Words to Symphonic Works
Colin Joseph Meek
Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5), "Don Juan gets laid more
than I do..." (R. Strauss, the horn solo), "This is not, an oboe,
it's an english horn." (Dvorak 9), "This tune is beautiful, and it's
easy to remember." (Schubert's Unfinished), etc...
I was thinking of compiling a collection of these words. Please send any
you can think of!
This list should be good fun, and its importance can be understood by
anybody who has ever done a listening exam in a music history course!
Thanks!
Colin Meek
cm...@is2.dal.ca
Tony Movshon
Jon Bell adds:
> Colin Joseph Meek <cm...@is.dal.ca> wrote:
>>Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
>>overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5)
>
>Here's one item that I remember:
>
>Ei-
>ne klei-
>ne Nachtmusik das ist,
>Writ-
>ten by
>Herr Mozart, not by Liszt!
>
>(accent the last syllable of each line for best effect...)
Another truly awful one, to the Andante of the Surprise symphony, goes:
Papa Haydn's dead and gone
But his mem'ry lingers on
When his life was one of bliss
He wrote happy tunes like this
Brr.
Tony Movshon
Center for Neural Science New York University
http://www.cns.nyu.edu mov...@nyu.edu
Jon Bell
Colin Joseph Meek <cm...@is.dal.ca> wrote:
>Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
>overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5)
I once saw a whole book of those things, but I didn't buy it, alas.
Here's one item that I remember:
Ei-
ne klei-
ne Nachtmusik das ist,
Writ-
ten by
Herr Mozart, not by Liszt!
(accent the last syllable of each line for best effect...)
--
Jon Bell <jtb...@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA
D.G. Porter
>
> On 22 Jan 1997 16:53:34 GMT, cm...@is.dal.ca (Colin Joseph Meek)
> wrote:
> "This tune is beautiful, and it's
> >easy to remember." (Schubert's Unfinished), etc...
> I also heard it as, "This is the symphony / that Fraaaaanz Schubert
never finished."
DGP
John M. Miano
In article <E4FKI...@presby.edu>, jtb...@presby.edu (Jon Bell) wrote:
> Colin Joseph Meek <cm...@is.dal.ca> wrote:
>>Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
>>overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5)
>
>I once saw a whole book of those things, but I didn't buy it, alas.
>Here's one item that I remember:
>
>Ei-
>ne klei-
>ne Nachtmusik das ist,
>Writ-
>ten by
>Herr Mozart, not by Liszt!
It thought it was Tovey who came up with all of those stupid songs to remember
the names of classical pieces.
John
------------------------------------------------
Save money...make Newt and Hillary share a cell!
Hilary B. Miller, Esq.
>Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
>overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5), "Don Juan gets laid more
>than I do..." (R. Strauss, the horn solo), "This is not, an oboe,
>it's an english horn." (Dvorak 9), "This tune is beautiful, and it's
>easy to remember." (Schubert's Unfinished), etc...
Well, there's always:
The Blue Danube Waltz
By Strauss, By Strauss . . . .
** Hilary **
*********************************************
* *
* Hilary B. Miller *
* le...@compuserve.com *
* Law offices of Hilary B. Miller, Esq. *
* 112 Parsonage Road *
* Greenwich, Connecticut 06830-3942 *
* (203) 861-6262 Voice *
* (203) 622-6264 Fax *
* *
*********************************************
ROSALIE HOFFMAN-GOUMAS
Did you know that there is a third movement to this symphony that is
never played.
I have a recording of it. My husband brought it when I maried him and I
inherited it.
Why isn't it ever done?
Rosie Goumas
Lani Spahr
Then there's (sung to the opening of the last mvt to Mozart's sym #40 in g)
Old Mozart's in the closet,
Let 'im out, let 'im out, let 'im out
Cheers,
Lani Spahr
RRec
And a couple more:
Mozart Sym. #40:
Old Mozart's in the closet,
Let 'im out, let 'im out, let 'im out
Old Mozart's in the closet,
Let 'im out, let 'im out, let 'im out
Help Help! It's dark in here
Help Help! It's dark in here
Old Mozart's in the closet,
Let 'im out, let 'im out, let 'im out
Schubert Sym. #8:
This is
The Symphony
That Schubert wrote and never finished....
Any more?
Rik Malone
rr...@aol.com
Krehbiel, Hanns
Jon Bell wrote:
>
> Colin Joseph Meek <cm...@is.dal.ca> wrote:
> >Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
> >overplayed, I'm overplayed..." (Beethoven 5)
I can add a German (highly colloquial) wording.
Schubert unfinished, 1st movt., second theme:
"Frieda, wo kommste her? Wo gehste hin, wann kommste wiedah?"
(Frieda, whence do you come, where do you go, when will you return?)
For a good wording of Beethoven's fifth in French: There was a French cabaret
group "Les quatre barbus", who sang to the abbreviated symphony a story about
the invention of the clothes peg, the one with a spring. The opening:
" [: La pince-a-linge, :] "
Maybe the piece has been remastered on CD. It was coupled with a vocal
version of the Barber of Sevilla ouverture.
Dave Wright
While practicing for an audition for Chicago Symphony, I came
up with the following words to the Scherzo of Schumann's 2nd
Symphony, on every violin audition list (the piece, not the
lyrics): (the number refers to the recommended metronome
marking) (sing as fast as possible)
I'm really WHACKING out the Schumann at a
hundred-forty-four!
I'm really WHACKING out the Schumann at a
hundred-forty-four!
It's not as smooth as I'd expected, sounds jus' like a plane has
wrecked, it's
quite a job to play this faqir at a hundred-forty-four!
If I don't make it, I won't panic, I'll become a plane mechanic,
'Cause I hear the best mechanics gross a hundred forty-four!
P.S. I didn't get the job. Too much time spent writing stupid
lyrics.
Jim Dunphy
Colin Joseph Meek wrote:
>
> Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
> than I do..." (R. Strauss, the horn solo), "This is not, an oboe,
> it's an english horn." (Dvorak 9), "This tune is beautiful, and it's
> easy to remember." (Schubert's Unfinished), etc...
>
> you can think of!
>
> This list should be good fun, and its importance can be understood by
> anybody who has ever done a listening exam in a music history course!
>
> Thanks!
>
> Colin Meek
> cm...@is2.dal.ca
When I was an usher at Boston's Symphony Hall, my friends and I would
sing (not too loudly of course):
"toscanini's wife had a baby; toscanini's wife had a baby"
this fit the jaunty tune in the finale of Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony.
I do not know who originated this one.
Jim Dunphy
T. J. Wood
Roger L. Lustig wrote:
>
[Somebody said:]
> > It thought it was Tovey who came up with all of those stupid songs to remember
> > the names of classical pieces.
>
>
> You're thinking of Sigmund Spaeth, author of "Great Symphonies
> and how to recognize them".
>
> Roger
Yes, it was Spaeth. I just grabbed this book from the stacks -- words
fail me.
Here's Spaeth's words for the opening of Mozart's 40th Symphony in G
minor:
With a laugh and a smile like a sunbeam,
And a face that is glad, with a fun-beam,
We can start on our way very gaily,
Singing tunes from a symphony daily;
And if Mozart could but hear us,
He would wave his hat and cheer us
Coming down the scale
All hale
and strong
in song,
All hale and strong in song.
Shudder. Heave.
Interesting -- like Schumann, Spaeth feels the opening of the 40th is "a
very happy tune, full of laughter and fun," rather than anxious or
stormy.
The finale of Beethoven's Fifth:
Fall in line,
And let your armor shine!
We have won,
We have won,
And all our struggle with the enemy is done!
The really insidious thing about these words is: once you've heard them,
it may be hard to put them out of your mind when you hear the music!
Argh!
--
------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Wood -- With a face that is glad, with a fun-beam.
University of Illinois at Springfield
wo...@uis.edu
------------------------------------------------------
miles dinner
I think of the incantation "The Tao is great, The universe is
great.Earth is great.Man is great. These are the four great powers"
from the Tao Te Ching which so aptly fit Earle Brown's "Available
Forms".
MD
Mark Ainsworth
Jon Bell wrote:
>
> Colin Joseph Meek <cm...@is.dal.ca> wrote:
> >Orchestral musicians often set words to the music they play: "I'm
>
> I once saw a whole book of those things, but I didn't buy it, alas.
> Here's one item that I remember:
>
> Ei-
> ne klei-
> ne Nachtmusik das ist,
> Writ-
> ten by
> Herr Mozart, not by Liszt!
>
>
> --
> Jon Bell <jtb...@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
> Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA
The version I heard was:
Just - a bit - of music in the night,
Makes - me sing - and dance and feel alright.
Cheers,
Mark Ainsworth
Tony Movshon
Of course, there are also the off-color variations on this theme. I
remember one for the Valse from Tchaikovsky 5 that begins "Once, I was
a virgin ...". I will not continue it here, for fear of causing
offense.
:-)
Daniel F. Tritter
These are, of course, some of the lyrics taught to children in the
'30's-'40's in music appreciation [what ever happened to THAT sorely
missed part of our education???] and employed by the late Walter
Damrosch, a distinguished conductor and, later, radio personality. A lot
of children, now not so young and some [in the immortal words of Casey
Stengel] "presently dead," owed the joy of hearing great music with
understanding to this ancient and honorable method. My education was
principally with Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis [now Minnesota]
Symphony, but I heard some of the Damrosch broadcasts too.
dft
dbroo...@aol.com
In article <5cbjkd$evc$1...@news.nyu.edu>, to...@cns.nyu.edu (Tony Movshon)
writes:
>Of course, there are also the off-color variations on this theme. I
>remember one for the Valse from Tchaikovsky 5 that begins "Once, I was
>a virgin ...". I will not continue it here, for fear of causing
>offense.
Conquer your fear! Please!!!
In England, several words were credited to Barbirolli (I don't know how
true this was). He was said to use them as mnemonics for getting the
rhythms right, which doesn't say much for the ability of the Halle band to
read music.
Some examples: New World symphony, 1st movement, second subject
Ruddy Injuns, used to sing this tune
Dvorak went and wrote it. Wasn't that jolly of him?
Hebrides, first subject:
How lovely the sea is, how lovely the sea is.
Second subject:
O what a lovely tune upon the cellos!
And so it goes.
-- David Brooks
Tony Movshon
David Brooks responded when I remarked:
>>Of course, there are also the off-color variations on this theme. I
>>remember one for the Valse from Tchaikovsky 5 that begins "Once, I was
>>a virgin ...". I will not continue it here, for fear of causing
>>offense.
>
>Conquer your fear! Please!!!
OK, why not? I'll be off the net next week anyway ...
Once, I was a virgin
Now, I am a whore
Once, I didn't like it
Now, I want it more and more and more and ... (usw)
I think there was another verse but I can't reconstruct it.
The trouble with this is that I now have the greatest difficulty
listening to this movement with a straight face ...
obl...@nonsense.net
Charles Rosen once told the story of a pianist who had difficulty with
a Liszt piece and was given the following as a (successful) mnemonic:
I have been
SAVed by the
SALvation
ÀRmy DAMN!
DAMN! DAMN!
DAMN!
I don't remember what Liszt piece was involved. Anybody?
If the first three lines/bars are in 4/4 time, they would all consist
of a strongly emphasized half-note followed by two quarter-notes; the
DAMNs, evidently fortissimo, break this rhythm by being four
successive staccato half-notes. At least that's the way I remember it
as having been vocalized. Since that doesn't seem particularly
tricky, perhaps I remember it wrong.
__
I may respect my employer's opinions,
but I don't have to share them.
E-mail to: bob...@taconic.net
(The header may be altered
to foil autospam software.)
Steve Forrest
In article <32E993...@halcyon.com>,
Mark Ainsworth <mark...@halcyon.com> wrote:
>Jon Bell wrote:
>>
>> Ei-
>> ne klei-
>> ne Nachtmusik das ist,
>> Writ-
>> ten by
>> Herr Mozart, not by Liszt!
>>
>> (accent the last syllable of each line for best effect...)
>
>
>Just - a bit - of music in the night,
>Makes - me sing - and dance and feel alright.
Here's another one for the first phrase of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik:
Doe, a deer, a feminine reindeer.
-Steve
Gerry Busch
On 27 Jan 1997 20:47:35 GMT, sfor...@ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve
Forrest) wrote:
My mother nearly ruined Schubert's 8th for me by singing the following
lyrics, which pop back into my head every time I hear the famous
theme:
This IIIIIIIZZZZZZ
the SYM-pho-NEEEEEEEE
that MIH-ster SCHU-bert never
FIII-NIIIISHED!
Sorry, I know that looks weird; just trying to approximate the stress
and note values.
==================================
Gerry Busch
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
----------------------------------
gbu...@sk.sympatico.ca
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3876
==================================
Adam C. Komisaruk
Here are a few more. The first is a variant on previous postings, the other
two (as far as I know) are not.
1. To Mozart's Symphony #40 (1st mvt.):
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mo-zart
Shoot it down, shoot it down, shoot it down....
2. To Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (introduction):
Whyyyyyyyyy am I up so hiiiiiiiiiigh?
Why am I up so hiiiiiiiiiiigh?....
3. (My favorite) To Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony:
I-tal-ians, I-tal-ians, all o-o-o-o-ver the place!.....
Sven Reiche
On Sun, 26 Jan 1997 obl...@nonsense.net wrote:
> Charles Rosen once told the story of a pianist who had difficulty with
> a Liszt piece and was given the following as a (successful) mnemonic:
>=20
> =09I have been
> =09SAVed by the
> =09SALvation
> =09=C0Rmy=09DAMN!
> =09DAMN!=09DAMN!
> =09DAMN!
>=20
> I don't remember what Liszt piece was involved. Anybody?
>=20
> If the first three lines/bars are in 4/4 time, they would all consist
> of a strongly emphasized half-note followed by two quarter-notes; the
> DAMNs, evidently fortissimo, break this rhythm by being four
> successive staccato half-notes. At least that's the way I remember it
> as having been vocalized. Since that doesn't seem particularly
> tricky, perhaps I remember it wrong.
>=20
A friend once told me that he always has to sing these words at the=20
beginning of the Liszt's piano conterto.
"Das versteht ihr alles nicht."
Translated:
you don't understand anything.
Greetings from Hamburg
Sven Reiche
DESY-MPY
Kevin
>> I also heard it as, "This is the symphony / that Fraaaaanz Schubert
>never finished."
The variation that I've heard, and which fits a little better, is:
"This is / the symphony / that Schubert wrote but never finished."
Daniel Cloutier
komi...@ucla.edu (Adam C. Komisaruk) spewed profusely:
>2. To Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (introduction):
>
>Whyyyyyyyyy am I up so hiiiiiiiiiigh?
>Why am I up so hiiiiiiiiiiigh?....
I thought it was:
I'm not an English Horn!
I'm not an English Horn!
This part's too high for me,
I'm not an English Horn!
"If man wore black feathers and flew, few would be clever enough to be crows"
Henry Ward Beecher
Fred Goldrich
In article <Pine.SGI.3.91.970128102749.21002E-100000@x4u2>,
Sven Reiche <reichesv@x4u2> wrote:
>
>
>A friend once told me that he always has to sing these words at the=20
>beginning of the Liszt's piano conterto.
>
>
>"Das versteht ihr alles nicht."
>
>Translated:
>you don't understand anything.
>
And a friend of mine liked to sing the opening
of the _Fidelio_ Overture with the words:
Flo-re-stan,
Flo-re-stan,
Buy your wife a dress!
-- Fred Goldrich
--
Fred Goldrich
gold...@panix.com
Matthew B. Tepper
In article <5ct1ag$a...@panix.com>, gold...@panix.com speaks...
>
>In article <Pine.SGI.3.91.970128102749.21002E-100000@x4u2>,
>Sven Reiche <reichesv@x4u2> wrote:
>>
>>
>>A friend once told me that he always has to sing these words at
>>
>>
>>"Das versteht ihr alles nicht."
>>
>>Translated:
>>you don't understand anything.
>>
>
> And a friend of mine liked to sing the opening
>of the _Fidelio_ Overture with the words:
>
> Flo-re-stan,
> Flo-re-stan,
> Buy your wife a dress!
>
> -- Fred Goldrich
>
>
>--
>Fred Goldrich
>gold...@panix.com
*cackle* And I was once at a party where conductor George Cleve sang
the opening of the _Bartered Bride_ Overture with the words.... Well,
let's just say that lots of the words were "duck" and most of the rest
of the words rhymed with "duck"!
--
"I don't care about being politically correct. I just want to be
anatomically correct!" http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
Matthew B. Tepper Web Brainiac and Gonzo Musicologist Quack!
David Cleary
I don't know how long this thread has been going and which examples have
been mentioned, but a few I remember from orchestral days were:
2nd theme, 1st movement of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony--"This is the
symphony that Schubert wrote and never finished."
Opening of "Rite of Spring"--"I'm not an English horn, I'm only a bassoon,
This is too high for me, I'm not an English horn."
And the main theme to the last movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th has attracted
numerous "lyrics" from the mundane: "Toscanini's wife had a baby" to the
profane: (won't be quoted here). :)
Dave
pil...@acsu.buffalo.edu
There are many vulgar ones I know, but here's the only other one I know.
1st theme, 3rd movement of Mozart's 40th. "Oh, Mozart's in the closet.
Let 'em out, let 'em out, let 'em out."
Alex G. Piller
pil...@acsu.buffalo.edu
Uwe Schneider
On Thu, 6 Feb 1997 pil...@acsu.buffalo.edu wrote:
> There are many vulgar ones I know,
>
>
I don't think most people here would notice that - or would you
JJordan?
Reading this newsgroup for some days, I realy do wonder what some remarks
in here have to do with opera.
An earnest question, not only refering to the behaviour in this very news
group:
Why is it, that most people who know so much about opera and it's history
seem to be more interested in the gossip on stars and in ignoring the
insufficient way their personal loved singers sometimes sing ?
Is that realy opera?
Sorry for my naiv questioning....
eac...@aol.com
I've read somewhere that, during the Stransky period at the NYPO, people took a theme from Tchaikovsky's Sym.#5 and sang: "Ev'rybody knows it but Stransky!" <g> --E.A.C.
Jonathan Wiener
eac...@aol.com wrote:
>
> I've read somewhere that, during the Stransky period at the NYPO, people took a theme from Tchaikovsky's Sym.#5 and sang: "Ev'rybody knows it but Stransky!" <g
Poor Stransky.
Arthur Rubinstein wrote:
"To describe his talents I have a story. At a party with many
fun-loving performers present, Godowsky played the cello,
Heifetz played the piano, Kreisler played the flute; Stransky
conducted."
Jamie S. Weiner
In article <3305B0...@pipeline.com>, jwi...@pipeline.com says...
>
>eac...@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> I've read somewhere that, during the Stransky period at the NYPO,
people took a theme from Tchaikovsky's Sym.#5 and sang: "Ev'rybody
knows it but Strans
>
>
>Arthur Rubinstein wrote:
>
>"To describe his talents I have a story. At a party with many
>fun-loving performers present, Godowsky played the cello,
>Heifetz played the piano, Kreisler played the flute; Stransky
>conducted."
Apparently, Stransky was not highly regarded by the orchestra members
as he usually needed to follow a score to conduct even the most
familiar pieces. Anyway, the theme that the orchestra sang was from the
last movement of Tchaikowsky"s 4th symphony: da da da da dah da da dah
dah.("Everybody knows it but Stransky").