Tarantella Napoletana

Melody associated with Italy, particularly Naples
"Tarantella Napoletana"
Performance by the United States Air Force Band's Air Force Strings

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The "Tarantella Napoletana" is the tarantella associated with Naples. It is familiar to North American viewers of popular media as a quintessentially Italian musical riff or melody.


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Examples of its use include Gioachino Rossini's "La Danza" from Soirées Musicales (1830–1835).[1]

The tarantella was adapted into the 1950 song "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me" written by Buddy Arnold and Milton Berle, and performed by Evelyn Knight and the Ray Charles Band.[2]

It was also adapted as the starting melody of the Hindi song "Aaja Sanam Madhur Chandni" composed by Shankar-Jaikishan for the film 1965 Indian film Chori Chori.[3][4]

See also

  • Arabian riff, "The Streets of Cairo", "The Poor Little Country Maid", "the snake charmer song"
  • Jarabe Tapatío, the "Mexican hat dance"
  • Oriental riff, stereotypical pentatonic riff

References

  1. ^ Lancaster, Jordan (2005). In the Shadow of Vesuvius, pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-1-85043-764-2.
  2. ^ "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me". Secondhand Songs.
  3. ^ "#LifeIsMusic: Popular Bollywood songs inspired by western music". DNA India. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  4. ^ "16 Famous Bollywood Songs You Wouldn't Believe Were Copied From The West". IndiaTimes. 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
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