10 Funniest Classical Music spoofs

[Mr Pee]

Some great stuff here- Dud's Britten parody, Anna Russell's Wagner, and Peter Schickele's running commentary on Beethoven 5 are particular personal faves:-

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/267261,the-funniest-moments-in-classical-music.aspx/1

Anybody care to nominate further hilarious classical music mickey-takes?

I'll start with Roger Norrington's recording of Mahler 9.

[ahinton]

Some great stuff here- Dud's Britten parody, Anna Russell's Wagner, and Peter Schickele's running commentary on Beethoven 5 are particular personal faves:-
http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/...l-music.aspx/1

Yes, funny enough, to be sure, to those who, like me, have encountered them (albeit quite a few years ago now) but not to those who have not and, also like me, can't open this file! (perhaps others might have better success with this)...

Anybody care to nominate further hilarious classical music mickey-takes?

I'll start with Roger Norrington's recording of Mahler 9.

I don't have, nor have I listened to, that recording, but I did hear his Prom performance and found nothing whatsoever in it that provoked the kind of merriment or hilarity that one might expect of a true "mickey-take"; in fact, I felt that the best response was to try to forget about it and I'd succeeded until you brought it up again...


P.S. I've been able to open it now; not sure what the problem was previously.

[LHC]

Bill Bailey's guide to the Orchestra, and in particular, his demonstration of the influence of cockney music on classical music was very good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtuj4lgJ9vw

(much funnier than the 'comedy prom' as well in my opinion)

[amateur51]

The Britten parody is brilliant!

But then so is the Beethoven parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazlqD4mLvw

as is the Schubert parody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9tb05DMlqg

The bloke was a genius!

From Dagenham!

Later: And here are two clever blokes together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwFqGSGBCU&feature=related

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't think you can beat the Hoffnung ones:

Concerto Populare (Reizenstein) as played at the Comedy Prom, and certainly one of the better bits
Let's Fake an Opera
Horrortorio (Horovitz)
Punkt Contrapunkt (Jaja)
Metamorphosis on a Bedtine Theme (Horovitz)

[3rd Viennese School]

Portsmouth Sinfonia mixed up classics is good. Near the end the Hall of the Mountain King sounds like its being played on Hacksaws.
And followed by 1812 Overture which is accompanied by what sounds like thunder.

3VS

[makropulos]

Some great stuff here- Dud's Britten parody, Anna Russell's Wagner, and Peter Schickele's running commentary on Beethoven 5 are particular personal faves:-

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/267261,the-funniest-moments-in-classical-music.aspx/1

Anybody care to nominate further hilarious classical music mickey-takes?

I'll start with Roger Norrington's recording of Mahler 9.

Thanks for a great set of links - that's a very nice collection. I'd add Bill Bailey but LHC already has. The best of Hoffnung I still find amusing (the Sleep Sweeter, Bournvita adverts are a particular favourite), and - much older - Fauré and Messager's "Souvenir de Bayreuth" - basically polkas based on the Leitmotifs from Wagner's Ring.

I like gentle parodies too - not laugh-out-loud things, but still funny in the right time and place. Here's a charming example for any Messiaen enthusiasts - the 'Pièce pour l'anniversaire d'Olivier Messiaen' by one of his most gifted American pupils, Gerald Levinson:

http://oliviermessiaen.net/scholarship/messiaenalia/levinson-birthday-piece

Does anyone else remember the Walton 70th Birthday concert at the Festival Hall (LSO, Previn, Walton, Menuhin et al) that started with a nice set of variations on the same tune including a clever spoof of the start of the First Symphony by Robert Simpson, showing a wittiness I don't usually associate with him.

[3rd Viennese School]

There’s a few television sketches too. John Cleese as Beethoven who has just compose the famous four notes of the 5th when the cleaner walks in. "Ive forgotten it now1" he shouts, frantically banging four other notes trying to remember what it was.

And, of course, Newman and Baddiel when they are revealing a discovered ending to an unfinished piece. "Lets see how this masterpiece was to be resolved” The orchestra start the serious heavy strings, then the pizzicato then the Birdie song1

3VS

[salymap]

IMO some of the funniest spoofs were written by the composers themselves. Saint Saens' Carnival of Animals and that Haydn Symphony [no 90?] come to mind.In the latter there are a number of false endings which still catch the audience out when played today.

[Don Basilio]

Kenneth Williams as Rambling Syd Rumpo singing "The foggy foggy dew" was a wicked take-off of Peter Pears.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Walt Disney's "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom"

[PJPJ]

My favourite:

http://www.normanfield.com/betove1.htm

Click on the record label to play.... top right has just had me crying with laughter yet again.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Has anyone mention the Flanders & Swann Mozart Horn Concerto?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHWnFJ4_61U

[barber olly]

John Cage 4'33".

[umslopogaas]

Oh, d**n! I was going to mention Hoffnung and 'Punkt Contrapunkt', but Ein Alp got in first. None the less, it contains the best pun I ever heard and worth repeating in the vanishingly unlikely possibility that everyone doesnt already know it:

[speaking of Bruno Heinz Jaja, the doyenne of avant-garde composers. Adopt comic german accent, herr professor speaks to his colleague:

"... Jaja is strict twelve tone. Never tempted to write in thirteen tones, like the french composers"

"Ach, de french composers!"

"This, says Jaja, is the baker's dozen. The nadir of boulanger!"]

I'm going to bed, but I'll sign in tomorrow and explain if anyone doesnt get it.