Classical Music Gets More Disturbing

Violin Concerto No. 1 in E Major, RV 269 "Spring" Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, Prelude Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951) Black Angels George Crumb (1929 – ) Terrain Brian Ferneyhough (1943 – ) Study No. 37 for Player Piano Conlon Nancarrow (1912 – 1997) Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 – 2020) 4'33" John Cage (1912 – 1992)

A slideshow progresses through increasingly intense and unsettling works of classical and experimental music, pairing each composition and composer with a face that becomes more distorted, grotesque, and frightening. The joke is that the musical journey escalates from familiar, pleasant Vivaldi to extreme modernist compositions and finally John Cage’s silent piece, turning a genre guide into a reaction meme about music becoming progressively unbearable or terrifying. The audio reinforces the joke through ominous, dissonant, abrasive sounds and an increasingly disturbing mood, ending with the conceptual silence of 4'33".

• @jeppa420 / 25226 2022-03-28