Torna A Sorrento [Gm,G]
Ernesto De Curtis
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Browse piano sheets by Ernesto De Curtis on Zen Virtual Piano. Giambattista De Curtis supplied the words for Torna a Surriento, and Ernesto composed the melody quickly, but for a long time he found no idea for the refrain. After months he had nearly decided to give up on the song. Then one evening, while a guest of his brother at the Hotel Tramontano, he was taking his usual walk between Sant'Agnello and Sorrento when he heard a nightingale singing among the orange groves, and the bird suggested the first five notes of the refrain, ma nun me lassà. A refrain that arrived from a nightingale after months of waiting hints at how unpredictable the writing process could be. Born in Naples on October 4, 1875, he was the son of Giuseppe, a decorative painter, and Elisabetta Minnon, a relative of Saverio Mercadante. Around the age of eight he learned the first elements of music from Vincenzo Valente, then studied harmony with Daniele Napolitano. Some texts call him self-taught, probably confusing him with his brother, but he took a piano diploma at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella. A painter father and first lessons from Vincenzo Valente suggest that music reached him from outside the family trade. A diploma earned despite stories of self-teaching hints that his skills were more rounded than the legend allowed. His first dialect song to draw attention, 'A primma vota, with words by Giambattista, was published by Bideri of Naples in 1897. Over some forty years he worked as both composer and concert accompanist, collaborating with leading poets of what is considered the golden age of the Neapolitan song. Amalia appeared in 1902 and was dedicated to Amalia Russo, the woman he loved and later married; Torna a Surriento was published by Bideri in 1904. Voce 'e notte, composed in 1903 to a text by Edoardo Nicolardi, was published the following year as an aching nocturne about love's pain. A song dedicated to the woman he later married hints at personal and professional threads running side by side. A nocturne about love's pain, beside a dedication to the woman he loved, may suggest love as a recurring subject. He met Gigli at Agnano in the summer of 1922, and he gave concerts with him in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In New York in 1923 he composed 'A canzona 'e ll'emigrante to a poem by Ernesto Murolo, and the song, which he called the song of pain, came while he was confined to bed with a badly bruised leg, after which he went to the piano. A long illness kept him between bed and armchair, yet he kept composing, and he died on December 31, 1937, having just finished an Ave Maria dedicated to Gigli. Concerts abroad with Gigli, beside an Ave Maria he had just finished for him, may hint at a link between the two beyond the tours.
Browse piano sheets by Ernesto De Curtis on Zen Virtual Piano.
Giambattista De Curtis supplied the words for Torna a Surriento, and Ernesto composed the melody quickly, but for a long time he found no idea for the refrain. After months he had nearly decided to give up on the song. Then one evening, while a guest of his brother at the Hotel Tramontano, he was taking his usual walk between Sant'Agnello and Sorrento when he heard a nightingale singing among the orange groves, and the bird suggested the first five notes of the refrain, ma nun me lassà. A refrain that arrived from a nightingale after months of waiting hints at how unpredictable the writing process could be.
Born in Naples on October 4, 1875, he was the son of Giuseppe, a decorative painter, and Elisabetta Minnon, a relative of Saverio Mercadante. Around the age of eight he learned the first elements of music from Vincenzo Valente, then studied harmony with Daniele Napolitano. Some texts call him self-taught, probably confusing him with his brother, but he took a piano diploma at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella. A painter father and first lessons from Vincenzo Valente suggest that music reached him from outside the family trade. A diploma earned despite stories of self-teaching hints that his skills were more rounded than the legend allowed.
His first dialect song to draw attention, 'A primma vota, with words by Giambattista, was published by Bideri of Naples in 1897. Over some forty years he worked as both composer and concert accompanist, collaborating with leading poets of what is considered the golden age of the Neapolitan song. Amalia appeared in 1902 and was dedicated to Amalia Russo, the woman he loved and later married; Torna a Surriento was published by Bideri in 1904. Voce 'e notte, composed in 1903 to a text by Edoardo Nicolardi, was published the following year as an aching nocturne about love's pain. A song dedicated to the woman he later married hints at personal and professional threads running side by side. A nocturne about love's pain, beside a dedication to the woman he loved, may suggest love as a recurring subject.
He met Gigli at Agnano in the summer of 1922, and he gave concerts with him in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In New York in 1923 he composed 'A canzona 'e ll'emigrante to a poem by Ernesto Murolo, and the song, which he called the song of pain, came while he was confined to bed with a badly bruised leg, after which he went to the piano. A long illness kept him between bed and armchair, yet he kept composing, and he died on December 31, 1937, having just finished an Ave Maria dedicated to Gigli. Concerts abroad with Gigli, beside an Ave Maria he had just finished for him, may hint at a link between the two beyond the tours.
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Ernesto De Curtis
Common questions
Ernesto De Curtis was a Neapolitan composer and pianist, born in Naples in 1875.
His brother Giambattista De Curtis wrote the words.
He gave concerts with Gigli in the United States, Brazil and Argentina.
He had just finished an Ave Maria dedicated to Gigli when he died on December 31, 1937.