From: Chuck.Lavazzi@launchpad.unc.edu (Chuck Lavazzi)
Subject: Re: Classical(was: Wendy Carlos (was Re: Weird Al albums))
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 18:29:39 GMT

In article <1992Dec23.083240.2560@inland.com> hancock@inland.com (Tom Hancock) writes:
>In article <1992Dec21.214225.1814@netcom.com>, bml@netcom.com (Brian Leibowitz) writes:
>
[...]
>> 
>> Or one of my favorites is the version of Handle's "Surprise" symphony
>> with lots of additional surprises added (including children climbing out
>> of the piano.)  This is arranged by Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann)
>>
	That's *Haydn's* "Surprise" symphony (No. 94, to be exact).  Handel
predates Papa Haydn considerably and didn't write symphonies as such.
[...]
>> 
>> The oldest classical dementia I have found is "Operatic Nightmare" by Arndt
>> on an old 78 that is probably from the 20s.
>> 
	I stumbled across this on a recent CD by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra,
in case you're interested in a modern recording.
[...]
>
>	There are also some recordings by an opera singer (soprano)
>who's name escapes me. (Damn!  I'm pounding my head on the desk right
>now.  What was her name?  The name "Anderson" pops into my head right
>now, don't know if it's correct.)  Where she explains the whole
>Wagnerian "Ring of the Niebelung" (and sings all the parts!) in a
>wonderful English accent.  Very funny.
	You're thinking of Anna Russell, who finally retired from the stage
several years ago.  Her 20-minute traversal of the "Ring" is only one of
many clasical parodies that she recorded in her long career.  I'd also like
toi recommend her discourse on "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan
Operetta", which is a devastatingly accurate send-up of the form.  Her
recordings *were* available on Columbia/CBS at one time. I don't know whether
or not they've been re-released.  Kultur Video also has/had a tape of her
farewell concert available.
	There's plenty of "legitimate" classical dementia out there as well.
Aside from Mozart's "Musical Joke", which was mentioned earlier.  For example:
	- Ibert's "Divertissment", a suite of music from the play "The
Italian Straw Hat".  It includes a looopy parody of the Viennese waltz and
a finale that includes a police whistle and some fairly silly trumpet licks.
	- Many of the songs of Charles Ives were written with tongue firmly
in cheek, and the finale of his second symphony weaves in folk songs and
music-hall tunes in a manner that Peter Shickele would later employ in some
of the P.D.Q. Bach pieces.
	- Charles Valentin Alkan, a musical eccentric and piano virtuoso of
superhuman ability (to judge from his music) wrote a funeral march for his
dead parrot (insert Monty Python line here) that is basically a choral
setting of the French equivalent of "Polly want a cracker?"
	- Gustav Mahler was not above bits of grotesque humor.  The second
movement of his Symphony No. 1 is a minor-key, funeral-march-style setting
of "Frere Jacques".
	There are plenty of others, but this particular post has gone on too
long as it is.
Chuck
No .sig, no frills, no foolin'

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