So you'll be an Austrian nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
With money you squeeze from the peasants
To your nephew you can give it as a present
This magnificent symphony in C
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
Completely filling the palace concert hall
It's warm and golden like an oven that's wide open
It has a melody both happy and sad
Built on victorious known triads
You enter the room with great caution
Though no-one in the hall is even watching
They are transfixed, they are forgetting just to breathe
They are so taken by your symphony in C
You are sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death
So you'll be an Austrian nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
With money you squeeze from the peasants
To your nephew you can give it as a present
This magnificent symphony in C
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
Completely filling the palace concert hall
It's warm and golden like an oven that's wide open
It has a melody both happy and sad
Built on victorious known triads
You enter the room with great caution
Though no-one in the hall is even watching
They are transfixed, they are forgetting just to breathe
They are so taken by your symphony in C
You are sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death
So you'll be an Austrian nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You'll be commissioning a symphony in C
Lyrics submitted by shut, edited by EvanDood, adameyer, Gideonator, brownale9000
Commissioning a Symphony in C Lyrics as written by John M Mccrea
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, O/B/O CAPASSO
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think there is a lot of misinformation floating around in these comments.
First, I don't think there is any association between the key of C and simplicity, and certainly no association between it and crappy music eaten up by the masses. In addition to Beethoven's Symphony no.1, Mozart's final, and arguably greatest, symphony is also in C. Stravinsky, Bizet, Wagner, and a ton of other composers also used the key. Haydn wrote about a dozen. It was taken as seriously any other key by classical composers.
I'd argue that the choice of "C" has less to do with any deeper point that Cake is trying to make and more to do with lyricism. "Symphony in C" just sounds better, given the rest of the lyrics.
Now that that's out of the way, I think some people are spot on that this is a song about record companies, and the extent to which they've transformed into the hated musical patrons of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Back in the good old days, all great works of art were commissions, mostly from rich noblemen. Haydn, Mozart, and the like all relied upon wealthy, noble "patrons" to support themselves. Beethoven, all high on popular sovereignty, liberte, egality, fraternetie, rode a wave away from this system and towards more autonomous composers who published their own music through private music publishers (pre-cursors, in a way, of the modern day record company).
The music biz, then, was once a seen as a liberator of artists and their creativity, rather than the oppressor that it has come to be viewed as today. This song is a satirical jab at the way the record industry has come to fancy itself the patron, or Austrian nobleman, of yesteryear.
Or maybe it's literal. Fuck if I know...
"You're sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not"
He listens to the symphony, but only hears what is wrong with it, not what is good.
"You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death"
A metaphor for pessimism, just like the "is the glass half full" question. Do we spend each moment on Earth living, or do we spend each moment just getting closer and closer to death?
so the distances to death is not measurable
so one can't say one is getting closer
will we die
yes
are we getting closer
there are well established age limits
It is probably also worth noting that (to the best of my knowledge, maybe my memory fails me here though...?) Cake were basically forced (by their record company) to produce the amount of records they had signed for, and this is how we got 'B Sides and Rarities'... I think.
So yeah, I'd be willing to guess that this is John giving the record companies a little poke in the side of the ribs.
Anyway, even taken literally this is one of my favourite Cake songs, real quality.
The line "You've entered the room with great caution" is where I first started thinking about this, so I finished and went back to listen one more time, noting the progression of instrumentation througout the song, a gradual buildup to a more frantic and dissonant song in places, contrasted with the easygoing nature of the beginning. This in conjunction with the verse,
"You're sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death," for me, symbolizes a fall into paranoia and self-loathing.
It's very haunting, and moody, and I like the lyrics.
I'm not sure I totally understand the lyrics, but I think it's about how it's not the creatOR that is remembered, but rather the creatION. In this case, the Symphony is enjoyed by all, and will live on, even after the self-centered "nobleman" dies.
Sort of playing something already proven successful.