Humorous Choral Music--a compilation
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 09:29:31 -0500 (EST)
From: David Griggs-Janower <janower@csc.albany.edu>
To: choralist <choralist@lists.colorado.edu>
Subject: Humor in choral music - compilation
Colleagues,
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful responses. Here's what I've
received, and what a terrific list it is! (Sorry for any repeats.)
Choralnet.org has three files already (which I missed), under resources,
concerning humor. I can't find the middle one; perhaps someone can help.
Try these:
http://choralnet.org/resources/repertoire/themes/laughter.txt
http://choralnet.org/resources/repertoire/treble/ssaa_fun.txt
http://choralnet.org/resources/repertoire/themes/parody.txt
(Thanks, Allen!)
Other responses:
Do you know the choral parody on Schubert's Trout theme. Successive movements are done in the styles of various composers. It is very clever.
Male Ensemble Northwest has done two TTBB arrangements that are funny, but I do not l know if they exist only in manuscript. One is a setting of a marvelous limerick (the one that includes something about not being "fussy for Brahms or Debussy") by a composer who was at the University of Oregon. It would be worth an investigation.
The other is a compilation by Vijay Singh of TV commercials that plays a lot on "Car 54, where are you?" Funny piece.
Oh, heavens. The Rossini Cat Duet, any Anna Russell, any Hoffnung Festival.
"The Little White Hen" by Scandello
"Neighbor's Chorus" by Offenbach
"O, No John" arr. by Miller
"Football!" by Dobbins
SSA: Beautiful Yet Truthful by Pfautsch
SATB: The Argument by Nesta
I have two original works that are meant to be humorous. One is "Our Conductor" which is a round that secretly lambasts the conductor and the other is "The Birds" which sings about the beautiful birds until they decide to deliver a "package" on the new car.
Ken Langer
Music Department
Lyndon State College
Lyndonville VT 05851
e-mail: LangerK@mail.lsc.vsc.edu
home page: http://www.together.net/~artists2/main.html
Mark Foster Music Co. is bringing out my " A Lewis Carroll Sampler " this Spring. 3 of the 4 movements are funny.
Sincerely,
Robert Jordahl
Michael Flanders and Donald Swann "Ill Wind" . This is a marvellous
piece about the singer's misfortunes with the French horn, done to the tune
of a well-known movement from a Mozart horn concerto.
The Mastersingers "Weather Forecast" and "The Highway Code". These are classics of British comedy recorded by a group of English schoolmasters in the 50's. "Weather Forecast" is a British Isles weather forecast done to Anglican chant, while "The Highway Code" uses Anglican chant, English folksong tradition and Gilbert and Sullivan in a hilarious description of the British rules of the road.
Garrison Keeler "The Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra". Thiis one
parodies Britten by using hymn tunes and a narrative addressing the question
of which instrument is most suitable for a young Christian. Its "Turkey in
the Straw" version of "Jesus Loves Me" is priceless.
My 'El Hambo', a sort of folk dance spoof indirectly inspired by the Swedish Chef in the Muppet Show, was performed at the ACDA convention in Chicago by the Ensemble Singers from Minnesota. Another piece in a similar vein is 'Pseudo-Yoik'. Both have been excellently received, particularly as encores. Both are listed in choralmusic.org and are published by Sulasol (the Finnish Amateur Musicians' Association). 'El Hambo' has been or is about to be sub-published by Walton.
Jaakko Mantyjarvi
Helsinki, Finland
Jenks's Vegetable Compound from the King's Singers 'Victorian Collection'
Any good arrangement on items which the Comedian Harmonists sang
I'll nominate 'Father William' by Irving Fine - maybe the other two as well, but I can't recall them off the top of my head.
(There are several worth looking at my Fine, for mixed as well as men's or
women's: Beautiful Soup, Lobster Quadrille, White Knight...
Also some of Copland's American songs: Ching a ring, Bought me a Cat, come to mind.
Jabberwocky - Sam Pottle - terrific ender. Trigon Music
Mecham's Love and Pizen (poison) from Choral Variations on American Folk
Songs - G Schirmer/Hal Leonard
Feller from Fortune, arr. Somers, G Thompson Music/Walton(?)
The Banks of the Ohio - Gwyneth Walker, ESC
Insalata Italiana - R. Genee
Farewell Overture, Belmont
A Chorister's Covert Concert - George Mabrey
Mateo Flecha's collection in Monuments of SPanish Music (or some such collection) titles Las Ensaladas (Tossed salads), especially El Fuego.
Try any pieces by the British tuba player Gerard Hoffnung or the Canadian
classical comedienne Anna Russell. My husband has LPs (can you tell how old we are?) with names and numbers. Let me know if you want more info.
chague@hawk.igs.net
I am publishing a piece in the CME series with Boosey and Hawkes entitled "The
Laughing Song". It is a setting of William Blake's poem and it is for two-part treble voices and piano.
Valerie Shields
Christopher Johnson, Senior Editor and Manager, Oxford:
Our new anthology "Encores for Choirs" includes:
Andrew Carter's arrangement of "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"
John Rutter: "Banquet Fugue" (involves real belching)
Jonathan Willcocks: "Drunken Sailor"
Frederick Bridge: "The Goslings"
Richard Genee, arr. C.E. Rowley: "Italian Salad"
John Whitworth (arr.): "The Mermaid"
Grayston Ives: "Name That Tune"
Andrew Carter: "Two for the Price of One" (does to "This Old Man"
what SHOULD be done to "This Old Man")
David Blackburn (arr.): "Ding Dong! Merrily on High: Deathknell for a
popular carol, for belles, bell-boys, and campanologists" (absolute
bedlam)
For treble voices:
Andrew Carter: "Fred" (8-part round)
James Bennighof: "The Juggler" and "Looking for a Rhyme"
For TTBB:
Noel Goemanne: "Two Tongue Twisters"
How about the Toch Geographical Fugue? (And Toch's Valse?)
A Mad Madrigal - Percy Wicker MacDonald
It is POP but you can easily get permission to reproduce it for $.75 a
copy - Lorenz #2144
Auction Cries - John Briggs - or is it Biggs (?) - SATB - a list of farm
implements sold at auction...can't find my copy
Phonophobia - Alice Parker - I think it's Hinshaw, but it might be out
of print - 4 movements - tongue twisters - parts are difficult
The King's Singers "Masterpiece" Hinshaw HMB-165 7 individual "songs'
after the style of composers.
1. Fugue (Bach)
2.Introduction and Gigue (Handel)
3. Cavatina (Mozart)
4. Largo Lugubrioso (Beethoven)
5. Lied Ohne Worte (Mendelssohn)
6. Waltz (J. Strauss)
7. Danse Antique (Debussy)
How about the following: Can't think of composers right now--
"Banquet Fugue" (Rutter)
"Concerto for Singing Chickens"(great one),
"Concertschtick"
I'm a 22-year barbershopper in the Chicago area & appreciate a good
musical joke--often, the more subtle, the better. I'm not familiar with
Bob Vick's presentation on humor in music, but there's an abundance of
humorous arrangements to be found in the barbershop world. While many of
those arrangements were written for quartets, as a rule of thumb, a
quartet arrangement ought to work OK for a male chorus.
If you have any interest in investigating works in this genre, I'd
recommend you start by getting in touch with Dr. Greg Lyne, Director of
Musical Education for SPEBSQSA (the international Barbershop Harmony
Society). The Society's web site is at http://www.spebsqsa.org, and
Greg's e-mail address is glyne@spebsqsa.org.
Incidentally, barbershoppers also have a listserv, similar to ChoraList,
called the Harmonet. You can access the Harmonet through the Society's
home page; if you choose to subscribe to the Harmonet (free of charge,
just as with ChoraList), you can pose the same question to all the 1,000+
Harmonetters. One of those Harmonetters is Jay Giallombardo, the
director of the larger of the two barbershop choruses I sing with, the
New Tradition (current & six-time SPEBSQSA international silver
medalists--home page at http://www.newtradition.org). Jay is a superb &
prolific arranger, highly recognized throughout the barbershop world, and
another individual who can be considered a musical authority among &
beyond barbershopping--if you favor vocal music of a more classical
nature, you may be interested to know he wrote an outstanding arrangement
of the William Tell Overture for his former quartet, Grandma's Boys.
>From Handel's oratorio "L'Allegro..." is a great laughing chorus called
"Haste Thee, Nymph"
Purcell Shivering Chorus ("see see see...") from King Arthur
There is a published arrangement of Alan Sherman's "No One's Perfect,"
about choral mishaps.
"Crows and Clusters" is a bit strange. (Della Joio????)
I have used "Getting Married" from Sondheim's "Company" on my programs.
It is mostly 3 soloists with a choral backup, but it's a killer piece if
you have a good Amy.
Not exactly humorous, but definitely satirical, is my *Departmental* (on a
little-known text about ants by Robert Frost) for SATB, S solo, pno 4-hands.
Robert Ross
*Old Horatius Had a Farm* ("Old McDonald" in Latin)--Z. Randall Stroope
(Mark
Foster)
Lloyd Pfautsch: *St. Bridget* (SSAA; Lawson Gould)
Carl Zytowsky: *Ave Mater Anser!* (3 nursery rhymes in Latin; coupled with
composer parodies of Handel, Schubert & Orff) (Hinshaw)
Tom Cunningham, Merry Christmas Jazz, a fun version of "We wish you a merry
Christmas".
With sparkling jazz piano accompaniment or can also be sung a cappella.
For SATB with optional Children's Choir. Published by Hinshaw HMC-1029.
Tom Cunningham, The Good-Bye Jazz, for SATB a cappella or with optional
jazz-piano
accompaniment. Published by Roberton (UK). In the Theodore Presser catalog,
reference 392-00797. A fun encore for SATB choir with optional piano.
Love Lost by Paul Sjolund
I have kept a file over the years on Humor in Music. Originally I was
going to devote an entire program to it, but realized that it was too
much of a good thing! Also humor in choral pieces is often times in
the ear of the beholder - e.g. Many of the madrigals in the "Chester
Books" series are humorous: Animals, Smoking and Drinking, Desireable
Women, Love and Marriage, etc.
Here are a couple of my favorites:
Haydn, Harmony in Marriage;
Richard Proulx, The Choirmaster at the Pearly Gates (Sacred Music
Press);
Jean Belmont, Farewell Overture;
and of course dozens of Madrigal Comedies.
Ding Dong! Merrily on High; Blackwell, David arr; SATB, a cappella a kick, but not for folks who eschew minor slapstick. part of the score is written upside-down, requiring whole choir to flip their scores
Thoughts and Remembrances, III. 6 Pence; Berkey, Jackson; SATB
Sing a song of...
Island Queen, The; DeCormier, Robert; SATB
Three Jazz Canons: 3. Ice Cream Recollections; Drotos, Ron; SATB, a
cappella take a ridiculous idea, add good writing and perform it poker-faced
Smieklis Man; Kalnins, Aldonis arr; SSAA
Latvian; 'somewhat' humorous
Feast, The: 1. Honeycomb; Petker, Robert; SATB
Feast, The: 2. On Tomato Ketchup; Petker, Robert; SATB
Feast, The: 3. Eating Song; Petker, Robert; SATB
Madrigal for Brother John, A; Porter, Steven; SA, a cappella
Got So Tired (Umorilas); anon; Prokhorov, Vadim, ed; SSAA, a cappella
Russia
Four Lewis Carroll Songs: 1. Turtle Soup; Thomas, Karen; SATB, a
cappella
Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Zimmerman; SATB
trouble is, I never outgrew Alice...
Prepositions; Varner, Joan; SA
Long John Done Gone; Harnston; SATB
Whiffenpoof Song, The; Minningerode/Valley; TTBB
Magazine Madrigals; Hayland; SATB
Donkey Serenade; Stothart/Marlow; TTBB
Noisy Three, The; Willis/Luten; TTBB
Old Mother Hubbard; Hely-Hutchinson/Diack; TTBB
Waltzing Matilda; Wood arr; TTBB
Swinging On a Star; Henson/Burke; SATB
A Policeman's Lot; Gilbert & Sullivan/Gray; TTBB
Old Mother Hubbard; Hutchinson, ?; TTBB
Love Me Or Leave Me; Kahn; SATB
Crawdad Song, The; Lewis; 2-part
Cries of London, The; Gibbons/Stevens; SATB
Philological: Lament for Cocoa;Arnatt, Ronald;SATB, a cappella
Philological;Arnatt, Ronald;SATB, a cappella
Philological: Shipbored; Arnatt, Ronald; SATB, a cappella
Philological: Pooem; Arnatt, Ronald; SATB, a cappella
Heart of the Fugue, The; Leaf, Robert;SATB, a cappella
Streets of Laredo, The; Pfautsch, Lloyd;TTBB
Mouse Madrigal, The; Porter, Steven arr;SSA
as in Three Blind...
Alouette; Sund, Robert; SATB, a cappella
poker face again
Down Steers the Bass; Billings, William; SATB
voices exemplify their quality and motion
Richard Genee: Insalata italiana choir SATB, Soli S,T,B
Parody on an opera scene, Publisher: Schott
I too, loved Bing's presentation. Many years ago, when I taught high
school, I did a piece called "Monotone Angel" on the Christmas concert
which was terrific.
Also...for women, "The Ballad of Nancy Dee" by John Gardner
"A Woman's World" (texts by Dorothy Parker) by Carey Blyton.
Jean Berger has several SATB sets, including "Good, Betyter, Best"
and "Bits of Wisdom."
Dan Pinkham - Bugs (ECS?)
Kjell Linna: We're the Choir (Walton?)
Robert Sund: Drunken Sailor (Walton?)
Libby Larsen: And Sparrows Everywhere (esp #1, Chameleon Wedding)
S. Chatman: from Due North: Mosquitoes
Woodpecker
S. Chatman: An Old Man he Courted me - Jaymar
S. Chatman: Lukey's Boat - Jaymar
Lars Edlund, Two Scandanavian Folksong, #2, 15 Finns - walton
A Maiden is in a Ring - Walton
Sol Berkowitz, Antidisestablishmentariaism - Elkan-Vogel
Earl George, Laughing Song - Summy-Birchard
marcel Frank, The Owl and the Pussycat - G Schirmer
William Schuman - Mail-Order MAdrigals (Sear's Catalogue texts)
William Schuman - Singaling (Spiritual Blues) - from "Esses" - Presser
Seufert, Friday Mornings, Jenson
Karen Thomas, Four Lewis Carroll Songs: Turtle Sup, Father William,
Jabberwocky, Speak Rougholy - Jaymar Music
Alec Wilder - Lullabies and Nightsongs, arr. Don Lang - Boosey (great
stuff!)
arr. WIlliam Lock, Oliver Cromwell, Woodland/Antara
Bergsma, Riddle Me this, ECS
DeCormier, Play Party, LAwson-Gould
Andrew Carter, two for the Price of One, Banks Muisc
R. Boberg, The Computer - Alfred Music
R. Wernick, The 11th Commandment, Presser
Mouret-Kauffman, Masterscat - Carl Fischer (and other Swingle-type
arrangements of famous tunes)
tom Lehrer/Metis, Pollution - Alfred
Sjolund - Lost Love - Walton
Patterson - Spare Parts
McKelvy - The Ten-Minute Messiah - Mark Foster Music
Robert SUnd - Allouette
Delolo Joio - Of Crows and Clusters
Gregg Smith - Doo-Wop Madrigals (Cool April, etc)
Jannequin - Chant des Oyseaux
John Biggs - uction Cries
McKelvy - Deck the Halls in 7/8 - Mark Foster
Kubik, Polly Wolly Doodle
Rao LappersCl (??) - Vanitas Nanitatum
Pfautsch, Songs Mein Grossmama Sang
Mary Lycan, Housekeeper's Tragedy - terble Clef Press
Mary Lycan - The Sow took the measles - Hinshaw
Hicken - Thy body - Thomas House Pub
Russavage, Social Commentary - dkrudop@pen.k12.va.us
Offenbach - Neighbor's Chorus
Rutter - The Terrible Tale of Tom Gilligan - Hinshaw
K. Shaw - Save the Bones for Henry Jones - Hal Leonard
Lojeski - Yippi Ti Yi Yo - MCA Music
Handel - Haste Thee Nymph
Mulholland - OH See How Thick the Goldcup Flowers
the following are old and may or may not be POP:
Don Wright - Eeny Meeny Miney Moe - Hall & McCreary\
Harry Simeone - This Old Man - Shawnee
Harry R. Wilson - Two Concert Rounds (Three Blind Mice) - Hall &
MCCreary
Salli Terri - Frere JAcques - Lawson-Gould
Whitcomb - Go Marry - Witmark
Scarmolin - A Man of Words Not fo Deeds - Ricordi
Peter Stone - Drunken Sailor - Pro Art Publ.
Orff - #13 and 14 of Carmina - Tavern Scene (Wafna + In Taberna) -
TBB, piano(s) and percussion - can also add women octave above and
make it SSATBB - works!)
Apologies for typos!!!!
DJ
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