Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

I still remember the first time I heard the music of P.D.Q. Bach. On the program at New York’s Town Hall were the Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments and the Schleptet in E♭ major. I was immediately hooked.

Each piece was introduced by Professor Peter Schickele of the Music Pathology Department, University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Schickele claimed to have discovered the work of P.D.Q, who he described as the 21st and least of the children of the great baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Here is where things get a little dicey. J.S. Bach was certainly prolific. But he stopped at 20 children. And while there is a Hoople in North Dakota, there is no university there. I should have noted that the program listed P.D.Q.’s dates as “(1807–1742)?“

In truth P.D.Q. was entirely fictional, the creation of Julliard trained musical polymath Peter Schickele, who died last week at his home in Bearsville, New York. He was 88 years old. A prolific composer in his own right, Schickele began his career writing serious concert music in the 1950s, writing symphonic, choral, solo instrumental, and chamber works. He also composed music for films, such as the sci-fi cult classic “Silent Running” (1972), and for Broadway shows, including as “Oh! Calcutta!” (1969), for which he received a Grammy nomination. He collaborated with several folk musicians, most famously Joan Baez, for whom he arranged three albums in the late 1960s. He also hosted a radio program on NPR called “Schickele Mix” from 1992 to 1999, which explored various aspects of music history and theory.

But he will certainly be most remembered for his send-up of the sometimes-stuffy world of classical music. It was in New York where he began exploring musical comedy, and in a 1965 performance, he debuted his comic alter-ego P.D.Q. Bach. P.D.Q. Schickele told the audiance, was “the youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children.”

Schickele devoted himself to P.D.Q. Bach for 50 years, continually “discovering” new/old works and details of his unique place in music history. Schickele once said P.D.Q. was the only dead composer who still took commissions. The works were often plays and parodies on the classical canon, for example, the 1712 Overture, Canine Cantata: Wachet, Arf! (Sleeping Dogs, Awake!), Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion, and A Little Nightmare Music. Instrumentation regularly spanned from the wacky to downright bizarre, including the pastaphone, and the tromboon, a hybrid trombone and bassoon.

P.D.Q. Bach’s works were also recorded. From 1990 to 1993, Shickele’s P.D.Q. Bach recordings won four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album. Schickele also performed the parodies in concert halls around the world, often hosted by some of the greatest symphony orchestras in the world. Another concert I remember well was a pension fundraiser with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was amazing to watch, and hear, the CSO players get fully involved in the gags.

One of the works on the program that night was not a P.D.Q. Bach composition but a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 staged as a sportscast. Schickele narrates the German composer’s great symphony as if it were an all-American sports event. Accompanying the live orchestra are referee whistles, slow-motion replays, sporting analysis and howls of outrage.

It’s all very funny. But as with the best paraody, just below the jokes on the surface, there’s so much more. Within his satire, Schickele guides you through the instruments of the orchestra, different symphonic terms, as well as the intricacies of sonata form and the structure of Beethoven’s masterpiece.

Who knew a music lesson could involve so much laughter? It’s precisely what made Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach so special, the ability to entertain, but also educate and inspire at the same time.

There is a YouTube channel dedicated to Schickele’s creations. Enjoy.

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