Jingle Bells but 18 classical composers are decorating a christmas tree

Merry Christmas! How many composers does it take to set up a Christmas tree? Watch this video to find out! This is another one of my “meme-quotation/pastiche“ videos, where I have composers (represented by their themes) fight against each other while integrating the Jingle Bells motif whenever possible. I’ve put all the references in the timestamps below, but see if you can guess all of them! On a side note, I’ve been wanting to have a better idea of integrating composers’ styles into these meme parody videos, and after searching through youtube I have to say the most informative series I’ve seen so far has been Nahre Sol’s “How to sound like insert composer“ videos. Apart from that, I’ve found that studying how classical composers have done their variations has also been an eye-opener, very they can come up with some very interesting techniques. I’ve also been loving Victor Borge’s performances, they’re absolutely hilarious. Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas or ways to learn, always open to suggestions! For the purposes of the timestamps/analysis, the first part of Jingle Bells (Dashing through the snow...) will be referred to as JB1, and the 2nd half of Jingle Bells (Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way...) will be referred to as JB2. 0:00 - Jingle Bells theme in C major, with a slight modulation into B minor because why not haha 0:07 - JB1 in LH, counterpoint against JB2 in right hand. 0:13 - JB2 in counterpoint with “How do you (not) write a fugue“ by Nicholas Ma (I put a self-quotation of one of my old compositions haha) 0:22 - Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 - Chopin 0:37 - Flight of the Bumblebee, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 0:39 - Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op 13 - Beethoven 0:49 - Given that this is the “Pathetique“ Sonata, I thought it was funny for Beethoven to call someone pathetic haha 1:01 - Wanderer Fantasy, Op 15 - Schubert - Picardy-esque resolution leads nicely into this C major (and yes, the annotations has Schubert “wandering“) 1:05 - Symphony No. 5 - Beethoven 1:10 - JB2 mixed with Wanderer Fantasy 1:14 - Little Neapolitan pivot allows us to modulate to E minor 1:16 - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - Tchaikovsky, in counterpoint with Silent Night (middle voice in LH) 1:25 - Silent Night is transposed, but still maintained in conjunction with Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 1:32 - Symphony 9 “From the New World“ - Dvorak (in RH), and the lick (in LH) 1:35 - Symphony 5 Beethoven (in LH), while Dvorak Symphony 9 is still in RH 1:41 - Silent Night mixed with Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 - Chopin 1:58 - “Emperor“ Piano Concerto No. 5 - Beethoven JB2 (in middle voice) 2:06 - La Campanella, Étude 3 of S. 141 - Liszt 2:16 - Fur Elise - Beethoven, but in the style of Liszt/La Campanella 2:26 - Back to La Campanella 2:29 - Piano Sonata No. 23 Op 57 Mov 1 “Appassionata“ - Beethoven 2:34 - JB2 in Left Hand (forming a Hemiola-like effect due to the triple meter against Jingle Bells) 2:44 - JB2 Hemiola is used as an enharmonic pivot into A minor (through bar 79’s Fb major seventh chord, which is enharmonically similar to E major chord, the dominant seventh of A minor) 2:47 - Piano Concerto Op 7, Mov. 3 - Clara Schumann 2:54 - Piano Concerto Op 54, Mov. 1 - Robert Schumann 2:58 - Variations on a Theme of Paganini Op. 35 - Brahms, Variation 2 in LH, JB2 in RH 3:14 - Also Brahms Paganini Variations, but Variation 13 from Book 2 3:22 - JB2 in LH against Brahms Paganini Variations 3:38 - Prelude Op 23 No 5 - Rachmaninoff 3:41 - Eine Kleine Natchmusik K. 525 - Mozart 3:43 - Piano Concerto No. 3 - Rachmaninoff 3:47 - Among Us (the story fit it, AND it fit perfectly into Rach 3... I just had to do it haha) 3:55 - Little transition into Grieg Piano Concerto Op. 16 4:01 - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - Bach 4:05 - Morning Mood from Peer Gynt, Grieg 4:09 - Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K 310 - Mozart 4:13 - Bach Toccata BWV 565 again 4:16 - “Ondine“ from Gaspard de la Nuite (Mov. 1) - Ravel 4:21 - JB2 in LH, Ondine in RH 4:37 - Voiles - Debussy (in LH), against Ondine-like accompaniment in RH 4:45 - Etude Tableau Op 39 No 6 “Little Red Riding Hood“ - Rachmaninoff 4:56 - JB2 in LH, Op 39 No 6 in RH 5:01 - JB1 in LH, Op 39 No 6 in RH 5:07 - Back to Op 39 No 6 only 5:14 - Hints of JB1 and JB2 are blended into the buildup 5:37 - James Lord Pierpoint was the person who originally wrote Jingle Bells in 1857, so he’s definitely making a cameo appearance here haha 5:47 - Cadenza from Piano Concerto No. 3 - Rachmaninoff 5:54 - Bach Toccata BWV 565 5:57 - Bach to Rach 3 Cadenza buildup 6:00 - JB1 (in RH top voice), mixed with Rach 3 Cadenza (I also cut/extend the melody’s timing a bit, as evidenced with the 2/4 bars: eg. cut at bar 204, elongate at bar 211) 6:27 - Prelude Op 23 No 5 - Rachmaninoff 6:29 - JB2 is interspersed with the ending of Prelude Op 23 No 5 6:43 - Final iteration of Jingle Bells! Social Media: #jinglebells #christmas #christmastree
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