Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Humor in Beethoven Bagatelles, Op. 33?

The humor is there to my ears. I hear it especially in the busy variations towards the end, first as 16th notes, then as triplets and 32nd notes. As if Beethoven is asking with a grin: How much can I push this respectable little theme?

I hear very little humor in #4 and #6 of this set. For me #7 is the funniest.

-J

O.K.... Let's go to Webster's~~

Sense 3a: "that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous."

I think Beethoven hits on the sense of the "absurdly incongruous" in Op. 33.



I find several ounces of humor in it; not only what Beet/Jason said, but more! Keep in mind hreichgott's post about light and dark, above, and my re-statement of it regarding the "straight man" and the "funny man" in a comic duo. Mixed bag? Perhaps. Bas-relief? I think so.

And, Jason, I know what you mean about 4 & 6, but I think, given the pattern of the opus, the humor *must* be in there, somewhere! A case can be more easily made for 6 than 4, I think, especially in another instance of a "build up to nowhere" (ala No. 1) in the first measures of the development group of No. 6.

Dynamics Bas-relief question: are the dyanmics notated in 4 or 6 any more overdone and incongruous than in other Beethoven piano works?

Thanks for your thoughts!
--Andy

Don't forget the hilarious 2nd movement from op.31/1 as well, and I also find the Scherzos of 31/3, 110, and (in spots) 106 to be pretty funny.

I think humour in Beethoven is incredibly sophisticated. Apart from the odd dramatic crude joke, the humour is derived from musical structures/intentions/imperatives/playings about etc - that is purely from the world of Music and not so much about extraneous things like emotions. The last movement of one of the Rasumovsky Quartets is simply one huge "tonality joke".

Well stated, drumour!

How is the second movement of 31/1 hilarious?

I don't know why ScriabinAddict thinks so, but to me, the movement can be seen and played as a wildly exaggerated parody of an earlier style, and it can be very funny if taken in that way. But it can also be taken as a sort of fond, if a bit over-the-top, tribute to that same style, and then it isn't so funny. I don't know of any reason to choose one interpretation over the other - either way works.

Speaking of Beethovenian hilarity - one of the funniest classical music performances I have ever heard in my life was when my college teacher played op. 31, no. 3. He was doing all kinds of sly and amusing things in the first two movements that had us smiling, but he eventually got the audience to laugh out loud in the last movement - we just couldn't help it. The amazing thing was that it was all stuff he found in the music that did it, and it was actually pretty subtle - he wasn't going all Lang Lang on us or anything.

That is inspiration to me

Wonderful!

I have to say that performance changed my concept of what was possible (not to mention permissible) in Beethoven. It happened over 40 years ago and I still can vividly remember certain details.

Me, too, wr! But it makes me reluctant to post any of the Bagatelles I've been working on! I'd hate to bomb!

Agreement on all points.

If a funnier piece than #7 has ever been composed by anyone, I've yet to hear it.

Is it possible that #7 represents the first glimmering of an idea that ultimately became the Waldstein sonata? If so, that would make it funny on a whole different level.


What about op. 101, last movement, beginning of the coda? Beethoven makes a feint as if to threaten the listener with a reprise of the fugue, then backs off, mercifully, politely, sedately.

Excellent point. And the whole coda of that movement contains a lot of humor, especially on the last page; I'd forgotten about that.

Still, not much in op.106 - op.111. Although here's an interesting point: While there's absolutely nothing funny in the last movement of op.110, there is a lot funny in the bagatelle op.119/3, which is quite similar in many ways. As if Beethoven gives us the humorous and non-humorous versions of the same idea.

-J