# The Most Ironically-Named Piece of Music?



## PsychoBunny

This is a question I asked myself a few years ago when I was bored. The answer I always end up at is...

Imagine you're a composer tasked with writing a TV show theme that:

1. Captures the show perfectly and is instantly recognizable.
2. Makes the jump from TV to radio.
3. Outlives the show by decades.
4. Obtains world-wide popularity and recognizability. 
5. Must do all this in 5/4

This could only be considered a "Mission: Impossible".

I think the close second is the "Vier letzte Liede" by Strauss as they truly were the last four songs of the Romantic period.


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## Dim7

Well if the names are appropriate and descriptive they are anything but ironic.


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## Francis Poulenc

Dim7 said:


> Well if the names are appropriate and descriptive they are anything but ironic.


You know what he means.


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## PsychoBunny

Only if the irony of the name is why the name was given. In which case, I think they'd still be ironic. The contrivance however, would make the name far less interesting.


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## Bettina

Beethoven's Emperor concerto. His publisher gave it that nickname. 

The nickname seems (unintentionally) ironic to me. Beethoven was furious when Napoleon became emperor. He would never have chosen to write a concerto in honor of an emperor.


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## KenOC

George Grove claims that the nickname arose during an early performance, when an "old campaigner" rose to his feet during the first movement and cried, "L'Empeurer!" A nice story, at least.

When Beethoven heard about Napoleon's death, he said, "I have already written the music for that disaster," probably referring to the funeral march in the Eroica. He seems to have been of two minds about Nappy.


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## PsychoBunny

Oh......nice.....I can't believe I never put two and two together on that.


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## hpowders

Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Should have been named "Four filler pieces to take us up to four hourly newscasts on Classical Public Radio".


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## Pugg

PsychoBunny said:


> Oh......nice.....I can't believe I never put two and two together on that.


You see, one always learns something valuable on this site.


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## Dim7

PsychoBunny said:


> Only if the irony of the name is why the name was given. In which case, I think they'd still be ironic. The contrivance however, would make the name far less interesting.


Nope. A case of "Nomen est omen" is not irony. Rather an interesting coincidence, if anything. If I started a project called "Mission impossible" but it turned out to be something incredible easy and done in two seconds, THAT would be a case of irony (in addition to being an interesting coincidence as well).

I am rarely a linguistic prescriptivist but when words are used basically in the opposite meanings that's a bit problematic IMO.


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## Dim7

Another case of *non*-irony: I changed my username to Dim7 in 2009 because of the Diminished 7th chord, not thinking about the association of "dim" with "stupid", though it did occur to me quickly after the username change. In December 2014 I came back here and found the thread "Stupid Thread Ideas". Now I have 1439 posts in that thread (and was for many months the most prolific poster in it until hpowders reclaimed that position very recently).


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## hpowders

Dim7 said:


> Another case of *non*-irony: I changed my username to Dim7 in 2009 because of the Diminished 7th chord, not thinking about the association of "dim" with "stupid", though it did occur to me quickly after the username change. In December 2014 I came back here and found the thread "Stupid Thread Ideas". Now I have 1439 posts in that thread (and was for many months the most prolific poster in it until hpowders reclaimed that position very recently).


I'm glad you cleared that up. I took the "dim" literally. I fell asleep in Music 107: "Music theory for prolific, pithy posters".


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## Ariasexta

Arcangelo Corelli: Angel of Cords.
Giuseppe Torelli: Joseph(English for Giuseppe) of Trumpet.


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## PsychoBunny

I'd steal that and post it at the Shower-Thoughts sub-Reddit but most of the members there are musical philistines.


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## quack




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## PsychoBunny

Well, the thing is, I find it amusing. That's the difference. Coincidence doesn't cover the humor component, irony does.


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## TSWO

Fur Elise!

Imagine for a moment that you are Therese...Talk about colosal irony on a cosmic scale! 

(the original name is supposed to be Therese and not Elise)


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## SixFootScowl

Most ironic song name I know of is non-classical, so I can't name it here. Oh well.


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## Gordontrek

John Cage- anything with "music" in the title.

Yeah I said it!


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## David OByrne

Gordontrek said:


> John Cage- anything with "music" in the title.
> 
> Yeah I said it!


How is that ironic?


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## SixFootScowl

David OByrne said:


> How is that ironic?


A quick Google search shows that ironic means "happening in the opposite way to what is expected," which is exactly what happens (if you go expecting music) when Cage performs 4'33".


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## Huilunsoittaja

Tchaikovsky's_ the Seasons _for solo piano. It actually should be called _the Months_ because it's one piece per month, not per season.


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## Bettina

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Tchaikovsky's_ the Seasons _for solo piano. It actually should be called _the Months_ because it's one piece per month, not per season.


Yeah, I've always been puzzled by that. I thought that maybe it was a mistranslation from the Russian title...?


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## hpowders

The Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Beethoven was annoyed that so many folks gravitated toward this sonata when he wrote better ones, and yes he surely did!!

As for "Moonlight", of course, Beethoven never coined it and I dare anyone to play the last movement and say, "Oh, yes! Beautiful moonlight!! Keeps the placid mood going."

I wonder, didn't anybody bother to ask Beethoven if he had a program for this sonata's first movement?

Anyhow, the Pastoral Symphony by Beethoven is aptly named. The pastoral mood is pervasive throughout the entire symphony.

The Moonlight Sonata is ironically named because the final movement is insanely fast and has nothing to do with Moonlight.


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## hpowders

David OByrne said:


> How is that ironic?


Ironic you should mention that.


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## KenOC

hpowders said:


> The Moonlight Sonata is ironically named because the final movement is insanely fast and has nothing to do with Moonlight.


Of course nobody listens to any of it except the first movement, in the real world. The name stuck because it seemed apropos to a lot of people.


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## hpowders

KenOC said:


> Of course nobody listens to any of it except the first movement, in the real world. The name stuck because it seemed apropos to a lot of people.


Yes. But for serious music lovers, the third movement of the Moonlight is what this sonata should really be known for. THAT movement dwarfs the first and the former is Beethoven at his greatest, not the Beethoven of the first movement.

A shame it seems that nobody asked Beethoven if the first movement was supposed to be programmatic. Where was Ries when we really needed him? Probably off somewhere, eating some of his insanely delicious peanut butter/chocolate cups.


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