# Comical music



## Huilunsoittaja

Do you have favorite classical music works that make you laugh? Would you purposefully listen to something to make you laugh?


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## Boccherini

At first sight, for some awkward reason, I thought the topic is "Chemical music"; I was thrilled. But after putting my glasses on... Ah, another one...


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## Earthling

A good deal of *Erik Satie*...


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## bassClef

Shostakovich - Hypothetically Murdered


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## Huilunsoittaja

For me, Prokofiev. Always. Hilarious stuff.


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## SuperTonic

The first few bars of the 2nd movement of Shostakovich's 1st symphony always brings a smile to my face for some reason. It sounds like a race between the cellos and basses, and the basses lose.


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## Aramis

I don't like "funny" music, this characteristic grotesque of XXth century composers is kewl, but when I hear all those scherzos with silly tunes and stuff I can't stand it. 

There are some accidentaly funny, to my ear only, fragments in serious works by some of composers that for some (often strange) reasons make me laugh.


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## Jules141

Malcolm Arnold FTW

Grand Grand Overture - 



That video is actually inadvertantly funny simply because of the sheer pompousness of it.

Or if you want to seriously laugh: Portsmouth Sinfonia:






- The first time I heard that I was in tears.


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## Earthling

Jules141 said:


> Or if you want to seriously laugh: Portsmouth Sinfonia:
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> - The first time I heard that I was in tears.


Oh yes!  And THIS one too...

I almost forgot: Mozart's _A Musical Joke _is full of bizarre "errors" that really are hilarious (not just the really obvious ones-- some of the phrase lengths and cadences are so funny!)


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## Meaghan

The whole "Pyramus and Thisbe" sequence in the third act of Britten's _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ is a hilarious parody of 19th Century Italian opera. Particularly funny is the bitonal "O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans." I highly recommend this whole opera to anyone who has never heard it


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## Norse

It's very rare that music will actually make me laugh, but there can be details here and there that give me a little chuckle. 

One piece I find humorous is Rachmaninov's piano transcription of Kreisler's Liebesfreud, which is basically because of the "clash of styles". Rachmaninov takes the charming little, "easy listening" piece by Kreisler and adds his own more advanced harmonies, bombastic and virtuosic, sometimes "rough" style to it. I can't say for sure if the humour is intentional, but I get the feeling that it is.

There's also a piano piece by Satie (from Embryons Desseches) that when the final tonic chord comes and it sounds like the piece is over, he just keeps the tonic chords coming for a while. You can tell he's playing around with people's expectations and making fun of the "emphatic" way a lot of classical music ends. The fact that the piece itself is short doesn't help. 

Another humorous, "tongue in cheek" moment is when Debussy uses the opening motive from Tristan und Isolde in the middle section of Golliwog's Cakewalk (Children's Corner).

Oh, and the ending of the first movement from Poulenc's Piano Concerto (not the one for two pianos). The surprise twist at the end sounds like it's as far away from the tonic you can get..


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## Weston

There's lots and lots of funny classical music.

J. S. Bach's Coffee and Peasant Cantatas.
Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony 
Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Turkish march section of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Glenn Gould's "So You Want to Write a Fugue." 
and of course Peter Schickele's work, especially the "Unbegun" Symphony.


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## Rondo

Jules141 said:


> Malcolm Arnold FTW
> 
> Grand Grand Overture -
> 
> 
> 
> That video is actually inadvertantly funny simply because of the sheer pompousness of it.


That one is interesting, it _really_ has everything but the kitchen sink. Though, it is not that out of place for Arnold. Give _Commonwealth Christmas Overture_ a try and tell me if you don't hear any unexpected, but more conventional, instruments.


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## superhorn

The Nose by Shostakovich is a truly bizarre and wacky opera;it's been described as the "Wozzeck of comic opera". It's totally insane and a blast! I've been listening to the brilliantGergiev/Maryinsky recording on the Maryinsky label. 
Nielsen's comic opera Maskarade is also great fun in a more jolly way than the Shostakovivh opera. Don't miss the Da Capo DVD of it. You'll have ball !
Prokofiev's comic opera The Love For Three Oranges is also delightfully wacky, and it seems to anticipate Monty Python by decades ! 
Dvorak's comic opera The Devil and Kate is delightfully droll; it was written around the time of the more famous tragic opera Rusalka, and is its comic counterpart. It features a devil who isn't frightening at all,but a total wimp!


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## emiellucifuge

A lot of prokofiev I do find highly ironic.

The 2nd movement of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony, it ends on such a sarcastic mood that dispels any notion of seriousness heard earlier.


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## TWhite

I like the irony in a lot of Prokofiev, also. I find "Lieutenant Kije" quite droll and humorous, and certain portions of his Third Piano Concerto are extremely witty. 

There's a lot of dry wit in Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", also. I mean, who else would dare to make the "Dies Irae" so pompously funny? 

One other work that always brings a smile is the Brahms "Academic Festival" Overture. A perfectly proportioned orchestral overture made up of German University drinking songs? Very clever.

Tom


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