Dudley Moore Beethoven Sonata Parody 

You must watch Chico Marx , You wouldn’t ever know where he got that from. Harpo once went for a lesson with a maestro of harp music. The maestro said ‘I don’t know where you learned to play like that , it’s completely un orthodox , and you are a far , far better player than I ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Exactly. Inside and out.

Such a shame he died so young and ill for a long while.

Raised a few eyebrows back in my teens when I bought his album from the Decca" World of" series. Still got it.

And, I mention this for a matter of completeness, it’s funny.

The Egmont Overture has quite a long coda I think.some of Beethoven’s codas were almost comical!

if not for this comment i would never have understood his anguish or the audience's laughter.

The parody is so good that my poor brain is duped into believing Beethoven actually wrote it 😂

Actually, it just shows how crap Beethoven was (only kidding)

@@vladtepes97 Absolutely.

@@vladtepes97 🤣🤣

Beethoven’s response: ‘Eh? Was sagst du?’

Shame he was deaf..

He was only pretending to be. Can’t blame him.

Yeah the fugue bit near the end. From the Well-Tempered Klavier.

I had no idea how good of a pianist (and composer) Dudley Moore was. Considering that Beethoven's actual themes weren't always that elaborate (cf. the 5th symphony!), this parody becomes even more plausible, in a way. And yes, the fugato part really is the icing on the parodistic cake.

I feel our respective times on the planet did not overlap nearly long enough.

But the point is that he composed this music too. He didn't just play it.

Thank you for mentioning this, instead of all the polite references to the River Kwai. :) ♥♥♥♥♥

We all sang “Hitler has only got one --“ in 1958-60, even in foreign lands! (And then listened to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore for years - mixed with ‘This is London’ on the BBC World Service)

@@oliveralexandre3607 We certainly did! Come one - you all know the words. ♫ Hitler has only got one ball: Goering has two but very small; Himmler is very sim'lar, and poor old Goebbels has no balls at all. ♫

@@oliveralexandre3607 .. LOL.. I forgot about that little detail about Hitler's missing ***... Hilarious to know this about that tune.. I'm gonna look for the lyrics...

Glorious desperation indeed! And such a marvelous way to describe it!

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Not quite. How about Layla by Derek and the Dominos.

Methinks someone has forgotten Hey Jude.

Donovan’s Atlantis

hes also a wonder actor as well :P

+FlashKick all agreed yay or nay?... the yays have it

For conn commedic virtuosity see Victor Borge's Wagnerian Happy Birthday to Leonard Berstein: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Gw76LWC3UyY.html

Astonishing genius, applied to the noble aim of making people laugh. We are fortunate to have had him amongst us.

@@jascar88 Yes, but that's only one style; for a variety (and a finale even Dud might not have been able to do), see the Pesce version: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S75gYhODS0M.html (And you don't have to sit through Victor Borge's very prolonged microphone gag, either.)

Great comment … so true

@@dianecourtney2724 Dudley Moore was so damn awesome. He was a world treasure.

This threw me - his pen-name is Kenneth J. Alford!

Not to mention the alternate set of lyrics to the piece that attached to the melody in WW2, beginning "Hitler... he only had one..." Well, you know...

@@patrickdrazen8411 You are talking bollocks 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@@BernieHollandMusic Literally AND figuratively...

My dad (WW2 RAF Regiment, served in India and Burma), had some colorful lyrics for this tune. Went something like “don’t throw the lamp at father, wait ‘til he gets in bed, and grab his …. Bollocks, was all the band could play, bollocks, was all the band could play, …”

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great analysis!

+Gustawescu I wouldn't say that I am, but I find it refreshing to see an intelligent comment on RU-vid!

+Gustaw Jokiel he rocking that alberti bass

+Dan Harrison King Endless V-I cadences? Absolute pisser!

+Gustaw Jokiel Bravo! If Dudley Moore had parodied JS Bach instead, I could probably do very much the same with copious references to the Bach Werke Verzeichnis. Well done - you are a very perceptive man!

QI ;)

3:34

from which episode?@@KiwiSpartan01

@@MEKKANNOID E series, the 11th episode

Well that's why I'm here....

My family had all of the same records - played so often that that they were almost worn out. We had memorized every second of each skit and song, though!

For those who don't know Flanders and Swann, you must listen to: Flanders & Swann sing Mozart's Horn Concerto ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bkYrj2DQlVc.html

Poughkeepsie?

Saratoga Springs?

@@corndoug2605 I wouldn't call dead a better place.

Bury St Edmunds?

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It is sad - Dudley Moore was an immensely talented pianist - his jazz playing was quite brilliant - inspired by his hero Errol Garner - his jazz works swing like crazy. As a comedian, his work with Peter Cook was also inspired - the Not Only But Also sketches are wonderful. There was real warmth and friendship to them, even though Pete’s aim every time was to make Dud corpse. Even the early, coarser Derek and Clive tapes are quite superb. Then it all went a bit sour. Pete’s drinking, and jealousy at Dud’s Hollywood stardom caused quite a rift between them, and the friendship was lost. Also Dudley made some questionable films, which is what he is mostly remembered for now, sadly. But, if folks care to dig deeper, there is a rich seam of truly brilliant work from a truly gifted comedian and jazz musician. I love his work - cuddly Dudley!

@@simonhodgetts6530thanks for the insight. This is first class humor -let alone the performance. Looked it up while reading George Martin’s bio, commenting on Beyond the Fringe… Will definitely search for Dudley’s jazz piano music. Indeed wonderfully talented!

It's not really so sad from another point of view. Yes I wish contemporary and future generations would appreciate this. Yes I feel like informing everybody what this is about so that someone under 40 might go 'ahh I SEE!'. Truth is, it's gone. Most people don't even look at nature and what's around them any more, let alone be able to appreciate a brilliant pastiche of Beethoven's tropes using a melody that your common postman used to whistle. The positive side is that millions DID appreciate this. People WERE informed, knowledgeable and receptive to this. In fact something that Dudley himself would probably shrug about and dismiss as just a bit of fun was gorged upon, celebrated and sustained for quite a few decades (Dudley was still performing this occasionally to millions of laughing people towards the end of his life). It had a MASSIVE impact for something which was bordering on genius but still, just light entertainment. Personally I would say if Beethoven remains on the radar in the future there is always the potential for this to be understood and appreciated. The trouble is that very soon Beethoven will not have so much appeal to a new generation of composers and music afficionados because the parameters his music has will most likely not thrill or allure them enough. Modulation, development, thematic unity...as clever and artistic as all that once was....will be lost on a generation who naturally want to explore the multi-media possibilities of 'music' now. Visuals, sonic mutations, technological ingenuity and the limitless possibilities of sound sources....that's the future. Is it sad? Or would it be not be even more sad to hold people back to hang about studying the centuries-old craft of composition when they can explore a new musical world. If you and I think it sad that the numbers who can appreciate this are dwindling, consider for a moment what Beethoven and his contemporaries would've thought of Dudley Moore and his distillation of tropes from the Classical period! They would've been appalled. Particularly his merciless repetition of tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant at the end. 😆 Don't get me wrong, I spend most of my time watching, listening to and reading things from the 20th century because it suits me better than anything in the last 25 years. So I feel sad about things disappearing when they were so much better. On the other hand I do realise that both Dudley, his colleagues, his audiences and a generation of comedy did very very VERY well out of this item! Well enough for it not to be sad, really.

He got to showcase them in the move "10" and very briefly in "Arthur". Beyond that you're definitely right. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1XOuE4fsqKQ.html

Very true. Apparently Jack Lemmon was similarly gifted, and an excellent pianist.

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I love the fact that the comedy was all in the playing of the music! I absolutely adore Borge but he frustrates the heck out of me because, as talented as he was musically, he played so very little in his comedy pieces. But yeah, they were both over-the-top as comedians and as musicians.

@@Chuzini He did a lot of serious work as well. Sadly, the comedy sold better and made more money for the producers. We got what we were given.

Quit so - but could they both fit in the same room at the same time :)

I grew up at a time when a good number of homes had a piano and the ability to play was an 'expected', rather than an exception.

We had that world until we got technology and we could let someone else do it! Around 1900, most households had a piano, more than had a bathtub! My journalist father said we were becoming a nation of watchers! He said it would ruin us! Frank Lloyd Wright had all his students at Talieson work each one in a garden patch and every student had to play an instrument! I entirely agree with you! Watching accomplished people play gives many the false idea that observing is the same as playing! Only by doing have we the humility we need for intelligent observation! Constant watching makes us arrogant!

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Meraviglioso attore e musicista

I HAD not seen this before.

Duane, I know that you did not just correct someone who was using proper British English about an English performer. I just know it.

@@bcdm999 The past perfect tense is the same in American and British English. It is the tense he should have used.

Find classic albums of Beyond the Fringe there are two and they are brilliant insane comedy!

So could Andrew Preview who we also greatly miss