# Give nicknames to your fav pieces!



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

From this thread:

http://www.talkclassical.com/45471-does-classical-music-have.html

it is clear that pieces of classical music stand a far better chance to achieve fame if they have a nickname like, say, "Moonlight sonata" instead of something like "Opus 27 no. 2."

So this is the thread in which to give appropriate (or even better, very much inappropriate) nicknames to some works. Silly humour is encouraged... 

E.g. as I recall, Brahms intended his second string quintet to be his last work, so we should call it the "Swan Song" quintet. Except it turned out not to be...


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Mendelssohn's pieces:

16 year old octet

17 year old overture

Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage MY FOOT, I GOT BADLY SEASICK AND NEARLY THREW UP OVER MY SCORES. Ugh

Piano Concerto no. 1 in G minor

"My dad died" piano concerto

Venetian symphony

"I really like England" symphony

"I really hate this" symphony

The rest of the 17 year old overture except I'm in my 30s and my style hasn't changed that much is that a bad thing or what

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" string quartet

I slightly regret making this post


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Beethoven:
_
String Quartet #12 in Eb, Op.127: _ "Rather Late Quartet"
_String Quartet #13 in Bb, OP. 130: _ "Getting Later Quartet"
_String Quartet #14 in C# minor, Op. 131: _ "Really Late Quartet"
_String Quartet # 15 in A minor, Op. 132:_ "Almost Too Late But Feeling Better Quartet"
_Grosse Fuge in Bb: _ "It Isn't As Late As It Seems Quartet" 
_String Quartet #16 in F, Op. 135:_ "Never Too Late For Laughter Quartet"


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Beethoven's Op. 106 piano sonata: "The big and noisy and hard to play." Oh, wait, it already has a nickname. Never mind.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

KenOC said:


> Beethoven's Op. 106 piano sonata: "The big and noisy and hard to play." Oh, wait, it already has a nickname. Never mind.


Yeah, but Americans might have trouble remembering it. What about "If I Had a Hammerklavier"?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Beethoven:
> _
> String Quartet #12 in Eb, Op.127: _ "Rather Late Quartet"
> _String Quartet #13 in Bb, OP. 130: _ "Getting Later Quartet"
> ...


Are there any opus posthumous quartets? Then we can nickname them the quartets by the late Beethoven... 

Beethoven lends himself well to nicknames. E.g. his symphonies:

No. 1: The Haydnesque
No.2: Pre-Eroica
No.4: Post-Eroica
No. 5: Fate (as was mentioned in another thread)
No. 7: Dance
No. 8: The Retro.


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Dvorak, Symphony 9: "But officer, I do have a green card!"


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 2, aka "Piano Concerto no. 1"


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

arnerich said:


> Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 2, aka "Piano Concerto no. 1"


_Much_ more memorable.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Kivimees said:


> Dvorak, Symphony 9: "But officer, I do have a green card!"


Post of the day :clap:


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Kivimees said:


> Dvorak, Symphony 9: "But officer, I do have a green card!"


And it worked so well that Bartok, Stravinsky and Schoenberg all began to use it too... 

Speaking of which. 
Bartok: Piano concerto no. 3, "Leukemia." 
Viola concerto, "Unfinished."


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Great thread idea. I almost started it myself, but realized I'd need to listen again to each favorite unnamed piece since I want to do it seriously. I don't really have the time for that, so I will wait and come up with names during deep listening sessions and add them to my posts on Current Listening.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Weston said:


> Great thread idea. I almost started it myself, but realized I'd need to listen again to each favorite unnamed piece since I want to do it seriously. I don't really have the time for that, so I will wait and come up with names during deep listening sessions and add them to my posts on Current Listening.


Taking it seriously is of course another option. 
I look forward to seeing what you come up with.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I do not have favorite pieces or composers, to give distinction to any particular work or composer I use "typical" or ”unique“. 

2 years ago I named some keyboard variations with nicknames related to metaphysical images. I made a set of 6 keyboard variations with 6 metaphysical themes: Vantitatis(life), Solaris(sun), Mundus/mundi(physical world), Pacifica（death), sexta（humanity), Stellaris（Worship). All the 6 pieces of course are from Musica antiqua. I will only disclose one Aria Solaris, to you guys. 

Aria solaris refers to suite No.5 in E minor from Musicalisches Blumen-Bueschlein by Johann Caspar Fischer, means the aria of Sun. Th piece of music has elegic elements reminiscent of elegic vocal pieces, warm harmonic buildup, energetic ending, therefore I name it as Sun`s aria.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Different languages will have different names for famous pieces. For example Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata is the "Sunrise" Sonata in Italian and Chopin's "Minute" Waltz is the "Puppy Dog" waltz in Japanese. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

More mundanely, my Dad (Irish, carpenter, odd sense of humour) knew the Hall of the Mountain King from Greig's Peer Gynt as 'Pawn Shop'.
Try singing the words "Father had a pawn shop, pawn shop, pawn shop. Father had a pawn shop along the Old Kent Road..."


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Pat Fairlea said:


> More mundanely, my Dad (Irish, carpenter, odd sense of humour) knew the Hall of the Mountain King from Greig's Peer Gynt as 'Pawn Shop'.
> Try singing the words "Father had a pawn shop, pawn shop, pawn shop. Father had a pawn shop along the Old Kent Road..."


Perhaps "record shop" works better rhythmically, but that's a cute story. Incidentally, I once wanted to open a pawn shop, but gave up in the end; I just didn't have the balls.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Gotta love Schroeder


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Pachelbel's "Shoot Me Now" Canon


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## bioluminescentsquid (Jul 22, 2016)

Ariasexta said:


> I do not have favorite pieces or composers, to give distinction to any particular work or composer I use "typical" or "unique".
> 
> 2 years ago I named some keyboard variations with nicknames related to metaphysical images. I made a set of 6 keyboard variations with 6 metaphysical themes: Vantitatis(life), Solaris(sun), Mundus/mundi(physical world), Pacifica（death), sexta（humanity), Stellaris（Worship). All the 6 pieces of course are from Musica antiqua. I will only disclose one Aria Solaris, to you guys.
> 
> Aria solaris refers to suite No.5 in E minor from Musicalisches Blumen-Bueschlein by Johann Caspar Fischer, means the aria of Sun. Th piece of music has elegic elements reminiscent of elegic vocal pieces, warm harmonic buildup, energetic ending, therefore I name it as Sun`s aria.


Hey, I wanna guess. Mind disclosing some composer names?
(I always thought your "Aria Sexta" referred to Pachelbel's sixth set in Hexachordum, but then wondered why you didn't call it by its usual name, Sebaldina. Now I see - it probably refers to something else!)


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## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

Change the 1812 Overture to, "American Patriotism even though it has nothing to do with our country!!"


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bevo said:


> Change the 1812 Overture to, "American Patriotism even though it has nothing to do with our country!!"


All you have to do is call it "The War of 1812." A good year for the artillery industry.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

As good pieces often have a nickname, why not give nicknames to lesser works, as a warning to potential buyers? For example: 

Haydn Symphony No. 63 "Watching Paint Dry"
Haydn Symphony No. 80 "Trudging Through Mud"


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

You know the expression, "Rack 3" for Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto, well, I invented that expression.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Mal said:


> As good pieces often have a nickname, why not give nicknames to lesser works, as a warning to potential buyers? For example:
> 
> Haydn Symphony No. 63 "Watching Paint Dry"
> Haydn Symphony No. 80 "Trudging Through Mud"


But No. 63 already has a nickname and No. 80 is really good. :tiphat:


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Schumann's Violin Concerto: "The Very Strange"

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde: "The curse-beater"

Brahms: "Variations on a theme by somebody who I had always thought was Haydn"


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Chopin - Etude Op. 10 No. 9 "boohoohoo why don't I have a nickname like the others?"

Currently studying this piece


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Scriabin - "much preferable to the written" Poem of Ecstasy


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 ("Metronome")

Walton - Symphony No. 1 ("Angry")


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Beethoven's Symphony No 2, "The Gastric"

Kodály's _Háry János_ overture, aka "The Big Sneezy"

And, in some hellish hommage to Mozart's _Die Zauberflöte_, perhaps Haydn's Symphony No 93 should be known as "Das Furzfagott"


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