# Peter Schickele, Rest in Peace **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2024, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260 "2024-01-18T07:32:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/1 "2024-01-18T07:32:13Z")
Composer and satirist Peter Schickele, who “discovered” and performed the lost works of P.D.Q. Bach, died on Tuesday at 88. I was lucky enough to see him a few times; his concerts were a brilliant mix of classical seriousness and utter silliness. Imagine _The Unbegun Symphony_; P.D.Q. was born to late to write the beginning. It starts with Schickele conducting on an empty stage, and the musicians gradually walking out, taking their seats, and joining in. Finally the trombonists sprints out, his coat half on and half off, plays a quick fanfare, and the piece ends. I’m sure I’m not the only fan here. > **[Peter Schickele, musical parodist behind ‘P.D.Q. Bach,’ dies at 88](https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/17/peter-schickele-p-d-q-bach-dead/)** > > He described his fictional creation as the “last and least” of J.S. Bach’s children. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/2 "2024-01-18T07:37:56Z")
I have been a fan for over 40 years. Hate that he is gone. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/3 "2024-01-18T13:04:59Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I was lucky enough to see him a few times; his concerts were a brilliant mix of classical seriousness and utter silliness. Imagine _The Unbegun Symphony_; P.D.Q. was born to late to write the beginning. > It starts with Schickele conducting on an empty stage, and the musicians gradually walking out, taking their seats, and joining in. Finally the trombonists sprints out, his coat half on and half off, plays a quick fanfare, and the piece ends. > > I’m sure I’m not the only fan here. Damn! I hadn’t heard about this. I’ve been a fan for years, and saw him in concert twice. His parodies were brilliant, and I suspect that most of the audience (and me, for that matter\_ didn’t “get” a lot of it because Schickele (a graduate of Juilliard) was poking a lot of fun at technical and (to a lay audience) obscure things about music and famous musicians. So he also larded his performances with pretty obvious things that even unsophisticated fans would get. So he could play a “Courate” (Actually a “Courante”), and his musician friends would get the joke, but then he would hit the piano keys with a foot-chop and the rest of us would see that it was “karate”. There was a lot of inspired silliness and word-play from the professor of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Wikipedia gives you a taste of this: > [@](#): > > There is often a startling juxtaposition of styles within a single P. D. Q. Bach piece. The _Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz_, which alludes to [Philip Glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass)’s opera _[Einstein on the Beach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_on_the_Beach)_, provides an example. The underlying music is [J. S. Bach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach)’s first prelude from _[The Well-Tempered Clavier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier)_, but at double the normal speed, with each phrase repeated interminably in a [minimalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalist_music) manner that parodies Glass. On top of this mind-numbing structure is added everything from [jazz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz) phrases to snoring to heavily harmonized versions of “[Three Blind Mice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Blind_Mice)” to the chanting of a meaningless phrase (“Coy Hotsy-Totsy”, alluding to the art film _[Koyaanisqatsi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi)_ for which Glass wrote the score). Through all these mutilations, the piece never deviates from Bach’s original harmonic structure.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach#cite_note-Gann-2) > > The humor in P. D. Q. Bach music often derives from violation of audience expectations, such as repeating a tune more than the usual number of times, [resolving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_(music)) a musical chord later than usual or not at all, unusual key changes, excessive dissonance, or sudden switches from [high art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_culture) to [low art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture).[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach#cite_note-13) Further humor is obtained by replacing parts of certain classical pieces with similar common songs, such as the opening of [Brahms’s Symphony No. 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._2_(Brahms)) with “[Beautiful Dreamer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Dreamer)”, or rewriting Tchaikovsky’s _[1812 Overture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture)_ as the _[1712 Overture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1712_Overture)_ with “[Yankee Doodle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle)” replacing Tchaikovsky’s melody and “[Pop Goes the Weasel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Goes_the_Weasel)” replacing “[La Marseillaise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise)”. > **[P. D. Q. Bach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach)** > > P. D. Q. Bach is a fictional composer created by the American composer and musical satirist Peter Schickele for a five-decade career performing the "discovered" works of the "only forgotten son" of the Bach family. Schickele's music combines parodies of musicological scholarship, the conventions of Baroque and Classical music, and slapstick comedy. The name "P. D. Q." is a parody of the three-part names given to some members of the Bach family that are commonly reduced to initials, such as C. ... I was surprised – credit-reader that I am – to see that he wrote the film score for 1972’s _Silent Running_ He had lots of other non-PDQ Bach work in his ouvre. You can read it in his Wikipedia page. He’ll be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/4 "2024-01-18T13:35:31Z")
To curry favor, favor curry. Then thou art an unsavoury rapscallion! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/5 "2024-01-18T13:45:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople And its deliberately geographically misnamed radio station, WOOF. Sad to hear of it. Enjoyed him live at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore back in the late 80s and yes it was a heap of fun _and_ an excellent performance. Will be looking up in my playlist the sports play-by-play of Beethoven’s 5th as a commemoration for today’s commute. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/6 "2024-01-18T16:33:00Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Will be looking up in my playlist the sports play-by-play of Beethoven’s 5th as a commemoration for today’s commute. “He’s playing a cadenza! He must be out of his mind! He thinks it’s an oboe concerto!” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/7 "2024-01-18T16:45:21Z")
I was just singing _Good King Kong_ last Christmastide. Requiescat in pacem, Peter. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/8 "2024-01-18T19:33:44Z")
Here’s the Beethoven’s Fifth as a sporting event thing. Hilarious, and musically instructive! [https://youtu.be/MzXoVo16pTg?si=Oz7lacK1euLjGvmu](https://youtu.be/MzXoVo16pTg?si=Oz7lacK1euLjGvmu) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/9 "2024-01-18T20:02:55Z")
I went to see him at a concert hall in Honolulu in 1989. Brilliantly funny! Golly, golly, oh my gosh! (Fun Fact: he was also one of the credited writers of _O! Calcutta!_) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/10 "2024-01-18T22:16:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He had lots of other non-PDQ Bach work in his ouvre. Yes, he actually wasn’t a bad composer—except when he was. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/11 "2024-01-19T22:40:08Z")
I saw him live when I was in college (early 70s). I can’t remember now how he entered the concert hall, but I remember being impressed at the time. He also came to the lobby afterwards to chat with people and give autographs. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/12 "2024-01-19T23:31:04Z")
In his younger days, he would run down from the top of the mezzanine, throw a rope down to the main floor and enter that way. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/13 "2024-01-19T23:33:25Z")
We performed “My Bonnie Lass, She Smelleth” several times in my college choir. 😢 R.I.P. P.D.Q. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/14 "2024-01-19T23:50:11Z")
A favorite, along with Eine Kleine Nichtmusik. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/15 "2024-01-19T23:58:33Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > To curry favor, favor curry. You’re a tarragon of virtue. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/16 "2024-01-21T00:14:15Z")
Then there was his Concerto for Horn and Hardart, for which he invented an instrument called the hardart. It had bells and whistles, which could be played, set on a base that contained glass windows behind which were sandwiches. I saw him just once, at Carnegie Hall no less, and he entered by climbing a rope down from the first balcony. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/17 "2024-01-21T00:17:22Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I saw him live when I was in college (early 70s). I can’t remember now how he entered the concert hall, but I remember being impressed at the time. I, too, saw him when I was in college, in the mid '80s. I’d never heard of him before, but my girlfriend, who was a big classical music fan (and musician – she played piano and oboe) had, and knew that I’d enjoy it. That night, he ran from the back of the theater (main floor), down the center aisle, jumped up and belly-flopped onto the stage. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2024, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/18 "2024-01-21T00:36:42Z")
I feel lucky to have seen him when I did. First time was about '82, and he climbed down a rope from the balcony at the Seattle Opera House. His assistant used to come out on stage and stall for time by singling out audience members who were still getting to their seats. One time I deliberately hung out in the lobby and came in late to get picked on. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2024, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-schickele-rest-in-peace/996260/19 "2024-01-21T00:42:36Z")
After all these years I can’t remember how I’d first heard of him, or what led to me attending the concert. I had been a fan of classical music for some time, so that probably had something to do with it. I’m also a big Victor Borge fan.