One year, around State Fair time, the classical station in the Twin Cities ("Mostly Mozart Public Radio" I used to call it) sponsored a contest, awarding $150 to the composer of the best limerick on the theme of "famous composers and the State Fair." I thought, "hmmm…" and came up with a small cache of them (but not the 150 bucks), which I add to occasionally when I need a word game to keep me awake on a long post-gig drive, or if I get to wondering whether anyone else is as tickled as I am by the term "cantus firmus." The names of early music guys seem particularly suited for limericks:
“Hildy” said Hildegard’s friends
Back in Bingen, ‘mongst animal pens
"You may be a mystic
But getcha some lipstick
‘Cause what you could use is some mens.”
John Dunstable made it his cause
To update old musical laws
Saying, "He who objects
To my music, or texts,
Can sit on my Contenance Angloise!"
Clemens non Papa, Jacobus
Lamenting his aged epidermis,
Says "I useta could do
Contrapunctus à 2,
But now'days I just cantus firmus!"
Minnesota, by the way, has a legendarily kick-ass State Fair.
No comments:
Post a Comment