RIP Peter Schickele

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Otherwise known as PDQ Bach.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/17/peter-schickele-p-d-q-bach-dead/

Have many of his albums. Particularly liked Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion, and The Short-Tempered Clavier. Awhile back I got the sheet music and have spent many years trying to learn "Preludes and Fugues in All the Major and Minor Keys Except for the Really Hard Ones" on piano.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Corky, thank you for remembering a musician who should be.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I think PDQ Bach came around at the right time. Don't know if this had started today whether it would have been received as well as it did. Schickele won multiple Grammys for these albums, after all. I play in a local symphony orchestra and I would guarantee that most, if not all, are familiar with PDQ Bach. Those who don't have a background/appreciation for classical music, though? Hard to say.

And it wasn't just satire. Schickele was a serious composer, including film scores.

 

[Twirling Time]

Music theory is the dividing line between the marks and the smarts.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I think PDQ Bach came around at the right time. Don't know if this had started today whether it would have been received as well as it did. Schickele won multiple Grammys for these albums, after all. I play in a local symphony orchestra and I would guarantee that most, if not all, are familiar with PDQ Bach. Those who don't have a background/appreciation for classical music, though? Hard to say.

And it wasn't just satire. Schickele was a serious composer, including film scores.

I hope I'm wrong, but I fear you're correct. There are some PDQ Bach albums stored away at my mother's house. Problem is, to understand how funny he is and how funny some of the stuff the Canadian Brass does in their performances, some understanding of music is required. And that's not going to happen while binging on "American Idol."

While being No. 2 isn't necessarily a life goal, being behind Johann Sebastian still puts you in some lofty company among Bachs. And given his sense of humor, I think he might agree.

RIP, good sir and Thank You.

 

[Twirling Time]

I will say that Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750) was only one of a long line of Bachs who were huge in baroque/classical music at the time. Four of his sons made immediate impacts. One could say they were to classical music what the Jacksons were to pop in the 1970s-mid 1990s.

Completely separate from the topic at hand: To connect my experience to his homeland, J.S. Bach was born in Eisenach and died in Leipzig, Germany. Both were on the bad side of the Iron Curtain. In 1990, about two weeks after reunification (and I had my wisdom teeth pulled at Landstuhl), I drove my little Opel Corsa into former East Germany and saw the sights. I definitely visited both cities, but there were no Chamber of Commerce signs saying Hometown of J.S. Bach in either.