Try asking for Peter Shickele (sp?) That’s his real name (I think). Funny stuff!
Camille Saint Saens. Pretty ahead of his time, if I recall.
Cool music.
Jeez, leave the computer for a couple hours and somebody jumps right in. 
Seriously, MerrySquirrels is correct - Peter Schickele (Julliard trained and a professor there, IIRC). You might find his work in the comedy section, though a couple of the record/CD stores I’ve worked in have his PDQ Bach stuff separately under Bach in the classical area. Most of his older recordings are on the Vangard label, the newer ones on Telarc.
Some of my favorite pieces:
Concerto for Horn and Hardart
Cantata - Iphigenia in Brooklyn
Fanfare for the Common Cold
The Seasonings
Concerto for Viola, Four Hands
Libeslieder Polkas (Mixed choir and piano 5 hands)
They’re funny on their own, but if you know classical music, they are hilarious, particularly the “Unbegun Symphony” Amazingly, as simple as they sound, the PDQ Bach can be difficult to perform. You trying playing in the orchestra without giggling, knowing that in 5 bars, you have to grab for the kazoo and still look professional.
One other recording - Florence Foster Jenkins - billed as the ‘World’s Worst Soprano’. (Now on CD, thank gawd - my old LP was so worn from being played so often.) Anyone with any sense of pitch will be in the corner chewing their own arm off to get away. If you are not cringing (or laughing histerically), you are tone-deaf. The ‘Queen of the Night’ aria from ‘Magic Flute’ is worth the price of admission. Great for annnoying the neighbors, too. Bonus track - an old recording of an anonymous ‘church-soprano’ and a constipated tenor singing the trio (yes, the trio) from ‘Faust’.
Okay, I have found the books I was looking for. Here is your assignment. Get these two ‘text’ books:
Bach, Beethoven and the Boys: Music History as it Ought to be Taught by David W. Barbers [SoundAndVision Press] ISBN - 0-920151-07-8
When the Fat Lady Sings: Opera History as it Ought to be Taught by David W. Barbers ISBN - 0920151-11-6 (great illustrations!)
Bonus Points - If you can find A Musician’s Dictionary by David W. Barbers, purchase two: one for yourself and one for your beloved Auntie Screechie who is giving you all this wonderful information :). I loaned my copy to someone and never saw it again (out of print at this time) :mad:.
These will give you a basic overview of some of the major composers in Western music, plus some tidbits - Page 113 re: Donizetti and his mad frenzies. These are not as informationally factual as Groves’ Encyclopedia of Music (got a couple thousand dollars for the complete set?), but you’ll get some good and fun information.
Minor hijack, speaking of P. D. Q. Bach …
Back when I was still a regular church-goer at Greenmeadow Baptist Church, there were a few of us upwardly cultural bohemians who called ourselves the “Greenmeadow Fine Arts Squad”. We tried to put on shows and such … anything to up the arts content of a Southern Baptist church. At any rate, one year we decided to do a Christmas concert and, as part of the show, did PDQ Bach’s “Consort of Christmas Carols.”
You never saw such a sea of blank faces in your entire life.
Philistines! Neanderthals! All of them! How could they not like “Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John”???
One more strange recording, then I’ll let someone else have a turn…
The Texas Chainsaw Orchestra Rhino records - Khachaturian’s ‘Sabre Dance’ and Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ done on chainsaw, electric router, and staple gun. Neighbors hate it loud; gotta love it. Actually pretty good. You try keeping a chainsaw at the right pitch!
Harry Warren.
Never heard of him? Yet he was probably the most successful popular composer of the 20th century (yes, I include Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, Porter, Berlin, etc.). Everyone on this board knows his music (especially if they’re fans of Bugs Bunny and Warner Bros. cartoons).
Some titles are:
An Affair To Remember (Our Love Affair)
That’s Amoré
I Found A Million Dollar Baby In A Five And Ten Cent Store
Dames
I Only Have Eyes For You
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Honeymoon Hotel
Forty-Second Street
Shuffle Off To Buffalo
You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me
We’re In The Money
Lullaby Of Broadway
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
The Legend Of Wyatt Earp (the TV show theme)
Jeepers Creepers (Where’d you get those peepers)
Now I realize few here are that familiar with songs of this era, but I bet that list includes one or two you’ve heard of.
Great to find more P.D.Q. Bach fans! You’ve already listed some of my favorites, but I there’s also the 12 Quite Heavenly Songs and Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice (best seen live). I think Schickele’s own works are a lot funnier though, like Eine Kleine Nichtmusik and the Bach Portrait. I met John Ferrante (the bargain-counter tenor) at a professor’s house after he gave a recital at our college.
Here’s an earlier thread with some more composer stories, courtesy of SqrlCub. What are the most trivial facts about classical composers?
WOW!
You met John Ferrante!?!?!
I am truly in awe. That man can warble like no one can! Such wonderful tones and control, and having to sing P.D.Q. with a straight face! I’ve wanted to hear him sing the solo section of Berstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’ (another great work, BTW, Canthearya).
[/gush] [moving on]
Peter Schickle is supposed to be doing a concert in central Florida, but my there friend said all the tickets were already SOLD OUT! D@MN!
His songs based on e.e. cummings poems are fun but again quite difficult - “A politician is an arse upon which a man has sat”. Great line.
But anyone who can wrote “Einstein on the Fritz” (S. e=mt2) is up there in my book. And I like Phillip Glass.
The screechy one reminded me that I have not yet chosen a composer… I’m checking out John Cage as I write this.
Yes, I can write and surf at the same time. Gottaprollemwitdat?
And yes, I have had a couple of beers (okay, three) this beautiful Saturday evening.
And once again yes, I have taken about three times the time I normally would writing this post because I have a purty damn good buzz and have typed so many o’s that you wouldn’t believe it. Typos.
But any Doper worth their name would not give me sh*t about this fact. All right you trollish MFs - c’mon! I can take it!!!
Anyway… I’m still researching and I thank all Dopers who have replied to this thread.
Heard a serious Schickele composition the other day. It was surprisingly wonderful–modern yet accessible and interesting. I always enjoyed his PDQ Bach stuff, but it’s easier to do genre anything than something original.
That Anna Russell Ring Thing is funny because it’s true.
I’d still go with Satie, though. But that’s cuz I like ambient music.
screech also asked that I post about the concerts we’ll be attending. The first one is next week - we have a test, then we’re walking two blocks to orchestra hall to hear Mahler’s 3rd.
That reminds me, I need to find that online so I can listen to it.