Decomposing Composers is a song released on the album Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
It is sung by Michael Palin in what appears to be the persona of Luigi Vercotti, a seedy character who appeared in some sketches in the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus, notably Spiny Norman.
The backing to the song is actually Pachelbel's Canon in D, and in the final spoken coda, there is a medley of classical favorites in the background. It even includes an attempt to play Beethoven's 5th symphony, which keeps starting up and winding down, possibly to add to the "death" humor of the song.
After an initial spoken section where Luigi talks to his wife on the phone, he begins to sing about dead classical composers, including the following:
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Johannes Brahms
- Franz Liszt
- Edward Elgar
- Franz Schubert
- Frédéric Chopin
- Joseph Haydn
- Georg Friedrich Händel
- Sergej Rachmaninov
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Richard Wagner
- Claude Debussy
The final, spoken coda to the song includes a list of dead composers, as follows:
- Claude Achille Debussy, died, 1918.
- Christoph Willibald Gluck, died, 1787.
- Carl Maria von Weber, not at all well, 1825. Died, 1826.
- Giacomo Meyerbeer, still alive, 1863. Not still alive, 1864.
- Modeste Mussorgsky, 1880, going to parties. No fun anymore, 1881.
- Johan Nepomuk Hummel, chatting away nineteen to the dozen with his mates down the pub every evening, 1836. 1837, nothing.
External links
Template:Monty Python
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