Peter Schickele obit

‘PDQ Bach’ musical satirist has died – this Beethoven 5 parody captures Peter Schickele’s rare genius

 

He was not on the list.

Great musician, comedian and satirist Peter Schickele has died at his home in Bearsville, New York. And as the world says farewell to one of the most talented and admired parodists of the last century, a favourite Beethoven performance is being shared anew.

Schickele was born in 1935. He studied music at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and then composition at Juilliard. 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.

Named in a play on the vast family of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, P.D.Q. was, according to Schickele, “the youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children”, and (of course) entirely fictional.

In January 2023, a US show was announced: at the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, California on May 20, 2023.

Schickele devoted himself to P.D.Q. Bach for 50 years, presenting the composer’s extensive compositional output and unique place in music history.

His 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 performed, recorded and released by their creator. From 1990 to 1993, Shickele’s P.D.Q. Bach recordings won four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album. For many years, Schickele also hosted popular music education radio shows in the US.

Since his passing on 16 January 2024, there is one performance many have turned to, which perfectly captures the unique genius and charm of its creator.

The Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast was released on alongside P.D.Q works in 1967. Schickele’s creation 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 comedy, 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 musicology lesson could involve so much laughter?

It’s precisely what made Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach so special – that ability to entertain, but also educate and inspire at the same time. What a blessing they were to generations of listeners and the history of classical music.

Johann Peter Schickele was born on July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa, to Alsatian immigrant parents. His father Rainer Schickele (1905, Berlin – 1989, Berkeley, California) was the son of writer René Schickele and was an agricultural economist teaching at Iowa State University. In 1945, Schickele's father took a position at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., then became chairman of the Agricultural Sciences Department at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) in Fargo, North Dakota. in 1946.

Schickele wrote music for a number of folk musicians, most notably Joan Baez, for whom he also orchestrated and arranged three albums during the mid-1960s, Noël (1966), Joan (1967), and Baptism (1968). He also composed the original score for the 1972 science fiction film Silent Running.

Schickele, an accomplished bassoonist, was also a member of the chamber rock trio the Open Window, which wrote and performed music for the 1969 revue Oh! Calcutta! and released three albums.

The humorous aspect of Schickele's musical career came from his early interest in the music of Spike Jones, whose musical ensemble lampooned popular music in the 1940s and 1950s. While at Juilliard (1959), Schickele teamed with conductor Jorge Mester to present a humorous concert, which became an annual event at the college. In 1965, Schickele moved the concept to The Town Hall (New York City) and invited the public to attend; Vanguard Records released an album of that concert, and the character of "P. D. Q. Bach" was launched. By 1972, the concerts had become so popular that they were moved to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.