All Right, Seriously, WTF

I mean, really:

Blame Mary Robinette Kowal, I got it from her.

Comments

  1. Janice in GA says:

    Saw this earlier today.

    I laud them for their ability to keep (mostly) straight faces through this.

  2. Lisa Morton says:

    I got nothing.

    But I couldn’t stop watching, all the same.

  3. Benjamin says:

    I laughed all along then went to Wikipedia and saw that it was written in 1825! Cat crazyness wasn’t invented with internet memes!

  4. Jeff Hentosz says:

    These guys are pussies.

    (Anyway, unless and until the accompanist does the right thing and uses Cat Piano on an iPad, as I think we can all agree he ought, I refuse to take this group seriously.)

    Serious Music Fan R Serious!

  5. Paul says:

    Ah the internet, now if someone could super impose the heads of cats and animate them in time with the vocals.

  6. Johnathon Taggs says:

    Never forget to be artful in you play and playful in your art.

    I think excellence in craft requires both.

  7. Johnathon Taggs says:

    my apologies for the typo.

  8. MasterThief says:

    Posso avere bistecca con formaggio?

  9. It’s an internet meme designed by the church to increase branding impressions.

    That’s my take on it.

  10. tikaanidog says:

    LOL! Cats, the ORIGINAL musical!

  11. I have absolutely sung that song in voice lessons. It’s a classic! No, really, you can look it up!

  12. Other Bill says:

    Internets, I think I…love you.

  13. Chris G. says:

    I really have no words. Probably because I’m trying desperately not to erupt into laughter in the middle of my office….

  14. I have enough cats for a Cat Piano.

    D# weighs 30 lbs and would climb up my body and perch on my head for trying it, though, so I’ll pass…

  15. Alienor says:

    Rossini’s best piece, I think.

  16. J Meijer says:

    This brings back memories, back in highschool (early 90′s) some people performed this piece or one quite like it. They did manage to make it more of a dialogue, and a nasty one at times as well.

  17. Michael says:

    Well, it isn’t PDQ Bach, like I expected but G. Berthold is in the same vein…

  18. Sam M-B says:

    Hm. That’s two very interesting “kids in religious garb singing something funny” this week. This is a
    group of “silent monks singing Handel’s Messiah”. It’s full of awesome.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU

  19. Natalie L. says:

    This made my cat come over to see what the hell I was watching. She seems to be slightly more disturbed than usual.

  20. K.W. Ramsey says:

    We can blame Mary for sending it to you, but we’ll still blame you for posting it here.

    Thank goodness that wasn’t stuck in my head all day. Thank you iPod full of music goodness.

  21. iain says:

    This could only be more kinds of awesome if Keyboard Cat played them off.

  22. Mark Terry says:

    I’ll go with WTF.

  23. Jeff O says:

    What about Nora and the Cat-certo?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

  24. HistoryDave says:

    I first heard this piece back in the 80s, performed by two women dressed up in cat suits. Helloooo classical music! Where had you been all my life?

  25. Will the catholic church stop at nothing?!

  26. Andrew says:

    I rarely can understand the lyrics of the music I listen to. It is either in a Language I don’t understand (think Wagner) or the voice itself is unclear (think Mayhem).

    For someone who rarely understands lyrics, but likes the sound of the Human Voice, this is pretty cool.

    Cheers
    Andrew

  27. Annie says:

    Oh you don’t know crazy like choral people crazy, a long and proud tradition of sopranos who need more oxygen and diva choir directors…It’s like all the most rabid aspects of sci-fi nerdery except about Bach.

  28. Steveg says:

    Caterwauling has never been nicer

  29. A.J. says:

    At least in this piece the performers can concentrate on getting the notes right. They don’t have to worry so much about remembering lyrics.

  30. Keri says:

    That was great! I love how the dark-haired boy kept laughing. Brilliant!

  31. Tristan says:

    Jeff O:

    That was hilarious. Who thinks up these things?!

  32. GL2814 says:

    Nothing special, my cats did the same thing every morning. :-)

    I suspect the originator of this idea would fall in the category of “crazy old cat person”

  33. Julia Rios says:

    If by “WTF?” you mean, “This is utterly brilliant,” then yes, I totally agree.

  34. Keri says:

    Okay, I couldn’t let it go and I did some research. This is a performance of Duet of Cats by Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois from 1996. The blond boy is Hyacinthe de Moulins (I bet he got beat up a lot because of that name) and the dark-haired boy is Regis Mengus. Mengus is now an opera baritone.

  35. M.A. says:

    What I want to know is, how many times did they have to rehearse that before they could get through it without cracking up?

  36. ULTRAGOTHA says:

    Oh, my, God. Sam M-B #18. I can’t remember when I’ve laughed that hard. That was fantastic!

  37. Beth Friedman says:

    Thanks to the Midnight Special (a folk radio show in Chicago with occasional aberrations), I grew up listening to the Victoria de los Angeles and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf version of this duet.

    Rossini has a lot to answer for, is all I can say.

    (Also, I have a digitized version, so if you want it, let me know.)

  38. Lauretta says:

    Rossini? Yep, that’s one of the duets that all opera singers have to learn. At least the sopranos anyway. My favorite version is the one with 2 ladies did things like fake-hurl a hairball. :)

    Sam @ 18 – that is AWESOME. I say this as someone who has sung that piece in every part except Baritone. ForEverAndEver! Hallelujah!

  39. Lars says:

    Another nice interpretation of this classic piece of music. :-)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sluzi-QGtyA

  40. It was written before 1825, it is attributed with a high level of certainty to WA Mozart, from the opera The Philosopher’s Stone.

  41. And not a piece of bacon in sight!

    Or, here we have the origins of the Meow Mix commercials.

  42. Misty Massey says:

    When I was in high school, and participated in three separate choirs (yeah, I was a lot more energetic back then), we often practiced our pieces by singing “meow meow” instead of the words. The director felt it was a good way to get us to focus on the notes instead of the words.

    Maybe this choir’s director went to the same music school mine did. :D

  43. John H says:

    I would have guessed PDQ Bach until I looked it up…

  44. Evilsteve says:

    Horrible.

  45. For a brief second, based on the title, I thought they were going to be holding cats and making the *cats* meow.

    This was much less disturbing.

  46. uglyscot says:

    Amusing: yes

    Effective Voice Training Exercise: YES

  47. Elaine Gallagher says:

    Two of the sopranos in the choir I was in at university performed this one in the revues that we’d do. Also where I was introduced to “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”.

  48. ally says:

    I much prefer it performed by female sopranos than male choir sopranos, but yes – hilarious – and fantastic to see in person as an encore or lighter choice in a serious recital…

  49. Alan Kellogg says:

    #34,

    How old were the boys at the time. I’d swear 14, because nobody does snark better than 14 year old boys.

  50. lightning says:

    #45 —

    For a brief second, based on the title, I thought they were going to be holding cats and making the *cats* meow.

    That would be this one:

  51. Matt says:

    It’s rather disturbing how catty people are being about this…
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    (sorry!)

    ;-)

  52. Tim says:

    @Jeff O: Thanks for Nora’s Catcerto. That’s the most brilliant video I’ve seen in a long time!

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