"Classical music is serious business."
"Know your four-part harmony and counterpoints."
"You must play in tune."
"Don't mess around."
Actually, if you think that, then you are wrong.
In fact, a lot of classical musicians and composers
were pretty funny people.
Today, we thought we would go over
six really troll classical music pieces.
And you may know some of these composers,
probably known in history as cheeky people.
And you're gonna hear part of their personality in the music.
All right, we're starting off with probably
the most famous example of a musical joke.
Of course, when it comes to musical trolling,
number one has to be...
Haydn.
- Even his name. - "Hiding" somewhere.
Here's the second movement of his Symphony No. 94,
nicknamed "Surprise," which you'll find out why.
Wait, did they even do it?
- They didn't do it. - What?!
- Wait, did I do the wrong one? - Well, we trolled! We got trolled by Haydn!
I think it was that next one.
- Wait no, what... I think it was the right one. - No, no. It was.
- We just screamed really loudly. - I think we just screamed so loud that we didn't hear.
- We screamed so loudly that we didn't hear it. - I think we just screamed so loud that we didn't hear.
The reason why he wrote this, right?
He noticed people fell asleep.
Or so the rumor says, he noticed some guy
fall asleep in his concert, so he was like,
"I'm gonna prank them."
And then the second movement, known to be slow, right?
- In most pieces... - Andante.
- Take your time, luscious melodies. - Yeah.
In this case, he was just like, deliberately quiet, pianissimo.
- Very repetitive, so you get kind of like... - Trance. You sit in a trance, you just go...
And then, BAM!
It's like that, um...
- You know that video with the Stravinsky Firebird? - And the person screamed?
*yell from audience*
Alright, number two on the list,
again from our funny father Haydn.
Even the name.
Normally, classical symphonies are in four movements, but um...
This one's in six movements, which is already kind of weird, right?
We won't explain it yet,
just check out the opening of the sixth movement.
I just... I love how the conductor also like, acted his part.
Yeah, he's just like...
(both) "What do I do?"
So some orchestras, when they record this,
they deliberately even start that movement out of tune, as well.
Such a troll!
Can you imagine, like...
Writing this for the aristocrat, back in the day?
It's like, some prince commissioned it.
And he's just sitting on the premiere, and he's just like...
"Wait."
"Did I... sponsor this symphony?"
- It's so random! - Yeah.
And then knowing these composers,
Haydn can just save it as well.
Get them to troll, and then come back with great music.
Yeah. Also kinda reminds you that, back then,
these composers wrote a lot of music for comedy.
A lot of Mozart's operas are the equivalent of today's like,
stand-up comedy, or like,
- a comedy movie, right? - Mm-hmm. Yep.
Back then, it was through these musical jokes.
Yeah, I mean, think about it.
They didn't have screens, TVs.
So this is the way they told comedy.
- I mean obviously, they had plays and stuff, but... - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Genius!
Next one, Haydn again.
Alright, literally meaning "farewell," because this one...
There was an employer who often worked musicians overtime.
And Haydn decided to go...
Well, why don't we just have the musicians leave?
Slowly, as the music's playing?
Yeah, it was basically Haydn's way of making a statement,
a little subtle protest for the musicians,
who were sick of being asked to stay overtime.
A lot of them had been long overdue for a holiday.
And so he wrote,
"The musicians would slowly leave, one by one."
Let's see.
"I'll join you, too!"
- She's like, yawning. - Yeah.
Can I just say, of course the violin is the first to leave.
This is like, one example of a time
where you want to be at the back of the firsts.
You can get out of rehearsal faster.
Dude, they got the bargain! They can leave earlier.
- "I don't need to learn the rest of the piece, I'm out!" - Yeah, "I'm done!"
And I love Haydn's composition.
And that drone, just going...
Slowly, everyone leaves.
"Time's up!"
I know like, certain orchestras in countries where
kinda work regulations are quite important,
I've seen rehearsals where musicians would literally...
"Oh! Time's up!"
And like, mid-symphony in the rehearsal, they'd just...
"Bye!"
Australia.
Yeah, so if you're a conductor working in Australia,
you should really know not to go over time.
I have been in a rehearsal once where, um,
a pretty famous person was conducting.
And so I think because the conductor was famous,
they gave a little bit of leeway.
He went like, 20 seconds over time.
- And like, the whole orchestra was glaring at the conductor. - Oh, that's nothing.
- 20 seconds! - Yeah.
Alright, so number four, we have Mozart!
This one's funny.
This comes from his opera, Cosi Fan Tutte.
Fun fact, it's the first opera I performed in,
- with a professional orchestra. - Oh, really?
And I remember messing up
on the overture on performance night.
Twice.
It was like, a repeat. I came in the wrong time.
And then on the repeat, I came in the wrong time.
I was just like...
I mean, to be fair, it's pretty nerve-wracking
if it's your first time doing something
- with a professional orchestra. - Yeah.
But anyway, so the story of this one is, um...
Mozart really didn't like the soprano singer.
He thought the singer was very arrogant,
and she has a tendency to do this when she sings low,
and do this when she sings high.
And so, Mozart deliberately composed the part
to be jumping constantly,
- from low to high, low to high. - It's like...
Supposedly, so the soprano's head would
"bob like a chicken."
Of course Mozart would do that.
- Dude, that's so good. - Dude...
And he made it musical as well!
At the beginning he was like, "Oh yeah, some arpeggios."
And then you can hear it, he literally made the leap.
It would be so fun being a composer.
And just trolling like, instruments that you didn't like.
- And you can get away with it, too! - Yeah.
It's like, write some super hard viola part for once.
Alright, number five, also from Mozart.
This piece is called A Musical Joke.
- Aw man, this one is funny. - This is funny!
All right, so basically, in A Musical Joke...
I mean, it's kind of a dick move,
but I think Mozart knows he's a genius.
And knowing him, he would've been
surrounded by some amateur composers.
And so he decided to make a piece parodying bad composers.
And so he deliberately tried to write the music in a pretty bad way.
- This could've been pretty hard for Mozart, too. - Yeah.
- To try and breaking his own way of writing things. - Oh, yeah.
It's like asking Hilary Hahn to deliberately play out of tune.
- Yeah, she has to like... It is, it is! - It's probably harder for her.
She has to go, "Okay. Normally, they do this."
And then go out of tune, yeah.
Dude, that's so bad!
- Any musician that has studied theory... - Yeah.
Like, four-part harmony, there's a sin when you write it.
- You cannot do consecutive or parallel fifths and octaves. - Mm-hmm.
'Cause it just sounds so empty.
Yeah, you can probably hear like,
something just sounds off a lot of the times.
And that is because...
For example, you can see...
In this bar here,
- the firsts and the violas have parallel fifths. - Fifths, yep.
And the seconds and the cellos as well.
This trill that just like,
- awkwardly lasts for four bars while... - Yeah.
There's like a...
In the middle, there's just a lot of like,
unresolved dissonance, it just sounds off.
And there's that viola solo!
- So random! - It's so random.
Another thing is like, why is there only three bars?!
- Yeah, it's like... - Normally there's four-bar or two-bar phrasing.
Yeah, like the very opening of the piece is like...
Just sounds so dumb!
A bit like, you don't know where you're going.
It's like, the exact repetition.
And then it's like, seven bars, which is so awkward.
It's not like eight bars or four bars.
Mozart, you funny troll.
I mean, we all know he composes some funny stuff.
Mm-hmm!
Last one for today is by Rossini.
You might know him for some very famous works such as, uh...
The William Tell.
But today, we're gonna listen to his Cat Duet.
When I first heard this,
I could not believe it was a real composition.
Yeah, I thought it was a troll.
- Imagine practicing this, first of all. - Yeah.
And imagine practicing it while you have a cat at home.
♪ Me...ow ♪
Your cat would be like,
"The hell? What are you doing?"
Yeah. I wonder if Rossini was a cat person.
What was his reason to write this?
- Yeah! He must've at least been with cats, right? - Yeah.
"Meow!" or something. Okay.
- It's like the OG Nyan Cat. - It is!
- The OG theme! Nyan Cat came from here. - Yeah.
I would really wish to see a performance, one day, of this.
Except like, they're wearing like those cat ears,
and dressed like a cat...
Nah, maybe not.
- I mean, you can... You can see it! - I mean, I think that would be sick!
I think that would be sick, dude!
Like those anime cat girls.
- I mean, yeah. - I'll shut myself up now.
I mean, look.
If it's there, I'll watch it too.
That's it for today!
Six troll pieces by iconic composers.
I would love to go back one day and meet these guys.
I think that would be really funny, actually.
Dude, it just makes me think
Haydn must've been the funniest dude.
And Mozart just being such a genius.
- And being a dick as he is. - Bagging out amateurs. Yeah...!
- Cool. - That's the equivalent of like, Kavakos.
He made a concert titled "Violinist Joke,"
and then he just plays like us.
Oh, he plays like us?
- It's like, out of tune, and like... - Oh...
Forgets his part, memory slips.
But on that note,
remember you have to practice, everyone.
Whether you are a beginner, amateur, or even a professional.
Because if you don't practice...
- Mozart's gonna write a piece to bag you out. - Yeah.
- All about you. - Mmm.
All right guys, that's it!
Accent the like button, legato the subscribe button.
And we'll see you next time!