Peter Schickele
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Biography
A composer and teacher, Peter Schickele made his name with concerts and recordings centered around the fictional character P. D. Q. Bach, presented as the âtwenty-first of J. S. Bach's twenty children,â giving rise to humorous shows combining sketches, asides, and the misappropriation of classical music works. Born in Ames, Iowa, on July 17, 1935, Johann Peter Schickele trained as a musician in Fargo (North Dakota) and in Swarthmore and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then attended the Aspen Music School in Colorado, where his teacher was Darius Milhaud, and at the Juilliard School in New York with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma. Awarded a Master of Science in 1960, he taught at the Juilliard School between 1961 and 1965, before devoting himself to his work as a composer and artist. He worked with Joan Baez, for whom he composed and arranged three albums â Noël (1966), Joan (1967), and Baptism (1968) - and collaborated as a bassoonist with the psychedelic rock band The Open Window, who recorded three albums and incidental music for the musical Oh! Calcutta! His interest in musical humor, especially the songs of Spike Jones, inspired him to collaborate with Mexican bandleader Jorge Mester to present a show centered around a character of his own invention, P. D. Q. (Pretty Damn Quick) Bach (1807-1742), fictitious a child of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1965 to 2015, he released a series of records and performed many concerts combining satirical sketches, sound experiments, and performances of pages of Baroque and classical music. His performance on April 24, 1965 at New York's Town Hall was the subject of the album Peter Schickele Presents an Evening with P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742)? followed by many others for the Vanguard label, including An Hysteric Return: P. D. Q. Bach at Carnegie Hall (1967), The Stoned Guest (1970), The Intimate P. D. Q. Bach (1974), Music You Can't Get Out of Your Head (1982) and A Little Nightmare in Music (1983). Taking a few liberties with the scores, Peter Schickele enjoyed hijacking works by Bach, Gluck, Mozart, Stravinsky and Glass, his former classmate at Juilliard, in his parody Einstein on the Fritz, based on the opera Einstein on the Beach. Peter Schickele subsequently launched his own radio show, Schickele Mix (1992-1999), and continued to record for the Telarc label, notably Music for an Awful Lot of Winds & Percussion (1992), Two Pianos Are Better Than One (1994), The Short-Tempered Clavier & Other Dysfunctional Works for Keyboard (1995) and The Jekyll & Hyde Tour (2008). Winner of four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album between 1990 and 1993, and a fifth for Best Crossover Album in 1999, Peter Schickele died in Bearsville, New York, on January 16, 2024, at the age of 88.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Introduction to 1712 Overture
- Introduction to Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra
- Introduction to Trio (sic) Sonata
- Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra, S. 2 Are Better Than One: III. Presto changio by The New York PickâUp Ensemble
- Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra, S. 2 Are Better Than One: II. Andante alighieri by The New York PickâUp Ensemble
- Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra, S. 2 Are Better Than One: I. Shake allegro by The New York PickâUp Ensemble
- Pledge Plea
- Oedipus Tex, S. 150: IIIa. Duet with Chorus. My Heart
- Oedipus Tex, S. 150: IIb. Recitative. And It Wasn't Long
- Station ID (1)
- Oedipus Tex, S. 150: IIa. Aria with Chorus. Howdy There
- Classical Kwickie-Kwiz
- Sam and Janet
- Introduction to Chaconne à son goût
- Weather Report
- Hound Dog
- Oedipus Tex, S. 150: Vb. Recitative. When Oedipus Heard
- Flip Side Intro
- Oedipus Tex, S. 150: VI. Chorale and Finale
- Station ID (2)
- Tyrannosaurus Rex (Intro)
- Concerto For Horn And Hardart, S. 27
- Introduction to The Musical Sacrifice
- Cadenza
