Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Why So Serious?

Music is great for so many reasons. It can allow you to feel emotions that words can't describe. It can tell a story. It can be relaxing and cerebral. But people often forget that it can also be funny, sometimes in addition to these other reasons.

Here is a piece titled Failing: A very difficult piece for solo string bass by Tom Johnson. The video and piece explain everything:



Not only is it a funny piece, but it's enjoyable because of the virtuosity involved in playing.

Not all of these jokes are as clear as they used to be but they're still there. One of the most important composers of the Classical period, Haydn, was very clever and would often stick some humor in his music. Here's the 2nd movement of his symphony no. 94 in G Major known as the "Surprise" symphony and is the movement that contains the "surprise.":



Did you catch it? It's not very surprising to our 21st century ears but that loud burst that occurs about 30 seconds in was a real shocker at the time. Symphonies were well established and audiences knew that the 2nd movement would be slower and peaceful. To play on their expectations Haydn threw in that surprise to wake up anyone who might be nodding off.

Charles Ives was a 20th century American composer ahead of his time. He also had a very good sense of humor. Here is his variations on America (My Country Tis of Thee):



The piece is fun and exciting. Seeing the feet move for the 5th variation is impressive and funny. Ives even said that playing the foot pedals in that variation is "more fun than baseball." Ives was an excellent organ player which is why he was able to compose and perform such a piece.

Even late romantic music can include some humor while still maintaining the same sound and feel. In Richard Strauss' tone poem Till Eulenspiegel's Marry Pranks, he composes the events involving the German peasant folk hero. The music describes the trickster as he impersonates other people and gets in trouble:



The music itself might not make you laugh but it's playful and clearly represents humorous events.

Some composers write music that isn't just written in a classical style but actually parodies it. Professor Peter Schickele and his alter ego P.D.Q (which means Pretty Damn Quick) Bach is probably the most well known composer of such music, think of him as the Weird Al of classical music. Sometimes he imitates classical music styles with humorous lyrics like in The Art of the Ground Round:



It's not just the lyrics that make the piece enjoyable. Peter Schickele's compositional talent and understanding of classical music mean a lot of thought goes into what he writes. Some of his pieces are more visually humorous like Sonata Innamorata:



Peter Schickele is also a musicologist and radio host and produces other humorous classical music related projects like New Horizons in Music Appreciation that treats Beethoven's 5th symphony as a sporting event:



He isn't making fun of the piece but showing a way to better understand and appreciate it. For those who don't study music, this is a nice fun way to show what happens during a symphony and shows how Beethoven played on listeners' expectations and moved the symphony forward.

It's important to have a sense of humor when it comes to classical music, even when the music is emotional or intellectual. There's no reason to think that all classical music has to be serious or that something humorous didn't require a lot of thought and talent

Bonus Video!

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