ref name=Bone/><ref name=funi/>

Funiculì, Funiculà

Denza is best remembered for "Funiculì, Funiculà" (1880), a humorous Neapolitan song inspired by the inauguration of a funicular to 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.<ref name=DiziBio/>Template:Efn

Other music

Template:ListenIn addition to "Funiculì, Funiculà", Denza composed hundreds of popular songs. Some of them, such as "Template:Lang", "Template:Lang", and "Template:Lang", have been sung by Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, and Ronan Tynan.Template:Citation needed He was also an able mandolinist and guitarist, and for those instruments he wrote "Ricordo di Quisisana", "Come to me", "Nocturne", and several others.<ref name=Bone/> Denza also wrote an opera, Wallenstein (1876).Template:Efn

Judging of James Joyce

Other than writing songs and music, Denza's enduring legacy was his judging of James Joyce, who was a singer before he became a world-famous novelist.<ref name=Almost>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Clare>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=IrishTimes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Bowker>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=JoyceCentre>Template:Cite web</ref>

When Denza was Professor of Music at the London Academy of Music, he was asked to judge the 1904 Feis Ceoil Irish Singing Contest, a prototype of today's musical reality shows.<ref name=Almost /><ref name=Clare /><ref name=Bowker /><ref name=JoyceCentre /> On 16 May 1904, Denza attempted to mentor Joyce, and would have awarded him the Gold Medal, but Joyce could not sight read, missing a crucial part of the competition; Denza instead awarded Joyce the third-place Bronze medal.<ref name=Almost /><ref name=Clare /><ref name=Bowker /><ref name=JoyceCentre /> Disgusted, Joyce gave the medal to his Aunt Josephine; the medal ended up years later being bought by Michael Flatley at an auction.<ref name=IrishTimes /><ref name=JoyceCentre />

External links

• Template:IMSLP
• Template:ChoralWiki
• Luigi Denza (composer) in Discography of American Historical Recordings at UC Santa Barbara
• Template:Internet Archive author
• Template:Librivox author

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