HN005 Neapolitan Song: The French Connection

No, this is not about organised crime.

Its about the establishment of a canon of Neapolitan song in the early years of the 19th Century. Scholars have debated the origins and sources of Neapolitan song for many decades, but one thing on which all agree, is that without the transcription and composition of Neapolitan song undertaken by a Frenchman, Guillaume Cottrau, and published by him from 1824 to 1829, we would not have Neapolitan songs as we know them.

Cottrau was born in Paris, but came to Naples as a child, and became to all intents and purposes, a Neapolitan by inclination and adoption without losing his French roots. When his family returned to Paris, Cottrau himself had put down firm roots in Naples and had married into a Neapolitan family as well.

Cottrau collected and transcribed the music that he found in the streets, highways, and countryside. He also published these songs, under the title of Passatempi musicale for the fast growing bourgeois salons where a piano was the instrument de rigeur, and in so doing added, transformed, re-wrote and even composed his own Neapolitan songs. How far he went in changing the words, music and character we may never know. What we do know though, is that without his work, many songs would have been lost forever, and so we must be grateful for what he saved. Through his French connection, his publishing house Girard, spread Neapolitan song throughout Europe and beyond, and today it is a recognisable music the world over.

HN004 Leonardo da Vinci, his musicianship and the Mona Lisa

We know that Leonardo da Vinci was raised and trained in Florence, within the beating heart of the Renaissance. We also think of him as the painter of the Mona Lisa and as an outstanding researcher into the wonders of nature. He was active for many years at the court of the Dukes of Milan where he painted his famous Last Supper.

But, how many of us are aware that, according to his early biographer, Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was initially summoned to Milan due to his reputation as a musician? I quote from A.B. Hinds translation, of Vasari’s lives, ‘On the death of Giovan. Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, and the accession of Ludovico Sforza in the same year, 1493, Lionardo was invited to Milan to play the lyre, in which that prince greatly delighted. Lionardo took his own instrument, made by himself in silver, and shaped like a horse’s head, a curious and novel idea to render the harmonies more loud and sonorous, so that he surpassed all the musicians who had assembled there.’

The relation between Leonardo and music doesn’t stop here though. He wrote many notes in his research and pondering on the nature of sound, and about music and the production of sounds. But as a final interesting fact, and again from Vasari, whilst painting the Mona Lisa, ‘he engaged people to play and sing, and jesters to keep her merry, and remove that melancholy which painting usually gives to portraits.’

HN003 Franz Kafka’s ‘Unmusicality’

The German language author Franz Kafka wrote very little about music. In fact, he even claimed in a diary entry on the 13 December 1911 that, ‘The essence of my unmusicalness consists in my inability to enjoy music connectedly, it only now and then has an effect on me, and how seldom it is a musical one…’ Nevertheless, we know never to read a book by its cover. Later in 1912, whilst in Weimar, he noted, ‘Carmen garden concert. Completely under its spell.’ So when someone claims to be unmusical, its not a statement of fact. Like all human beings, we are susceptible to music. Indeed Kafka was an acute observer of feelings and his rare diary entries of opera performances display in no uncertain terms that he did respond strongly to music, dance and singing.

HN002 Composing songs in dreams

There is a less known tradition of composers receiving melodies and songs when dreaming.

We can take two examples provided in Lewis M. Holmes’ fascinating book, The Mystery of Music;
The first is from ancient China, where the reforming Emperor XUANDONG, who took a keen interest in music both as a state regulated activity and a composer himself, is alleged to have drawn inspiration from dreams. YO SHI a later commentator reported that ‘the Emperor composed a song called “Return to the Purple Clouds” after having dreamt of ten immortals descending in chariots, holding musical instruments, and singing. Dreaming of a dragon lady supposedly led him to compose the song titled “Skimming the Waves.” According to Chinese legend, it was a fantastic visit to the moon that inspired his. composition Nishan yuyi qu’

The second example is from Al-Andalūs and the musician, singer and composer Ziryāb, who lived between 790 and 850 CE. Ziryāb would sleep but have two attendant slaves on the alert each night, named Ghizlān and Hunayada. Ziryāb would sleep and if he dreamt of a new song or melody, he would awake and teach these musically trained slaves the music and words to memorise which they would then dutifully play for him the next morning. Then he would revise the compositions.

To demonstrate that dreaming of music is still relevant in modern times, we can turn to a contemporary, Paul McCartney. In McCartney’s own words as reported by Hugh MacIntyre on the 22 February 2024, in Forbes Magazine, “I went to sleep one night and dreamed a tune. Somewhere in my dream I heard this tune. When I woke up, I go I love that tune–it’s great. I love that one,” McCartney stated in the interview. He added that once he was awake and realized he had something special in mind, he “kind of fell out of bed and the piano was right there to the left of my bed and I just sort of thought well I’ll try and work out how this song goes.” The song McCartney is referring to, is the classic and unforgettable, ‘Yesterday’. How many more musical compositions are there out there dreamt by their composers? How often do we dream new melodies?

HN0001 – Cantate versus Cantatore

In the wonderful book written about Naples by Marius Kociejowski, in which he interviews contemporary Neapolitans in a quest to delve deeply into their city and culture, he discusses with a contemporary street performer, the difference between a cantate and a cantatore. Kociejowski writes, “‘There is a difference between the cantante and the cantatore,’ Marcello continued. ‘The cantante is simply a singer whereas the cantatore improvises or. rather, creates the lyrics and music, telling stories that come from real life.” The English language lacks a word for such a difference.

How does the performance of opera relate to this difference? Coloratura would be one place to start. Embellishment of the arias and songs. Live theatre as we know, allows the performers to reference contemporary events by altering the words but not the story. The street is not so far from the theatre as one might suppose, nor is opera so far removed from daily life and the hopes and fears of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Bringing an opera to life through performance makes a classical singer de facto into a cantatore. When an audience is profoundly moved it is the performer that creates that response.