Curiosity 80: Peter Schickele (and P.D.Q. Bach)

Peter Schickele, the great classical music parodist, died yesterday at age 88. I heard quite a bit of him as a teenager, after my father discovered him in, I'm guessing, the mid-1960s. His New York Times obituary spells out his genius, so if you want to know more about him, go there. (I strongly recommend it: he was quite the madman composer, and reading about his life is highly entertaining.) 

I thought I would just post a few pieces by him, selected randomly. First, in concert with Itzhak Perlman and the Boston Pops, John Williams conducting, the Konzertshtick for Two Violins mit Orchestra:

Here, sound only, the inestimable Concerto for Horn and Hardart, S. 27:

The Short-Tempered Clavier, S. 3.14159 (easy as), which really shows off Schickele's piano skills (he wasn't just a parodist; he was actually a very good musician—he just decided to have fun with it all): 

The multitude of moments in the above piece can be broken down as follows:

1:01 Allen - Chopsticks 3:08 Bach - Fantasia in C Minor 3:15 Vejvoda - Roll Out the Barrel 3:49 Beethoven - Symphony No. 5, Mvt. I 4:08 Beethoven - Symphony No. 5, Mvt. II 4:15 Beethoven - Symphony No. 5, Mvt. III 4:29 Beethoven - Symphony No. 5, Mvt. IV 5:00 Mason - Mary Had a Little Lamb 5:06 Pierpont - Jingle Bells 6:29 Trad./Bloom - Kradoutja/Streets of Cairo 7:21 Saint-Saëns - Bacchanale (Samson and Delilah) 9:25 Trad. - Children’s mocking chant 10:12 Strauss II - The Blue Danube 11:48 Trad. - Shave and a Haircut 12:58 Handel - Hallelujah Chorus (Messiah) 13:43 Trad. - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Ah! vous dirai-je, maman) 14:05 Brahms - Symphony No. 1, Mvt. IV 14:19 attributed to Haydn - St. Anthony Chorale 16:09 Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Reed Flutes (The Nutcracker) 16:17 Berlin - How Dry I Am 17:28 Trad. - 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall 17:39 Bach - Ricercar a 6 (Musical Offering) 18:16 Davis - You Are My Sunshine 18:31 Brackett/Copland - Simple Gifts/Appalachian Spring 18:32 Handel - Alla Hornpipe (Water Music Suite No. 2, Mvt. II) 18:42 R. Strauss - Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks 18:50 Katscher - Good Evening, Friends 19:41 Trad. - The Hearse Song/The Worms Crawl In 20:33 Trad. - Dies Irae 20:41 Chopin - Funeral March (Piano Sonata 2, Mvt. III) 21:46 Cortés - Cielito Lindo 22:21 Trad. - Over the Fence Is Out / Paine - Fuga Giacosa 23:22 Lecuona - Malagueña 24:28 Jowett/Randall/Crotch - Westminster Chimes 25:39 Aldrich - Great Tom Is Cast 27:58 Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca (Piano Sonata 11, Mvt. III) 30:31 Bach - B-A-C-H Motif 30:50 Trad. - For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 30:54 Mozart - Leck mich im Arsch 31:54 Sibelius - Symphony No. 5, Mvt. III; or Ward - The Band Played On

Here is Prof. Schickele being interviewed in 1996:

And there's plenty more on YouTube. 

He also had an eclectic, and more serious, radio program from 1992 to 2007, oriented around themes, such as death, great octave leaps, animals, and surprising rhythm changes. Here is episode #35 (seemingly devoted to Bach—Johann Sebastian, not P.D.Q.) of the 810 weekly broadcasts that he aired. Some other episodes are available here.

I'd forgotten about P.D.Q. Bach until reading about Schickele's death today, and was glad to be reminded and reacquainted. Both of them brought great amusement to lovers of classical music.