thewayne | RIP: Prof. Peter Schickele, aged 88

*sigh*

Peter Schickele was a brilliant composer, having made over 100 symphonic works of various sizes, many of which were 'discoveries' by the little known lesser member of the Bach family, P.D.Q.

I always remember my introduction to PDQ Bach through an album called Live and On The Air. It was a collection of skits, one of which was an announcer suffering an increasing amount of distortion, culminating in an explosion and then a little voice in the distance explaining that the rear wall of the studio seems to be gone and 'we'll be back in a minute'. There's also a wonderful video of an opera that he made, referenced below, called The Abduction of Figero, conducted by Schickele. One of the mezzos is singing something or other (been quite a while since I last watched it) and she gets mad, culminates in her singing 'In fact, I'm not even going to sing my aria!' and she storms off the stage. Camera cuts to Peter at the podium, leafing through the score, he addresses the orchestra, and says 'Okay, let's skip to the letter Q'.

I always wanted to see him perform live, he was quite an entertaining performer when doing the PDQ material. But he had a problem with PDQ: he was a highly-trained composer, and he had problems when wanting to perform his own material. People were waiting on the edge of their seats for something funny to happen, for the twist! He was kind of trapped by the success of his 'discovered' works. I heard at some of his works he rappelled or bungee jumped from the rafters to his piano to start the show.

From the Muppet Wiki:
Peter Schickele (1935-2024) was a composer and pianist, perhaps best known for his satirical alter-ego P.D.Q. Bach. In the early seasons of Sesame Street, Schickele scored several live action films produced by Mark Sadan and Kirk Smallwood, including three riddle films ("Tomato," "Skin" and "Tire") and "Where the Garbage Goes."

A classically trained musician, Schickele attended Juilliard with Philip Glass. As P.D.Q. Bach, an obscure and questionably talented son of Johann Sebastian Bach, Schickele created a complex history of continually unearthed "lost" recordings and compositions. Notable works include "Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion," "Classical Rap, S. 96th St," "Toot Suite," "Canine Cantata," and the operas The Stoned Guest and Oedipus Tex. He introduced his P.D.Q. Bach concerts as "Professor" Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.

Under his own name and identity, Schickele co-wrote music and lyrics for the musical Oh! Calcutta! (with Robert Dennis), arranged songs for Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie, and scored the sci-fi film Silent Running and John Korty's films The Crazy-Quilt and Funnyman. Animation projects included scoring and narrating a video adaptation of Maurice Sendak's work and serving as musical arranger for the "Pomp and Circumstance" segment of Disney's Fantasia 2000.

We were fortunate to have his marvelous humor for as long as we did. He made opera and classical music approachable to all by making fun of it. I'm very sad at his passing, but oh so very glad that he was here, at least for a time.

https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Peter_Schickele

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

acelightning73

Play him to his grave with a fanfare for left-handed sewer flute!

From:

thewayne

Accompanied by pickle kazoos!

From:

acelightning73

I had had enough classical music exposure as a child to find PDQ a real hoot.

From:

disneydream06

WOW what a prolific life he had.
Hugs, Jon

From:

thewayne

He had an incredible talent and breadth of vision. I'm glad I searched for an obit as I had no idea about his connection to Sesame Street!

From:

acelightning73

And people still don't know that Dolly Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You", or that June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash's wife, wrote his big hit "Ring of Fire" (including the mariachi horn section). Not everyone who gets famous for one particular talent is limited to that one talent. John Lennon was an artist. And there once was a promising college basketball player, who was being scouted for the pros. But he was a pre-med major, and he decided to become a doctor instead of a basketball player.

From:

thewayne

Look at the astrophysics student who joined a rock band instead of completing his PhD. But he did finish it after the band fell apart. He did pretty well for himself, overall: authored a couple of books. Got knighted and makes pretty good residuals with sales of Queen music and his continued performing. Sir Brian May.

From:

acelightning73

He also takes very beautiful astronomical photographs. I remember reading that all of the members of Queen had talents that didn't get very much attention. Freddy of course was a piano virtuoso, and that voice!. They all had many admirable skills.

From:

disneydream06

More WOWZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From:

disneydream06

I went to the movies tonight and saw Queen Rock Montreal. :)
Great concert.
I didn't realize the drummer had such a great voice and obviously plays a big part in their songs. :)

From:

thewayne

John Deacons. Yeah, he wrote I'm In Love With My Car. I'll bet that was an awesome movie! The bass player retired after Freddie died, he might have played on their first album afterwards, but doesn't want to play anymore. His call.

From:

disneydream06

I think it would be hard to continue after losing that big of a part of a band. :o
I wouldn't want to see them with their new singer.

I heard Stevie Nicks apparently said, she doesn't see a way forward with Christine McVie gone.
I can understand, but at the same time they didn't stop when she temporarily retired, so what would be different?

From:

thewayne

Stevie Nicks is not one of the original members of the band. And as you said, Christine temporarily retired after she burned out from all the touring and her father died during one such tour. She might be looking at her making more money touring solo or with what's-his-face the guitarist who was fired a few years ago.

From:

disneydream06

Well, I think she was pretty instrumental with Lindsay getting the boot, so I doubt she will go back on tour with him again.
I think she's safe all by herself. :)
She's a favorite, so I have seen her a few times. LOL...

From:

disneydream06

WOWZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From:

disneydream06

And Fantasia 2000. :)

From:

thewayne

I did not know that! Been absolute ages since I saw that, may have to look it up again.

From:

disneydream06

Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 make a great double feature. :)

From:

thewayne

I have the original Fantasia on LASER DISC!

From:

disneydream06

Cool. :)
I have a double pack of both movies on DVD/BluRay. :)

From:

warriorsavant

I'd forgotten about him. Thanks for reminding me. I think my favorite was his vocalizing punctuation marks.

From:

acelightning73

Vocalizing punctuation was Victor Borge, a Danish comedian who played the piano. Also "inflation talking", where you'd add one to every number and say "Any-two for elevenis" instead of "Anyone for tennis?"

From:

warriorsavant

You’re right. Victor Borge. I loved both of them.

From:

thewayne

Victor was also an incredibly brilliant comedian. So many great ones, the modern ones just don't spark joy for me. Too much vulgarity that they think adds to the humor.

From:

acelightning73

Victor Borge played with language the way George Carlin did. And people always laugh at dirty words or vulgarity. BUt Borge and Carlin were deconstructing language to make it funny. That was what made them popular - showing people how absurd modern life had become. Borge was a classically trained virtuoso, not just using the piano as a prop for jokes. At some point, my family acquired a set of 78 rpm records, which, played in the correct order, would produce "Rhapsody in Blue performed by VIctor Borge. I was taking piano lessons as a kid, and I hoped someday to be able to play "Rhapsody in Blue." When/if I ever achieved that, I would be allowed to quit taking piano lessons. Never did, of course.

From:

thewayne

I don't remember that! I am planning on increasing my collection of him/PDQ, something I've thought about doing for some time. My wife saw him perform PDQ once, she grew up in Oberlin, Ohio whose college is a famous music school, he performed there occasionally.

From:

warriorsavant

My bad. It was Victor Borgia who did that one. I’m bad with names, especially ones I haven’t heard in a few decades.

From:

thewayne

And we lost him in 2000, so he's been out of the public eye for some time.

From:

acelightning73

Victor Borge used to be a favorite guest on the old Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Steve played the piano pretty well himself. (Steve Allen wrote the song "This Could Be The Start Of Something BIg.") Borge also appeared fairly frequently on the Ed Sullivan Show, because he was "family-friendly" and classical piano music was "classy".(Yes, I was watching during the Elvis "scandal", and later the Beatles.) I'm OLD.

Edited Date: 2024-01-20 10:13 pm (UTC)

From:

ndrosen

And let us not forget Schickele’s biography of P.D.Q. Bach. Rest In Peace.

From:

silveradept

We clearly lost a comedic genius there, as well as an artistic one.

From:

thewayne

Quite so. I immediately jumped on Zia's Records web site and corrected my failure to purchase more of his material over the years and now have +6 of his PDQ CDs. Need to get a DVD of the Abduction of Figaro, that was a pretty amazing opera..