# the funniest classical composer



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Could you guys name rare specimen of classical composer that were very humorous, in other word mister bean, the kind that walk in room and do something or says something wierd and everyone would laught to piece after they were gone.

In other words People like* Satie *- la valse du chocolat aux amandes (hmmm tasty lol), than there is *Clement Janequin*- le chants des oiseaux that is quite funny

Please name your favorite classical composer and funny man, are there people more funny than these guys, i want to enjoy music that can make me laught a bit, but quality music, you probably
know what im looking for whit the preceding exemples.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Carl Nielsen was a very funny guy . Once, when he went to London to conduct the London symphony orchestra in a concert of his music , he addressed the musicians at the first rehearsal thusly : 
"Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you . I hope I'm also glad to hear you ! "

LOL !!!


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## Grotrian (May 5, 2016)

Haydn had a marvelous sense of humour of a good natured kind. I have also found myself chuckling at Ives on occasion. Of course, there is also the Bach who wrote the Sanka Cantata and the Preachers of Crimetheous.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I don't know , never met one of my favorits


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Berlioz once entertained a dinner party by standing in a bucket of mayonnaise and smoking a cigar.

(Actually,I just made that up, but it's wonderful to think about. )


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

As two halves of an almost-inseparable whole, there's nothing funnier than Gilbert & Sullivan. In respect of the strictly musical half of that double-act, Sullivan's comic genius perhaps lay in his setting Gilbert's witty words to such deadpan "straight" music. To me, this only serves to heighten the comedy.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Malcolm Arnold composed a hilarious Grand Grand overture for orchestra, featuring three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, all in turn polished off by a firing squad.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> Malcolm Arnold composed a hilarious Grand Grand overture for orchestra, featuring three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, all in turn polished off by a firing squad.


Wonderful piece, which you may find here [



 if YouTube is in an obliging mood. I once saw Arnold conduct his Grand Grand Overture, a big man in a plum-coloured velvet jacket, who seemed to fill the hall with energetic bonhomie. Such a pity that his life was disrupted by booze and wildly erratic mental health.


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## Grotrian (May 5, 2016)

Art Rock said:


> Malcolm Arnold composed a hilarious Grand Grand overture for orchestra, featuring three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, all in turn polished off by a firing squad.


That was for one of those Hoffnung concerts in the 1950s. Another was Franz Reizenstein's Concerto Populare (a piano concerto to end all piano concertos). They have both been played at the Proms recently and are on youtube.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

deprofundis said:


> Could you guys name rare specimen of classical composer that were very humorous, in other word mister bean, the kind that walk in room and do something or says something wierd and everyone would laught to piece after they were gone.
> 
> In other words People like* Satie *- la valse du chocolat aux amandes (hmmm tasty lol), than there is *Clement Janequin*- le chants des oiseaux that is quite funny
> 
> ...


Listen to Peter Maxwell Davies's earlier music, the Vesalii Icones and the "transcriptions" of Taverner's in nomines.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> Malcolm Arnold composed a hilarious Grand Grand overture for orchestra, featuring three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, all in turn polished off by a firing squad.


He wrote a piece called the _Carnival of Animals_ (different animals than Saint-Saens) and I must admit it's one of the funniest pieces I've ever heard.

No one mentioned PDQ Bach? But I'm sure he wasn't that funny in his day, he's only funny to us.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Ligeti definitely had a sense of humor


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Mozart and Haydn had a very personable sense of humor.


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## Guest (May 31, 2016)

How about Steve Reich. Apparently he is a funny guy. Have not met him but I would like to. I can only speak based on what I have read, unfortunately. Sometimes I think composers take music way too seriously, like, whenever I have a chat to them about stuff like extended piano techniques and we get seriously into **** like microtonal 7th partials and what not....it isn't funny. It's cool though, I like these guys. Composers are swell people.


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## Guest (May 31, 2016)

superhorn said:


> Carl Nielsen was a very funny guy . Once, when he went to London to conduct the London symphony orchestra in a concert of his music , he addressed the musicians at the first rehearsal thusly :
> "Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you . I hope I'm also glad to hear you ! "
> 
> LOL !!!


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Peter Schickele could be quite funny even without his discovery of the works of the 21st child of JS Bach.


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## KarlHeinz (May 31, 2016)

Trombonist, conductor and composer Christian Lindberg has a video diary. He seems like a pretty funny guy  He also gives some great trombone tips in the videos, for you nerds out there!


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Bach was a stand-up comedian before embarking on a career in music. His favorite joke to end his routine was "I'll be Bach" (sounds funnier if you say in in your head with a German accent).


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

No one mentioned Poulenc or Offenbach yet?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I forgot to mention Bach has a very down to earth sense of humor. Listen to his Coffee Cantata and or his Wedding Cantata.


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

Michael Daugherty is up there. He often composes about certain aspects of post-WWII American culture, usually with a twinkle in the eye. Elvis, ornamental flamingos and Barbie dolls are just three examples.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)




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

Vaneyes said:


>


Looks like he's either won at poker or he's managed to negotiate a higher wedge for one of his premieres...


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)




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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Michael Nyman has a work called The Piano Concerto. It's from the movie The Piano, hence the "the" in the title. I've always thought this was funny.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

superhorn said:


> Carl Nielsen was a very funny guy . Once, when he went to London to conduct the London symphony orchestra in a concert of his music , he addressed the musicians at the first rehearsal thusly :
> "Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you . I hope I'm also glad to hear you ! "
> 
> LOL !!!


He was funny in person, as he was in his music. I get the sense more and more that Nielsen's sense of humor was often a way to counterbalance dark things that he felt. Symphony 5 is probably the most deeply optimistic thing he put out. He didn't let up on that deeper expressiveness in Symphony 6, but I think it's less popular partly because it shows the extent of his dark side with all the gritty humor exposed.

But yeah, he's probably the ultimate dark clown of classical music.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

MarkW said:


> Berlioz once entertained a dinner party by standing in a bucket of mayonnaise and smoking a cigar.
> 
> (Actually,I just made that up, but it's wonderful to think about. )


Berlioz belong with Scriabin in the category of so grandiose that it's sometimes funny. Both in music and in life. Horrowitz describing meeting Scriabin in person is very funny, "he was really weird, you know." Just such high acts that were reflections of their very strange inner cores... Truly larger than life, in a way that you can believe sometimes, and others...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Don't forget Alkan. Satie gets too much credit when he was preceded by another first class french eccentric composer. Once again, in person, and certainly in the music. Alkan maybe had a grain of larger than life ambition like Berlioz, but it never seems to have been that serious for him.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Telemann and CPE Bach shared a sense of humor in many ways. Telemann was actually CPE's godfather, and they seem to have related well to each other. Dig around through Telemann overtures and apart from the wit that just about all his music contains, you'll discover some truly strange things. He also wrote an autobiography: the man seems to have been a bit hyperactive apart from being very industrious and successful at what he did both artistically and professionally. CPE Bach had his 'sensitive style' going and it's sometimes hard to know whether his more avant garde writing is motivated by that, or by his humorous unpredictability and bounciness that he was fond of.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Orfeo said:


> No one mentioned Poulenc or Offenbach yet?


You can just look at pictures of Offenbach and know he had a sense of humor. And despite his reputation for being light, a lot of his greatness and substance was in his capacity for satire, apart from the orchestration and melodies.

Along similar lines you could certainly mention Rossini. His satirical remarks of Wagner and other 19th century music often get confused in my mind for Mark Twain's. As for the music, there is some heavy duty substance in some of it but he knew about humor.

And now we get to Mozart. We all know he was very funny.

I wasn't really aware of that side to Poulenc.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.
In any case, here's a picture of the Swede.








It's wonderful to see him in such fine spirits.

Pettersson's "Complete Symphonies" box from *cpo* remains one of my favorite sets of "modern" music.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Mauricio kagel is very self-aware and humorous.
Also, Frank Zappa's (limited amount of) classical works are also hilarious, check out The Pleated Gazelle (my favorite)


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

The first name that came into my mind when reading the OP's post was Carl Nielsen; having read some stuff about him, he comes across as the kind of good humoured person whom one could definitely warm to. The photo on page 1 (jms's post) is one of a set taken when he was in his teens; but much later in life, you only have to listen to the finale of his 6th symphony to find that his sense of humour didn't diminish.
I would also add Rodion Shchedrin to the list. He's written a good deal of very serious music, but his 1st Concerto for Orchestra is a real fun piece (though I should expect, devilishly difficult to play).







Rodion Shchedrin


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Three pages without a mention for the english Satie, Lord Berners?

Besides being the favorite english composer of Stravinsky the guy was certainly funny.
Here while he's painting with his horse in his house (I wonder if David Lynch knew him)


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
> Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.
> In any case, here's a picture of the Swede.
> 
> ...


Just saying that is not Allan Pettersson it is Stig Jacobsson

This is Allan Pettersson:


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Musically, I still say that Beethoven was one of the funniest composers who ever lived.


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## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

I can't speak too much for personality, but musically Haydn was known to be very humorous! The Surprise Symphony, The Joke, are two very well known examples. He even incorporated comedy to help get his points across to the audience at times, such as with the Farwell Symphony. I also know that Mozart had a very... distinct dirty-mouth sense of bathroom comedy in his letters to friends and family.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Sloe said:


> This is Allan Pettersson:


...caught in the act of insulting someone, by the looks of it.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

SONNET CLV said:


> Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
> Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.


Yes, he belongs in a category alongside perhaps Berlioz, Scriabin, and Bruckner for being so completely extreme in some 'heavy' aspects as to be absurdly funny. Just a certain lack of self consciousness about this 'deep', 'grand', or 'dark', or whatever music. I am tempted to include Schumann, but there is something about him that I am forced to take with a more complete seriousness and sadness too. Beethoven might actually work though! He definitely has a 'big old boy' vibe about him.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Good to see others have already put up Kagel and Ligeti - lots of witty and amusing music from both. Reading about Morton Feldman, he seemed hilarious


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

If we're talking about composers personalities, what about Milton Babbitt. Even if he wasn't a composer, I wish I could have met him!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I think Scriabin is funny. Can anyone confirm the story that he tried to walk on water once?
Even though it seems as if he took himself way too seriously with the messiah complex and all, maybe, just maybe, deep down inside some part of him knew he was being silly... and he secretly enjoyed it.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
> Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.
> In any case, here's a picture of the Swede.
> 
> ...


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