# Parodies & send-ups in classical music...



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

There are plenty of these, and I tend to love them.

*Please give us your own examples, ones you can think of, eg. where composers are sending up or making fun of other composer's music, maybe even their own, or a particular technique, style or cliche.

& also, do you like these kinds of things, care about them, realise they are there? Or do they pass you by?*

Some well known examples are:

- The _Tristan chord _ briefly interrupting the ragtime of* Debussy's *_Golliwog's Cake-Walk_, then disappearing without a trace as if it means nothing to him. He's grown out of his Wagner fetish.

- The famous bit in *Bartok's* _Concerto for Orchestra_, where he parodies that banal march tune of Shostakovich's _Leningrad Symphony_. The brass blow raspberries, making it sound totally ridiculous, not an ounce of Soviet heroism there.

- *Shostakovich* sends up serialism in his _String Quartet #15_. The part in it when the violin plays a 12 note row, then the cello takes it up but only manages 8 notes of the row. It's kind of humorous, but a kind of dark and bitter humour. I don't think Shosty was a big fan of serialism, this was like a send-up of it, it was like saying "this is ****."

Two less known ones:

- *Malcolm Arnold's *A Grand Grand Overture for Three Vacuum Cleaners, Floor Polisher and Concert Band - Taking the p*ss out of the avant-garde & in particularly the "noise" genre. A bit of a bitter reposte this was, Arnold was given the cold shoulder as where many other composers like him immediately after 1945, who did not conform to the avant-garde high priest's ideas of what was "real" modern music.

- Australian composer *Richard Mills *did the same kind of thing in his recent _String Quartet #4 "Glimpses from my book of Dada."_ In one of the movements, the two violins insert paperclips near the bridge. The resulting sound was like a machine, eg. like a fridge or something, totally bizarre. I heard it in concert a couple of years ago, I don't think there's a recording, you'll have to take my word for it. This was a dig at the avant-garde who in past years have criticised Mills for the usual superficial things (eg. he's a sell-out, not experimental enough, his music has too much melody and emotion, all that cr*p)...


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Shostakovich's 15th symphony was, according to wikipedia, a hodgepodge of send-ups. 

I recognized most prominently the "Fate theme" from the Ring. 

It all sounded out of place and disorderly.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

In Satie´s piano miniatures "Embryons Dessechees", parodies form a queue:






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryons_desséchés


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Saint-Saens' _Carnival of the Animals_ is full of thyem - esp. that animal, *the pianist*...


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Thanks guys.

Yes, itywltmt, I completely forgot about the Saint-Saens_ CArnival of the Animals_. The turtle has Offenbach's can-can slowed down to a ridiculous degree - didn't recognise it until I read about it - & I think there's a Berlioz send up in there as well. The pianists one as well, & in_ The Fossils_ (or maybe some other part), there's _Una Voce Poco Fa _from Rossini's _The Barber of Seville_.

I only recongised these references, and "send ups" quotes after reading about them and listening to this work afresh. I had to clear my mind. I thought it was cliche before, but now I love it. Even went to hear it live in concert a few years back. I think it's Saint-Saens' finest work, or at least one of his best.

The Satie work I did not know about. Haven't heard that one before, I think. I will come back to it, thanks joen_cph.

& it's been a long time since I've heard Shostakovich's 15th symphony, but I do remember bits of Rossini's _William Tell Overture_ (the_ Lone Ranger _theme) in it somewhere. I will listen to it with fresh ears.

Keep 'em coming!...


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Thanks guys.
> 
> Yes, itywltmt, I completely forgot about the Saint-Saens_ CArnival of the Animals_. The turtle has Offenbach's can-can slowed down to a ridiculous degree - didn't recognise it until I read about it - & I think there's a Berlioz send up in there as well. The pianists one as well, & in_ The Fossils_ (or maybe some other part), there's _Una Voce Poco Fa _from Rossini's _The Barber of Seville_.
> 
> I only recongised these references, and "send ups" quotes after reading about them and listening to this work afresh. I had to clear my mind. I thought it was cliche before, but now I love it. Even went to hear it live in concert a few years back. I think it's Saint-Saens' finest work, or at least one of his best.


The "Elephants" has a few: from Berlioz' La damnation de Faust and Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream there are two "light" ballet-like snippets played by the double basses... "Fossils" has some comptines (kiddie songs) like "j'ai du bon tabac" and "Au clair de la lune". Bernstein's 1960's version (re-issued many times) hints to all these inside jokes...

Sometimes, there are "parodies" and other times there are "adaptations". Shostakovich's _Tahiti Trot_, is a re-hash of the too famous _Tea for Two_, for example.

And then, there's the whole slew of *Leroy Anderson* short works he wrote for himself and Arthur Fiedler to conduct: _The Typewriter_, _The Waltzing Cat _and _the Chicken Reel _- only to name a few...


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## Eviticus (Dec 8, 2011)

I don't know of many but Mozart certainly had a wicked sense of humour. His 'Musical Joke' must have been a parody of some sort and not to mention the song "Leck mich im Arsch" (Lick my a*se).

There is probably loads out there that are very subtle and could be mistaken for nods of appreciation.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2012)

Evictus, you made my morning!

I can only offer Alkan's well-known "Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot":





Arguably the first Monty Python sketch in history!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Schnittke has a bunch. Symphony No.1 is full of 'em. Concerto Grosso No.2 quotes some of Brandenburg Concerto No.5, I believe?


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Don't forget the greatest of them all, the immortal (or immoral?) P.D.Q. Bach,
last and least of Bach's 20 odd children, and by far the oddest . As well as the indefatigable efforts of professor Peter Schickele , of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, for inflicting his music on us.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

"You rang?"


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Speaking of Erik Satie, in his piece, Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois, the third movement, Espanana, is a take-off of Cherebrier's Espana. 

Sonatine Bureaucratique is a send-up of Clementi's Sonatina, Op. 36, No. 1.

Not a send-up but a freaky coincidence, the opening of Le Golf from Sports et Divertissements quotes Tea for Two - before the song was actually written.


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## Eviticus (Dec 8, 2011)

superhorn said:


> Don't forget the greatest of them all, the immortal (or immoral?) P.D.Q. Bach,
> last and least of Bach's 20 odd children, and by far the oddest . As well as the indefatigable efforts of professor Peter Schickele , of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, for inflicting his music on us.


Haha - didn't he inspire Beethovens famous deafness? My personal favourite work being the 'Short Tempered Clavier' :lol:


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## Eviticus (Dec 8, 2011)

another fav parody although im sure you've all seen it...


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)




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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Baroque composer, Telemann wrote a violin concerto where the violin exactly imitated a frog's croaking. It sounded so real! It was his violin concerto in A major, suitably titled "_Les Rainettes_" (The Tree Frogs)!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Sid James said:


> & also, do you like these kinds of things, care about them, realise they are there? Or do they pass you by?


I like these things. It's like a special reward for making the effort to learn the repertoire. When I realized I recognized all the quotes in PDQ Bach's Unbegun Symphony, it was very cool.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Bach. Cantata No. 211, " schweigt stille, plaudert nicht", "Coffee Cantata".Satire on the new rage of coffee drinking.
Composed 1732/35.

Cimarosa. "Il Maestro di Cappella", for baritone and orchestra. Light-hearted skit illustrating the problems a conductor is having with his orchestra.

Dohnanyi. " Variations On a Nursery Theme "for piano and orchestra. this is one huge take -off dedicated to " The lovers of humour and to the annoyance of others ." A hugely portentous introduction leads into the soloist playing "Baa Baa Blacksheep"/ "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Manxfeeder said:


> ...
> Not a send-up but a freaky coincidence, the opening of Le Golf from Sports et Divertissements quotes Tea for Two - before the song was actually written.


Interesting. It's probably another topic for another thread. Satie seemed to be the master of this type of thing. Thanks to you and others for bringing that to my attention.

Someone told me that one of Schumann's Humoresques sounds eerily like a song by Antonio Carlos Jobim (mid 20th century Brazilian jazz songwriter/musician). I don't remember which Jobim tune or which of the Humoresques, but I remember someone saying this was a type of "prediction" by Schumann. Of course, Jobim could have known the Schumann piece, but maybe we'll never know (in any case, a lot of his tunes were taken from Brazilian folk melodies and stuff of the sort that already existed).



HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Baroque composer, Telemann wrote a violin concerto where the violin exactly imitated a frog's croaking. It sounded so real! It was his violin concerto in A major, suitably titled "_Les Rainettes_" (The Tree Frogs)!


Another one by Telemann is the _Overture-Suite in F major _for four horns and orchestra (I have it on a Naxos disc). It's a portrait of Hamburg and it's surrounds. Has canons firing, sounds of battle, a chorus of frogs and birds, bells tolling, that kind of thing. Not a parody exactly, but similarly whimsical to the Malcolm Arnold vacuum cleaner piece in my OP...


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

moody said:


> ...
> Dohnanyi. " Variations On a Nursery Theme "for piano and orchestra. this is one huge take -off dedicated to " The lovers of humour and to the annoyance of others ." A hugely portentous introduction leads into the soloist playing "Baa Baa Blacksheep"/ "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".


Forgot that one. Just got it on cd recently, haven't listened to this recording yet. Have known it for ages. I like the mock-Brahmsian-in-piano-concerto mode introduction. The biggest leg-pull in classical music history, perhaps? This shows you can send up someone but love him at the same time. Dohnanyi loved Brahms' music, and I think I read that Brahms praised some of Dohnanyi's early works.

The same tune of "twinkle twinkle little star" was used by Mozart in his work for solo piano, _Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman", K. 265/300e_...


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Benny & Stern, a vaudeville act?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Sid James said:


> Forgot that one. Just got it on cd recently, haven't listened to this recording yet. Have known it for ages. I like the mock-Brahmsian-in-piano-concerto mode introduction. The biggest leg-pull in classical music history, perhaps? This shows you can send up someone but love him at the same time. Dohnanyi loved Brahms' music, and I think I read that Brahms praised some of Dohnanyi's early works.
> 
> The same tune of "twinkle twinkle little star" was used by Mozart in his work for solo piano, _Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman", K. 265/300e_...


The French air you mention is from Adam's opera "Le toreador"..


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