One of my favorite moments of musical humor: the section near the end of Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody, when it subtly modulates down a half-step to A flat minor...the piano comes out of the cadenza playing in the "wrong" key, and is then "corrected" by the orchestra. It is especially noteworthy since Rachmaninov, wonderful though he is, does not usually wander within a million miles of being funny.
Two that always make me laugh is Mahler 7 and Ravel’s La Valse, both unusual and crazy-driven pieces. It’s mostly the abrupt stops and changes that really get a chuckle out of me, like abrupt change of the loud C Major tutti chord to soft A-flat Major chord with just woodwinds at the beginning of the Mahler 7 finale, also when it just turns to cafe like chamber music sometimes. The crazy orchestration and plain parody of a crazed Viennese waltz in La Valse really gets me for some reason, especially near the end where the strings just interrupt with that romantic theme, and then the music goes back on its way.
I once used Papa Haydn as way of making one of my young sons laugh when we were in the car returning from day care after work. I had a CD of the Surprise symphony playing and when it got to the surprise "bomp!" I turned it up real loud at that part. And he just laughed his little arse off and so did I.
A passage that I have enjoyed and seen people laugh at is in the Weber's Freischutz Overture. In a RUclips video, e.g., with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, between six and seven minutes in, upper woodwinds state a short phrase from a major theme, then the lower brass repeat their last two notes in a low register, seemingly as mockery of the woodwinds. Then the woodwinds repeat their bit, but more softly now, as though they are somehow chastened; then the low brass plays their bit again. This is a little dry to describe, but it's easy to hear as a comic moment. In some other recordings, however, the low brass is kept politely soft throughout, and the two statements of the woodwind are of equal volume. There is no sense of dialogue or comedy. Everything depends on a small difference in the performance. How did Weber actually envision this? I don't know.
Two pieces I can't listening to without grinning - Vaughan Williams' London Symphony, with its Have A Banana quotes - and Sousa's Liberty Bell. I blame Monty Python for that.
Your wonderful channel has made me appreciate Haydn in a way that continues to bring me endless joy. Looking forward to you continuing the Haydn Symphony Crusade!
I attended a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra some 25 years ago that concluded with Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 in C Major. During the finale the guest conductor (whose name escapes me after all this time) wisely took the repeat of its second section. With each episode of premature applause during that movement’s multiple false endings, the audience’s nonplussed reaction grew from initial bemused chuckles to uproarious laughter when the piece finally achieved its long-delayed conclusion. It was delightful to see how the composer’s deadpan musical joke could still bring down the house more than two centuries after he wrote it.
Dohnanyi’s Variations makes me laugh throughout. It’s witty and clever as well as laugh out loud funny. Glad you included it here! Tahiti Trot by Shostakovich is funny until you think about how he was forced to repudiate it and it was lost for so long….😢
Great video!! I'm a pianist playing that last movement of the Mahler 4th with a soprano friend. (The piano arrangement is by Mahler.) I don't disagree with anything you've said, but I'll add, just to complexify the situation, that for some reason he takes the "Sehr behaglich" ("very leisurely") indication that's in the symphony, and here adds "Mit kinditch heiterem Ausdruck! Durchaus ohne Parodie!" ("With childish joy! Absolutely not a parody!") We find it amusing, and slightly perplexing, that he went out of his way to specify *not* to consider this movement a parody!
That same comment is in the orchestral score. It's not confusing: in order for the music to make the right impression it has to done "straight," without revealing any indication of how funny or grotesque it is. A child, after all, doesn't know better, and that's what makes it funny to us adults.
If you have a listener's choice video on this, I want to nominate Shostakovich's 9th Symphony. My teenage son and I had a big laugh-out-loud watch on this, especially the first movement with the goofy melodies and ridiculous trombone and percussion entrances. The funniest single moment in any classical piece that I can think of is the big soloist scream in the Jorg Widmann viola concerto, when I first saw this I fell off my chair laughing. I do confess, however that I am not sure this would qualify the piece for the listeners' choice video since I think the moment is unintentionally funny.
So many other pieces by Prokofiev I think can be added to this list! The Love of Three Oranges, 5 Sarcasms, and The Fiery Angel come to mind immediately, but there's humor to be found in almost every piece he wrote.
For me it's the Scherzo of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 31 #3. It cracks me up every time. I just cannot help picturing some manic Krazy Kat cartoon, or some other sort of high-speed cartoon silliness. I once attended a university recital where the student played this and I finally felt like I wasn't the only one picturing all that hyper-kinetic nonsense. He really laid into it, like he really got the "scherzo." Fantastic.
Haydn symphony 93 has a bassoon farting very loud towards the end of the emotional second movement, adagio cantabile. Pity that some conductors pretend it's not written ff in the lowest register and mask it a bit instead of embracing the joke
The brass blast at the end of "Ego sum abbas cucaniensis" (Orff), followed by choral "Ha-Ha" has the same purpose and effect, which deserve to be amplified by conductors.
The Malcolm Arnold piece for orchestra and vacuum cleaner or floor polisher or whatever it is. I think it was done for one of the Hoffnung Festivals. I love it when the orchestra backs off for its solos and it gets switched on.
Thank you, thank you for introducing me to Don Gillis. Since he was an entry in one of your symphony cycle videos, I’ve obtained all the symphonies and more, and his music makes me so happy.
Music that makes the audience laugh. A special place goes to The Köln Concert. At the beginning of the concert, laughters from the public can be heard in the background. Keith Jarrett had the brilliant idea of starting his improvisation quoting the melody of the signal bell which was announcing the beginning of the concert at the Köln Opera House. Pure genius.
Shostakovich 9th Symphony when the trombones in the 1st movement keep trying to come in too early with 2nd theme in the recapitulation always makes me laugh. Ibert's Divertissement is hilarious especially the quote from Mendelssohn Wedding March. Rossini, the sudden ff in the Italiana Overture which someone once compared to a drunk guy sneaking upstairs at 3am and knocking over the grandfather clock on the landing. I also love the piccolo in the repeat in the Semiramide Overture left hanging all by itself at the top of its register just before the final crescendo. Beecham's recording of the Gazza Ladra overture has some hilarious offbeats for the horns at the start of the crescendo. But, alas, he is playing from a very corrupt score. Speaking of drunks, the 4th mvt of Siegmeister's Western Suite (Buckaroo) is a hilarious portrait of a cow poke falling all over himself and banging into everything. The humor is entirely musical, though. As many times as I've heard it, Mozart's Musical Joke cracks me up and you discover new jokes in it almost each time you hear it.
A great list of funny music! Especially the Hindemith is a great choice, that's the piece, which made the whole auditorium laugh, when it was played (and repeated!) in a concert in Vienna. I want just to add a few pieces, which make me laugh also: 1) Ernst Toch: Geographical Fugue in german and in english; maybe, the laughing is a function of the words, but I don't think that's the whole truth, because nothing's very funny, when you say "Ratibor". 2) I know, you don't like him, but these two works made me laugh: Peter Maxwell Davies' "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise" and "Fantasia on a Ground and Two Pavans by Henry Purcell": In the "Wedding", the guests sing folk tunes (all invented by Davies), and they get more and more drunk (one hears the smell of whiskey), and finally, a bagpipe player enters, symbolising the rising sun. The "Fantasia" is a transcription of Purcell, imitating the sound of original instruments, and the end is a foxtrot - played with a cracked disk on an old gramophone, which must be winded up (it has a hint of Haydns tuning). 3) Alfred Schnittke: "(K)ein Sommernachtstraum", a hilarious piece of fake music from the classical period, confronted with clusters and dissonances. But even funnier is in my opinion his "Gogol Suite", also with faked earlier music, busy Allegri and grotesque tragic outbursts - and a strangely bitter finale after all that comedy. 4) I wanted to add also the "Candide Ouverture" by Leonard Bernstein, but perhaps it doesn't make laugh but evokes just a joyful mood. Although Bernstein did write a piece, which made me really laugh: It's the "Turkey Trot" in his charming "Divertimento". 5) Finally, Nino Rota's ouverture for Federico Fellini's "Prova d'orchestra", which, in my opinion, is one of the funniest pieces ever written.
There is a Vivace from the quartet in Production I of Tafelmusik where the oboe just goes beep beep beep beep in such a droll way, gets me every time. Telemann is often sly and cheeky, easily Haydn's equal in that department IMO. Used gypsy music, too. Performers tend to try try to make kneeslappers out of the lurching frog/crow movement in his Alster Overture and the beeriness of The Whore but I imagine they were originally played pretty straight and people chuckled quietly to themselves.
Dear Dave, thank you so much for this chat. Even without hearing the music, your talk made me smile (with you, not at you!) The only other talk I've ever heard about humor in music was one of Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Your approach, however, was much broader and more comprehensive (though Bernstein, too, referenced Prokofiev's Classical symphony). Thank you for bringing the laughter of music into our lives.
The horn solo as written in mistake at the recap of Beethoven 3. The glockenspiel magic music in act one of Zauberflöte. Every time a cadence is approached and avoided in the finale of Beethoven's Quartet op. 59, no. 3. The Bach Piece d'Orgue with the chain of deceptive cadences. (I can't remember the BWV number.) The very end of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Michael Daugherty's Le Tombeau de Liberace. The "rap" in Louis Andriessen's De Stijl.
My selections may seem a bit obvious. Walton's Facade (orchestral suite version) - particularly Swiss Yodelling Song (very funny skit on Rossini's WilliamTell) & Old Sir Faulk always makes me laugh ( just realised I have piece by Walton that makes me cry, Battle in the Air, and now one by him that makes me laugh! Shows what a great composer he was). Milhaud's Le Bœuf sur le toit is hilarious, and Faure's 1st Piano Quartet 2nd movement Scherzo - very witty. I often have chuckle at Beethoven's Diabelii Variations too😊
As i was hearing Arnolds Grand Grand Overture i stumbled upon his Grand Concerto Gastronomique. As the Soprano comes in to the Peach Melba i laughed really out loudly
What a great series! I also want to chime in this time with two examples of political humor: -Shostakovich Symphony nº 9. The whole first movement has some of the most corrosive musical jokes ever made. The second subject, with the innocent piccolo melody always hopelessly interrupted by a pompous trombone, never fails to amuse me. -John Adams. Nixon in China. Nixon's first aria ("News!") has some very funny moments. I love how Nixon continues on singing over poor Zhou Enlai, who keeps on repeating "may I introduce...". The whole opera has a wonderful sense of humor. Mao's secretaries' part or Jian Qing's aria ("I am the wife of Mao Zedong!") is full blown comedy. I've never undestood why nobody ever mentions how ironic and humorous this opera is at times. -And another (non-political) very funny piece is Xavier Montsalvatge's final song from "cinco canciones negras" ("canto negro/Negro Song"). It's a minute long MASTERPIECE (yes, a masterpiece can be just a minute long....) that made the composer's reputation in the United States, and the fact it actually talks quite explicitly about having sex with a black man with a huge...(well you know what I mean) and hardly anyone ever notices in the audience is absolutely hilarious. It's a "bravura" piece, and I've always thought Montsalvatge kept it so short and ended it up with a rather sudden "bang" to have everyone in the audience clapping and shouting "brava!" whithout noticing what it had just happened.
Marvelous video, Dave! A few more nominations... (1) The fifth movement, "Jingo", from Copland's early orchestral work "Statements"; (2) The finale of Hindemith's Concerto for Harp, Woodwind Quartet, and Orchestra (if you don't know it, don't read about it - just put it on and concentrate on the solo clarinet); (3) Rodion Shchedrin's Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 (its subtitle is variously translated as "Mischievous Melodies" and "Naughty Limericks") - a seven-minute hoot.
Speaking of “Otello”: I just heard it this summer at the LA Opera, and I was surprised at how much the audience laughed, especially every time Desdemona wants to bring up the case of Cassio. They were laughing like “Oh my, here she goes again!” I never heard that in Europe, and never thought anything in this tragidy was funny. Ives is always good for a laugh. 4th Symphony, Central Park … and others comes to mind. Thanks for the suggestions! Gonna check out some Haydn now. Frank Zappa asked “Does humor belong in music?” It always did, I suppose.
I have only lost my composure in concert twice. Once was when George Manahan played Mahler 1; the trumpets in III had a flawless "Jewish wedding" sound, and my date and I laughed like hyenas. The other was at the end of Percy Grainger's "Blithe Bells", which turns from relatively serious stuff to cocktail jazz at the end. I also like the "Great Bassoon Joke" at the end of Haydn 93's slow movement.
Great topic, Dave! My examples of humor: Victor Herbert Babes in Toyland: Toymaker and Workshop; and Malcolm Arnold Tam O Shanter, Morton Gould Horseless Carriage Galop and finally Walter Piston, The Incredible Flutist Suite.
Beethoven symphony 7. 3rd movement. Right at the end. When it sounds like we’re gonna get a third run through of the slow second subject, all of a sudden Beethoven sends the melody into a minor key as if saying, “do I really want to bother with playing this again?” And then he just finishes the movement with 5 chords like he can’t wait to get it over with. 😂 Made me laugh the very first time I heard it!
Before discovering your channel, I was around since the classical music's 10 dirtiest secret vid, I thought I knew Haydn was a great composer. But well you truly taught me just how much I had no idea about how great Haydn truly was. Such an infinitely creative composer.
And the classic examples of composers making fun of themselves: Mozart's coda to his 466 just after everything stops and you think OMG what 's happening now? And then the bassoon moves into major and Mozart even pulls out his tongue with the brass going "fooled ya" after the tutti. Second classic example is Brahms' playground finale for his 2nd PC where even the 'serious' theme is swiped off and remains undeveloped with the ensuing peek-a-boo in the clarinets if I remember correctly.
Two immediately come to mind for me. The first is an aria of all things - Attilio Regolo: Per che di giubilo by Jommelli. I first heard this in the car and I nearly drove of the road laughing. Joyce DiDonato was getting a vocal workout with this particular version and just when I thought she was coming to the finale, a new verse would start. This happened about three or four times! My other choice is A night in the Tropics, Festa Criolla by Gottschalk. One of the most delightful expressions of symphonic mirth we have been blessed with.
About audience behavior: Yes, Dave, the Nashville performed the same concert in Troy, and it was O'Connor's Double Violin Concerto with the composer and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. September 2000. Our audience didn't interrupt but waited for the end of the first movement.
To add to the wonderful explosion suggestions, I must add Peter Maxwell Davies' Orkney Wedding and Sunrise, with its brilliant depiction of a band becoming rather too intoxicated.
Fun. Just to add a couple. Mozart’s Entfuhrung aus dem Serial Overture when the “Turkish” percussion suddenly (should) make you jump out of your seat. Messiaen isn’t *supposed* to be funny, but often is, so the maddening ending to Oiseaux Exotiques always makes me laugh. Also the very end of Bartok’s 5th quartet, where, after all the rather difficult harmonies/ textures/ sonorities there is a simple major scale - blink and you’ll miss it, but it makes me laugh!
I also find Ketèlbey's The Clock and the Dresden Figures an extremely funny and merry piece with all the percussions doing funny stuffs and a cheerful tune. It's such a memorable piece
I think John Cage was a humorous guy who really never did take things too seriously, or at least overly solemnly. In my opinion, while 4’33 has some interesting conceptual ideas in it, I think it’s a truly humorous and ironic piece. Make me chuckle, anyway.
Bravx! This is s great one. Variations on America is a favorite. You didn't forbid our adding to the list, so here're couple others: John Adams's Grand Pianola Music; William Bolcom's Black Host. Both of these are plainly funny guys.
Penderecki's Polymorphia, after 11 or so minutes of exploring the weirdest and most otherwordly sounds that you can get out of a string orchestra, ends with a big C major chord. It's a brilliant musical joke that makes me laugh out loud every time.
Nice suggestion, and relatable what Dave said in 1:48 - 1:57 😅as a metal fan, I like "tasty", but yet ironic even humor, which is what in classical music probably Hindemith and Prokofiev classical is the closest.
For me Bohuslav Martinu has many moments of joy, even if his music does not sound "funny" and of course, Poulenc who could be highly sarcastic and bleak at the same time
By the way, Dave' s impression of Alkan theme made me chuckle because the Melody sounds similar to a theme song of children's animated series from my home country about two little "sheperds" and their adventures
Nino Rota's Nonetto sounds like someone laughing in the 1st movement (recommended RUclips performance: Kammersveit Reykjavíkur Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra). Probably a good way to put a smile on a persons face: make the music laugh. I actually came here from a Google inquiry on classical pieces that mimic laughter after hearing the second half of the 2nd movement to Beethoven's violin sonata #1, which made me recall the nonetto and get curious for others. EDIT: Tried looking further, failed to find any posts on the subject of music that mimics laughter. UPDATE: Not classical, but "SEAGULLS! (Stop It Now)" -- A Bad Lip Reading of The Empire Strike Back" has laughing like music.
Gulda - Cello Concerto Dudley Moore's parodies of classical composers - Even if quite short I find the music valuable and beautiful by itself so I think these should be regarded as real compositions :-) Finally, speaking of Beethoven, in one of his smaller sonatas (I think it's op.14/2) there is a set of variations at the place of a slow movement. One of the variations employs staccatos and syncopation in the "melody". One of those syncopations is suddenly and totally unexpectedly played loudly and with a diminished chord harmonoy. Always makes me laugh.
It is true that the variation form can be used to transform the original idea to something really different for comical effect. That is why I appreciate Liszt's metamorphosis technique. The funniest thing may be the transformation of the love theme in the 1st Mephisto Waltz into a can-can.
Rossini's music: Cats duo (if performed by best singers), Don Basilio's Gossip aria, and many others - even some parts of his Solemn Mass (in the original version for 2 pianos); Mahler's 1st symphony 'Frere Jacques' motif in the minor key!
Milhaud’s Boeuf sur le toit then comes to my mind. The opening is irresistible for me. There is also a video on RUclips where I. Perlman plays Bazzini’s Ronde des Lutins and makes the audience laugh out loud. It’s the music and of course how Perlman fabulously plays it.
Mozart's Serenata Notturna: Karajan (yep) in the last movement of his late 60s DG recording puts a smile on my face everytime (I'm not a laugh put loud sort of person). In so many recordings that movement is played dead straight, but there is so much fun and humor in it. Karajan got it and delivered (But his 80s remake is rather heavy handed).
Hindemith's "Ragtime (Well-Tempered)" Op. 21 (self explanatory Bach WTC I quote when you hear it and perhaps overall a dig at Stravinsky's "Bach like" stylings in his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments). Of course that Peter Schickele/PDQ Bach are written to be comedy, but I think that Eine Kline Nichtmusik stands as an instrumental masterpiece, (the string part certainly is).
I remember someone speaking with Iannis Xenakis and telling him people were laughing at the crazy glissandi that start his string quartet TETRAS. His response was simply "Good. They should." I think listeners forget avant-gardists are people too. Ives sure wasn't ashamed of a good gag (like the infamous final chord of the 2nd symphony)
A few candidates (all eliciting more of a smile than a guffaw): Orff, “Carmina Burana”: the brief “Reie” always sounds to me like the later “Were diu werlt alle min” using its indoor voice Handel, “Messiah”: “All we like sheep” (and no, not because of the old glee club joke about bestiality) Stravinsky, “Rake’s Progress”: Tom’s “Thanks to this excellent device” quotes Haydn’s Symphony #88 finale
Beethoven’s eighth symphony seems to lampoon the metronome and this makes me laugh - I hope I’m not being naughty but anything by the Portsmouth Sinfonia especially Classical Mudley which is a life-changing experience - by the way I want to thank you for great videos and books - I have learned a lot from you!
@@DavesClassicalGuide Same here. I was introduced to Gillis’ music in 7th grade, when we played his “Spiritual” in band for contest. My next was a tasking from my bosses to transcribe Gillis’ ballet Shindig for the Marine Band. Very fun stuff.
37:24 - [this is not a criticism of you, as you are working without examples and need to keep us informed] Donald Tovey in his programme notes [as published in his Essays, to which you have referred before] refused point-blank to name this tune to avoid the big reveal too early - I do not have the volume to hand but I believe he says something like "nothing will induce me to reveal this".
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral for a Soloist with a Shortwave Receiver (1968) Some guy making funny noises with his mouth and/or a musical instrument while someone is (unsuccessfully) trying to tune a shortwave radio in the background. John Cage - Sixty Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham (for solo voice) (1971) Some guy making funny noises with his mouth punctuated by periods of silence. Some performances last over 3 hours. First time I listened to these works, I was rolling on the floor laughing. Of course, it helps if you smoke or vape a little "herb" before listening to this music. I can imagine that if you told Cage that his music made you laugh out loud, he would be flattered. Stockhausen, on the other hand, would likely be insulted.
I think the last two movements of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" are hilarious, but I realize that you are looking at whole compositions and not individual movements. As for clapping, I've seen videos of Mahler's Symphony #8 where the audience remains silent at the end of Part I ("Veni Creator Spiritus"), and I find it rather awkward.
It is difficult to write music that induces side splitting laughter without resorting to slapstick, words, extra musical references or sound effects. A smirk is not hard to induce.
One symphony that brings a smile to my face; perhaps not outright laughter; is the Beethoven 8th.
Ibert's Divertissement too! It's ridiculously boisterous and full of hilarious musical quotes.
A great pick!
Police whistle!
Sandpaper Ballet, Waltzing Cat, The Typewriter and so many more. Leroy Anderson always makes me smile and giggle.
The cadence at the end of the second movement (“This scherzo is a joke”) of the Ives piano trio.
One of my favorite moments of musical humor: the section near the end of Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody, when it subtly modulates down a half-step to A flat minor...the piano comes out of the cadenza playing in the "wrong" key, and is then "corrected" by the orchestra.
It is especially noteworthy since Rachmaninov, wonderful though he is, does not usually wander within a million miles of being funny.
Very true! The ending itself is also very funny, and very unusual for this composer.
The 2nd movement of Vaughan Williams' 8th Symphony is funny.
Two that always make me laugh is Mahler 7 and Ravel’s La Valse, both unusual and crazy-driven pieces. It’s mostly the abrupt stops and changes that really get a chuckle out of me, like abrupt change of the loud C Major tutti chord to soft A-flat Major chord with just woodwinds at the beginning of the Mahler 7 finale, also when it just turns to cafe like chamber music sometimes. The crazy orchestration and plain parody of a crazed Viennese waltz in La Valse really gets me for some reason, especially near the end where the strings just interrupt with that romantic theme, and then the music goes back on its way.
You did it! I am laughing out loud with the monstrous interpretation of the Hollander! It´s genial. Germans have sense of humor too
I once used Papa Haydn as way of making one of my young sons laugh when we were in the car returning from day care after work. I had a CD of the Surprise symphony playing and when it got to the surprise "bomp!" I turned it up real loud at that part. And he just laughed his little arse off and so did I.
A passage that I have enjoyed and seen people laugh at is in the Weber's Freischutz Overture. In a RUclips video, e.g., with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, between six and seven minutes in, upper woodwinds state a short phrase from a major theme, then the lower brass repeat their last two notes in a low register, seemingly as mockery of the woodwinds. Then the woodwinds repeat their bit, but more softly now, as though they are somehow chastened; then the low brass plays their bit again. This is a little dry to describe, but it's easy to hear as a comic moment. In some other recordings, however, the low brass is kept politely soft throughout, and the two statements of the woodwind are of equal volume. There is no sense of dialogue or comedy. Everything depends on a small difference in the performance. How did Weber actually envision this? I don't know.
Two pieces I can't listening to without grinning - Vaughan Williams' London Symphony, with its Have A Banana quotes - and Sousa's Liberty Bell. I blame Monty Python for that.
Your wonderful channel has made me appreciate Haydn in a way that continues to bring me endless joy. Looking forward to you continuing the Haydn Symphony Crusade!
Awesome! Thank you!
I attended a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra some 25 years ago that concluded with Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 in C Major. During the finale the guest conductor (whose name escapes me after all this time) wisely took the repeat of its second section.
With each episode of premature applause during that movement’s multiple false endings, the audience’s nonplussed reaction grew from initial bemused chuckles to uproarious laughter when the piece finally achieved its long-delayed conclusion. It was delightful to see how the composer’s deadpan musical joke could still bring down the house more than two centuries after he wrote it.
The finale of Arthur Sullivan's Cello Concerto gets me every time.
Dohnanyi’s Variations makes me laugh throughout. It’s witty and clever as well as laugh out loud funny. Glad you included it here! Tahiti Trot by Shostakovich is funny until you think about how he was forced to repudiate it and it was lost for so long….😢
Great video!!
I'm a pianist playing that last movement of the Mahler 4th with a soprano friend. (The piano arrangement is by Mahler.) I don't disagree with anything you've said, but I'll add, just to complexify the situation, that for some reason he takes the "Sehr behaglich" ("very leisurely") indication that's in the symphony, and here adds "Mit kinditch heiterem Ausdruck! Durchaus ohne Parodie!" ("With childish joy! Absolutely not a parody!")
We find it amusing, and slightly perplexing, that he went out of his way to specify *not* to consider this movement a parody!
That same comment is in the orchestral score. It's not confusing: in order for the music to make the right impression it has to done "straight," without revealing any indication of how funny or grotesque it is. A child, after all, doesn't know better, and that's what makes it funny to us adults.
Yet another delightful video! One piece I would add would be Beethoven's "Rage Over a Lost Penny"
If you have a listener's choice video on this, I want to nominate Shostakovich's 9th Symphony. My teenage son and I had a big laugh-out-loud watch on this, especially the first movement with the goofy melodies and ridiculous trombone and percussion entrances. The funniest single moment in any classical piece that I can think of is the big soloist scream in the Jorg Widmann viola concerto, when I first saw this I fell off my chair laughing. I do confess, however that I am not sure this would qualify the piece for the listeners' choice video since I think the moment is unintentionally funny.
So many other pieces by Prokofiev I think can be added to this list! The Love of Three Oranges, 5 Sarcasms, and The Fiery Angel come to mind immediately, but there's humor to be found in almost every piece he wrote.
For me it's the Scherzo of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 31 #3. It cracks me up every time. I just cannot help picturing some manic Krazy Kat cartoon, or some other sort of high-speed cartoon silliness. I once attended a university recital where the student played this and I finally felt like I wasn't the only one picturing all that hyper-kinetic nonsense. He really laid into it, like he really got the "scherzo." Fantastic.
I have laughed many times at music, but usually because there's a memory attached to the music.
I've definitely laughed at many,many performances 🤣
YESSS!! I hoped you would mention the Prokofiev and Dohnanyi
Haydn symphony 93 has a bassoon farting very loud towards the end of the emotional second movement, adagio cantabile. Pity that some conductors pretend it's not written ff in the lowest register and mask it a bit instead of embracing the joke
Szell gets it.
@@presbyterosBassI ahaha I just listened to that version and indeed he does
The brass blast at the end of "Ego sum abbas cucaniensis" (Orff), followed by choral "Ha-Ha"
has the same purpose and effect, which deserve to be amplified by conductors.
The Malcolm Arnold piece for orchestra and vacuum cleaner or floor polisher or whatever it is. I think it was done for one of the Hoffnung Festivals. I love it when the orchestra backs off for its solos and it gets switched on.
Thank you, thank you for introducing me to Don Gillis. Since he was an entry in one of your symphony cycle videos, I’ve obtained all the symphonies and more, and his music makes me so happy.
I’m in precisely the same boat thanks to our informative host!
Music that makes the audience laugh. A special place goes to The Köln Concert. At the beginning of the concert, laughters from the public can be heard in the background. Keith Jarrett had the brilliant idea of starting his improvisation quoting the melody of the signal bell which was announcing the beginning of the concert at the Köln Opera House. Pure genius.
Shostakovich 9th Symphony when the trombones in the 1st movement keep trying to come in too early with 2nd theme in the recapitulation always makes me laugh.
Ibert's Divertissement is hilarious especially the quote from Mendelssohn Wedding March.
Rossini, the sudden ff in the Italiana Overture which someone once compared to a drunk guy sneaking upstairs at 3am and knocking over the grandfather clock on the landing. I also love the piccolo in the repeat in the Semiramide Overture left hanging all by itself at the top of its register just before the final crescendo. Beecham's recording of the Gazza Ladra overture has some hilarious offbeats for the horns at the start of the crescendo. But, alas, he is playing from a very corrupt score.
Speaking of drunks, the 4th mvt of Siegmeister's Western Suite (Buckaroo) is a hilarious portrait of a cow poke falling all over himself and banging into everything. The humor is entirely musical, though.
As many times as I've heard it, Mozart's Musical Joke cracks me up and you discover new jokes in it almost each time you hear it.
A great list of funny music! Especially the Hindemith is a great choice, that's the piece, which made the whole auditorium laugh, when it was played (and repeated!) in a concert in Vienna. I want just to add a few pieces, which make me laugh also:
1) Ernst Toch: Geographical Fugue in german and in english; maybe, the laughing is a function of the words, but I don't think that's the whole truth, because nothing's very funny, when you say "Ratibor".
2) I know, you don't like him, but these two works made me laugh: Peter Maxwell Davies' "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise" and "Fantasia on a Ground and Two Pavans by Henry Purcell": In the "Wedding", the guests sing folk tunes (all invented by Davies), and they get more and more drunk (one hears the smell of whiskey), and finally, a bagpipe player enters, symbolising the rising sun. The "Fantasia" is a transcription of Purcell, imitating the sound of original instruments, and the end is a foxtrot - played with a cracked disk on an old gramophone, which must be winded up (it has a hint of Haydns tuning).
3) Alfred Schnittke: "(K)ein Sommernachtstraum", a hilarious piece of fake music from the classical period, confronted with clusters and dissonances. But even funnier is in my opinion his "Gogol Suite", also with faked earlier music, busy Allegri and grotesque tragic outbursts - and a strangely bitter finale after all that comedy.
4) I wanted to add also the "Candide Ouverture" by Leonard Bernstein, but perhaps it doesn't make laugh but evokes just a joyful mood. Although Bernstein did write a piece, which made me really laugh: It's the "Turkey Trot" in his charming "Divertimento".
5) Finally, Nino Rota's ouverture for Federico Fellini's "Prova d'orchestra", which, in my opinion, is one of the funniest pieces ever written.
The 4th movement from Nielsen's Symphony No. 6 'Sinfonia semplice' (which is anything but 'semplice') has some humorous and funny moments.
Very. The second movement as well.
There is a Vivace from the quartet in Production I of Tafelmusik where the oboe just goes beep beep beep beep in such a droll way, gets me every time. Telemann is often sly and cheeky, easily Haydn's equal in that department IMO. Used gypsy music, too. Performers tend to try try to make kneeslappers out of the lurching frog/crow movement in his Alster Overture and the beeriness of The Whore but I imagine they were originally played pretty straight and people chuckled quietly to themselves.
Dear Dave, thank you so much for this chat. Even without hearing the music, your talk made me smile (with you, not at you!) The only other talk I've ever heard about humor in music was one of Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Your approach, however, was much broader and more comprehensive (though Bernstein, too, referenced Prokofiev's Classical symphony). Thank you for bringing the laughter of music into our lives.
The horn solo as written in mistake at the recap of Beethoven 3.
The glockenspiel magic music in act one of Zauberflöte.
Every time a cadence is approached and avoided in the finale of Beethoven's Quartet op. 59, no. 3.
The Bach Piece d'Orgue with the chain of deceptive cadences. (I can't remember the BWV number.)
The very end of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Michael Daugherty's Le Tombeau de Liberace.
The "rap" in Louis Andriessen's De Stijl.
My selections may seem a bit obvious. Walton's Facade (orchestral suite version) - particularly Swiss Yodelling Song (very funny skit on Rossini's WilliamTell) & Old Sir Faulk always makes me laugh ( just realised I have piece by Walton that makes me cry, Battle in the Air, and now one by him that makes me laugh! Shows what a great composer he was). Milhaud's Le Bœuf sur le toit is hilarious, and Faure's 1st Piano Quartet 2nd movement Scherzo - very witty. I often have chuckle at Beethoven's Diabelii Variations too😊
William Schuman - Newsreel AFAIK only recorded once (Foss/Milwaukee/ProArte) and always makes me grin.
As i was hearing Arnolds Grand Grand Overture i stumbled upon his Grand Concerto Gastronomique. As the Soprano comes in to the Peach Melba i laughed really out loudly
What a great series! I also want to chime in this time with two examples of political humor:
-Shostakovich Symphony nº 9. The whole first movement has some of the most corrosive musical jokes ever made. The second subject, with the innocent piccolo melody always hopelessly interrupted by a pompous trombone, never fails to amuse me.
-John Adams. Nixon in China. Nixon's first aria ("News!") has some very funny moments. I love how Nixon continues on singing over poor Zhou Enlai, who keeps on repeating "may I introduce...". The whole opera has a wonderful sense of humor. Mao's secretaries' part or Jian Qing's aria ("I am the wife of Mao Zedong!") is full blown comedy. I've never undestood why nobody ever mentions how ironic and humorous this opera is at times.
-And another (non-political) very funny piece is Xavier Montsalvatge's final song from "cinco canciones negras" ("canto negro/Negro Song"). It's a minute long MASTERPIECE (yes, a masterpiece can be just a minute long....) that made the composer's reputation in the United States, and the fact it actually talks quite explicitly about having sex with a black man with a huge...(well you know what I mean) and hardly anyone ever notices in the audience is absolutely hilarious. It's a "bravura" piece, and I've always thought Montsalvatge kept it so short and ended it up with a rather sudden "bang" to have everyone in the audience clapping and shouting "brava!" whithout noticing what it had just happened.
That piccolo-trombone exchange in Shosty #9 is one of my favorite musical moments in the repertoire.
Marvelous video, Dave! A few more nominations... (1) The fifth movement, "Jingo", from Copland's early orchestral work "Statements"; (2) The finale of Hindemith's Concerto for Harp, Woodwind Quartet, and Orchestra (if you don't know it, don't read about it - just put it on and concentrate on the solo clarinet); (3) Rodion Shchedrin's Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 (its subtitle is variously translated as "Mischievous Melodies" and "Naughty Limericks") - a seven-minute hoot.
Speaking of “Otello”: I just heard it this summer at the LA Opera, and I was surprised at how much the audience laughed, especially every time Desdemona wants to bring up the case of Cassio. They were laughing like “Oh my, here she goes again!” I never heard that in Europe, and never thought anything in this tragidy was funny. Ives is always good for a laugh. 4th Symphony, Central Park … and others comes to mind. Thanks for the suggestions! Gonna check out some Haydn now. Frank Zappa asked “Does humor belong in music?” It always did, I suppose.
I have only lost my composure in concert twice. Once was when George Manahan played Mahler 1; the trumpets in III had a flawless "Jewish wedding" sound, and my date and I laughed like hyenas. The other was at the end of Percy Grainger's "Blithe Bells", which turns from relatively serious stuff to cocktail jazz at the end. I also like the "Great Bassoon Joke" at the end of Haydn 93's slow movement.
Bernstein's Candide Overture and Busoni's Turandots Frauengemach Elegy always make me laugh.
Great topic, Dave! My examples of humor: Victor Herbert Babes in Toyland: Toymaker and Workshop; and Malcolm Arnold Tam O Shanter, Morton Gould Horseless Carriage Galop and finally Walter Piston, The Incredible Flutist Suite.
Beethoven symphony 7. 3rd movement. Right at the end. When it sounds like we’re gonna get a third run through of the slow second subject, all of a sudden Beethoven sends the melody into a minor key as if saying, “do I really want to bother with playing this again?” And then he just finishes the movement with 5 chords like he can’t wait to get it over with. 😂 Made me laugh the very first time I heard it!
Before discovering your channel, I was around since the classical music's 10 dirtiest secret vid, I thought I knew Haydn was a great composer. But well you truly taught me just how much I had no idea about how great Haydn truly was. Such an infinitely creative composer.
And the classic examples of composers making fun of themselves: Mozart's coda to his 466 just after everything stops and you think OMG what 's happening now? And then the bassoon moves into major and Mozart even pulls out his tongue with the brass going "fooled ya" after the tutti. Second classic example is Brahms' playground finale for his 2nd PC where even the 'serious' theme is swiped off and remains undeveloped with the ensuing peek-a-boo in the clarinets if I remember correctly.
Two immediately come to mind for me. The first is an aria of all things - Attilio Regolo: Per che di giubilo by Jommelli. I first heard this in the car and I nearly drove of the road laughing. Joyce DiDonato was getting a vocal workout with this particular version and just when I thought she was coming to the finale, a new verse would start. This happened about three or four times! My other choice is A night in the Tropics, Festa Criolla by Gottschalk. One of the most delightful expressions of symphonic mirth we have been blessed with.
About audience behavior: Yes, Dave, the Nashville performed the same concert in Troy, and it was O'Connor's Double Violin Concerto with the composer and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. September 2000. Our audience didn't interrupt but waited for the end of the first movement.
The CPE Bach piece reminds me of Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” theme from the Peanuts specials.
Yes, it does! Good call!
To add to the wonderful explosion suggestions, I must add Peter Maxwell Davies' Orkney Wedding and Sunrise, with its brilliant depiction of a band becoming rather too intoxicated.
Sorry, explosion OF suggestions....
Already mentioned!
Fun. Just to add a couple. Mozart’s Entfuhrung aus dem Serial Overture when the “Turkish” percussion suddenly (should) make you jump out of your seat. Messiaen isn’t *supposed* to be funny, but often is, so the maddening ending to Oiseaux Exotiques always makes me laugh. Also the very end of Bartok’s 5th quartet, where, after all the rather difficult harmonies/ textures/ sonorities there is a simple major scale - blink and you’ll miss it, but it makes me laugh!
Ever since you introduced me to Scherchen's Haydn 100, the 4th mvmt makes me laugh out loud. Also much of PDQ Bach.
I also find Ketèlbey's The Clock and the Dresden Figures an extremely funny and merry piece with all the percussions doing funny stuffs and a cheerful tune. It's such a memorable piece
I think John Cage was a humorous guy who really never did take things too seriously, or at least overly solemnly. In my opinion, while 4’33 has some interesting conceptual ideas in it, I think it’s a truly humorous and ironic piece. Make me chuckle, anyway.
Dave, you mentioned Ives’ 2nd Symphony as being one of the pieces at Carnegie Hall with the National Symphony. The last chord makes me laugh.
Agreed.
Bravx! This is s great one. Variations on America is a favorite.
You didn't forbid our adding to the list, so here're couple others:
John Adams's Grand Pianola Music;
William Bolcom's Black Host.
Both of these are plainly funny guys.
Some of Conlon Nancarrow Studies for player piano
Dave, you recently turned me on to Eggert. The end of one of the movements to the 4th Symphony has a loud base drum hit that made me laugh out loud.
How about Beethoven's "Rage over a Lost Penny?" At least it was meant to be funny.
Penderecki's Polymorphia, after 11 or so minutes of exploring the weirdest and most otherwordly sounds that you can get out of a string orchestra, ends with a big C major chord. It's a brilliant musical joke that makes me laugh out loud every time.
Nice suggestion, and relatable what Dave said in 1:48 - 1:57 😅as a metal fan, I like "tasty", but yet ironic even humor, which is what in classical music probably Hindemith and Prokofiev classical is the closest.
For me Bohuslav Martinu has many moments of joy, even if his music does not sound "funny" and of course, Poulenc who could be highly sarcastic and bleak at the same time
By the way, Dave' s impression of Alkan theme made me chuckle because the Melody sounds similar to a theme song of children's animated series from my home country about two little "sheperds" and their adventures
Nino Rota's Nonetto sounds like someone laughing in the 1st movement (recommended RUclips performance: Kammersveit Reykjavíkur Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra). Probably a good way to put a smile on a persons face: make the music laugh. I actually came here from a Google inquiry on classical pieces that mimic laughter after hearing the second half of the 2nd movement to Beethoven's violin sonata #1, which made me recall the nonetto and get curious for others. EDIT: Tried looking further, failed to find any posts on the subject of music that mimics laughter. UPDATE: Not classical, but "SEAGULLS! (Stop It Now)" -- A Bad Lip Reading of The Empire Strike Back" has laughing like music.
The conclusion to the Ives Second Symphony is a romp that trips over its feet and lands on its .... I cannot help but laugh.
Gulda - Cello Concerto
Dudley Moore's parodies of classical composers - Even if quite short I find the music valuable and beautiful by itself so I think these should be regarded as real compositions :-)
Finally, speaking of Beethoven, in one of his smaller sonatas (I think it's op.14/2) there is a set of variations at the place of a slow movement. One of the variations employs staccatos and syncopation in the "melody". One of those syncopations is suddenly and totally unexpectedly played loudly and with a diminished chord harmonoy. Always makes me laugh.
It is true that the variation form can be used to transform the original idea to something really different for comical effect. That is why I appreciate Liszt's metamorphosis technique. The funniest thing may be the transformation of the love theme in the 1st Mephisto Waltz into a can-can.
Rossini's music: Cats duo (if performed by best singers), Don Basilio's Gossip aria, and many others - even some parts of his Solemn Mass (in the original version for 2 pianos); Mahler's 1st symphony 'Frere Jacques' motif in the minor key!
Though the cat duet is a concoction Rossini never wrote though it's based on a serious Rossini tune.
The Barber Of Seville Overture inevitably brings up images of Bugs Bunny conducting.
There are many passages in the opera that are also incredibly funny
Offenbach operas in general among which La Belle Hélène stands out for me. Dialogues and music are both hilarious.
The "pomme" ensemble is hilarious.
Vocal music with funny text is a different conversation. I was thinking of "abstract" instrumental works.
Milhaud’s Boeuf sur le toit then comes to my mind. The opening is irresistible for me. There is also a video on RUclips where I. Perlman plays Bazzini’s Ronde des Lutins and makes the audience laugh out loud. It’s the music and of course how Perlman fabulously plays it.
Surely some ligeti would work here! Nouvelles adventures? It's on purpose.
Cassation in G Major “Toy Symphony” by Leopold Mozart (or Haydn or someone else) is quite funny, especially when the toys come in the first movement.
I always thought the Alkan theme sounded very similar to the nursery rhyme Ten Green Bottles!
Saint-Saens' Pianists movement always cracks me up. But when performers over-interpret, funny quickly becomes cheesy. Humor is hard.
Mozart's Serenata Notturna: Karajan (yep) in the last movement of his late 60s DG recording puts a smile on my face everytime (I'm not a laugh put loud sort of person). In so many recordings that movement is played dead straight, but there is so much fun and humor in it. Karajan got it and delivered (But his 80s remake is rather heavy handed).
Hindemith's "Ragtime (Well-Tempered)" Op. 21 (self explanatory Bach WTC I quote when you hear it and perhaps overall a dig at Stravinsky's "Bach like" stylings in his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments). Of course that Peter Schickele/PDQ Bach are written to be comedy, but I think that Eine Kline Nichtmusik stands as an instrumental masterpiece, (the string part certainly is).
I remember someone speaking with Iannis Xenakis and telling him people were laughing at the crazy glissandi that start his string quartet TETRAS. His response was simply "Good. They should." I think listeners forget avant-gardists are people too. Ives sure wasn't ashamed of a good gag (like the infamous final chord of the 2nd symphony)
Some of them were people too. Many tried not to be.
Virgil Thompson's "Capital, Capitals".
A presenter on BBC Radio 3 said he was once thrown out of a concert for laughing at one of Haydn's musical jokes!
Mahker if course can be funny, especially when he is mocking pomposity, such as Prussian military music, especially 'glorious victory' music.
A few candidates (all eliciting more of a smile than a guffaw):
Orff, “Carmina Burana”: the brief “Reie” always sounds to me like the later “Were diu werlt alle min” using its indoor voice
Handel, “Messiah”: “All we like sheep” (and no, not because of the old glee club joke about bestiality)
Stravinsky, “Rake’s Progress”: Tom’s “Thanks to this excellent device” quotes Haydn’s Symphony #88 finale
I m surprised you didn't mention Satie
Beethoven’s eighth symphony seems to lampoon the metronome and this makes me laugh - I hope I’m not being naughty but anything by the Portsmouth Sinfonia especially Classical Mudley which is a life-changing experience - by the way I want to thank you for great videos and books - I have learned a lot from you!
Thank you!
Gillis premiered by Toscanini…hmmmm….that wouldn’t have anything to do with Gillis being a producer at NBC, would it?
Of course it did, but they were good friends. He also wrote a Toscanini tone poem which I'd love to hear.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Same here. I was introduced to Gillis’ music in 7th grade, when we played his “Spiritual” in band for contest. My next was a tasking from my bosses to transcribe Gillis’ ballet Shindig for the Marine Band. Very fun stuff.
37:24 - [this is not a criticism of you, as you are working without examples and need to keep us informed] Donald Tovey in his programme notes [as published in his Essays, to which you have referred before] refused point-blank to name this tune to avoid the big reveal too early - I do not have the volume to hand but I believe he says something like "nothing will induce me to reveal this".
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Spiral for a Soloist with a Shortwave Receiver (1968)
Some guy making funny noises with his mouth and/or a musical instrument while someone is (unsuccessfully) trying to tune a shortwave radio in the background.
John Cage - Sixty Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham (for solo voice) (1971)
Some guy making funny noises with his mouth punctuated by periods of silence. Some performances last over 3 hours.
First time I listened to these works, I was rolling on the floor laughing. Of course, it helps if you smoke or vape a little "herb" before listening to this music. I can imagine that if you told Cage that his music made you laugh out loud, he would be flattered. Stockhausen, on the other hand, would likely be insulted.
I think the last two movements of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" are hilarious, but I realize that you are looking at whole compositions and not individual movements. As for clapping, I've seen videos of Mahler's Symphony #8 where the audience remains silent at the end of Part I ("Veni Creator Spiritus"), and I find it rather awkward.
It is difficult to write music that induces side splitting laughter without resorting to slapstick, words, extra musical references or sound effects. A smirk is not hard to induce.