«O Sole Mio»: История Неаполитанской Песни

Neapolitan song written in 1898

"" is a well known Neapolitan song written in 1898. Its Neapolitan language lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the music was composed by Eduardo di Capua (1865–1917) and Alfredo Mazzucchi (1878–1972). The title translates literally as "my sun" or "my sunshine". The lyrics have been translated to other languages.

For nearly 75 years after its publication, the music of O sole mio had generally been attributed to Eduardo di Capua alone. According to the traditional account, di Capua had composed it in April 1898 in Odessa, while touring with his father's band. It has turned out, however, that the melody was an elaboration of one of 23 which di Capua had bought from another musician, Alfredo Mazzucchi, in the preceding year. In November 1972, shortly after her father's death, Mazzucchi's daughter lodged a declaration with Italy's Office of Literary, Artistic and Scientific Property, which sought to have her father recognised as a co composer of 18 of di Capua's songs, including O sole mio. In October 2002, Maria Alvau, a judge in Turin, upheld the declaration, ruling that Mazzucchi had indeed been a legitimate co composer of the 18 songs, because they included melodies he had composed and then sold to di Capua in June 1897, with a written authorisation for the latter to make free use of them. At the time of the decision, therefore, the melody of O sole mio had not yet—as had been widely supposed—entered into the public domain in any country that was a party to the Berne Convention during the relevant period. In most countries where copyright in a work lasts for 70 years after any of its authors' deaths, the melody will remain under copyright until 2042.

In 1915, Charles W. Harrison recorded the first English translation of O sole mio". In 1921, William E. Booth Clibborn wrote lyrics for a hymn using the music, entitled "Down from His Glory." A series of television commercials for Cornetto ice cream, broadcast regularly in Britain during the 1980s, used a jingle ("Just One Cornetto ") set to the melody of O sole mio". The jingle was widely reported as having been performed by Renato Pagliari, but after Pagliari's death in 2009, his son denied this. In the 1999 Chinese film Shower, Miaozhuang practices O sole mio" in the bathhouse for the Neighborhood Culture Party, and is only able to sing it in front of others when Erming sprays him with water. Erming later sings O sole mio" to bid farewell to the bathhouse.