Forbidding titles

[LMcD]

One of the most delightful works in my CD collection is Edmund Rubbra's 'Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby'. I hope nobody has decided not to give it a try purely on the basis of the title. Apparently Britten wasn't at all happy when the BBC used the subtitle for his Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, but Sargent preferred it. Hindemith's Weber-based Symphonic Metamorphoses are also much more fun than the title might suggest.

[ahinton]

One of the most delightful works in my CD collection is Edmund Rubbra's 'Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby'. I hope nobody has decided not to give it a try purely on the basis of the title. Apparently Britten wasn't at all happy when the BBC used the subtitle for his Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, but Sargent preferred it. Hindemith's Weber-based Symphonic Metamorphoses are also much more fun than the title might suggest.

The much missed Olly Knussen used (amusingly but quite unfairly, methinks) to call Bartók's Concerto for orchestra The old person's guide to the orchestra. Godowsky used the title Symphonic Metamorphoses well before Hindemith did - and the extent to which any associated fun could be considered therein might possibly be accounted for by the fact that each of the three of them (for piano) is on a J Strauss II waltz...

[vinteuil]

Hindemith's Weber-based Symphonic Metamorphoses are also much more fun than the title might suggest.

... Hindemith of course also the author of another splendid title for a piece -

"Ouvertüre zum „Fliegenden Holländer“, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt"

(Overture to the Flying Dutchman as sight-read by a bad Spa Orchestra at seven in the Morning by the Well)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvert%C3%BCre_zum_%22Fliegenden_Holl%C3%A4nder%22,_wie_sie_eine_schlechte_Kurkapelle_morgens_um_7_am_Brunnen_vom_Blatt_spielt

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[johnb]

One of the most delightful works in my CD collection is Edmund Rubbra's 'Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby'. I hope nobody has decided not to give it a try purely on the basis of the title. Apparently Britten wasn't at all happy when the BBC used the subtitle for his Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, but Sargent preferred it. Hindemith's Weber-based Symphonic Metamorphoses are also much more fun than the title might suggest.

I do like the full title: "Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber". Very tongue in cheek.

[Bryn]

... Hindemith of course also the author of another splendid title for a piece -

"Ouvertüre zum „Fliegenden Holländer“, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt"

(Overture to the Flying Dutchman as sight-read by a bad Spa Orchestra at seven in the Morning by the Well)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvert%C3%BCre_zum_%22Fliegenden_Holl%C3%A4nder%22,_wie_sie_eine_schlechte_Kurkapelle_morgens_um_7_am_Brunnen_vom_Blatt_spielt

Wagner done proud!

[Joseph K]

Romitelli - Professor Bad Trip

[vinteuil]

I do like the full title: "Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber". Very tongue in cheek.

... I had not realised that the original title is indeed the English one - it was subsequently translated into German. A slightly complicated story -

"Although by its thematic material it belongs squarely in the European tradition, it was composed with the virtuosity of American symphony orchestras in mind, and was titled originally in English. Other hands later translated it variously into German as Symphonische Metamorphose von [über/nach/zu] Themen Carl Maria von Webers; two German editions mistakenly give the title in the plural, Sinfonische Metamorphosen nach Themen von Carl Maria von Weber, and Sinfonische Metamorphosen Carl Maria von Weber’scher Themen, though none of these German titles were sanctioned by Hindemith . They nevertheless have sometimes been back-translated into English as Metamorphoses on Themes by .... The work is also sometimes known in English as Symphonic Variations on (or of) Themes by Carl Maria von Weber but, despite the title's reference to "themes", the work incorporates material more broadly from whole works by Weber ..."

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[wiki]

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[Pulcinella]

I suspect that for those who are allergic to opera, just a one-word title is sufficient, that of the doomed heroine (so should that be Foreboding Titles?):
Lulu
Elektra
Tosca
Aida
Carmen

[cloughie]

Would Varese Ionisation make you hair stand on end?

[Roslynmuse]

I've always thought Takemitsu's "And then I knew 'twas Wind" forbidding if you happen to be standing in the wrong place.

You could always treat it with Elgar's "Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup (for wind)", as it once appeared on an LP sleeve.

[Serial_Apologist]

Pubs could play Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" as last customers leave.

[LMcD]

A couple of cheerful titles from Jonathan Harvey - 'Death of Light/Light of Death' and 'Wheel of Emptiness'.

[vinteuil]

I've always thought Takemitsu's "And then I knew 'twas Wind" forbidding if you happen to be standing in the wrong place.

You could always treat it with Elgar's "Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup (for wind)", as it once appeared on an LP sleeve.

... and we have Dowland's My Lady Hunsdon's puffe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNS0osuK7Xc

Not as dramatic as My Lady Carey's Dump, I suppose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=y8l2KqP5F28&t=0s&list=PL_77CvsS9LAUBvBl6kO_JM9C--VyVe-fY&index=20

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[Katzelmacher]

Without help from the BBC, Britten was perfectly capable of coming up with unappealing (if not actually forbidding titles) when left to his own devices. I give you:

Variation On A Theme By Frank Bridge

Simple Symphony

Cello Symphony

[gurnemanz]

Arthur Bliss - The Committee Meeting