Pet hates

By humour I do not mean the braying of asses (the sort of joke R. Strauss is apt to make - Look at his Burleske, where, to my ears at least, the piano imitates a horse neighing). On reflection I might agree with you: the Rondo of Sonata K 545 (I hope I have the number right) has its humour. And the Piano Concerto No. 9; Knowing that in Paris the audience expected a long orchestral introduction what does Mozart do? He has the piano come in at the very start. This is his first great piano concerto. Not for this joke, but for the lovely second movement.

People trying to be funny are usually anything but. The funniest ones are the ones who are so by nature. Is Haydn the better composer? Maybe if one examines the symphonies, but not if one examines the concerti. I have never really bothered about this, really. I enjoy both and both in their individual fields.

Mahler is not always serious. Indeed, at times his songs are humorous; one of them includes... the braying of an ass! The Scherzo of his 1st symphony is almost ridiculous. Brahms has his Academic Festival Overture, Bach has the Coffee Cantata...

I have not played them all, but I have certainly listened to them. I find the earlier ones (in the K 200s) a bit long-winded. Some of the ones in the K 300s are good. The one in Bb I find particularly attractive and will even say it is a masterpiece. The 3rd movement has all the atributes of a movement from a concerto but without the orchestra.

 

The great letting down of the Dohnanyi is the title. It would be even more effective if he had called the piece "variations on a popular theme. It would certainly be much more surprising, after all that Wagnerinan high drama have Twinkle Twinkle Little Star come in!

I like the Scherzo of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. It caught me, what with Scherzo-trio-scherzo-trio-scherzo-trio... But STOP! WILL YOU? And he does: He uses the last trio's first bars as a coda.

 

You know, Monica, this is the way I felt once when you told me a certain piece had to sound seductive.

Have you listened to the second movement of Haydn's Surprise Symphony (No. 94)? All pp and then... the timpani go BANG. FF. It woke me up once!

 

Having heard live the Tchaikovsky Concerto No1 TWICE last night during the finals of the Fulbright Concerto Competition, I can unequivocally add that I find the dramatic tempo change in the slow movement of above to be most humerous. Anybody else think the same? (get out your recordings and listen).

 

Yes, except your 3rd f is a g :wink:

 

Like when they are jump-started ?

The f would be more fun though. I bet people would laugh at THAT

 

The thing about humor (or for you Brits, humour) in music is that it is not always "ha ha" funny, just like in language. It has all of the shades of wit, satire, irony, sarcasm... that is found in language. It can be subtle or overt. Some of it is cultural and related to the time period, making it more difficult for us to find, just as some of Shakespear's humor flies over our heads due to changes from Elizabethan English to modern English.

One of my favorite humorous moments is in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. For a moment, the transition from the second to the third movement sounds as if the pianist has forgotten what to play. It's as if he is noodling around trying to find the part. The strings tentatively pluck a couple of times and the bass is stuck on that one note afraid to move until something happens. It's a moment that gains its humor when it is put into context with what follows, which is glorious.

Scott

 

:shock: ! Indeed. It seems I actually have absolute pitch, because I have never seen it written out, but that is I began to play one day out of the blue on the recorder.

 

It was an aside.

 

Can't even remember what this thread was about now ....

 

Of course I have not studied music - maybe that's my problem But I think I have as open a mind as anybody here, given the stuff that I play. I seem to love a more diverse array of music than many here. But I personally can't understand how people can say they like (nearly) all music. I agree that rap and hiphop are the absolute asshole of music, in fact not even worth the name music.

He was indeed quite a nasty little man. Though in all fairness he had many Jewish friends, and anti-semitism was very common in these days (and not just in Germany). I do immensely enjoy his overtures and incidental music (as long as there's no singers involved...). I think you should not let your appreciation of music be colored by knowledge about the composer's character or sympathies.

That reminds me how last year at an antiques fair we wanted to buy a porcelain drink beaker. The swastika and third reich standard on the bottom did not stop us from wanting it, it was really very pretty. It was much too expensive however. Pretty open-minded, eh....

 

I thought this thread was about pets. I shall add some of my pet hates:

Accompanying.
Specifically, accompanying bad transcriptions of Handel arias.
Practicing scales. (I will probably flub the end of Chopin 25/11 long after I've mastered the rest.)
The vast majority of 'modern' music.
Beethoven's pianism.

I have more, but I figure that's enough for now. :lol:

 

I remember studying at a school and one day, looking out at the terrace, we noticed the swastikas on the tiles. We asked how this came to pass only to hear that the whole building, terrace included, dated from the early 20th century.

We must remember that our view of antisemitism is coloured by 12 years of Nazi rule. Just because of what happened then does not mean that Wagner would have condoned it. The same way we nowadays may be anti-imigration without necessarily feeling immigrants ought to be fed to the sharks.

The other day. listening to Medelssohn, I was wondering: just how could he (or anyone else for that matter) hear semitic traits there? The same goes for Mahler.