fiction.wikisort.org - Character

P. D. Q. Bach is a fictional composer invented by the American musical satirist Peter Schickele, who developed a five-decade-long 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. P. E., for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; PDQ is an initialism for "pretty damned quick".

P. D. Q. Bach
Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach album cover
First appearance	Peter Schickele Presents an Evening with P. D. Q. Bach (1807–1742)? April 24, 1965
Last appearance	P. D. Q. Bach: The Golden Anniversary December 29, 2015
Created by	Peter Schickele
Portrayed by	Peter Schickele
In-universe information
Occupation	Composer
Family	Johann Sebastian Bach (father) Anna Magdalena Bach (mother) Johann Christian Bach (brother) Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (brother) Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (brother)
Nationality	German

Schickele began working on the character while studying at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Juilliard,[1] and has performed a variety of P. D. Q. Bach shows over the years. The Village Voice mentions the juxtaposition of collage, bitonality, musical satire, and orchestral surrealism in a "bizarre melodic stream of consciousness ... In P.D.Q. Bach he has single-handedly mapped a musical universe that everyone knew was there and no one else had the guts (not simply the bad taste) to explore."[2]

As of 2012, Schickele had reduced his touring due to age. On December 28 and 29, 2015 at The Town Hall in New York, he performed two concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first concert.[3]

Biography

Schickele gives a humorous fictional biography of the composer[4] according to which P. D. Q. Bach was born in Leipzig on April 1, 1742,[5] the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach; the twenty-first of Johann's twenty children.[4] He is also referred to as "the youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children".[6] He died May 5, 1807,[7] though his birth and death years are often listed on album literature in reverse, as "(1807–1742)?".[8] According to Schickele, P. D. Q. "possessed the originality of Johann Christian, the arrogance of Carl Philipp Emanuel, and the obscurity of Johann Christoph Friedrich".[4]^: 23

Music

Schickele's works attributed to P. D. Q. Bach often incorporate comical rearrangements of well-known works of other composers. The works use instruments not normally used in orchestras, such as the bagpipes, slide whistle, kazoo, and fictional or experimental instruments such as the pastaphone (made of uncooked manicotti),[9] tromboon,[10] hardart, lasso d'amore,[11] and left-handed sewer flute.

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's opera Einstein on the Beach, provides an example. The underlying music is J.S. Bach's first prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, but at double the normal speed, with each phrase repeated interminably in a minimalist manner that parodies Glass. On top of this mind-numbing structure is added everything from jazz phrases to snoring to heavily harmonized versions of "Three Blind Mice" to the chanting of a meaningless phrase ("Koy Hotsy-Totsy," alluding to the art film Koyaanisqatsi for which Glass wrote the score). Through all these mutilations, the piece never deviates from Bach's original harmonic structure.[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 a musical chord later than usual or not at all, unusual key changes, excessive dissonance, or sudden switches from high art to low art.[12] 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 with "Beautiful Dreamer", or rewriting Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the 1712 Overture with "Yankee Doodle" replacing Tchaikovsky's melody and "Pop Goes the Weasel" replacing "La Marseillaise".

Compositional periods

Schickele divides P. D. Q. Bach's fictional musical output into three periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused Period, and Contrition.[13] During the Initial Plunge, P. D. Q. Bach wrote the Traumarei for unaccompanied piano, an Echo Sonata for "two unfriendly groups of instruments", and a Gross Concerto for Divers Flutes, two Trumpets, and Strings. During the Soused (or Brown-Bag) Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote a Concerto for Horn and Hardart (a pun on the name of a chain of automat restaurants), a Sinfonia Concertante, a Pervertimento for Bicycle, Bagpipes, and Balloons, a Serenude, a Perückenstück (literally German for "Wigpiece"), a Suite from The Civilian Barber (spoofing Rossini's The Barber of Seville), a Schleptet in E-flat major, the half-act opera The Stoned Guest (the character of "The Stone Guest" from Mozart's Don Giovanni, and the play by Pushkin), a Concerto for Piano vs. Orchestra, Erotica Variations (Beethoven's Eroica Variations), Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice, an opera in one unnatural act (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), The Art of the Ground Round (Bach's The Art of Fugue), a Concerto for Bassoon vs. Orchestra, and a Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion.[4]

During the Contrition Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn (Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, etc.), the oratorio The Seasonings (Haydn's The Seasons), Diverse Ayres on Sundrie Notions, a Sonata for Viola Four Hands,[14] the chorale prelude Should, a Notebook for Betty Sue Bach (Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue"), the Toot Suite, the Grossest Fugue (Beethoven's Grosse Fuge), a Fanfare for the Common Cold (Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man) and the canine cantata Wachet Arf! (Bach's Wachet auf).[4]

A final work is the mock religious work Missa Hilarious (Beethoven's Missa Solemnis) (Schickele no. N₂O – the chemical formula of nitrous oxide or "laughing gas").[15]

Tromboon

The tromboon is a musical instrument made up of the reed and bocal of a bassoon, attached to the body of a trombone in place of the trombone's mouthpiece. It combines the sound of double reeds and the slide for a distinctive and unusual instrument. The name of the instrument is a portmanteau of "trombone" and "bassoon". The sound quality of the instrument is best described as comical and loud.

The tromboon was developed by Peter Schickele, a skilled bassoonist himself, and featured in some of his live concert and recorded performances. Schickele called it "a hybrid – that's the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both".[16][17] This instrument is called for in the scores of P. D. Q. Bach's oratorio The Seasonings,[18] as well as the Serenude (for devious instruments)[4]^: 187 and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.[19]

Recordings

On Vanguard

Title	Year
Peter Schickele Presents an Evening with P. D. Q. Bach (1807–1742)?	1965
An Hysteric Return: P.D.Q. Bach at Carnegie Hall	1966
Report from Hoople: P. D. Q. Bach on the Air	1967
The Stoned Guest	1970
The Intimate P. D. Q. Bach	1974
Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach	1977
Black Forest Bluegrass	1979
Liebeslieder Polkas	1980
Music You Can't Get Out of Your Head	1982
A Little Nightmare Music	1983

On Telarc

Title	Year
1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults	1989
Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities	1990
WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio	1991
Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion	1992
Two Pianos Are Better Than One	1994
The Short-Tempered Clavier and other dysfunctional works for keyboard	1995
P. D. Q. Bach and Peter Schickele: The Jekyll and Hyde Tour	2007

Compilations

Title	Record company	Year
The Wurst of P. D. Q. Bach	Vanguard Records	1971
The Dreaded P. D. Q. Bach Collection	Vanguard Records	1996
The Ill-Conceived P. D. Q. Bach Anthology	Telarc Records	1998

Video releases

Title	Year
The Abduction of Figaro	1984
P. D. Q. Bach in Houston: We Have a Problem!	2006

Audiobook

Title	Year
The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach	1996

Awards

P. D. Q. Bach recordings received four successive Grammy Awards in the Best Comedy Album category from 1990 to 1993.[20] Schickele also received a Grammy nomination in the Best Comedy Album category in 1996 for his abridged audiobook edition of The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach.[21]

See also

• Johann Sebastian Mastropiero
• Peter Planyavsky

References

Sources

• Schickele, Peter (1976). The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach, (1807–1742)?. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-73409-2.

External links

• Official website
• Interview with Peter Schickele, February 15, 1988
• P. D. Q. Bach: Works, About, Theodore Presser Company

На других языках

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- [en] P. D. Q. Bach

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[es] P. D. Q. Bach

P. D. Q. Bach es un compositor ficticio inventado por el satírico musical estadounidense Peter Schickele, quien desarrolló una carrera de cinco décadas interpretando las obras «descubiertas» del «único hijo olvidado» de la familia Bach. La música de Schickele combina parodias de la erudición musicológica, las convenciones de la música clásica y barroca, y comedia física. El nombre "P. D. Q." es una parodia de los nombres en tres partes dados a algunos miembros de la familia Bach que comúnmente se reducen a iniciales, como C. P. E., para Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; PDQ es un acrónimo de «pretty damned quick» ('condenadamente rápido').

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[it] P. D. Q. Bach

P. D. Q. Bach (Lipsia 1º aprile 1742 - Baden-Baden-Baden 5 maggio 1807) è un immaginario ultimo figlio di Johann Sebastian Bach, e allo stesso tempo è lo pseudonimo col quale il suo ideatore, il prof. Peter Schickele, ha composto una gran quantità di brani parodistici di musica (al momento sono una ventina di CD per le etichette Vanguard e Telarc). La musica combina parodie dell'erudizione musicologica e delle convenzioni della musica barocca e classica con una certa dose di farsa. Il personaggio di P. D. Q. Bach è comunque nel frattempo diventato qualcosa di più di un semplice scherzo erudito, dal momento che la sua biografia e la sua musica (quella di Schickele) godono di enorme popolarità soprattutto tra i musicisti, e vengono spesso citate e rappresentate. Gran parte della comicità di questo musicista immaginario è basata su giochi di parole in inglese, che in traduzione spesso possono essere resi solo approssimativamente. Per questo, il catalogo di opere che segue conterrà anche il titolo originale in inglese.

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