HUMOR AND ICONICITY
IN MUSIC
by Don L. F. Nilsen
and Alleen Pace Nilsen
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Music and Dance are Everywhere
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AUTO-TUNE THE NEWS:
Brian Williams Raps
on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YCeIgt7hMs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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BALLET TROCADERO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIQyZo1PeFA
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Contemporary Musicals
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Contemporary Joke Bands:
Tenacious D and Flight of The Conchords
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Country Music
Dueling Banjos: Roy Clark and Buck Trent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gw0fxuIvBM
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Some Fun Musical Links
“Fit as a Fiddle and Ready for Love”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Badf0ctYQo
“Make ‘Em Laugh” from Singing in the Rain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SND3v0i9uhE
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Contemporary Parody
Weird Al Yankovic
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“Weird Al” Yankovic:” Eat it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI
“Weird Al” Yankovic:” Fat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2mU6USTBRE
“Weird Al” Yankovic:” White and Nerdy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw
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Musical Point of View!
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Flash Mob at the University of Minnesota:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uH8FvERQHtM
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Music and Magic
• Cognate with chant are such words as Encanto,
enchanted, and a Jewish Cantor.
• This is why there is an Encanto Park in Phoenix.
• It is enchanted.
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Piano Duet While Changing Clothes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5jiekqGANA
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A FEW HISTORICAL NOTES
• In the 1600s, the Italians developed their
“Opera Buffa,” leading the way to comic
opera, which in France became the “Comedie
Française” and in Germany the “Komische
Oper.”
• Karl Haas says that in England it led to John
Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” (1728), and in
the 1850s and 1860s to Offenbach’s satirical
masterpieces.
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HUMOR IN CLASSICAL MUSIC
• Humor in classical music has a long tradition as shown
by such playful vocabulary items as the French gavotte,
which like the Irish and English gigue or jig is music for
a fast-moving dance.
• A scherzo is a musical joke while a cappricio is a
composition that is irregular in form and usually lively
and whimsical.
• A divertimento is a light and entertaining instrumental
composition.
• And a rondo is a composition whose principal theme is
repeated three or more times in the same key,
interspersed with subordinate themes.
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Musical Satires and Parodies:
CHEAP FLIGHTS:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/HPyl2tOaKxM
PIANO JUGGLER # 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07brW206D84
MECHANICAL GUITARS:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/XlyCLbt3Thk?rel=0
IGOODESMAN AND JOO:
http://cartoonando.blogspot.com/2008/04/1000-posts.html
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IRONY IN MUSIC
• In Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” Rossini’s “The
Barber of Seville,” and Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the
Underworld,” dramatic irony comes into play as characters
become victims of Tricksters and suffer from misidentifications
and misunderstood events.
• An extra irony in relation to Offenbach’s “Orpheus” is that one
of its musical sequences was so lively that it became famous
throughout Paris and the world as “The Can Can.”
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Leroy Anderson:
“TYPEWRITER” BY LEROY ANDERSON:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/803796/the_typewriter_song/
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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
• In his Pulitzer-Prize-winning Godel, Escher,
Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas
Hofstadter compares Johann Sebastian Bach’s
fascination with acoustic loops to artist M. C.
Escher’s fascination with visual loops in which a
waterfall appears to become its own source.
• In his “Endlessly Rising Canon,” Bach seems to
be drawing to a conclusion but instead slips out
of the key of C-minor and into D-minor. This
false “ending” ties smoothly into a new
beginning where Bach repeats the process and
returns in the key of E, only to start over again.
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Hofstadter on Bach (continued)
• Hofstadter says that “these successive
modulations lead the ear to increasingly
remote provinces on tonality, so that after
several of them, one would expect to be
hopelessly far away from the starting key.
• And yet, magically, after exactly six such
modulations, the original key of C-minor has
been restored?”
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Johann Sebastian Bach
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P. D. Q. Bach, A Musical Satirist
• P. D. Q. is purported to be the last of Johann
Sebastian Bach’s 20-odd children.
• He was “discovered” by Peter Schickele, the
first person to occupy the “General Electric
Chair” at the University of Southern North
Dakota at Huppel.
• Peter Schickele keeps unearthing various P. D.
Q. Bach “schleptetas” and pervertimentos.
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P. D. Q.—An Antidote to Our
National Inferiority Complex
P.D.Q. Bach (Peter
Schickeley) has a wider
appeal than standard
classical musicians
because of his musical
parodies.
Notice the bassoon is in
two parts.
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PETER SCHICKELE (PDQ BACH):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY0CFaracVE
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Carrot Clarinet:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/BISrGwN-yH4
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There are many classical composers
famous for their humor
Ludwig Van Beethoven
satirized local musicians in
his “Pastoral Symphony”
where he portrayed a sleepy
village in which the
musicians doze off, wake
up, play a few notes, and
then doze off again.
BEETHOVEN’S PASTORAL
SYMPHONY:
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=a9HWo4THnHA
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Ludwig Van Beethoven
3-YEAR-OLD CONDUCTING BEETHOVEN’S 5th SYMPHONY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REJ-lCGiKU
7-YEAR-OLD PLAYING BEETHOVEN’S “RAGE OVER A LOST PENNY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CED7cijODg
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Victor Borge—Our Greatest
Musical Clown
• Early in Borge’s career when he was doing a piano
concerto, the conductor lost his place in the musical
score. Borge, a talented and serious player, stood up
from his piano bench, walked over to the conductor’s
stand, pointed to the right place in the score, and then
returned to his piano bench to finish the concerto. The
strength of the applause was a turning point in Borge’s
career.
• One of Borge’s most popular gags was to look befuddled
as he examined a musical score and tried to play it. After
some false starts and pondering, he would realize it was
upside down, so he would turn it over and play the piece
masterfully.
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Victor Borge and Muppets
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More on Victor Borge
• Borge would shift slyly from a piece of classical into a
piece of popular music.
• He also played pop culture pieces, e.g. “Happy Birthday
to You” as if it had been composed by Bach or Brahms.
• Wordplay was a favorite as when he said that a particular
piece he was playing by Rachmaninoff was written in four
flats—because the composer had been so poor he had to
keep moving while he was working on it.
• He announced another piece as being composed by
Bach, but he couldn’t remember whether it was Johann
Sebastian, or Jacques Offen.
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Victor Borge: “A Night at the Opera”:
http://biggeekdad.com/2016/01/a-night-at-the-opera/
Victor Borge: “One Piano, Four Hands” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV19rylSZc
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Frederic Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFHXmiZP38
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Dizzy Fingers by Zez Confrey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGKcXv0FeCE
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Phyllis Diller, who died at age 95 in August of 2012,
was a pioneer for women stand-up comedians. She
used her long cigarette holder much like conductors
use batons, only she was managing the audience
rather than the orchestra.
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George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”
(Note the Paris Taxi Horns in the Percussion Sections):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ros66y1aZ-E
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In the 1870s through the 1890s, this led to the
Gilbert and Sullivan operas
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“The Gondoliers,”
“H.M.S. Pinafore,”
“Iolanthe,”
“The Mikado,”
“Patience,”
“The Pirates of
Penzance,”
“Prince Ida,”
“Ruddigore,”
“The Sorcerer,”
“Trial by Jury,”
and “The Yeoman of the
Guard.”
W. S. Gilbert
Sir Arthur Sullivan
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THREE LITTLE MAIDS FROM SCHOOL (GILBERT & SULLIVAN):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXWkIZUPmDY
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Antonin Dvorak
The expressively cross-sensory sounds of the “Painted Desert” in
Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q8eq66Krv0
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Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé’s “bump de bump de dadada” of his “On the Trail” from the
“Grand Canyon Suite.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVKVB0MImOg
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Georges Friedrich Handel:
SILENT MONKS SINGING “HALLELUIA CHORUS”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU&feature=related
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FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN
• Franz Joseph Haydn was distressed by the number of
people who fell asleep while listening to his chamber
pieces.
• So he wrote “Symphony Number 94” (The Surprise
Symphony) in the key of C using a slow tempo and soft
and repetitive sequences.
• At the end of each stanza, he modulated the music to the
key of G and ended with a resounding fortissimo chord
guaranteed to wake up anyone who might be dozing.
HAYDN’S SURPRISE SYMPHONY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLjwkamp3lI
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Franz Joseph Haydn
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Haydn’s “Farewell Symphony” is another
example of Haydn’s humor.
He wanted to communicate that the musicians were lonely
for their wives and needed to go home for the summer.
So as the symphony draws to its end, various musicians put
out the lights on their music stands and departed.
Audiences were amused at the gradual diminishing of the
orchestra, but they understood his message.
This same technique was later used in “The Sound of
Music” as the von Trapps left the stage and were
smuggled out of the theater past the Nazi guards.
HAYDN FAREWELL SYMPHONY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ligH6PCW0
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JOSEPH HAYDN’S MUSICAL JOKE:
Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet Opus 33,
Number 2 is called “The Joke.”
This is because it has so many false endings:
PRESTO MOVEMENT FROM JOSEPH HAYDN’S
“THE JOKE”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkWBzH6dkE
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Nora’s CATcerto
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Scot Joplin
SCOT JOPLIN’S PEACHERINE RAG ON RECYCLED BOTTLES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k26nt3Y4cmg
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Tom Lehrer: Musical Parodies and Satires
• One of the best known satirists is Tom Lehrer, who
as a Harvard Professor in the 1960s began getting
attention for some forty musical parodies and
satires.
• He has written songs about poisoning pigeons in the
park, hometown perverts, and charred bodies in a
nuclear holocaust.
• His most controversial piece is “The Vatican Rag”
with its “bow your head with great respect and—
genuflect! genuflect! genuflect!”
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Chico and Harpo Marx: Shooting the Keys
• In the early and mid-1900s, when Chico Marx played an
arpeggio on the piano, he would play all of the notes but
one, and then would point to that key with his index
finger and using his thumb as a “trigger” would “shoot
the key.”
• Harpo Marx would also “shoot the keys,” but he was
famous for playing glissandos (sliding music), and for
getting his finger stuck between the keys.
• We old-timers thought about Chico and his “shooting of
the keys” when we saw Mr. Bean playing his one-note
solo as part of Britain’s opening ceremonies for the 2012
Olympics.
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WOLFGANG AMADEUS
MOZART
Mozart was a contemporary of Haydn,
and his “The Village Musicians” is also
known as “A Musical Joke.” This is
because he composed it as a grand
burlesque of the nonprofessional playing
that was done by amateur community
bands of his day.
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PAPAGANA/PAPAGENO (MOZART’S MAGIC FLUTE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UE2GC5db0
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Jacques Offenbach
HOKUM W. JEEBS PLAYS Offenbach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q38R0MtNHY&list=PL23E8C9830E320E60
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Johann Pachelbel
PACHELBEL RANT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
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Sergei Prokofiev
http://www.wnyc.org/s
tory/256987-peter-andthe-wolf/
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Monte Python’s “Song that goes like this”
Eric Idle “Song that goes like this.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ddwK8Py2pY
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Gioachini Rossini
The flourishes and strikes in Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us_6fXZpt-c
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Mark Russell, a Piano-Playing Comedian
• During the 1980s and 90s, Mark Russell used his musical
abilities to become a well-known political commentator—
talking and playing the piano, first in night club settings
and then in performance halls.
• During Reagan’s presidency, he took the tune of “My
Bonnie Lies over the Ocean” and changed it to:
My ship of state’s practically grounded
for want of a policy plan.
I deny all the charges—unfounded—
since the state of my ship hit the fan.
Bring back. Bring back. Oh bring back my Teflon to
me, to me….”
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CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
In his “Carnival of the Animals,” Saint-Saëns parodies the “can
can” melody from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the
Underworld.
Ogden Nash added words to Saint Saens’s iconic “Carnival of the
Animals.”
The can-can is normally performed at breakneck tempo, but in
Saint-Saĕns Tortoises, the parody is played painfully slow by
low-register strings.
TORTOISES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvqaRaDzQE
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Camille Saint-Saens
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Camille Saint-Saëns:
DANSE MACABRE BY CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcOZmtbLRP0&feature=related
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Johann Strauss
LAUGHING SONG (JOHANN STRAUS’S “DIE FLEDERMAUS”):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npLZNoRoH2M&NR=1
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RICHARD WAGNER
• Even in the most serious operas, composers include
light moments for comic relief. For example in his
“Ring Cycle,” Richard Wagner has the young
Siegfried turn the brown bear loose on Mime so that
he and the audience can relish in the dwarf’s fright.
• And one of the funniest lines in all of opera is the
dramatic irony when Siegfried slices open
Brunnhilde’s breastplate with his armor-piercing
sword, and exclaims, “Das ist kein Mann!” (“This is
not a man?”)
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Tempe Community Chorus
http://www.tempecommunitychorus.org/gallery
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St. Patrick’s Day Flashmob in Sydney, Australia:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+flash+mob+irish+dance&
view=detail&mid=8559EF05D5C7D98959248559EF05D5C7D9895924&FOR
M=VIRE3
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Four Really talented Ladies
http://www.reshareworthy.com/amazing-quartet-blew-audience-away/#HlDc3TMGOGULZGi4.01
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