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| Guillaume Cottrau |
Over the centuries Naples enjoyed the status of a European capital, attracting immigrants not only from around the Italian peninsula, but also from around Europe and the Mediterranean. Among the largest foreign communities to settle in Naples were the French and the Swiss. Guglielmo Luigi Cottrau was born as Guillaume-Louis Cottrau on 10 August 1797 in Paris and died on 31 October 1847 in Naples. He was a noted Franco-Neapolitan composer and music publisher who immigrated to Naples with his father Joseph Cottrau, who formerly served as Secretary General of the Navy in France, and who served as a field marshal under Joachim Murat, the interim King of Naples appointed by Napoleon during the French invasion and occupation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It should be noted that Joseph Cottrau was also secretary of the Neapolitan Accademia di Belle Arti, a member the Società Reale di Napoli (La Pontaniana), as well as a member of the Accademia Militare and numerous other cultural associations in the Two Sicilies. The Cottrau family made its home in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and proudly stayed in Naples during the Bourbon Restoration and ultimately through the Risorgimento and unification of Italy.
Guglielmo Luigi Cottrau married Giovanna Cirillo (1804-1854), a Neapolitan from a prominent family of generals and ministers, and raised their family in Naples. He is most remembered for his collection of Neapolitan songs drawn from works by various authors as well as from the folk tradition for which he made arrangements, and he and his family are credited with popularizing Neapolitan songs abroad. One of his themes was notably taken up by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt for his Tarentelle napolitaine in his Années de Pèlerinage. Guglielmo Luigi Cottrau’s son was the Neapolitan born composer, lyricist, publisher, journalist and politician Teodoro Cottrau (Naples 7 December 1827 – Naples 30 March 1879 Naples). Teodoro Cottrau is remembered worldwide for his iconic 1850 song Santa Lucia, based on Neapolitan popular lyrics. Gugliemo’s son Felice Cottrau (Naples 15 October 1829 – Naples 1887) was an active poet and painter who was well regarded in Parisian and Neapolitan society and who lived in London and Paris for many years. Guglielmo’s son Arturo (Naples 3 October 1839- Naples 23 May 1898) was a noted engineer, industrialist and politician well regarded in his time for his train bridges and other large iron projects throughout Italy and the Russian Empire. The Cottraus’ uncle Pierre Felix Cottrau (1799-1852) was a well-known painter who in his own day had his paintings La Grotta di Pozzuoli and La Pesca di Notte al Castel dell’Ovo hung in the Capodimonte Palace, the latter painting having been shown at the First Bourbon Exhibition of 1826.
Much of what audiences are familiar with as the great Neapolitan repertoire consists of the ancient songs collected by Gugliemo Cottrau and his sons from the musical heritage of Naples ranging from the 17th to 19th centuries. Many of these songs have been recorded by the great singers, and in 2007 the Neapolitan singer Gianni Lamagna in fact recorded an album entitled, I Cottrau a Napoli featuring 18 songs as an homage to the loving work the family did in preserving Naples’ musical patrimony.
The following Neapolitan song lyrics, in literary Neapolitan, are taken from the 1865 edition of Cottrau’s Passatempi Musicali, published by the Regio Stabilimento di Teodoro Cottrau, which was located at n. 49 Largo di Palazzo in Naples, and feature a theme prominent in Neapolitan poetry and song, namely the image of the beloved’s window and musing on love past or unrequieted. La Gelosia Nova and Fenesta Ca Lucive have parallels in other regions of Southern Italy and scholarship shows that they circulated in Naples going back over the last three centuries. The Passatempi Musicali also includes scores and lyrics inspired by the regions and cities of Sicily and Southern Italy, and other iconic Neapolitan songs such as Lo Guarracino and Io Te Voglio Bene Assaje popular from Bourbon times up until today.
Fenesta Co Sta Nova Gelosia (La Nova Gelosia)
Fenesta co sta nova gelosia
tutta lucente
de centrelle d'oro
tu m'annascunne
Nennella bella mia
lassamella vedè
sinò mo moro.
Comm’a ‘nciarmato non pozzo partire
Da chisto loco addò squagliano l’ore,
Sempe speranno vederte arapire,
Fenesta cana ca non siente ammore.
Fenesta co sta nova gelosia
tutta lucente
de centrelle d'oro
tu m'annascunne
Nennella bella mia
lassamella vedè
sinò mo moro.
Vaco a la chiesia e non pozzo trasire
Me piglio l’acqua santa ed esco fora;
Vaco a lu lietto e non pozzo dormire,
M’aje fatto la fattura e buò ch’ io mora.
Window With these New Blinds (The New Blinds1)
Window with these new blinds
all shining
with golden tacks
you hide from me
my beautiful little girl
let me see her
otherwise I’ll die.
Like a bewitched man I can’t leave
From this place where the hours melt away,
Always hoping to see you open,
You wretched window that doesn’t feel love.
Window with these new blinds
all shining
with golden tacks
you hide from me
my beautiful little girl
let me see her
otherwise I’ll die.
I go to the church and can’t enter
I grab the holy water and step out;
I go to bed and can’t sleep,
You’ve cursed me and want me to die.
Fenesta Ca Lucive e Mo Non Luce
Fenesta ca lucive
e mo nun luce
sign’è ca Nenna mia
stace ammalata.
S’affaccia la sorella
e mme lo dice:
“Nennella toja è morta
e s’è atterrata”.
Chiagneva sempe ca
dormeva sola,
mo dorme co li muorte
accompagnata.
Ah mo dorme co li muorte
accompagnata.
Va alla chiesa e scuopre lo tavuto,
vide nennella toja comm’è turnata.
Da chella vocca che n’ascéano sciure
mo’ n’ésceno li vierme, oh che pietate!
Zi’ Parrocchiano 2 mio, àbbice cura,
Ah ‘na lampa sempe tiénece allummata.
Addio fenesta restate ‘nzerrata
ca Nenna mia mo nun se pò affacciare;
io cchiù nun passarraggio
pe ‘sta strata: vaco a lo camposanto a passiare!
‘Nzino a lo juorno ca la morte ‘ngrata
mme face Nenna mia ire a trovare!
Window that Used to Shine and Now Shines No More
Window that used to shine
and now shines no more
it is a sign that my Girl
is ill.
Her sister faces out
and tells me:
“Your girl is dead
and has been buried”.
She was always crying
for she was sleeping alone,
now she sleeps accompanied
by the dead.
Ah now she sleeps accompanied
by the dead.
Go to the church and open her coffin,
See your girl how she has become.
From that mouth where flowers came forth
Now come worms, ah such a pity!
My dear priest, care for her,
Ah always keep a lantern lit for her.
Farewell window remain closed,
for my Girl cannot look out;
I shall no longer pass
down this street: I go to the cemetery to stroll!
Until the day that ungrateful death
lets me go find my Girl!
Essential Bibliography
• John Denison Champlin and William Foster Apthorp, Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Vol. 1, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888
• Domenico Comparetti and Alessandro D’Ancona, Canti del popolo italiano, Canti delle province meridionali, Vol. III, Turin, Ermanno Loescher, 1872
• Gugliemo Cottrau, Passatempi musicali, Naples, Regio Stabilimento Musicale di Teodoro Cottrau,1865
• Pasquale Scialò and Francesca Seller, Passatempi musicali: Guillaume Cottrau e la canzone napoletana del primo ‘800, Naples, Guida 2013
• Various, Felice Cottrau 1829-1887 Ricordo Affettuoso in ricorrenza del 3º anniversario della sua morte, Naples, Tipi Ferrante, 1890
Notes
(1) Gelosia in Neapolitan for “blinds”, similar to the French jalousie, forms a play on words, as it also means “jealousy.”
(2) Zi’ Parrocchiano, literally, “Uncle Parish Priest”, an affectionate and respectful way of referring to a priest.
