Posted on 01/19/2024 3:48:58 PM PST by Borges
Peter Schickele, an American composer whose career as a writer of serious concert music was often eclipsed by that of his antic alter ego, the thoroughly debauched, terrifyingly prolific and mercifully fictional P.D.Q. Bach, died on Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, a hamlet outside Woodstock, N.Y. He was 88.
His death was confirmed by his daughter, Karla Schickele, who said his health had declined after a series of infections last fall.
His music was performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Lark Quartet, the Minnesota Opera and other notable ensembles, as well as by the folk singers Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie, for whom he wrote arrangements.
Under his own name, Mr. Schickele (pronounced SHICK-uh-lee) composed more than 100 symphonic, choral, solo instrumental and chamber works, first heard on concert stages in the 1950s and later commissioned by some of the world’s leading orchestras, soloists and chamber ensembles. He also wrote film scores and musical numbers for Broadway.
But to his resigned chagrin, it was as a musical parodist in the tradition of Victor Borge, Anna Russell and Spike Jones — Mr. Schickele’s particular idol — that he remained best known.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A fun little opera.
He got thrown out of Juilliard for being too good!
He founded the PDQ Bach institute at the University of North Dakota At Hoople!
I spent way too many nights reading his stuff .
He once wrote that he “majored in Cafeteria” when he was at Juilliard. That’s about as “inside baseball” a joke as has ever been told about Juilliard LOL
Eine Kleine Nichtmusik
Thanks for posting this. I read it via Instapundit the other day, it’s a great obit.
Not super familiar with PDQ Bach, but did have one album, hilarious!
Then there’s the unforgettable Pervertimento for Bicycle, Bagpipes and Balloon.
I had the pleasure of performing in “The Seasonings”. I played the tromboon (combination of trombone and bassoon, not really difficult for a reed player) and sneeze.
“Open sesame seeds and see what you see...”
I left out kazoo. My friend played kazoo and Twirlophone, a length of clear 1/2” tubing with a funnel stuffed in one end and a trumpet mouthpiece stuffed in the other. Sounded like a Leslie speaker on steroids.
RIP. Clever and funny and someone who gave the gift of laughter.
That’s partly why he was a very nice guy. Roger Maris also grew up in Fargo.
In case you missed the thread!
I have quite a bit of PDQ Bach in my mix. Some of it is really funny. Gotta be a music nerd though.
Either that, or the University of Northern South Dakota, I forget which.
I once sung in a smallish city choir that did mostly show tunes, but each Christmas our repertoire contained at least one PDQ Bach 4-part choral number. My favorite was Throw The Yule Log On, Uncle John. (Other songs: Good King Kong Looked Out, and O Little Town of Hackensack).
The chorus after each verse of Uncle John was the best part, where each section was singing something totally unrelated to the others, yet it all somehow magically fit together to sound good:
Soprano: Fa la la, fa la la, fa la la, fa la la fa la la, fa fa mi fa
Alto: Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy wuzzy wuzzy wuhza wuhza woo wah
Tenor: Sis sis sis sis sis sis sis sis sis boom bah
Bass: Boom chick boom chick boom chick boom chick boom chick boom chick boom boom boom buhzoowah doowah
A true musical genius he was.
Only he who is running nose.
Schickele was probably the greatest satirist of all time. No era was immune. No aspect of life was neglected in his work.
Oedipus Tex’s wife: “Billie Jo Casta”. How can someone NOT appreciate that? Pure genius.
‘hard not to laugh hysterically reading that stuff. thanks!
I used to have his last book. My favorite part was the scoring: A Little Bit of nightmare Music......the score where the notes had all fallen off their staves...or his last work with the trill followed by the long firmata to spell out his last breath.
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