So sad to hear about this. :/

no bc why am i so sad about this 😭

PDQ Bach, the last and oddest of JS Bach's twenty-odd children, was a formative musical influence of mine. the world's foremost scholar of his works, Professor Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, died last week. i wrote this in his memory, and i'm so pleased to have placed it in VAN magazine. give it a read, and then go bring some joy into the world <3

Rest in peace, Peter Schickele. Thank you for bringing us the magnificent body of work of PDQ Bach, the last and least of Bach's sons. I think he was the 13th of 12. Anyway, this is one of his masterpieces. Enjoy!

RIP Peter Schickele, 2024-1935

The world's a poorer place without the inventor of the tromboon and the lasso d'amore.

I got to hear "Hornsmoke" live soon after its composition. I was a kid and totally didn't get the "Reverend Tubby Mirum" joke, but I do now.

(For those who need a hint: it's a riff on a line from the Dies irae: Tuba mirum spargens sonum.)

Peter Schickele 1935-2024

Peter Schickele died on January 16th, after increasing health problems that confined him to his home in Woodstock, New York. He was 88 years old. He had a long parallel career as a serious composer and a musical comedian, in which he was known all over as P. D. Q. Bach and made memorable recordings still in print. His parodies of learned styles and burlesques of well-known masterpieces endure for their educational value as much as for their unerring drollery — as in the Concerto for Horn and Hardart in which a quasi-Mozart appoggiatura is drawn out for 30 seconds before gasping to a resolution, and in the Quodlibet with tonic-dominant melodies from all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies accumulating, followed by a combination of Schoenberg’s Little Piano Piece, op. 19, no. 2, and Puccini’s Un bel di vedremo (who would have thought that one could work?). You can’t forget his Beethoven Fifth first movement as a down-on-the-farm sportscast, or the mini-opera The Abduction of Figaro.

Mark DeVoto in The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Peter Schickele Dies at 88

Listening to some P.D.Q. Bach compositions and laughing. I am not very musically literate, so I don't know what the jokes are. Still I laugh.

A comment I saw on Youtube was, "When is this funny?" I thought it funny imagining the commenter listening to the piece, seriously. But even if you don't find the music funny, I bet you'd find some of the titles funny.

P. D. Q. Bach

This is sad. May his memory be for a blessing.

I discovered PDQ Bach when I was in high school, and I've loved his stuff ever since.

guys it's stabbins day

holy shit

A towering work. One of Perlman's greatest performances. Professor Schickele was a musical genius for the ages. Let us marvel at his work.

P.D.Q. Williamson vs Godzilla

P.D.Q. Williamson vs Godzilla

I discovered Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003) the Australian composer thanks to the music in the horror/suspense movie Crescendo. One plot thread was an unfinished concerto the music for which was provided by Williamson. This is how I sometimes discover music. On this mp3 cd compilation I have his Overtures & Complete Piano Concertos. Mid-century romantic with, at times, over-the-top emotionalism.…

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Vox Satanae - Episode #574: A Tribute to Seiji Ozawa and Peter Schickele

Vox Satanae – Episode #574 19th-20th Centuries A Tribute to Seiji Ozawa and Peter Schickele This week we hear works by Hector Berlioz, P.D.Q. Bach, and Peter Schickele. 131 Minutes – Week of 2024 February 12 Stream Vox Satanae Episode 574. Download Vox Satanae Episode 574.

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Oratorio “The Seasonings”, S. 1/2 TSP., by the composer P.D.Q. Bach (the twenty-first of Johann Sebastian Bach’s twenty children),

This rare recording of an even more rarely performed work possesses a special informative introduction by Peter Schickele, the world-renowned music historian, who has made it his life’s work to study, and bring attention to, the music of, in his words, a “profoundly shallow composer […] whose plagiarism was limited only by his faulty technique”. Other works by this little-known composer include such true gems as the cantata “Iphigenia in Brooklyn”, the oratorio “The Seasonings”, S. ½ TSP., and the “1712" Overture.

Mr. Schickele is, it should be noted, a gentleman of great integrity and standing, and has in no way, shape, or form been writing parodies and pastiches under an assumed name and fictional persona for the purposes of comedy, and such accusations are defamatory. Mr. Schickele has never made a joke in his life.

Peter Schickele has died. He was one of the icons of my early adulthood. He introduced me to classical music and taught me an important lesson: to appreciate the mastery and beauty of the old masters, but, appreciation should not be confused with reverence.