Funny classical music for kids: pieces with jokes in them

Classical composers told jokes. They wrote wrong notes on purpose, false endings, a symphony where the players walk out, and a piece for vacuum cleaners. These 15 pieces are funny once you know where the joke is, so each one comes with a hint.

Haydn, the champion joker

1. “Surprise” Symphony, second movement. A soft, simple tune tiptoes along. Then the whole orchestra hits one loud chord. Read the Surprise Symphony guide.

2. “Farewell” Symphony, last movement. Haydn’s musicians had been kept at the prince’s summer palace for too long. So Haydn wrote an ending where the players stop, one by one, blow out their candles, and leave the stage. Two violins finish alone. The prince took the hint. Watch: a video, since the joke is something you see.

3. “The Joke” Quartet, last movement. The piece seems to end. Then it starts again. Then it stops in the middle of the tune. Nobody knows when to clap, and that was Haydn’s plan.

4. Symphony No. 60, last movement. The orchestra sets off at full speed and then grinds to a halt. The violins have to tune their strings in the middle of the piece.

Read Haydn for kids.

Mozart joins in

5. “A Musical Joke.” Mozart wrote a piece the way a bad composer would write it. The horns play sour notes, the solo violin gets lost, and at the end each instrument finishes in a different key. Game: make a face at every wrong note.

6. The Horn Concertos. Mozart wrote them for a friend who played the horn. He scribbled teasing notes to his friend in the music, and he wrote one concerto in four colors of ink.

Read Mozart for kids.

Animal jokes

7. “Tortoises” from The Carnival of the Animals, by Saint-Saëns. The tune is the famous can-can, one of the fastest dances there is. Saint-Saëns gives it to the tortoises at a crawl. Read the Can-can for kids.

8. “Fossils” from the same piece. A xylophone rattles like bones. Saint-Saëns hides old tunes in it, and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is one of them. Game: shout when you hear it.

Saint-Saëns wrote the Carnival for a private party. He let only “The Swan” be published while he was alive. Read the Carnival of the Animals guide.

9. “Cat Duet.” Two opera singers sing one word: meow.

Strange instruments

10. “The Typewriter,” by Leroy Anderson. The soloist plays a real typewriter, with its bell and all. Read Leroy Anderson for kids.

11. “Toy” Symphony. A small orchestra plus a toy trumpet, a rattle, a drum, and bird whistles. For years people said Haydn wrote it. Today most experts name someone else, and nobody is sure.

12. “A Grand, Grand Overture,” by Malcolm Arnold. An English composer wrote it in 1956 for a comedy concert. It needs a full orchestra, three vacuum cleaners, a floor polisher, and four rifles.

Funny titles and funny starts

13. “Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear,” by Satie. There are more than three pieces, and none of them has anything to do with a pear. Erik Satie also wrote “Flabby Preludes for a Dog.” Read Satie for kids.

14. Háry János Suite, by Kodály. It starts with a sneeze from the whole orchestra. In Hungary, people said a sneeze meant the story to come was true. The story is a soldier’s tall tale. Read Zoltán Kodály for kids.

15. “Perpetual Motion,” by Johann Strauss II. Strauss called it a musical joke. It has no ending. It can go around forever, so the conductor has to stop it and say “and so on.”

People who made concerts funny

• Victor Borge was a Danish pianist who fell off the piano bench on purpose and read stories with sound effects for the commas.
• Peter Schickele made up a composer called P.D.Q. Bach, “the last and least” of Bach’s children, and wrote silly music under that name.
• Gerard Hoffnung ran comedy concerts in London in the 1950s. The vacuum cleaner overture was written for one of them.

How to hear a musical joke

The trick	What to listen for
Surprise	Something loud after something soft
False ending	The music stops, and then it starts again
Wrong notes	A sour sound in a place that was sweet
Wrong speed	A fast tune played slow, or the other way around
Wrong instrument	A grand tune on a tuba, a toy, or a typewriter

Games to play

• Spot the joke. Play a piece without the hint. Ask what was funny.
• Make your own. Sing “Twinkle, Twinkle” with one wrong note, a false ending, or at the wrong speed.
• Play bingo. Put the five tricks on a card with the listening bingo maker.

A child who has laughed at a concert piece will listen to the next one. For more help, read what to do when kids say classical music is boring. For the tune that circus clowns made famous, read Entry of the Gladiators. For a typewriter and a clock that hiccups, read classical music about trains and machines and classical music about clocks and time.