Speaking of the great composers

[jgrobler]

in this http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=46222 thread, reminded me of this one..

When Mozart passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noises coming from the area where Mozart was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it. The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate. When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Mozart's Ninth Symphony, being played backwards."

He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony, And it's backwards, too. Most puzzling." So the magistrate kept listening; "There's the Seventh... the Sixth...the Fifth..." Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery. "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Mozart decomposing."

[LCHIEN]

Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, the ninth being known as the "Choral" with the famous Ode to Joy section.. Mozart, a very prolific composer, wrote forty-one symphonies; #41, is nicknamed the "Jupiter".

An old joke anyway with the facts reversed (should have been Beethoven not Mozart if he started decomposing at symphony #9).

Equally old - what was found in a old piano bench in Germany? - Beethoven's last Movement.

But if we're on classical music jokes this is a version of the classic:
A number of years ago, the Seattle Symphony was doing Beethoven’s Ninth under the baton of Milton Katims…
At this point, you must understand two things:
(1) There’s a long segment in this symphony where the bass violins don’t have a thing to do. Not a single note for page after page.
(2) There used to be a tavern called Dez’s 400 right across the street from the Seattle Opera House, rather favored by local musicians.
It had been decided that during this performance, after the bass players had played their parts in the opening of the Ninth, they were to quietly lay down their instruments and leave the stage rather than sit on their stools looking and feeling dumb for twenty minutes.
Well, once they got backstage, someone suggested that they trot across the street and quaff a few brews. After they had downed the first couple rounds, one said, “Shouldn’t we be getting back? It’d be awfully embarrassing if we were late.”
Another, presumably the one who suggested this excursion in the first place, replied, “Oh, I anticipated we could use a little more time, so I tied a string around the last pages of the conductor’s score. When he gets down to there, Milton’s going to have to slow the tempo way down while he waves the baton with one hand and fumbles with the string with the other.”
So they had another round and finally returned to the Opera House, a little tipsy by now. However, as they came back on stage, one look at their conductor’s face told them they were in serious trouble.
Katims was furious! And why not? After all…
It was the bottom of the Ninth, the score was tied, and the basses were loaded.

[pelligrini]

That's not very nice posting jokes like that this early in the morning.

[radhak]

'decomposing' vs '...basses loaded'.... both of you deserve each other !

but to be frank, i did enjoy that...