# Quirky?



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Do you like or identify any 'quirky' movements or moments in music?

For me I find a lot of quirkiness in Mozart and Uematsu and my own music, and I enjoy it a lot. Random sudden shifts in rhythm and mood, equally unpredictable and yet surprisingly tonal and connected, danceable, leaping intervals and resulutions, little bits stuck in your head. Maybe I need to post specific examples to grasp my interpretation.

Feel free to discuss what quirky means. Is it something you differentiate or notice subjectively, or is it a meaningless descriptor? Would you ever identify the term in your listening?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think the thread I started on a similar note we were arriving at the conclusion, that what is once considered to be quirky, can later come to be found as commonplace.

Part of me is starting to believe that more and more, however, I'm still debating my stance on it. I kind of still believe there is music that is so individualistic it transcends time and will always come to be found as eccentric/quirky.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Feel free to post any examples, or share any explanations you have regarding the meaning.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Ethereality said:


> Feel free to post any examples, or share any explanations you have regarding the meaning.


I'd actually say, and as a departure from my original intention with my thread, that Mozart's compositions are so colorful and childlike in wonder and I see that as quirky.

His music is divine and beautiful to me; long live the film Amadeus, even though it's inaccurate.


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## GucciManeIsTheNewWebern (Jul 29, 2020)

I always thought the scherzo in Bruckner 5 was pretty weird. 

The several sardonic moments of Shosty and Mahler come to mind but I don't think those really count as they're purposefully exaggerated and less so "quirky".


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Quirky to me means unexpected. Beethoven's humor was predominantly of the quirky variety: the rhythmic dislocations in the scherzo of the sixth string quartet, the entire scherzo of the last quartet, the use of lumbering instruments in tripping passages (basses in trio of Fifth Symphony, bassoons in Fourth), the absolutely right false horn entry in the Eroica, the players seeming to lose the thread in the penultimate movement of the c-sharp minor quartet . . .


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Try most of the symphonies by Rued Laangard. Very quirky, highly individual.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> Try most of the symphonies by Rued Laangard. Very quirky, highly individual.


I'll check it out, thanks for the rec!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Add to that the symphonies of conductor Leif Segerstam. He's written over 200 by now, and some of them were recorded for Bis. Very, very odd.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm trying to find some Classical that fits the bill, so I'll certainly check out your picks! So far I have Miles Davis - (In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, On the Corner, Big Fun & A Tribute to Jack Johnson).


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think I've already discovered it for myself though, I've been attracted to Beethoven's symphonies for quite some time now. There is something very special about those works IMHO.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Endings sometimes strike me as quirky. The conclusion of the Beethoven Fifth seemingly features perhaps a chord too many, at times. But moreso the endings of, say, Walton's _Belshazzar's Feast _and Sibelius's Fifth Symphony. Quirky.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

This Bruckner scherzo is basically an awesome metal riff in disguise
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bruckner/guides/bruckner-scherzo-awesome-metal-riff/


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I always associate quirkiness as something that's a bit left-of-center. One piece that comes to mind immediately is Nielsen's 6th symphony.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

When I hear 'quirky', I look to Malcolm Arnold.
For example his Concerto for Two Pianos 3 Hands. Especially the bonkers last movement.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Obviously, there are tons of it; here's one,

*Giselher Klebe*'s _Die Zwitschermaschine_, based on a Klee painting:


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