Musical Satire

As someone who has an overdeveloped sense of humor, I take particular notice of humor and satire in music. Wikipedia avers:

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

There are some famous examples in music. One of the best sources for humor in music is Haydn, but he really didn't do satire as such. But we do find excellent examples in Shostakovich and I just ran across one in François Couperin. Sometimes musical satire is purely instrumental, with no accompanying text to alert us. A good example is the Polka from the ballet The Golden Age that was written in 1930. Wikipedia summarizers the plot:

The ballet is a satirical take on the political and cultural change in 1920s' Europe. It follows a Soviet football (soccer) team in a Western city where they come into contact with many politically incorrect bad characters such as the Diva, the Fascist, the Agent Provocateur, the Negro and others. The team falls victim to match rigging, police harassment, and unjust imprisonment by the evil bourgeoisie. The team is freed from jail when the local workers overthrow their capitalist overlords. The ballet ends with a dance of solidarity between the workers and the football team.

In the early days life in the Soviet Union was more fun than later on... Here is a performance by the New Russian Quartet:

My second example is by François Couperin, from the Second Livre de pièces de clavecin, Onzième Ordre. The title is Les Fastes de la grande et ancienne Mxnxstrxndxsx ("The Splendors of the Great and Ancient Minstrelsy"). The unpronounceable last word is Couperin's satirical rendering of the name of the Parisian guild of minstrels, the Confrérie de St. Julien-des-Ménétriers, or the last part at least. A lot of Couperin's titles seem like private jokes, but we can find out part of the back story for this one:

In Couperin's time, there was a running controversy over the authority of the minstrelsy and the musicians of the royal court and the churches. He depicts his view of the guild in a delightful little suite, a drama in five acts. His titles and notations in the score tell the tale.

From this website where we also have a listing of the parts of the piece--a harpsichord piece in the form of a five-act play:

Premier Acte. Les Notables, et Jurés-Ménéstrandeurs, Marche, Sans lenteur (first act: the notables and the minstrel jury, march, not slow)

Second Acte. Les Viéleux, et les Gueux, Premier Air de Viéle with Bourdon, Second Air de Viéle (second act: the hurdy-gurdy players and the beggars, first and second air for hurdy-gurdy with drone)

Troisième Acte. Les Jongleurs, Sauteurs, et Saltinbanques, avec les Ours et les Singes (third act: jugglers, tumblers, and tight-rope dancers, with bears and monkeys)

Quatrième Acte. Les Invalides, ou gens Estropiés au service de la grande Ménéstrandise; [right hand:] Les Disloqués; [left hand:] Les Boiteux (invalids, or those crippled in the service of the great minstrelsy; right hand: contortionists; left hand: the lame)

Cinquième Acte. Désordre et déroute de toute la troupe, causés par les Yvrognes, les Singes, et les Ours, tres vîte; [left hand, toward the end:] les béquilles (fifth act: confusion and rout of the whole troupe, caused by the drunkards, the monkeys, and the bears, very fast; [left hand, toward the end:] the crutches)

There are also some jokes in the notation. For example, act three is notated like this:

Click to enlarge

The tumblers are referred to by putting the time signature upside down: 8/3 instead of 3/8. For act four, each hand of the player represents a different group, the right hand the persons with dislocations and the left hand the lame:

Click to enlarge

In addition to the contrasting rhythms, Couperin marks the deformations by using "white" notation, where the noteheads are hollow. The last movement is in the form of a moto perpetuo to indicate the confusion and rout.

As the custom these days is to redundantly announce each piece to the audience even when there is a printed program, I confess that I long to attend a concert where this piece will be played--just to hear how they pronounce the title. Here is a performance by Olivier Beamont:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gITCRbrDR90&t=85s