When the Composer Is German

When the composer is German

A tuxedoed bassoon player performs in front of an ornate concert-hall backdrop. The music cuts to an absurdly dense page of sheet music filled with an extremely long German compound word, after which he struggles, looks around, checks the score, and finally laughs before continuing to play. The joke is that German musical instructions can become comically long and intimidating; the dramatic classical music and his increasingly bewildered reactions sell the punchline as a reaction to something overly complicated. EN: A tuxedoed bassoon player performs in front of an ornate concert-hall backdrop. The music cuts to an absurdly dense page of sheet music filled with an extremely long German compound word, after which he struggles, looks around, checks the score, and finally laughs before continuing to play. The joke is that German musical instructions can become comically long and intimidating; the dramatic classical music and his increasingly bewildered reactions sell the punchline as a reaction to something overly complicated.