# Funny Stories about Classical Music



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Do you know any funny stories? I'll give some examples.

When Ravel's _Valses nobles et sentimentales _were premiered in 1911 or sometime after for orchestra, it was performed with anonymous program label. The audience was asked to guess who the composer would be, and they set up a ballot for people to write down and submit it. When all the guesses were collected, most people thought it was Mozart! Some said Beethoven, others Strauss Jr., and yet a small number of people knew that it was indeed Ravel. Just to get some perspective on how people perceived classical back then! You thought people today were unknowledgeable? Nope, we have a lot in common. 

Another funny story, speaking of Strauss. The _Senior _Strauss, one time premiered one of his waltzes at a ball, and he told the audience that he left it nameless and was going to let the audience choose what to call it after they heard it. So, like the Ravel incident, people listened to the waltz, and came up with fanciful titles that they submitted with little ballots into a hat. A ballot was randomly picked from the hat, and what did it say? _"Devil take it."_ The people were so upset that they demanded a redo, but Strauss said that a promise was a promise and he would call the waltz the Devil Take It Waltz. I heard it a number of years ago, nothing devilish about it! :lol: One can only assume that perhaps it was an older individual who did not look favorably upon the "scandalous" dance that the waltz seemed to be when it first became popular in Europe. Here's proof of my story!


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## Brad (Mar 27, 2014)

Here are some good stories about piano duels. My favorites are Daniel Steibelt v. Beethoven and Louis Marchand v. Bach.

http://listverse.com/2011/12/27/7-classical-piano-duels/


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Another story!

Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (among others) were all in a tavern discussing music in Paris I believe (yes, they knew each other and hung out!). Well, while they were all there, Berlioz steps through the door, and exclaims that he's had enough of life and that he was going to kill himself. Berlioz runs out the door before anyone catches him, and so begins a wild goose chase in the city to look for him. Many hours later, when people had become especially worried and despondent, they finally found Berlioz on the outskirts of the town lying by a haystack and fast asleep! Talk about not following through with your threat! :lol:


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Another story!
> 
> Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (among others) were all in a tavern discussing music in Paris I believe (yes, they knew each other and hung out!). Well, while they were all there, Berlioz steps through the door, and exclaims that he's had enough of life and that he was going to kill himself. Berlioz runs out the door before anyone catches him, and so begins a wild goose chase in the city to look for him. Many hours later, when people had become especially worried and despondent, they finally found Berlioz on the outskirts of the town lying by a haystack and fast asleep! Talk about not following through with your threat! :lol:


I shouldn't be laughing at a depressed man, but how silly!

The funniest vignette I can think of is a quote from Max Reger. A critic wrote a very hateful review of one of his works. So Reger responded to the review, "Mr. [critic's name], I am sitting in the smallest room in my house [the bathroom]. Your review is sitting in front of me. Pretty soon, it will be behind me" :lol:


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Not a funny story as such but Mozart composed a piece of music called the 'Musical Joke' in which everything a composer should avoid was laid manifest. Even though this is example of bad compositional writing, I still find it pleasing to listen to!


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Another funny thing came to mind: One of Scriabin's more flamboyant piano works is his Fantasie in B minor. It's very beautiful, kinda reminiscent of Chopin's Ballades, but very Romantic and full of chords and a somewhat sappy main theme. Anyway, one day, he was with some colleagues, and one of his friends started playing the fantasy in the other room. "Who wrote that music?" he asked, "It sounds so familiar". His friend answered, "It's your fantasy" to which Scriabin replied, "Fantasy? What fantasy?!" Obviously he didn't care much about the work, he practically forgot its existence!


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Gondur said:


> Not a funny story as such but Mozart compared a piece of music called the 'Musical Joke' in which everything a composer should avoid was laid manifest:


What I find most humorous about this is that, technically, this piece has the first use of polytonality in music history! Like Beethoven's Jazzy last sonata, Mozart was hundreds of years ahead of his time


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## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Yes this piece of music was well ahead of its time. The use of asymmetrical phrasing, whole-tone scales, and multitonality is quite foreign to music of the classical era. However, these techniques became common for early 20th-century composers like Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky, who were searching for a new musical language.

That said I find my spelling of 'composed' befitting with the purpose of this music! 'Compared'? I meant 'composed'. I can't help it! The music influenced me to spell incorrectly! It's not my fault!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Another story!
> 
> Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (among others) were all in a tavern discussing music in Paris I believe (yes, they knew each other and hung out!). Well, while they were all there, Berlioz steps through the door, and exclaims that he's had enough of life and that he was going to kill himself. Berlioz runs out the door before anyone catches him, and so begins a wild goose chase in the city to look for him. Many hours later, when people had become especially worried and despondent, they finally found Berlioz on the outskirts of the town lying by a haystack and fast asleep! Talk about not following through with your threat! :lol:


Wat.

Where did you read this nonsense, in archival print of XIXth century tabloid, next to article on Clara Schumann divorcing Brad Pitt?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Aramis said:


> Wat.
> 
> Where did you read this nonsense, in archival print of XIXth century tabloid, next to article on Clara Schumann divorcing Brad Pitt?


Nope, my professor in my Symphonic Literature class told about this story to us in a lecture about Berlioz. He also told us about Berlioz' female impersonation incident that almost fell through. Of course, as far as I know these stories likely came from Berlioz's memoirs, in which he exaggerated stuff. Then again, he was a pretty weird guy...


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Nope, my professor in my Symphonic Literature class told about this story to us in a lecture about Berlioz. He also told us about Berlioz' female impersonation incident that almost fell through. Of course, as far as I know these stories likely came from Berlioz's memoirs, in which he exaggerated stuff. Then again, he was a pretty weird guy...


The story is not extremely unlikely because of what Berlioz is said to do, but because of the assembly of "Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (among others) all in a tavern discussing music in Paris". These four weren't ever anything like Paris tavern discussion club mates and the further idea of them running together around the city in search of suicidal Berlioz is not much more than potential screenplay for _Lisztomania II_.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Aramis said:


> The story is not extremely unlikely because of what Berlioz is said to do, but because of the assembly of "Liszt, Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn (among others) all in a tavern discussing music in Paris". These four weren't ever anything like Paris tavern discussion club mates and the further idea of them running together around the city in search of suicidal Berlioz is not much more than potential screenplay for _Lisztomania II_.


Well, to tell you the truth, all of those composers visited Paris regularly, and many of them lived there, particularly Chopin and Berlioz. Paris was a major artistic center of Europe at that time. So, it wouldn't be surprising if they actually were together, because if they all knew that each other were in town, wouldn't they have met up? Rossini and Schubert visited Paris too, although for Schubert his time there was very short-lived.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Well, to tell you the truth, all of those composers visited Paris regularly, and many of them lived there, particularly Chopin and Berlioz. Paris was a major artistic center of Europe at that time. So, it wouldn't be surprising if they actually were together, because if they all knew that each other were in town, wouldn't they have met up?


It would be surprising, because relations between some of these composers are well documented and been subject of study for a long time. If you read about Chopin, for example, you have maybe two of his meetings with Schumann and in the light they shed on their relation (a far fetched word, considering they never made acquaintance with each other on really personal level) makes it more than unlikely that they ever shared any discussions over a glass of wine in Paris tavern. I love fun anecdotes about composers too, but sorry, this one never happened.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

Cosmos said:


> What I find most humorous about this is that, technically, this piece has the first use of polytonality in music history! Like Beethoven's Jazzy last sonata, Mozart was hundreds of years ahead of his time


Surely the hack composers/copyists/musicians Mozart is parodying with this piece are the ones who were ahead of their time?


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## Guest (May 24, 2014)

Aramis said:


> I love fun anecdotes about composers too, but sorry, this one never happened.


Maybe we should shift this one over to the Musical Mystery thread ?


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