Mozart gives many instances of humor in his compositions, but
with a great difference in the character. His disposition was all
gentleness and sweetness, and his humor is characterized by these
attributes. It is on a small scale, and though enjoyable, has nothing
commanding about it. The musician, more than any artist, reflects his
character and trend of life in his work.
This sense of humor, inherent in the mental equipment of Beethoven,
enabled him to enjoy a joke as well as give it, to perceive a ridiculous
situation and extract due amusement from it, to appropriate it wherever
he found it. But singularly enough, when the point of a joke was turned
against himself, his sense of humor failed him utterly. He would often
become angry in such cases and the perpetrator would come in for a round
of abuse which made him chary of attempting it again.
Very bad music of which there was a sufficiency already in those times,
gave him great amusement, which he manifested by roars of laughter, we
are informed by Seyfried, who saw more or less of him during a period
covering a quarter of a century.
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