# It's so bad it's good



## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Is it just me or was this precisely what Alkan was intending here? Kind of like a musical joke.






I'm sure other composers have done this in the past. Kind of playing around, sticking in a musically weaker passage(s) as an effect or for fun. But then, how could you honestly differentiate a "weaker passage" from a "stronger" one?

And I'm sure there _are_ pieces that are just _so bad that they're good_, with of course, no intention of this happening from the composer.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Well, let's see. There's a couple of obvious ones.

Mozart - A Musical Joke




That's actually nearly my favorite Mozart piece. I love the unexpected dissonances and movement 4 has some breathtaking quick modulations that sound very modern to me.

Saint-Saens - The Pianists from Carnival of Animals





And of course, there's Peter Schickele. I wanted to put a link to his Unbegun Symphony (it doesn't have a 1st movement), but I could not find it on YouTube. It's worth a close listen.

[Edit: I would have added Beethoven's Wellington's Victory, but it's not so bad it's good. It's just bad.]


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## Falstaft (Mar 27, 2010)

I think that's quite the intended effect of the "interroto" part of the "Intermezzo Interrotto" from Bartok's _Concerto for Orchestra_: thumb his nose at Shostakovich by quoting - and subjecting to barnyard animal noises - the fatuous melody from his Leningrad (which was itself a snide quote from Lehar's _Lustige Witwe_).

Fascinating, very rollicking piece by Alkan, Air. It's all so virtuosic I'm not sure any of it is purely "bad", though am I right in guessing that the section beginning 1:23 is the "baddest," most bumptious part of it? Or were you thinking more wrong-note type harmony?


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