Often, when driving on a long trip, I'll flip through radio stations to find something that catches my interest.  On several occasions, I've stopped to listen intently to an evangelist as he weaves a fabulous story relating modern day life to the scriptures.  In addition to being great story tellers, many evangelists can spin a humorous yarn with the best of comedians.  It's really a gift, and it helps 'the flock' pay attention to the entire sermon - even the serious parts. 

In a lot of ways, composers are story tellers as well, often presenting the same musical materials in various ways - first quickly, then slowly; or loudly then softly; or by contrasting heavy textures with solos. There are many ways for a composer to change or develop a story. In the Classical and Romantic eras, many composers included a Minuet or Scherzo as a portion of their larger works.  The Scherzo provided a vehicle for the composer to present the story in a lighter, more humorous fashion. 

In the twentieth century, several composers continued this practice of including a lighthearted movement in the midst of the serious brood - Prokofiev, Milhaud, and Bartok are a few names that come immediately to mind.

Today, however, it seems that many composers have abandoned this practice. I was reminded of this fact last week, as I reviewed approximately 50 scores for a festival of new music the Iowa Composers Forum will be hosting in May in Cedar Rapids.  There were very few humorous entries, and by and large, we will try to include those pieces on the festival to help break up the seriousness of the concerts.

Humor is a big part of life - many of us seek it out through comic strips, or in movies/sitcoms, and in our friendships. Imagine meeting a friend at a coffee shop and not cracking a few jokes during the conversation. Your time together wouldn't be nearly as fun or interesting.

The vast majority of my composer pals have really good (though unusually dark) senses of humor... so why in the world are we not, collectively, creating more music that reflects the sense of humor with which we approach our daily lives? It seems to be a bit disingenuous, and quite frankly, I think it negatively affects the reception of our music.

Much like the preacher who includes a few anecdotes to break up a very serious conversation about faith, shouldn't we include some lighter moments to let the audience relax and catch their breath in between serious stints?  Such an approach gives the listener time to reflect on what came before, and recharges their batteries to receive any serious music that follows.

I think many of the formulas the classical and romantic masters employed in regards to multi-movement works are still effective today -  Mvt I: Fast, Mvt II: Slow, Mvt III: Humorous, etc.  I know many composers want to create their own unique approach to putting together their music, and that's completely fine. Personally, I accept these basic large-scale organizational approaches as ideas that are tested, and work well... where I employ the creativity is in realizing the fast or slow or humorous sections.  After all, how limiting is the idea of creating fast music?  No one can tell you what that will sound like.

Rabble Rouser, a recent three movement work of mine for violin and piano, employs this sort of formulaic movement structure (Fast, Slow, Humorous).  The humorous movement, excerpted below, is a pastiche of many separate styles.

Listen to Excerpts of Rabble Rouser

The movement opens with a musical hocket, where the piano and violin jointly present a musical line - one instrument states a few notes then rests while the other instrument takes over. This opening theme is then run through the paces of various other musical styles including a tango and Jewish Klezmer music. There's even a dash of the Simpson's theme thrown in for good measure.