Musicians usually have a good sense of humor. Those who don’t are either at the very top or the very bottom of the music world.

A lot of educators use Camille Saint-Saëns‘ Carnival of the Animals as an introduction to Art Music for very young listeners. The lesson usually goes like this:

TEACHER: Ok class, we’re going to listen to some music now. (plays music) Now what did that make you think of?
STUDENT #1: I have a dog named muffin.
TEACHER: That’s nice. Does it remind you of anything?
STUDENT #2: It sounds like SpongeBob.
TEACHER: Well, this music is about an animal! What animal does it make you think of?
STUDENT #3: A Velociraptor.
TEACHER: Don’t you think it sounds like chickens?
STUDENT #4: I think I’m going to throw up.
TEACHER: Let’s do some coloring instead.

Saint-Saëns piece is delightful enough to be enjoyed by little ones, but has some wicked humor in it aimed at adults. Among the “animals” that he paints with music are: Elephants, Donkeys, Birds, Pianists, People with Long Ears (i.e. music critics), and Fossils. He satirically quotes dozens of musical compositions throughout the work: his own Danse Macabre as well as Berlioz’ Faust, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Offenbach’s Can-Can, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, and more.

This election year was horrible on so many accounts. Without humor I would have crawled away into a cave until it was all over. So, go vote today, and in the meantime, enjoy “Elephants” and “Donkeys”.

As the green earth slowly dies away into winter, it’s natural for a person to ponder his/her own end.

That’s exactly what Richard Strauss did in his “Death and Transfiguration.” The work is a tone poem: a piece of music, usually a single movement, that tells a story or evokes a mood using music rather than words. Strauss didn’t event the tone poem (it slowly evolved throughout the late 19th century), but many will argue that the form achieved perfection in his music.

Death and Transfiguration portrays the process of dying. Someone (perhaps the composer, in his imagination) lies on his deathbed; the great struggle to survive ensues; his life flashes before his eyes – he sees his childhood, his loves, his dreams and failures; finally, he accepts his end and is ‘transfigured’ to a perfect state of being – heaven, nirvana, the afterlife. Perhaps Strauss was preparing himself for his own end, hoping to approach the moment with grace and elegance rather than fear. It is said that, on his deathbed, Strauss commented that passing was just as he composed it to be.

The ‘transfiguration’ theme first occurs at 13:06 – this short vision of heaven helps bring the protagonist from fear and suffering to a peaceful death. AND, it’s nearly identical to the second theme of John William‘s Superman music.

What’s the best way to get your kids to be obedient? Lie to them, of course! Tell them frightening tales of monsters who will get them if they don’t do what they are told. So, when you read fairy tales or nursery rhymes to your children, be sure you are reading the REAL ones – not the updated happy-lovey versions. You know, the one where Rumpelstiltskin rips himself in half, or Hansel & Gretel cook the witch, or the evil scissor-guy cuts off the thumbs of the thumb-sucker.

Shortly after the Brothers Grimm published their collected stories (in German), a guy named Erben published similar set of fairy-tale poems in Czech. Antonín Dvořák, being a nationalistic composer of the Czech people, composed music after the poetry. “The Noonday Witch” is a tone poem in which the story is clearly laid out by the music:

A mother scolds her baby for making so much noise; she complains about what a nuisance he is. She threatens to call the “noon witch” to come and take him away if he doesn’t do as she asks. Whether or not the witch comes is up to interpretation – but either way, the mother becomes frightened that the witch has arrived and is about to steal her child. She clutches the child close to her breast, and faints. When the woman’s husband arrives home, he finds his wife passed out on the floor, and his child dead in her arms – suffocated by the mother’s hold.