Funiculi Funicula
I love it when I hear a song on Classical Radio that I recognize. There are several pieces of music that I am familiar with: Beethoven's fifth and third symphonies and Fur Elise, Mozart's Minuet in G (you know, the one they were trying to play in the Music Man.), Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Copeland's Appalachian Spring, Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee, Pachelbel's Canon in D, Debussy's Clair de Lune... and the list goes on. I may not always be able to come up with the name or the composer, but it's nice when I hear a song that I recognize.
Last Thursday as we were driving to the library, I heard a song that I recognized. I'm positive that it was the first time I ever heard that particular song on the radio... maybe they only played it because it was April Fool's day, but for whatever reason, they played it. I listened to it for a minute, then asked Peter in some excitement, "Peter, do you know what song this is?" He replied by singing a couple of the lines to the song in the form we are familiar with. "The great big squash just sat upon my hat, the great big squash just squished my hat so flat!" I had to sit in the parking lot of the library for an extra minute to hear the name of that song (they played only an instrumental version.). It was "Funiculi, Funicula".
When we returned home I looked it up online, and discovered that the song had been composed by Luigi Denza for the grand opening of a cable car on Mount Vesuvius several years before that volcano erupted and destroyed the cable car. Apparently the song has been used for several shows and cartoons and the like since then, but the one I am familiar with was a "Classy Song with Larry" entitled "Larry's High Silk Hat" on the VeggyTales DVD, "Lyle the Kindly Viking", where Larry is, appropriately it seems, waiting for a trolly car with a tall hat and a chocolate snack.
Anyway, I've had the tune in my head ever since then. It's such a fun song!
Last Thursday as we were driving to the library, I heard a song that I recognized. I'm positive that it was the first time I ever heard that particular song on the radio... maybe they only played it because it was April Fool's day, but for whatever reason, they played it. I listened to it for a minute, then asked Peter in some excitement, "Peter, do you know what song this is?" He replied by singing a couple of the lines to the song in the form we are familiar with. "The great big squash just sat upon my hat, the great big squash just squished my hat so flat!" I had to sit in the parking lot of the library for an extra minute to hear the name of that song (they played only an instrumental version.). It was "Funiculi, Funicula".
When we returned home I looked it up online, and discovered that the song had been composed by Luigi Denza for the grand opening of a cable car on Mount Vesuvius several years before that volcano erupted and destroyed the cable car. Apparently the song has been used for several shows and cartoons and the like since then, but the one I am familiar with was a "Classy Song with Larry" entitled "Larry's High Silk Hat" on the VeggyTales DVD, "Lyle the Kindly Viking", where Larry is, appropriately it seems, waiting for a trolly car with a tall hat and a chocolate snack.
Anyway, I've had the tune in my head ever since then. It's such a fun song!
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