# Humor in Music (Besides Opera)



## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I've recently seen numerous mentions of humor in music. I often see people refer to Haydn's humor and wit. I'm aware of Haydn's "Bassoon Fart", but besides something this obvious, how exactly does one portray humor in classical music? Today I saw someone refer to Beethoven's piano sonatas as having "a lot of quirky humor". Unfortunately, I just don't see it and can't really think of anything humorous in the works I'm familiar with. I imagine those familiar with music theory could possibly find witty examples of musical "trickery" in certain works but I'm just not on that level. Can anyone provide examples of pieces or excerpts they find to be comedic, humorous, or witty? (Outside of Operas or theatrical performances intended to be funny)


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Erik Satie was a master in this. See for example this: 



And wait for the finale (at 6:10).


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony!


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I find humor in Stravinsky's "Histoire du Soldat".

It is witty and clever.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I'm listening to the Stravinsky now. I guess I just don't hear it. Granted, I'm not expecting something to knock me out of my chair with laughter. I guess for me, there's a much larger gap in what's clever and what's humorous in music, as opposed to other things.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Humor is a pretty complex concept so it may not be laughable. For example irony is a type of humor. Mahler Symphonies are humorous in a subtly wry way.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I doubt I've ever laughed out loud upon hearing something in music but I'll occasionally crack a smile from hearing something that sounds really quirky or distinct. Can't think of any examples at the moment but I may come back to this. I used to not understand how music could be "funny" but now I've come to understand it better. Just like comedy in language boils down to defying one's expectations of what is going to happen, it makes sense that music could fit that same mold.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

A couple more:

The Finale of Beethoven´s 2nd symphony, 




the beginning of Penderecki´s 1st Symphony, 




Shostakovich´s 1st Piano Concerto, 




Hindemith´s Ouverture der Fliegende Holländer, "creative" arrangement for string quartet, 



 "_As played at sight by a second-rate Concert Orchestra at the Village Well at 7 o'clock in the morning_"

Mozart Ein Musikalischer Spass, 




Nielsen´s 2nd Symphony, the Finale


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Der Leiermann said:


> Erik Satie was a master in this. See for example this:
> 
> 
> 
> And wait for the finale (at 6:10).


That's even more fun if you see the notes that satie wrote on the score 
http://imslp.org/wiki/Embryons_dess%C3%A9ch%C3%A9s_%28Satie,_Erik%29


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I've found certain pieces funny through taking unexpected turns, like in Beethoven's sonata #18 first movement in the opening bars he builds up suspense and seriousness through those diminished chords and then suddenly ends it with this playful, lightweight melody that makes the previous section seem unimportant.

Then there's Mozart's piece "A Musical Joke" which is actually full of many jokes that were, I guess, supposed to poke fun at the poor technique of some of his contemporaries with asymmetrical phrasing, unexpected chord intervals, discords, whole tone scales on the violins, and polytonality at the climax, in which only the horns play in the "correct" key: 



 Oh, you know Mahlerian went into more detail on this piece in one of his blogs. Then there's humor through dialogue/call and response between different instruments. With Mozart's second piano quartet k.493 in the last movement there's this section where the violinist and piano play these ornamented little notes one after the other trying to get the last word in.

There are a bunch of examples with Haydn, but his humor's also based more on surprises. There's the Joke quartet where it sounds like it ends suddenly, then it begins again and when people finally think it's over he plays the opening phrase again. The surprise symphony has the sudden loud chords after the soft opening theme(it sounds almost like a lullaby melody). Symphony 61 after the catchy hunting theme is played it's always followed by this banal 2 note melody played on the oboe, like annoying side commentary. The farewell symphony in the finale where the musicians leave one by one until there are only two violins left to finish the piece. I know there are many more examples, but those are just off the top of my head.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Exactly as per the title of your thread, only by Turnabout Vox (the label, not our friend in this board. Not that he doesn't have a sense of humor, but...anyways...) will revive my thread soon.

View attachment 57710


Quote from Mozart's biographer Abert: "seldom in the spheres of music has so much intelligente been employed to give the impression of stupidity"

For me humor for the sake of humor doesn't really work. Mostly it is trying too hard, similar to my feeling towards stand up comedy.
I find the trumpetpart in Shostakovitch' 1st pianoconcerto a great example of humor in music, intentionally or not. Whenever I hear it I smile from early to ear


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

> I find the trumpetpart in Shostakovitch' 2nd pianoconcerto a great example of humor in music, intentionally or nor. Whenever I hear it I smile from early to ear


`

Maybe you mean the 1st Concerto, with a prominent solo part?


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Joen, you are absolutely correct !! Thnx, will edit to save me from embarrasments 
Glad I'm not alone in the impression of humor in this piece, just clicked your link and I'm still laughing !

Cheers,
Jos


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

"These two themes walk into bar one..."

I think by "humor," most of the time it turns out to be "witty."

"Oh, how charmingly clever! I expected a V-I and he went to a flatted submediant! Ha ha ha!"

I always thought Frank Zappa did some funny stuff, like this (the ridiculous saxophone at 1:11):


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> "These two themes walk into bar one..."
> 
> I think by "humor," most of the time it turns out to be "witty."
> 
> ...


I agree that most musical humor isn't the sort that induces laughter. Rossini has made me laugh with his musical clowning, and Haydn's music is full of fun and witty turns (but I've always thought Mozart's _Musical Joke_ was trying too hard). Most musical humor, like humor in life, is based on surprise; we're forced by some unanticipated occurence or incongruity to shift our mental perspective, and when things seem to go awry and then quickly come out right we smile or laugh.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Millionrainbow's post actually made me laugh so I guess that will have to suffice. Especially line 3.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

I made the thread with the clunky title 'Musical jokes in the music' a few weeks ago. But hopefully people will post some more examples on your thread too.

http://www.talkclassical.com/34784-musical-jokes-music.html


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Musicforawhile said:


> I made the thread with the clunky title 'Musical jokes in the music' a few weeks ago. But hopefully people will post some more examples on your thread too.
> 
> http://www.talkclassical.com/34784-musical-jokes-music.html


Oh wow. I wish I would have seen that. I would have just posted there.


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

Richard Ayres is a British composer who seems to enjoy walking the fine line between humor and just plain "WTF??":


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Alfred Brendel was a proponent of Beethoven as a humorous composer of piano music -- and I imagine if you poke around you can find an essay or two.

In the meantime, I posted the below last month in response to a humor in Beethoven post, and I guess it still stands. 

Beethoven in general was one of the funniest composers who ever lived but his humor, while not subtle, was seldom course. I don't know what I would call overtly humorous in the 7th Symphony. But some other examples include:

-- The seeming "where's the bar line" syncopations in the scherzo of the Quartet Op.18 no.6.

-- Oddball instrumentation such as the tripping bassoon themes in the outer movements of the 4th Symphony, or the wildly fast double bass line in the trio of the Fifth's scherzo.

-- The wonderfully insane trio of the Quartet, Opus 135 and the wild off-the-beat cadence in the scherzo proper.

-- Comic relief all over the place in the c-sharp minor Quartet Opus 131, including a place I've mentioned before at the end of the penultimate movement where it sounds like the players have lost the thread and the whole performance threatens to beak down.

You don't have to laugh out loud during a performance, but breaking into a broad smile if it so suits you is completely appropriate.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I remember some years ago listening to Brendel's second (or third?) traversal of the Diabellis, where it suddenly occurred to me that the piece REALLY has a lot of humor in it!


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2014)

Anything by Rossini!


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

A very good example of Haydn's humour is in Sonata 62 - 1st movement. There's a part when everything's quiet, after which Haydn proceeds to knock you over the head with a nice forte.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> A very good example of Haydn's humour is in Sonata 62 - 1st movement. There's a part when everything's quiet, after which Haydn proceeds to knock you over the head with a nice forte.


There's also weaving scene in The Seasons where the music grinds to a halt like a spinning wheel, I think. Also in sonata #60 where, even when played correctly, sounds like the performer is making mistakes. The third movement from his symphony 104: the sudden forte and the awkward silence from the orchestra followed by the minuet. Actually, my favorite joke posted years ago, from Haydn's The Creation, you know that very loud chord in the beginning:

And God said _Let there be..._

LIGHT!

..._And he was deaf._:lol:

I found this article that talks about Mozart and Haydn's difference in style, and humor is mentioned on the second page.http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2007/10/haydn_vs_mozart.html It's kind of basic, but still enjoyable to read.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

KenOC said:


> I remember some years ago listening to Brendel's second (or third?) traversal of the Diabellis, where it suddenly occurred to me that the piece REALLY has a lot of humor in it!


Yes, I was thinking the same. 
The most striking example is the sudden insertion of variation 22 (over the Leporello's Aria "Notte e giorno faticar" from Don Giovanni), as if Beethoven was grumbling about his "hard work" in writing the piece "per chi nulla sa gradir" (for someone who is never satisfied)


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## Markbridge (Sep 28, 2014)

Ives ended his 2nd symphony with a flat "Reveille". The second movement of his 4th is called "Comedy: Allegretto". I laugh my a$$ off every time I listen to it. It sounds like every orchestra member is playing from a different composition. It is total chaos! 

The second movement of Nielsen's 6th is called "Humoreske: Allegretto". The movement has stumped musicologist for years. Some think Nielsen is making fun of contemporary music. Regardless, it is a lot of fun.

Oh, and who can forget P. D. Q. Bach?


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## Declined (Apr 8, 2014)

Mahler Symphony 1 movement 3. That french dance thing in the middle of a funeral march is rather humorous I think.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I have to revive this thread because I have to say that I find the piano-banging moment in the first movement Schoenberg's Piano Concerto amusing, though my guess is that it isn't intended to be humorous. Anti-Schoenbergians might think "doesn't Schoenberg always sound like that?", but for me the andante is otherwise very lyrical, so that moment stands out and sounds funny.





 comes around 3:00.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

I'll nominate Beethoven's 25th piano sonata as his funniest. I love the part towards the end of the first movement, "Presto alla Tedesca", (a fast German dance in triple time) Beethoven seems to have written the "wrong" notes, the effect is pretty funny.






Jan Swafford describes the final movement as, "a breezy, charming, finally laugh-out-loud rondo Vivace".

----

The sixth and final bagatelle from Op. 126 is funny, but in a different way, in a "Late-Beethovenian" kind of way, where the tragic and profound is mixed with the comic with such nonchalance. It makes me think of how in Beethoven's youth, he would laugh out loud and ridicule the nobility for crying whenever he would improvise at the piano. He would tell them that they were fools for crying and that "_we performers don't want tears, we want applause!_". :lol: In this final bagatelle, he seems to be ridiculing the listener for being moved by interjecting a light-hearted melody every time the tragic and the poignant threatens to take over. What I enjoy about this bagatelle is that by the end, that light-hearted melody becomes kind of touching in its own right.


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## Hagrid (Apr 27, 2015)

Erik Satie's Parade is hilarious, and is one of the only pieces of music (along with Tchaikovoksy Symphony 6 mov. 1) to physically make me jump. I was also just watching a video on the ninth Shostakovich Symphony with Bernstein. He was pointing out a lot of the humour that I probably would have missed, and it made me laugh. x)


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

To the extent one is inclined to hear drama in the music of Beethoven, it becomes obvious that a lot of that drama is comic. The first movement of his String Quartet in C, op 59#3 is a good example. The beginning of the Allegro vivace plays off discursive passages in the first violin against two-note interjections by the whole ensemble that disrupt the rhythmic flow. The opposition is developed over the whole movement, with the interjection gradually taking over. By the end of the development it has supplanted all other elements, the last twenty-five measures being a semi-canon on the motive. What is so strange about this passage is that it lacks harmonic direction, wandering off in an almost random fashion. It is like a revolution of the blind leading the pointless. I think this was intentional on Beethoven's part. After wandering into a ditch, it takes the return of the loquacious first violin solos, the other element of the opposition, to restore order. And these discursive solos are now doubly elaborate, as if lording it over its feckless and now chastened peers.

This kind of comedy is a structural force in this and a number of other movements, including the Sonata Op. 31 #3/i, and the String Quartet Op. 135/i.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Satie's wit makes me laugh and smile quite a bit. I really dig his sly humor and subversion.


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## Funny (Nov 30, 2013)

I have laughed out loud at least a couple times listening to Haydn symphonies. His humorous vocabulary was wide and deep, and he established or helped establish a lot of forms of musical humor that have been developed throughout Western art and pop music since then. As one form of humor I haven't seen talked about on this thread, let me mention the minuets to symphonies #65 and #77, each of which totally loses the minuet beat and sounds like it's in 4. The first because it gets stuck in a groove that it doesn't pull out of in time (an effect that has been used much in the 20th century as the "broken-record" effect) and the second because he constructs the melody ingeniously to start clearly in 3 but over the course of the heavily cross-accented phrase, by the cadence, convinces you that you were really in 4 all along. These may be merely "witty" to some but to me are tremendously funny and even meaningful as they use one's experience of listening to music to make one question one's perceptions while listening to music.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Haydn had lovely humor. Matter of fact, he was humoring all over the place quite frequently.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I haven't scanned through this entire thread but has anyone mentioned Ernst von Dohnanyi's _Variations on a Nursery Tune_, subtitled: _For the enjoyment of humorous people and for the annoyance of others._ During the introduction, theme, 11 variations and finale, Dohnanyi manages to have fun with many well known composers. The rather over-the-top introduction is definitely Wagnerian, the 7th variation could be any of the Austrian waltzers and the 8th is definitely Tchaikovskian. A lot of fun.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Bartok's rather cruel send up (in the Concerto for Orchestra) of that tune in the Leningrad Symphony, not understanding DSCH's ironic intentions. But funny anyway


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## phjunior (Feb 15, 2014)

I love Farewell by Haydn


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

6:20











bigshot said:


> Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony!


"Recent research on a newly found manuscript suggests the Austrian Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer (1740-1794) to be the author. If Angerer's manuscript (from 1765, entitled "Berchtolds-Gaden Musick") is the original, the Toy Symphony was originally written not in G but rather in C. These findings, however, are disputed among scholars. There is reason to believe that the true composer will likely never be known, in whole or in part, given its confused origins and the paucity of related manuscript sources."


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I'm not sure if these are really "humor" though:

J. Haydn symphony No. 83 in G minor:









Beethoven in his 3rd symphony 4th movement seems to do something similar as the Haydn 83rd symphony 4th movement:





M. Haydn symphony No.22 in D major - 1. Adagio - Presto (the numbering in the video title "No.23 in F major" is incorrect): 




 (5:21~5:28; the reappearance of this expression, in the recapitulation 8:00, (8:15 ) is "delayed" till 9:07 )

Mozart symphony No.35 in D, K.385 - 4th movement:




 (slick use of chromaticism )

Mozart string quartet No. 16 in E flat, K.428 - 4th movement:




 (adds a new "theme" in the counterpoint )


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## mossyembankment (Jul 28, 2020)

Several people have already mentioned Satie but I will add that for me the funniest piece of classical music is his Sonatine Bureaucratique, especially when reading along with the text in the score...






"He is in love with a fair and most elegant lady... and also with his penholder"


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

mossyembankment said:


> "He is in love with a fair and most elegant lady... and also with his penholder"


the principal theme reminds me of Clementi Op.36 No.1 and the texts on the score remind me of Mozart K.412.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

_Haydn had lovely humor. Matter of fact, he was humoring all over the place quite frequently._

Haydn was such a prankster in the Vienna Choir Boys he got kicked out.

Check out the sequence in Symphony No. 60 "Il Distratto" before the finale where the entire orchestra stops and tunes ...

In the cantata _Battle On the Nile_ he writes, among other things, "The Nile with wrecks o'erspread, the curling smoke, the captive banners seat the doom of haughty France and break her galling yoke," a bit of humor at the expense of the French recently sunk by Admiral Nelson.

And who can forget the "Farewell" Symphony 45 where, during the finale, the players leave one by one until only a few remain -- Haydn's way of telling Esterhazy it was time for vacation.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Leonard Bernstein recounted the first time he heard Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, he started laughing uncontrollably. He found the juxtaposition of the classical style with modern tonalities hilarious.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"Franz Joseph Aumann (also Auman, Aumon; 24 February 1728, Traismauer - 30 March 1797, Sankt Florian) was an Austrian composer. Before his voice broke, he sang in the same Viennese choir as Michael Haydn and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, composers with whom he later in life traded manuscripts. In view of this circulation, it is not surprising that some of his music has been incorrectly attributed to Haydn. However, his *Missa Profana, satirizing the stuttering and bad singing of a schoolmaster*, was once attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Aumann was ordained a priest in the Augustinian Order in St. Florian in 1757, essentially staying there for the rest of his life. He wrote many mass settings.
Aumann's music was a large part of the repertoire at St. Florian in the 19th century, and Anton Bruckner availed himself of this resource for his studies of counterpoint. Bruckner focused a lot of his attention on Aumann's Christmas responsories and an Ave Maria in D major. Bruckner, who liked Aumann's coloured harmony, added in 1879 an accompaniment by three trombones to his settings of Ecce quomodo moritur justus and Tenebrae factae sunt.
Aumann's oeuvre also includes instrumental music, such as some of the earliest string quintets."


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I'm like halfway convinced the ending of Beethoven 8 is supposed to be a joke/parody of bombastic symphonic finales.

Also the bit where he carefully introduces a note at the start of the finale, on which to pivot into a minor key, does so in the recapitulation, and then almost immediately kicks the orchestra back into major with all the grace of someone smacking a television to get the picture to stop flickering. Fantastic.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

RVW seemed to know a thing or two about booze given his convincing depiction of 'Drunken Alice' in his 'Five Tudor Portraits'. She staggers in around 6'28" and finally falls asleep around 9'15". The whole movement is bawdy and raucous mediaeval fun (and great).


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