[Elgar's Ghost]

Michael Daugherty is up there. He often composes about certain aspects of post-WWII American culture, usually with a twinkle in the eye. Elvis, ornamental flamingos and Barbie dolls are just three examples.

 

[Vaneyes]

 

[Elgar's Ghost]

Looks like he's either won at poker or he's managed to negotiate a higher wedge for one of his premieres...

 

[Chronochromie]

 

[GreenMamba]

Michael Nyman has a work called The Piano Concerto. It's from the movie The Piano, hence the "the" in the title. I've always thought this was funny.

 

[clavichorder]

Carl Nielsen was a very funny guy . Once, when he went to London to conduct the London symphony orchestra in a concert of his music , he addressed the musicians at the first rehearsal thusly :
"Good morning, gentlemen. I'm glad to see you . I hope I'm also glad to hear you ! "

LOL !!!

He was funny in person, as he was in his music. I get the sense more and more that Nielsen's sense of humor was often a way to counterbalance dark things that he felt. Symphony 5 is probably the most deeply optimistic thing he put out. He didn't let up on that deeper expressiveness in Symphony 6, but I think it's less popular partly because it shows the extent of his dark side with all the gritty humor exposed.

But yeah, he's probably the ultimate dark clown of classical music.

 

[clavichorder]

Berlioz once entertained a dinner party by standing in a bucket of mayonnaise and smoking a cigar.

(Actually,I just made that up, but it's wonderful to think about. )

Berlioz belong with Scriabin in the category of so grandiose that it's sometimes funny. Both in music and in life. Horrowitz describing meeting Scriabin in person is very funny, "he was really weird, you know." Just such high acts that were reflections of their very strange inner cores... Truly larger than life, in a way that you can believe sometimes, and others...

 

[clavichorder]

Don't forget Alkan. Satie gets too much credit when he was preceded by another first class french eccentric composer. Once again, in person, and certainly in the music. Alkan maybe had a grain of larger than life ambition like Berlioz, but it never seems to have been that serious for him.

 

[clavichorder]

Telemann and CPE Bach shared a sense of humor in many ways. Telemann was actually CPE's godfather, and they seem to have related well to each other. Dig around through Telemann overtures and apart from the wit that just about all his music contains, you'll discover some truly strange things. He also wrote an autobiography: the man seems to have been a bit hyperactive apart from being very industrious and successful at what he did both artistically and professionally. CPE Bach had his 'sensitive style' going and it's sometimes hard to know whether his more avant garde writing is motivated by that, or by his humorous unpredictability and bounciness that he was fond of.

 

[clavichorder]

No one mentioned Poulenc or Offenbach yet?

You can just look at pictures of Offenbach and know he had a sense of humor. And despite his reputation for being light, a lot of his greatness and substance was in his capacity for satire, apart from the orchestration and melodies.

Along similar lines you could certainly mention Rossini. His satirical remarks of Wagner and other 19th century music often get confused in my mind for Mark Twain's. As for the music, there is some heavy duty substance in some of it but he knew about humor.

And now we get to Mozart. We all know he was very funny.

I wasn't really aware of that side to Poulenc.

 

[SONNET CLV]

Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.
In any case, here's a picture of the Swede.

It's wonderful to see him in such fine spirits.

Pettersson's "Complete Symphonies" box from cpo remains one of my favorite sets of "modern" music.

 

[Xenakiboy]

Mauricio kagel is very self-aware and humorous.
Also, Frank Zappa's (limited amount of) classical works are also hilarious, check out The Pleated Gazelle (my favorite)

 

[techniquest]

The first name that came into my mind when reading the OP's post was Carl Nielsen; having read some stuff about him, he comes across as the kind of good humoured person whom one could definitely warm to. The photo on page 1 (jms's post) is one of a set taken when he was in his teens; but much later in life, you only have to listen to the finale of his 6th symphony to find that his sense of humour didn't diminish.
I would also add Rodion Shchedrin to the list. He's written a good deal of very serious music, but his 1st Concerto for Orchestra is a real fun piece (though I should expect, devilishly difficult to play).

Rodion Shchedrin

 

[norman bates]

Three pages without a mention for the english Satie, Lord Berners?

Besides being the favorite english composer of Stravinsky the guy was certainly funny.
Here while he's painting with his horse in his house (I wonder if David Lynch knew him)

 

[Sloe]

Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.
In any case, here's a picture of the Swede.

It's wonderful to see him in such fine spirits.

Pettersson's "Complete Symphonies" box from cpo remains one of my favorite sets of "modern" music.

View attachment 85341

Just saying that is not Allan Pettersson it is Stig Jacobsson

This is Allan Pettersson:

 

[MarkW]

Musically, I still say that Beethoven was one of the funniest composers who ever lived.

 

[Bevo]

I can't speak too much for personality, but musically Haydn was known to be very humorous! The Surprise Symphony, The Joke, are two very well known examples. He even incorporated comedy to help get his points across to the audience at times, such as with the Farwell Symphony. I also know that Mozart had a very... distinct dirty-mouth sense of bathroom comedy in his letters to friends and family.

 

[Reichstag aus LICHT]

This is Allan Pettersson:

...caught in the act of insulting someone, by the looks of it.

 

[clavichorder]

Swedish composer Allan Pettersson produces music that makes me laugh.
Hell ... if I couldn't laugh at it, it would probably drive me to suicide.

Yes, he belongs in a category alongside perhaps Berlioz, Scriabin, and Bruckner for being so completely extreme in some 'heavy' aspects as to be absurdly funny. Just a certain lack of self consciousness about this 'deep', 'grand', or 'dark', or whatever music. I am tempted to include Schumann, but there is something about him that I am forced to take with a more complete seriousness and sadness too. Beethoven might actually work though! He definitely has a 'big old boy' vibe about him.

 

[dgee]

Good to see others have already put up Kagel and Ligeti - lots of witty and amusing music from both. Reading about Morton Feldman, he seemed hilarious