At Minnich Music, we know music can be wonderful, alarming, sad, happy, moving, depressing, and spirit-lifting. But did you know it could also be strange? Here are 15 facts to show you just how odd music, and musicians, can be:
1. A chicken fell off a stage and onto a cellist during a Sydney Opera House performance of Boris Godunov.
2. Monaco’s orchestra is bigger than its army.
3. A costume worn by Adelina Patti at Covent Garden in 1895 was worth over $23,140,800 (£15 million). It is the most expensive opera costume to date.
4. In days past, men and woman would request locks of hair from the celebrities of their day as a sign of their special favor. Composer Franz Liszt received so many requests for hair that he used clippings from his dog’s fur and sent them instead.
5. American composer John Cage’s 1952 work 4’33” consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.
6. Termites eat wood twice as fast when heavy metal music is played.
7. Domenico Scarlatti composed his “Cat Fugue” after his cat, Pulcinella, walked across the keyboard of his piano.
8. The “Gothic” symphony by Havergal Brian requires 800 musicians to perform, including 82 string players.
9. Composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from a fear of the number 13, or Triskaidekaphobia. He died on Friday, July 13th, 1951.
10.Bach and Handel were both blinded by John Taylor, an ocular surgeon.
11.Beethoven would count out 60 coffee beans each time he had a cup of coffee.
12.Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni on the morning of the opera’s premier while also suffering from a massive hangover.
13.Composer Edward Elgar wrote the main theme for his Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, one of his most notable works, on a napkin after waking up from dental surgery.
14.Ralph Vaughn Williams was known to his family and friends as “The Uncle”.
15.Tchaikovsky and Saint Saëns enjoyed imitating ballet dancers when they were at the Moscow Conservatoire together.
There you have it—fifteen strange, weird, and wacky facts to show you just how bizarre the world of music can be!
1. A chicken fell off a stage and onto a cellist during a Sydney Opera House performance of Boris Godunov.
2. Monaco’s orchestra is bigger than its army.
3. A costume worn by Adelina Patti at Covent Garden in 1895 was worth over $23,140,800 (£15 million). It is the most expensive opera costume to date.
4. In days past, men and woman would request locks of hair from the celebrities of their day as a sign of their special favor. Composer Franz Liszt received so many requests for hair that he used clippings from his dog’s fur and sent them instead.
5. American composer John Cage’s 1952 work 4’33” consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.
6. Termites eat wood twice as fast when heavy metal music is played.
7. Domenico Scarlatti composed his “Cat Fugue” after his cat, Pulcinella, walked across the keyboard of his piano.
8. The “Gothic” symphony by Havergal Brian requires 800 musicians to perform, including 82 string players.
9. Composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from a fear of the number 13, or Triskaidekaphobia. He died on Friday, July 13th, 1951.
10.Bach and Handel were both blinded by John Taylor, an ocular surgeon.
11.Beethoven would count out 60 coffee beans each time he had a cup of coffee.
12.Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni on the morning of the opera’s premier while also suffering from a massive hangover.
13.Composer Edward Elgar wrote the main theme for his Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, one of his most notable works, on a napkin after waking up from dental surgery.
14.Ralph Vaughn Williams was known to his family and friends as “The Uncle”.
15.Tchaikovsky and Saint Saëns enjoyed imitating ballet dancers when they were at the Moscow Conservatoire together.
There you have it—fifteen strange, weird, and wacky facts to show you just how bizarre the world of music can be!
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