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I personally leave Shostakovich entirely alone. His reputation is too polluted for it to be possible to have any meaningful discussion about his music. That being said, I think irony is definitely an appreciable quality of music.* Not so much an evocation of irony but rather the ironic intent of the composer. Check out this Beethoven scherzo (2:29:49): At the end of the trio, he very jarringly modulates to the parallel minor (2:32:14) and then immediately repeats the scherzo da capo, which is in the parallel major to that! I refuse to believe that he was in any way sincere when he wrote this, and the same can be said for countless other very funny passages. It is almost sinful not to mention Haydn in this discussion, who without a shadow of a doubt is king among composers when it comes to musical irony. I would say that Shostakovich's music, if anything, is more bitterly sarcastic in its character than inherently ironic. Mahler is a different story though, there are many moments of awe-inspiring irony in his music; I don't even necessarily find it funny, in fact I think it is usually quite poignant or even terrifying. I actually find the adjective "erotic" to be more appropriate for Mahler than Wagner. I'm not saying it means anything, but I do subjectively agree with the assessment. * Generally speaking.

Misa Bb Credo 1.mid Misa Bb Et Incarnatus 2.mid Misa Bb Et resurexit 3.mid

Very lovely settings. Do you have scores?

Hi, Satie invented Gymnopedias and other kind of pieces. I think they're lovely and quite interesting. I wrote some of them. This one is played by a friend.