10 Delightful Works With Crazy Titles
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- Опубліковано 31 січ 2023
- Here is my list, but there are many more candidates that I'm sure you'll want to share. Have at it!
1. CPE Bach: Gespräch zwischen einem Sanguineus und Melancholicus
2. PDQ Bach: Iphigenia in Brooklyn
3. Rossini: Mon prélude hygiénique du matin
4. Satie: Embryons desséchées
1. of a Holothurian
2. of an Edriophthalma
3. of a Podophthalma
5. Crumb: Mundus Canis
6. Alwyn: Symphony No. 5 “Hydriotaphia”
7. Still: Symphony No. 4 “Autochthonous”
8. Poulenc: Les Mamelles de Tirésias
9. Honegger: Monopartita
10. Bax: Nympholept
Hindemith's "Overture to 'The Flying Dutchman' as Sight-read by a Bad Spa Orchestra at 7 AM in the Morning at the Well" is quite deliciously named. And the music certainly lives up to the title.
It's one of those pieces that makes me go "How much have humans REALLY changed in the last 100 years?"
Darn, you beat me with this! Isn't it absolutely great?
I love your mind bro -- your quest to invent interesting and informative installments about the music we all love seems boundless! This is another fabulous, well ok - ingenious, well ok, an unexpected and interesting angle. Thank You. Wind ever at your back :)
We have also Villa-Lobos' Momoprecoce, and Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit.
Although not a downright crazy title, Zelenka's "Hipocondrie à 7 Concertanti" is certainly an eye-catching one.
What a fun topic! Some other titles that stick in my mind include:
Xenaxis: Oophaa; Gmeeoorh; Troorkh
Ravel: "Aoua!"
Ives: Slugging a Vampire
Honegger: Mimaamaquim
Grainger: Gum-Sucker's March
Bolcom: Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise
John Adams has several funny titles. ‘Naive and Sentimental Music’, ‘Son of Chamber Symphony’, ‘Scheherazade 2’, etc
And “My father knew Ives” or something like that.
I have always loved the creative titles of some François-Adrien Boieldieu's works: Rien de trop ou Les Deux Paravents, Les Voitures versées (Le Séducteur en voyage), Amour et mystère ou Lequel est mon cousin? Quite inspiring when being amongst music & language loving friends to start making up new titles and explain the plots
I am SO glad to see Iphigenia in Brooklyn on this list because it's a) hilarious and b) really well written music. It's one of Schickele's (PDQ's) greatest - not only to listen to but to see performed. I was lucky enough to see it with the Professor and John Ferrante - truly the best bargain countertenor. Schickele was one of the soloists playing the wine bottle - which he drains a bit each movement to adjust the pitch, eventually and wildly passing out at the very end.
"He who is running.....knows."
Run running knows." etc.
I can still remember the first time I heard this. I couldn't stop laughing. Humor in music is extremely difficult to pull off well, but when everything comes together perfectly, it is memorable.
My suggestion to add to this playlist is a work for chorus and double-reeds (WITH their instruments this time) by the estimable Charles-Valentin Alkan, entitled ‘Marcia Funebre Sulla Morta d’un Papagallo’ - the text may not add up to much (just the words ‘As-tu dejeuné, Jaco?’), but the fugal chorus that ends the piece is masterful!
A great choice indeed!
Perhaps not a masterpiece but definitely in the delightful category is "Adventures in a Perambulator" by John Alden Carpenter. It sound imposing, until you realize that a perambulator is another word for baby carriage!
Fun list!!! I might add Beethoven-Rage over a lost Penny...Or Glass-Einstein on the Beach...Or Feldman-Madame Press died last week at Ninety, or his 'Crippled Symmetry', or his 'The viola in my life', etc...Or Riley's 'A Rainbow in Curved Air'...Or Stockhausen-Helicopter Quartet-just the premise of that piece is crazy
Composers write string quartets because there are plenty of such ensembles out there and they'll get performances of their piece. Only Stockhausen would write a string quartet that requires thousands of dollars of wireless video/audio equipment as well as four helicopters and their pilots to perform.
I do adore Schmeltzer's "The Day of the Fart" - known in polite circles as "The Day of the Bean Festival".
Best musical fart:
(1) Orff (in "Ego sum abbas cucaniensis")
(2) Haydn (in 93rd symphony)
Honorable mention: Spike Jones in "Der Fuehrer's face."
one of the funniest videos you've done.
I remember being really annoyed at a performance of PDQ Bach at the conservatoire where I studied. It was a fundraiser, and they had the musical theatre department do it. It was an unfunny disaster because none of the performers could actually produce anything remotely resembling music from the joke instruments. It absolutely takes real musicianship to pull off those kinds of gags, and when Schickele and his gang played PDQ Bach, it was always with a straight face, and the music was always "competently" executed, with just enough slapstick to get the laughs.
We at the U of MD back in 1977 had the great opportunity to perform with Prof. Schickele conducting -The Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Wind and Percussion. He was a terrific conductor in music and humor of course. At one point when the (very large) band wasn't quite getting the rhythm he say "Hey guys - it's bunny-hop time!" Then everyone got the rhythm! Side note - the program opened with Sir Malcolm Arnold's A Grand, Grand Overture. That came off well too.
Poulenc's "Les biches" cries out for an acceptable translation. My suggestion was "Les demoiselles" but
that's still French. Let's not forget it was commissioned (and named) by Madame Nijinska.
Bax's "In a vodka shop." Several items by Slonimsky come to mind, including "Children cry for Castoria"
and "Cabbage waltz." HIs book "Lexicon of musical invective" is a fountain of outrageous wit and anecdote.
Dave, I’ve always loved La Monte Young’s “The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from The Four Dreams of China” from 1962. I’d love you to do a talk on Ol’ La Monte. America’s greatest living composer
"Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra"
"Penis Dimention"
"G-spot Tornado"
Gotta love Frank Zappa!!!
I would be remiss to not mention my favorite titled piece, "Eclairs on the Deli" by Oliver Messyaunt.
Messiaen?
@@handelbaroque He's making a joke. Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà... Messyaunt means "tante désordonnée".
Maybe it's time for a dedicated PDQ Bach video?... :)
Hooray for PDQ Bach! My favorite is his Grand Oratorio "The Seasonings", S. 1-1/2 tsp. (I know you can't do without the Schickele number)
Hi Dave! Very interesting and funny list! What about "Turangalîla-Symphonie" ?!? Not crazy enough?
The ultimate crazy title: 4'33", of "nothing".
We should include PDQ’s Oedipus Tex as well.
17:34 Nympholepsy. And yes, that is a real word, too!
What about Le boeuf sur le toit!?! Great pieces as well which needs a place in the Fabulous Concert Series
Hang in there...
You know what is disappointing? I have that delightful 60 CD CPE Bach box set from Hanssler and that trio sonata isn't in it!
For something very much in the repertory, Ravel's le Tombeau de Couperin.
By playing unknown music we don´t rewrite the history, we just make the history richer, and future as well. Its not bad thing learn a new habit.
Hahaha..thank God I speak Greek, based on the titles