# Music that brings a smile to your face



## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

Hello, fellow contributors. I am interested in music which brings a grin to your face. Either because it is composed as a joke, such as the oboe “fart” in the slow movement of Haydn 93 (Szell does this magnificently) , Haydn’s use of the “kitchen” in his Minuet no 19, or because of the way a piece is handled in a particular recording, such as Fricsay’s almost irreverent way with the Radetzky march in the 1953 recording. Anything which makes you laugh in music.


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Music that makes me smile is whose that has spark, wit or simply music that provokes on me a kind of special satisfaction. It may even be sad music, but if I find it fascinating, it's often the reaction I have because of the stunning admiration that awakes on me.


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## pianoville (Jul 19, 2018)

When Beckmesser sings the prize song and gets humiliated in act 3 of Meistersinger


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

_Eine Kleine Nachtmusik_ - it's a pleasure to listen to this delightful music, and I don't care if it's overplayed. It has a light and happy mood, and I feel like smiling when I listen to it. This also happens when I listen to certain moments of _The Barber of Seville_ or _The Marriage of Figaro_. Also with the final movement of Beethoven's sonata Op. 2 no. 2, or the final movement of his Fourth symphony... (I could go on).


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

MusicSybarite said:


> Music that makes me smile is whose that has spark, wit or simply music that provokes on me a kind of special satisfaction. It may even be sad music, but if I find it fascinating, it's often the reaction I have because of the stunning admiration that awakes on me.


I get you. While I write this I am listening to the third movement of Beethoven's 7th string quartet and it is a fairly sad piece but it does bring a smile to my face for its ingenuity and beauty. But you could say that for nearly everything he wrote.


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

pianoville said:


> When Beckmesser sings the prize song and gets humiliated in act 3 of Meistersinger


Like that, but I prefer the last scene from act II when Beckmesser attempts to serenade Eva - especially as the demerits of his performance are marked by the repeated hammering of nails into the shoes which Sachs is making for him.


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

The funniest moment in music to me is the "perdenosi" passage of Haydn's 60th Symphony "Il Distratto", where in the first movement the second theme slowly forgets itself. One of the very few times I've burst out laughing when listening to classical music.





Haydn was great at these practical jokes.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Bach is your man, P D Q Bach.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Well, I've been extolling Beethoven's musical wit for years. Concert deportment keeps me from laughing out loud, but various places bring a broad smile to my face.

For instance: The dancing bassoon in the Fourth Symphony, the double basses in the Trio of the Fifth, the extra beats in the scherzo of the sixth string quartet, the various pieces of comic relief in the Opus 131 quartet and the weird scherzo of the Opus 135; the exactly right false entry of the horn in the first movement of the Eroica . . . Nothing so declassee as farts.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Albert Ketelby: Bank Holiday (aka 'Appy Hampstead)
Weinberger: Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper
Stravinsky: Petrouchka
Kreisler: Liebesleid


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## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

Erik Satie is without doubt the wittiest composer I have ever listened to and he never fails to cheer me up when I listen to his ouevre.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

There were some Stockhausen works I heard on youtube which I can't remember the names of. The pianists and violinists were singing weird noises (ahhh~) along with the music they played. Regardless of what of the composers' real intentions were, I thought the visual and sound effect of the singing had some comical effect in them. I think it was the Helicopter Quartet, I can't remember exactly.

I seriously admire other works by Beethoven in all their seriousness, (such as the tear-jerking 1st movement of the 3rd and many others)
but the last movement of the 9th is just beyond comprehension. The lyrics and the way Beethoven 'mockingly disregards the rules' of the classical canon make me wonder 'are you kidding me? What kind of drugs were you taking, herr Beethoven?' 
It is as if he's trying to say, 'in human fraternity, nothing is impossible'.
It's the sort of feeling I got while watching 



I like to think Beethoven in his late period was an adorable, lovable person.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

beetzart said:


> I get you. While I write this I am listening to the third movement of Beethoven's 7th string quartet and it is a fairly sad piece but it does bring a smile to my face for its ingenuity and beauty. But you could say that for nearly everything he wrote.


Yes, there are smiles of appreciation for a moment of genius (and Beethoven is full of them). And there are those moments when everyone goes "yeah" when a jazz soloist improvises a particularly felicitous turn. South Asian audiences do something similar when listening to raags. And then there are moment of actual humour, in a Mozart opera or a Haydn symphony, for example. Or just simple smiles of delight: Schubert does that to me a lot. And, when a more modern piece suddenly gets through to me and starts to communicate (often not in the way I had expected) and I am filled with wonder .... . I find there are many different reasons to smile with music.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Now this so much fun, so over the top, train flutes, birds etc but wonderful recorded.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Variation 13 of the Diabelli Variations.

And of course, Dudley Moore's unique take on Beethoven:


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## pianoville (Jul 19, 2018)

elgars ghost said:


> Like that, but I prefer the last scene from act II when Beckmesser attempts to serenade Eva - especially as the demerits of his performance are marked by the repeated hammering of nails into the shoes which Sachs is making for him.


That's a good one too. Beckmeser is one of my favorite opera characters, no one is as funny as him for me!


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Brendel's Haydn always makes me laugh - in a good way, of course.


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> And of course, Dudley Moore's unique take on Beethoven:


Brilliant parody :lol:


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