# Favourite P.D.Q Bach/Peter Schickele Moments **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965 "2004-02-01T00:24:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/21 "2004-02-02T08:37:12Z")
from _Iphagenia in Brooklyn_ (hazy memory here) …she saw her brother Orestes, was being chas-ed… …by the amenities! Also one of Peter Schickele’s own works (that is, he presents it as his own, not P.D.Q. Bach’s) that’s a string of pieces stolen from other people’s work, ranging from Beethoven symphonies to modern showtunes. ---
**Author:** ![Cargogal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/48db29/32.png) [@Cargogal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cargogal)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/22 "2004-02-02T09:06:10Z")
I think you’re talking about Eine Kleine Nichtmusik… ---
**Author:** ![Fifteen\_Iguana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Fifteen\_Iguana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fifteen_Iguana)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/23 "2004-02-02T15:56:47Z")
I mentioned this thread to a friend. She immediately began to sing (from Iphigenia in Brooklyn): 'Who knows what it is to be running? Only he who is running knows. Running knows, running knows, running knows." And from the Seasonings: “Onions I have, but savory I have not.” “Then you are an unsavory rapscallion!” Oh God, make the pain stop. Fifteen Iguana ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/24 "2004-02-02T15:58:18Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > from _Iphagenia in Brooklyn_ (hazy memory here) > > …she saw her brother Orestes, was being chas-ed… > > …by the amenities! That’s the EUMENEDIES, another name for the Fates. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/25 "2004-02-02T16:02:18Z")
Gah. My brain is on vacation. The Eumedies are the Furies, not the Fates. Snakes in the hair, the whole nine yards… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/26 "2004-02-02T18:13:45Z")
The line in “Iphigenia in Brooklyn” _is_ “Amenities”. It’s a pun. “And all about her fish were dying, Dying … dying, And yet … in death … alive” ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965/27 "2004-02-02T20:21:15Z")
His commentary at the beginning of _A Bach Portrait_: “I wanted to do for Bach what Copland did for Lincoln, what Beethoven did for Wellington, what Tchaikovsky did for Little Russians, and what Richard Strauss did for himself.” Introducing his _Last Tango in Bayreuth_: “Chopin{?} once remarked that the only thing better than the sound of one guitar was two guitars. Building on that, what could be better than the sound of two guitars? Four bassoons.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-p-d-q-bach-peter-schickele-moments/226965.md?page=1)