Classical Composers - Music Month

Andi 0:01

I would've bet anything that this episode would've been pg like, you know, and then I'm like, no. I'm going deaf, I'm gonna die.

Sups 0:12

This is the end.

Andi 0:15

is it because of his music

Sups 0:17

or something else? And the most obvious answer would be yes, because that was. The only thing he was doing.

Andi 0:23

that's what he was doing. He is getting blasted by

Sups 0:24

talk constantly. Yeah.

Andi 0:27

hello and welcome to this episode of I Should Have Known. The trivia game show that can't be trusted. Each week, one of our quiz masters will present you with four facts about a topic, but one of those facts is a lie, and we are starting a new theme, new month, new theme. We're doing music, so we're gonna have all kinds of topics about music. And excitingly we will play some music for you. And to kick off this month's theme, we have our quizmaster Tanner.

Tanner 0:53

hello

Andi 0:54

and Tanner is going to be presenting us with four facts about four different classical composers. But remember one of his facts will be a lie. So join me, Andy, and her other host sups in figuring out which one it is.

Tanner 1:08

Alright, should we start with the pub quiz question?

Andi 1:11

P Q. Q

Tanner 1:12

Q Q.

Andi 1:12

Q. Yes.

Tanner 1:13

what song is this and who composed it?

Andi 1:16

it's named that tune. This is our weakest category at trivia. So this should be great

Tanner 1:22

You ready? Do you know what it is?

Sups 1:46

played in like every ballroom.

Andi 1:48

Isn't it Vivaldi?

Tanner 1:49

It's Vivaldi

Andi 1:51

Is it spring spring. It's

Tanner 1:53

from the Four

Andi 1:54

Seasons. From the

Sups 1:55

From the Four season. Four, four

Andi 1:55

Yes. yeah. Vivaldi. Okay. There were like, literally like three songs you could've played that I would've

Tanner 2:00

could, what, you know, classical

Andi 2:02

of them. I really ought to, but I'm out of practice. So I played the flute and piccolo growing up since I was eight. And I played all through college, so I never really played like the classical composers because it's too hard and I wasn't good enough to be like in a symphony. I played really loud, so I was good in like a band.

Tanner 2:20

Mm-hmm.

Andi 2:21

So I'm not as good as you think I am. I'm just better than you. But that's not saying much like

Tanner 2:25

I'm, I'm a new at this basically. I, I couldn't tell you Mozart from Beethoven, from Bach, from Vivaldi. Okay. yes. We're going in chronological order. So our first one is Vivaldi.

Sups 2:36

Yeah. Okay,

Andi 2:37

great.

Tanner 2:38

fact number one. Vivaldi included directions in four Seasons to play like a barking dog.

Andi 2:46

Okay. Alright, so this was in like the notes,

Tanner 2:50

So Vivaldi? Yeah. 1678 to 1741. He was in the Baroque music period, which is from the 16 hundreds until the mid 17 hundreds. Yeah. the Baroque is opposed to classical and romantic. These are other periods of classical music, right? Mm-hmm. It is kind of a stretch to call him a classical composer because classical is a technical term. Right. But like to the layman, like me, it's all classical music, right?

Andi 3:17

But like that, to me that's Vivaldi Spring? That's, the baroque song You wanna show people baroque, throw that in there. Mm-hmm. Why is there harpsichord involved in stuff? There you go.

Tanner 3:26

So Four Seasons is kind of a weird song because Vivaldi wrote it to accompany sonnets that he also wrote.

Andi 3:34

Oh, I didn't know Are they bad? Is that

Tanner 3:37

I think there's a reason you only hear about the music and not the saunas,

Andi 3:41

what instruments were supposed to play, like a barking dog.

Tanner 3:44

it was a violin concerto. So the violins,

Sups 3:47

yeah.

Andi 3:47

oh, okay.

Tanner 3:47

I'm gonna depend on you for this in this episode, but like what does concerto mean? It means orchestra plus some instrument,

Andi 3:53

right? Yeah. So like it features some instrument, so it could be any instrument. Mm-hmm. they love to do piano concertos. If you ever go to see live orchestral music, it's always a piano concerto for some reason. I've heard a tuba concerto, you know, like you can have any instrument, it's like featured mm-hmm. But the whole orchestra is

Sups 4:12

there. Yeah.

Tanner 4:13

like it's all focused on that.

Andi 4:14

Yeah.

Sups 4:15

the two things that I associate when you hear, especially Vivaldi's music I just think about like, it's like an Audi or like a B M W car,

Tanner 4:23

it's

Sups 4:23

Or there's like, I dunno, James Bond involved, like

Andi 4:26

Yeah. I love how all those like fancy car makers use free music for their commercials. Like you, you know, you don't, oh, you don't wanna pay royalties,

Sups 4:34

Yeah. But going back to your fact about the music mm-hmm. Supposed to be bark of a dog. Yeah.

Tanner 4:41

So it's not supposed to just evoke the sense of like, oh, it sounds like a barking of a dog. for him, it's supposed to mean that. Yeah. It's like the sonnet in music. So that's what he was doing.

Sups 4:53

I think in baroque music, The style was that you wanted to recreate nature through music, which is why This fact kind of makes sense for me

Andi 5:02

They love a theme. The Baroque artists, it's so hokey, but yeah. So like I guess I can forgive them more when you think of it in this context of like, they couldn't record a barking dog. That's not a thing they could do. So if you wanted to hear a barking dog, you either have to go find a dog or, you know, evoke this in music. And so I guess like that would've seemed really cool,

Tanner 5:25

Mm-hmm.

Sups 5:25

Yeah, it

Andi 5:26

Such a

Tanner 5:26

hate.

Andi 5:27

But also it's seems a little early to start with these kinds of. Directions in music it was a very standardized thing, like gentleman's rule book of like how to write music. Like you use Italian. Yeah. For all the directions. Always Italian. Mm-hmm. that's kind of what I'm skeptical about, is that it's very modern to put these kinds of directions into the music itself. But I have to hear more facts,

Tanner 5:54

Alright. Fact number two, Mozart wrote dirty songs with titles like Lick Me in the Ass.

Sups 6:01

Yes. More that yes, he's capable of.

Andi 6:04

Yeah. I feel like this wouldn't be that surprising as his vibe he was, he was notorious for being a bit impish.

Tanner 6:11

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for 1756 to 1791, solidly in the classical period. Now, born in Salzburg. He was very prolific, What I find interesting is that he kind of made up the name Amadeus, so he was born Yohanis, Crius Wolf gangs, Theophilus Mozart,

Andi 6:31

That's honestly better. Yeah,

Sups 6:33

I think he ruined

Andi 6:34

it

Tanner 6:34

He kind of played around with the Latin and he would sign letters, Wolf Gang, us, Amadeus, Mozart. And so then people started calling him Amadeus

Sups 6:44

yeah.

Andi 6:44

okay. Can we hear, lick me in the ass? Sure.

Sups 6:48

Yeah.

6:48

<unk>

Andi 7:14

I love that somebody got a room full of juice to sing that not what I thought it was gonna be. Didn't, didn't think it was gonna be a vocal,

Sups 7:21

It didn't strike me as

Tanner 7:23

Mm-hmm.

Andi 7:23

I felt the opposite. I feel it sounds very Mozart. It

Sups 7:27

it doesn't sound like like, like

Andi 7:28

the ass.

Tanner 7:29

Yeah.

Sups 7:29

Okay.

Andi 7:30

So, okay. That was weird. Mozart was like the weirdest dude. Yeah,

Tanner 7:34

he was pretty weird.

Andi 7:35

I would've bet anything that this episode would've been pg like, you know, and then I'm like, no.

Sups 7:41

me in the ass.

Tanner 7:42

nope. yeah. We can get more R-rated.

Andi 7:45

Wow. They get super vulgar.

Tanner 7:47

Yeah. Oh my God. He was a potty mouth.

Andi 7:49

I love it. Mozart is a hot mess. That guy was wild. Mm-hmm. So I know it's my job to like doubt you. Yeah. But this does seem like his vibe. He was like very famous for pulling pranks on people, just doing wild stuff. Like he was, he was a weird guy. I guess it could be a lie. He could be talking about someone else though. I don't know he thinks we would know

Sups 8:14

Now Moar is like the potties of the mouth, like in the, if I were to put like classical composers so that thing really stands out. but also what was interesting is that if the song is connected to this fact, then I have a little bit of doubt.

Andi 8:28

yeah,

Sups 8:30

there was something about that song and this fact, two of them independently. Sure. But when you combine the song and the

Andi 8:36

Yeah. That's a fun thing about the theme, right? Is you all have the added element of the clue from the song. Right. Yeah. I wasn't expecting to be a choral music. I was surprised, but Okay. All right, who's next?

Tanner 8:50

Well, let's play some of his songs and see if you can guess who the next one is.

Andi 9:14

That's Beethoven

Tanner 9:15

Yes. Yes. So fact number three. Beethoven most likely went deaf from middle ear damage due to playing his instruments too loudly.

Andi 9:23

Okay. like the fifth is like the full orchestral music like hitting you right in the face, being like, I'm going deaf, I'm gonna die.

Sups 9:33

This is the end.

Andi 9:35

I'm really dramatic and it's scary. Tanner's.

Tanner 9:38

Like that's Beethoven for yeah, he

Sups 9:40

But he's also, now we have entered the romantic

Tanner 9:43

Yes. So Beethoven is from 1770 until 1827. So he and Mozart, they had shared years. Right.

Sups 9:51

Yeah.

Tanner 9:52

So Beethoven, he actually played some of Mozart's music when he was learning how to, play and how to compose. But eventually he got slowly progressive hearing loss.

Andi 10:02

Yeah. Pretty

Tanner 10:03

Yeah. Yeah. And it started with a buzzing in his ear. He had tinnitus and He kept composing, he kept playing this loud music and it kept getting worse. when he died in 1827, he could really only hear out of one year. He did do this very dramatic music in a lot of

Andi 10:18

of the Yeah. I mean, a, a lot of people associate especially 50 number five, that, beginning part with that fear of going deaf when like your job is hearing is music, and then you're losing that and the devastation of, that and having to, Come to terms with it.

Sups 10:35

He is also a character like Mozart

Andi 10:39

Wasn't he? Kind of like a recluse.

Tanner 10:41

Yeah. He, kind of tried to keep his hearing impairment. Private. Mm-hmm. So he didn't do as many concerts later in life.

Andi 10:48

Yeah. So you're saying that he basically blasted his ears apart by composing music? Well, yeah. Well stop having people totally slam through a trumpet, you know, like

Sups 10:58

mean,

Andi 10:59

that's just bad form. Lewd wig.

Sups 11:01

Yeah. And especially in those concert halls, back in those days, the acoustics were like, you know, so good. Yeah. Right.

Andi 11:09

Yeah. But how come all the other composers didn't wreck their ears? Well,

Tanner 11:12

That's the thing composers and musicians in general are definitely at higher risk of ear damage, temporary and permanent. they did a couple studies and they found that like 80% of musicians immediately following a performance had temporary hearing loss. but permanent hearing loss can happen in up to 50% of

Andi 11:31

music. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. There is concert deafness. Yeah. Where like after you perform, you, you kind of can't hear super well

Tanner 11:39

and it's one sided too. So violinists have it worse in their left ear. Yeah. Because that's where the violin is. Yeah.

Sups 11:44

But yes, this fact, I feel like I know this. I think

Andi 11:48

I mean, we know he went death. Yeah. So like that's not debating. I guess the question then would be,

Sups 11:54

is it because of music

Andi 11:55

is it because of his music

Sups 11:57

or something else? And the most obvious answer would be yes, because that was. The only thing he was doing.

Andi 12:03

that's what he was doing. He is getting blasted by

Sups 12:04

talk constantly. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Hmm. Sure, I want to

Andi 12:11

yeah, I mean, I,

Sups 12:12

I

Andi 12:12

know. Like what else causes deafness other than loud noise? I don't know.

Tanner 12:16

Okay. Fact number four. All of Chopin's compositions included piano parts.

Sups 12:24

Yes. First thing, first, I think the poles really hate it when you have the French pronunciation of Chopin. So the poles would call him Chopin and

Andi 12:33

Yeah. So dear listeners, if you don't know, we live in Poland. We live in Raku, Poland, and Chopin was Polish. So he's very much beloved here in Poland. They named the whole ass airport after him

Sups 12:47

I mean, you can even listen to his musics in bus stops.

Andi 12:49

Yeah. Yeah. It's everywhere. You can't, miss it. He's everywhere. Yeah.

Tanner 12:54

So he was born Polish. Mm-hmm. And then he moved to France and got French citizenship. Right.

Andi 12:59

He couldn't have Polish citizenship because Poland wasn't a country that could give citizenship at the

Tanner 13:05

Right. We're talking 1810 to 1849. So, He was very affected by all of

Andi 13:10

Mm-hmm.

Tanner 13:10

So he's definitely in the romantic period. Yes. Yeah.

Andi 13:13

This is

Sups 13:15

Well

Andi 13:15

play us something.

Tanner 13:16

Alright. Here is Janki playing Chopin's Noc turn in C minor, which you may recognize from the pianist.

13:26

Uh, Uh,

Sups 14:28

Shaba always makes me, get a feeling that I just had a breakup. I'm in a dark, you know, in a, in a dimly lit bar and a bartender is serving me a drink. That's like the first emotion.

Andi 14:39

just described Poland. Yeah.

Tanner 14:41

Yeah. And it's also like raining

Andi 14:43

Yeah. It's raining outside and you're the only person in this bar

Tanner 14:47

That's a good description,

Andi 14:48

but,

Sups 14:48

but it's a very relatively accurate

Andi 14:50

Yeah. I yeah. Obviously like you hear a ton of in Poland and a lot of his compositions are just the piano.

Sups 14:58

yeah, Yeah, mean, I'm thinking that makes sense.

Andi 15:02

mean, does any, all fact is always kind of sketchy 'cause you're like, there only has to be one composition that didn't use the piano. but every single one.

Tanner 15:12

If you want some context for how many we're talking, so Mozart had like 800, right? He was super prolific. Chopan published 72 works, and some of them were like a collection of like 19 songs or something, right? So not 72 songs, but works. And then 10 were published after he died. So all these 82 brought his

Andi 15:30

back to Poland. Yes,

Tanner 15:32

yes. So there, there's like maass, there's

Andi 15:35

po. Yes. That was, so that's like what, like outside of Poland, that's what he's most famous for is all the dances, Waltz's, the Waltz's, Poland, as is

Sups 15:43

but in Poland, he's famous for all like the, all

Andi 15:45

all the piano, piano concertos and compositions because they're sad and polish. That's why everyone outside of Poland thinks that Chopin is like this dance dude who played in fancy houses all the time. But in Poland is like, no, this is the dude who's like sad drinking, in a Parisian apartment. his heart, longing for, Poland. Yeah, Yes. So like, yeah, it's very funny how like, he's an entirely different person to people in different parts of the world, every single one though I also feel like It's one of those, it's 50 50. It's, it's, it is or it isn't, and you're like, yeah, of course I associate the piano with Choppa, that's tricky Yeah.

Sups 16:22

Yeah

Andi 16:23

So one of those facts that you just told us about, one of those composers is a lot, so can you repeat the four of them for us and then we will take a guess at which one do you think it is?

Tanner 16:33

All right. Fact number one. Vivaldi included directions in four seasons to play like a barking dog. Fact number two, Mozart wrote dirty songs with titles like Lick Me in the Ass. Fact number three, Beethoven most likely went deaf from middle ear damage due to playing his instruments too loudly. In fact, number four, all of Chopin's compositions included piano parts. One of those is not true.

Andi 17:10

I love how the licking in the ass is one of our big facts. Like we have to put that on Instagram. Like, what have you done? Okay. One of those is a lie. what are you thinking?

Sups 17:18

I'm thinking Number two,

Andi 17:20

two. you don't believe the

Sups 17:22

No, I mean, Hmm. I dunno. of all the three facts, this one really jumps me out, even though we discussed a lot about how we know Mozart. Was a potty mouth.

Andi 17:31

He's the bad

Sups 17:32

boy, Yeah. He's a bad boy. But there's still something iffy about that fact. Yes. And of course of this

Andi 17:38

the music, do you think if you hadn't heard that song? Yes. You wouldn't have?

Sups 17:42

I think it's if he didn't play the track, yeah. Then I think I would oh Debating more on like number four, right? Yeah. You know, because it's all, And I think with four, There just needs to be one. Whether I know that one or not is a different question. Yeah,

Andi 17:56

Right.

Sups 17:57

As far as from the top of my head, The four, five Compositions that, I'm trying to think of. All of them are on piano I just, for some reason, two is really

Andi 18:05

on Okay. bad we don't speak German. 'cause we would've just known if they did say, lick me in the ass in German. So they, I imagine if there are any German

Sups 18:13

listeners, sitting here

Andi 18:14

being like, You idiots, like it's obviously Number three, I think is a sleeper. Yeah. I think number three he's toying with us. He's like, oh, you think it's because of loud music, but it's, maybe it was just congenital. Maybe he had some kind of disease or he's sucking unled. He So maybe he's like, oh, you think it's just loud music? But then number four is sitting there and being like this big terrifying heart in a jar that is just beating. And I'm like, I'm gonna kick myself if I don't get that

Sups 18:48

one. Yeah,

Andi 18:49

I

Sups 18:49

But I wanna have the good faith that number four is true though. I want to believe

Andi 18:53

Okay. Yeah, so, I think in number

Sups 18:56

Mm-hmm.

Andi 18:56

It's not loud noises.

Sups 18:58

Yeah. Okay. I'm with you, but because I came out all guns placing with like fact number two, I'm gonna stick with that.

Andi 19:05

okay.

Tanner 19:06

Okay. So we have fact number two and fact number three locked in? The lie is fact number three. Yes. Beethoven progressively went deaf. Or almost deaf. And he says in his own words that it all started in 1798 when he was in a quarrel with a singer. So, he he was at his piano playing and this guy was like knocking on his door and they were like arguing and so he got up from his piano so mad, he like, ran to the door, but he tripped and fell and hit the floor. And he said, when I arose, I found myself deaf and have been so ever since. The physicians say the nerve is injured. So possible causes have been thrown around that like maybe it was this, maybe it was like some degeneration of the nerve, but most likely they've done some samples of his hair that people collected. It's most likely lead poisoning he notoriously liked Wine. that you can sweeten with lead. Yeah, they

Andi 20:06

would lead in. See, this is like, oh my God, I old timey people, like they're sucking on lead. They're all so

Tanner 20:13

Yeah. It's

Sups 20:13

It's Yeah. Okay.

Tanner 20:16

Yeah.

Andi 20:17

It just literally

Sups 20:19

sense. Yes. Yeah, that is it

Andi 20:21

That makes you go deaf. That's why you didn't wanna list reasons why people can go deaf, because then you were like, well, that's a lie. I honestly, I didn't wanna say this in the discussion 'cause I wanted the discussion to be more like discussion, but that was, to me, the big thing.

Tanner 20:33

Yeah. wouldn't

Andi 20:33

list reasons that you could go deaf. Why wouldn't you list those? Yeah, except that you were like, well, I don't wanna have to say But Wow. I love that.

Sups 20:41

Yeah. Wow.

Andi 20:42

one is pretty great

Sups 20:43

yeah. I think I just need to brush up on my German maybe. Yeah.

Andi 20:47

did Why isn't that on Duolingo? Yeah.

Tanner 20:48

Come on.

Andi 20:50

He

Tanner 20:50

poop jokes.

Andi 20:51

Yeah. I mean, I think we associate classical music with like being fancy and it's old so that they were all of course, uptight and whatever, and it's like, dude, like modern people are way more uptight than old timey people. Old, old timey people were nasty. They were super drunk all the time. Just gross. Yeah. Anyway, I should have known, I should

Sups 21:12

known.

Andi 21:12

Thanks for listening to this episode of, I should have known we'll be continuing our musical theme for the rest of the month. So next week soups is doing a find the fake episode on musical instruments from around the world. So stay tuned for that. and if you are watching this on YouTube, please do all the YouTubey things like. Subscribe, comment, let us know if you got the fact right or some of your other favorite composers or favorite pieces. And if you are on a traditional podcast platform, it would be great if you could leave us a review. And Zoe's thanks.

Sups 21:51

Yeah. Al Al.