# "Fun" or "Funny" pieces of music



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Some musical pieces have, so to say, a funny bone. They make you feel light and happy without you knowing the reason why. There could be a strange rhythm or a sudden dynamic change which just makes you go "Wow, that was amazing!" not because you liked the 'emotion', but because you found it highly entertaining and creative. 

One big example for me is Beethoven's 8th symphony. I could literally listen to it for about 5 days straight before I get bored of it. Apart from a brief stormy passage in the first movement, I believe the whole symphony is just a goof - plain inventive music-making with no delusions of significance.

What comes to your mind? Pieces, portions of pieces, composers...


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Some may enjoy this piece by Andras Schiff, in which he attempts to explain the humor of Haydn:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/29/joseph-haydn-comedy-classical-music

Hard for me to listen to some of Haydn's string quartets and symphonies without laughing, in all honesty. What a wonderful personality.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Blancrocher said:


> Some may enjoy this piece by Andras Schiff, in which he attempts to explain the humor of Haydn:
> 
> http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/29/joseph-haydn-comedy-classical-music
> 
> Hard for me to listen to some of Haydn's string quartets and symphonies without laughing, in all honesty. What a wonderful personality.


Yup, Papa was a caution.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Till Eulenspiegel's Lustige Streiche, R. Strauss 
is a smiler.


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## Animato (Dec 5, 2013)

Gioachino Rossini is a composer who knew how to write funny music. Just listen to his Ouvertures: the thieving Magpie f.e. it is really funny ! Or search his operas for funny arias or szenes, f.e. "Il Barbiere di Sevillia"


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Poulenc had much humor in many of his works.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Shostakovich's ninth symphony never fails to make me grin.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

The last movement, especially the ending, of Mahler's 5th.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice is quite funny a piece.


Best regards, Dr


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Bohuslav Martinu's Intermezzo for Orchestra always puts a smile on my face. His second symphony also is quite fun.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

The "Giga" from Don Quixote by Minkus/Lanchberry.






It almost sounds like Looney Tunes music. The xylophone just makes it.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bernd Alois Zimmerman ~ Un petit Rien





Joseph Fennimore ~ Concerto Piccolo for Piano and Chamber orchestra





Mentioned, Poulenc... so many ebullient and famously 'slouch / du trottoir' pieces.
Ballet suite, Les Biches









Stravinsky ~ Circus Polka
It came about via Balanchine by telephone call:
Balanchine: "I wonder if you'd like to do a little ballet with me." 
Stravinsky: "For whom?" 
Balanchine: "For some elephants." 
Stravinsky: "How old?" 
Balanchine: "Very young." 
Stravinsky: "All right. If they are very young elephants, I will do it."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Apologies! Today, either due to a very slow reaction time from this site or something about my computer has led to more than my usual flub duplications. 

Those who liked one of the two 'now deleted' should not think anything of that


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Bernstein's _Divertimento for Orchestra_, written for the Boston SO ... it's just plain fun to listen to!


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn of course, but Telemann also had a wonderful sense of humour:


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I just remembered that I think Prokofiev's wonderful Symphony No. 1 qualifies as fun. It's also short.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Beethoven as much as anyone knew the value of comic relief and the number of places in his music that cause me to break into a broad smile are legion. Tripping double basses in trio of Fifth Symphony, tripping bassoon line in Fourth, rhythmic dislocation in scherzo of sixth quartet, all sorts in places in c-sharp minor quartet . . .


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

The second movement of Malcolm Arnold's Scottish Dances.


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## User in F minor (Feb 5, 2014)

Ives's Waltz-Rondo.





(that recording is too slow though imo)


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## csacks (Dec 5, 2013)

The most enjoyable piece of happiness is, to me, in Berlioz Fantastic Symphony, in the second movement "A ball". I love it. 
Peer Gynt. It is so sparkling that makes me feel like in a cloud.
Some of Brahms´s Hungarian Dances and Smetana´s Moldava as well.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

I find Haydn (or Leopold Mozart) toy symphony funny.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I find Hindemith consistently amusing and sometimes quite funny, as here in Kammermusik 1:


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## csacks (Dec 5, 2013)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> I find Haydn (or Leopold Mozart) toy symphony funny.


What a lovely symphony. It is something that I read about, but this is the first time that I listen it. Very funny. To share it with kids. Thanks


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Playful Pizzicato from Britten's Simple Symphony.






PDQ Bach's Iphigenia in Brooklyn.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

GGluek said:


> Beethoven as much as anyone knew the value of comic relief and the number of places in his music that cause me to break into a broad smile are legion. Tripping double basses in trio of Fifth Symphony, tripping bassoon line in Fourth, rhythmic dislocation in scherzo of sixth quartet, all sorts in places in c-sharp minor quartet . . .


At times, he was a downright burlesque comedian, Luigi was


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## CBD (Nov 11, 2013)

Especially the 2nd and 5th movements.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

My vote goes to the last movement of Prokofiev's 2nd piano sonata. In the development section he has the leading tone of the main key (C#) rudely interrupt the other stuff that's going on (no matter what it happens to be doing) and it sticks out like a sore thumb. He does this over and over again and you know he's just jerking your chain. And then at the end of the development, he has that same note rudely interrupt again but this time it finally fits with the music and actually helps drive a stronger arrival towards the tonic. It's a great movement.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I don't get most "musical humor" out there, but Haydn's _Die Jahreszeiten_ makes me smile!


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

This is a cracker I bet no one else mentions: "Hava Nagila" by Korndorf.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

And of course Malcolm Arnold's "Grand Grand Overture" - completely OTT fun and with conductor Jiří Bělohlávek on one of the vacuum cleaners!


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

The last movement of poulenc's concerto for 2 piano's is really funny.


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## Carpentier (Oct 29, 2013)

Carmina Burana is hilarious.


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## omega (Mar 13, 2014)

An original parody by Hindemith:





And, of course, Saint-Saëns' _Carnival of the Animals_ !!





Especially the Elephant, the Turtles, the Fossiles, the Pianists,...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Haydn Symphony #93, slow movement, near the end is the famous bassoon joke-one vulgar note, supposed to sound like a fart and it does in the George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra performance. Truly funny. Really cracks me up (no pun intended).


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## Classical Saxophonist (Oct 11, 2013)

_Godzilla Eats Las Vegas_, by Eric Whitacre, is quite humorous. Included in the piece are some themes from some famous jazz and popular music.

Here's a performance by the Sunderman Conservatory Wind Symphony:


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