So, following on the humor and fun of the music by Poulenc, I'm interested to hear your recommendations for music in the Romantic idiom that contains significant amounts of humor. By which, I don't mean a one off funny reference to some other composer's music. But substantial segments of humor.
I suppose "toy symphonies" could go here, but we've discussed those before. Paderewski's piano concerto is so over the top that it is fun, but I don't know that it was intentionally humorous.
What are some other examples?
the weird trios in scherzos by Beethoven (op.131) and Straesser (op.12/1 in E minor - recently recorded on IMSLP) come so quickly to mind I have to "write" them down... I'm sure there are better examples, but still...
You're right in that it's pretty rare in the 19th century. In the 20th there's plenty though -- Peter Schickele for example -- and I'm talking about his non-PDQ music.
Perhaps the ur-example in the 19th century would have to be Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals. Of course, it's the one piece he wanted to keep to himself....except for the very non-humorous The Swan.
I can't think of much else from the 1800s, even anything that uses the Haydn sort of humor. I'm sure they are out there though. I guess a few light music things qualify (Strauss Jr.'s Perpetual Motion for example), and of course stuff like Opera Comique but...
In the 20th century there are still "romantic" examples. Dohnanyi Variations on a nursery theme is an obvious choice but there is the magnificent Variations on a theme by Stephen Foster (Doo-dah) by Earl Wild. The Rudolf Ganz Piano Concerto has an amusing little viola solo ending the second movement.
Rob
Almost anything by Leopold De Meyer brings a smile to my face. Not sure what the effect would be on a modern audience.
Thal
Ignaz Lachner wrote a string trio on similar lines to Mozart's Musical Joke entitled "Die gute alte Zeit". Its available on an Amati label Cd together with his Op 51 string quartet (Vol 4 of his complete string quartets).
Louis Spohr's penultimate violin concerto, the second of 2 mini concertos in 2 movements or concertinos, complete with side drum obbligato in the finale, lampoons the avant garde style of some of his contemporaries. However, I didn't find Felix Draeseke's Symphonia Comica particularly funny but then, Raphael's cartoons in the Victoria and Albert Museum didn't exactly make me laugh.
Anton Rubinstein had quite a sense of musical humor. His 'Variations on Yankee Doodle' manages to be both an excellent set of variations and to poke fun at the tune as well. Even funnier is the set of variations on a Russian folk tune, or folk-style tune, in his Op. 75. It's almost a literal rendering of Schoenberg's later comment that all you can do with a folk tune is play it louder. Listen to the way the music runs down just before being dismissed with some brisk chords. More subtle, but still fun, is the spoof of Chopin (Sonata #2 scherzo) in the scherzo of his fourth sonata; the way he flips aside the forceful sections with a spiky dissonance then segues into the waltz is quite amusing.
More late-Classical than Romantic maybe- not sure really... but Woelfl's sonata for cello and piano (D minor, op.31) with an amusing percussion part played in the finale by the cellist('s foot) comes to mind too.
R. Strauss is a master of musical humor, of course -- nowhere more so than in Don Quixote. Among the unsungs, a work that, either through humor or good humor, always brightens my day is von Reznicek's Eine Lustspiel-Overtüre.
I laugh each time I hear the trombone slides in Carl Nielsen's 6th Symphony. I just can't help but feel it was a tongue in cheek poke at some of the more "modernists" of his time....
Jerry
I don't know whether it was intentional, but I always find much of Gottschalk's music very funny.
With Gottschalk I think some of it really was intended to be amusing - but there are also pieces of his which are amusi ng for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, I don't think he was a pretentious composer - just out to please his audience. And, on one level, there's nothing wrong with that.
And, let's be honest, preferable to the alternative!
Quote from: Ilja on Thursday 17 February 2011, 22:06
I don't know whether it was intentional, but I always find much of Gottschalk's music very funny.
I used to go to Finchcocks Piano Museum to see Richard Burnett play Gottschalk. Somehow, he made it even funnier and proportionally more enjoyable.
Thal
Has anyone heard the lovely sonatina by Renaldo Hahn - The third movement puts a smile on your face!!!