Let's have some "fun": what pieces of classical music cause you to chuckle, or even-----------------"laugh"?

The music of the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin (b 1932) often makes me laugh. As well as some deadly serious music, he has a great sense of musical humour and uses his considerable musical skills in the composition of overtly humorous works. Two of them are piano pieces from 1959 'Humoreske' and 'Troika' (links below) and another is his First Concerto for Orchestra with a title that is variously translated from the Russian as 'Merry Ditties', 'Mischievous Melodies' and 'Naughty Limericks'. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an instance of this on YouTube.

I can't think of any classical music than will make me laugh out loud, unless you want to include some grand opera comedy scenes and Gilbert and Sullivan (though some would not classify G&S as 'classical' music).

However, there are works that I get a chuckle out of and many, many that bring on a smile.

Consider poor old Von Suppe. He wrote all those operas that go unperformed and is only remembered today because of a handful of overtures:

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

The final to Beethoven's 9th. always fills me with joy and brings on a lingering smile.

Beethoven's 5th. Piano Concerto: I love this work and have listened to it countless times in my life and still I chuckle when I imagine the pompous Napoleon on horseback strutting through his soldiers, his hand tucked into his vest, trying desperately to overcompensate for his shortcomings.

Being a painter myself, I always chuckle and smile when listening to 'Pictures At An Exhibition.' The chuckle is more of an inside joke type understanding of the fragile and sometimes over-inflated egos of many artists.

Then there is Mendelssohn's 'Hebrides Overture' (Fingal's Cave), an obvious and overly ernest attempt by a young composer to capture the atmosphere of an environment based solely on the viewing of a postcard of the cave. (One who lives a sheltered life should write about what he knows. There is a world of difference between Beethoven experiencing the Napoleonic Wars and Mendelssohn imagining a real life experience.) Anyway, I see this overturn as harmless fluff and fun music to listen to.

As much as I love and respect Bach it's hard to listen to his 'Toccata & Fugue' without reminders of the many old Hollywood horror films and dramas this great music was incorporated into.

I could go on but I usually over answer questions like this ...

firstly i'd like to agree with the comments about Shchedrin's ridiculous works, they made me laugh out loud when i first heard them.

One of the pieces that made me laugh a lot, is the second movement of Shostakovich's piano trio no.2. The first time i played through it, when we reached the point where it breaks into this delightfully playful G major theme, we had to stop due to how ridiculous it sounds. This theme is preceded by a lot of very complex layers of fast notes in the string friendly key, and is relatively dissonant. For Shostakovich to just break out into this kind of gentle theme was too much for me....and then his abrupt change back. Just something i love about Shostakovich...his mood swings in his music.

Perhaps it is because I'm still an adolescent 15 year old, but I haven't come across many classical works that are actually humorous. I've heard that "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare is a rather comical work.

Excuse me for my limited knowledge of great literature!

Hi Alberich,

Well, if you want a giggle, try this: it's Polyphemus' aria "O Ruddier than the Cherry" from Handel's "Acis and Galatea." The contrast between fruity bass voice and stratospheric sopranino recorder is hilarious - and both the stuffed wolf and Polyphemus' wondrously wobbly bare beer-belly add an extra dimension, as it were...I'm sure big chubby Handel would've been most impressed! (It's a fine performance, too.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IARW8ieMbw&feature...

Enjoy!

Hafwen xoxox

From the Operetta Candide:

Glitter and be Gay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWzewHTcHew&feature...

We are Women: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giRppPYWcgc

I am Easily Assimilated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms9-9BDOAQQ

You Were Dead You Know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImlvydPgfBg

They made me chuckle somewhat. Nothing has ever made me laugh out loud though. But some of these are pretty funny!

And just for the record, most expressions people have while they perform coloratura are pretty hilarous!

I'm sorry, Celia Bartoli, but you look so funny in this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rISjBGOtHhs

Alberich, my list is going to be quite long!

My first suggestion is Rataplan by Malibran. It is hard to take seriously, and whenever I hear that rolled R I cant help but giggle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXD7DM0aX4U

and another song sung by Bartoli, and again related to Malibran, is Yo Que Soy Contrabandista, by Malibrans father Manuel Garcia. The title alone cracks me up, it translates to "I am a smuggler," of course there is more to it than just a strange title, and I think Bartoli captures the humor of the song wonderfully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NLHZfITHx4

Figaro and Susanna's Scene in the very begining of Le Nozze di Figaro. I particularly love the bit where they are singing "Ding Ding, Ding DING!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etpLYoaO3SQ&feature...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vukig3WN1uo (I think it is the first video, but maybe its the second... the entire opera is on youtube if you have 2 hours to spare!)

and of course, when Cherubino is hiding in the chair, in the same act.

Papagena! Papageno!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL7YF0Djruk

Have you ever heard Matona Mia Cara, by Orlando di Lasso? In ait a soldier is singing to his Italian beloved, promising her that he's 'like a ram, not a capon.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OoKx-yV5dY (not a very good recording to say the least.)

And Wagners only attempt at comic opera, Die Meistersigner. I find it hillarious, dont you?

and there is always the elfkings parts of Der Erlkonig, but only because I cant sing it without thinking "Oh God, I sound like a gay pedophile!"

The text of the Elfkings parts is:

-You lovely child, come go with me, many a beautiful games I'll play with you.

-Some beautiful flowers are on the shore. My mother has some golden robes.

-Will you come with me fine lad? My daughters shall wait on you

-My daughters lead the nightly dances, and will rock and sing and dance you to sleep.

- I love you. your form entices me. If you are not willing I'll force you.

Goethe is so wonderful!

and some purely instrumental pieces:

Perpetuum mobile (Strauss)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2j_27FeH0

Carnival of the animals (Saint Saens)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO8v5G0s7BU

EDIT:

Lexi - that is so not the funniest Bartoli video... I think this one (especially the sorzico) is funnier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hen9Gyc6ovs. Then there is Jessye Norman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz5TV8LWbro&feature

Echoing Doc Watson's observation, Gilbert and Sullivan's light operas have enough to get you to smile, or even laugh ... but that is their intended purpose.

... example:

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical

From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,

I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,

About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;

I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;

I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,

I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,

In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,

I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!

Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,

And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",

When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,

When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,

And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,

When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery—

In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy—

You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a-gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,

Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

Sabre Dance is a song that can always make me smile, to me it conjures images of people dancing/twirling with swords and ribbons.

The Erl-King also make me smile, simply because the baritone/tenor parts sound quite ridiculous. I know it is quite a serious song, but still, open to interpretation hey?

Shostakovich - Polka, allegretto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NsDNyk0xc4&feature...