# Classical Composers that were also the best humorists?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

In the last 50 years or so, we've seen many pianists that were also comedians
(not unintentionally, those usually don't get that far). I'm thinking of Victor
Borge, and there were many others. What classical composers were known
for having a good sense of humor? Do you have any anecdotes?


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Off the top of my head:

Jacques Offenbach
Carl Nielsen (listen to Maskarade, look at his pictures, and read his quotations)
George Antheil
Francis Poulenc
Shostakovich (if only nervously)


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Don Gillis had a very dry sense of music.

What can you say about a composer who wrote the _January February March_.






Note: The work was originally for orchestra. Many of his most popular works have been transcribed for band.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Satie comes to mind, of course. Bach seems to have a little bit of it, if you
think about the Coffee Cantata. Probably opera composers display it often.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

regenmusic said:


> Satie comes to mind, of course. Bach seems to have a little bit of it, if you
> think about the Coffee Cantata. *Probably opera composers display it often.*


course they do - what about Mozart's comic operas plus the 2 great singspiels - and a musical joke?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Listen to the Beethoven 32 Piano Sonatas. Humorous touches abound.

Same with the Haydn London Symphonies. How about an oboe "fart" in the Symphony No. 93?

Nobody was more humorous through music than Beethoven and Haydn.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I think Mozart, twinkle twinkle little star, and so many other juvenile melodies.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I find it amazing that Haydn can make me laugh over 200 years later just through his music.

For non-musical humor, I'll never forget the impish grin on Stravinsky's face when he talks about The Rite of Spring in this interview. :devil:


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Schoenberg!!!!!


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2016)

The end of the third scene of Samstag is about as humorous as it gets in classical music. Just before the exorcism of Luzifer, the orchestra stops playing because they've gone over time and they aren't getting paid after that. So, the answer is Stockhausen.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Weston said:


> I find it amazing that Haydn can make me laugh over 200 years later just through his music.
> 
> For non-musical humor, I'll never forget the impish grin on Stravinsky's face when he talks about The Rite of Spring in this interview. :devil:


I was going to say Stravinksy too. I just know him from his video interviews. I was surprised to see the negative opinion of his personality some had of him here.

Satie is obviously one. Saint Saens is another. I see there are some articles on humor in classical music online.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Haydn for sure. The jokes I know best are the ones that recur in the piano sonatas. I especially like the "Now where was I" joke, humorously excessive repetition, and the joke where you go like gangbusters then run off a cliff into a sudden silence like Wile E. Coyote.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

If we are talking about the man and not the music then Stravinsky definitely had a rather vespine wit. 

Bizet apparently had a dry, self-deprecating sense of humour - I remember reading one quote where he was equating the success (rather than the failure) of one of his works with the amount of jeers and cat-calls it got. He was also capable of Withnail-like outbursts which seemed unintentionally funny, like when he suddenly laid into Massenet ('Oh, shut up! You make me sick!') when the latter paid tribute to a recently-deceased cultural figure (can't remember who) in a rather hypocritical and treacly manner when apparently he had no real respect for him when he was alive.

And Andre Previn must be blessed with a humorous disposition for agreeing to be Eric Morecambe's stooge in THAT famous (at least in the UK) Grieg Piano Concerto sketch.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Nobody's mentioned Rossini? 

And Wagner. When he had his portrait taken, he had trouble keeping stil; he was joking and leaping around the room.


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