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P.D.Q. Bach is the pseudonym under which Professor Peter Schickele has written a substantial body of satirical music, recorded on nearly twenty compact discs on the Vanguard and Telarc labels. The music combines takeoffs on musicological scholarship, the conventions of Baroque and Classical music, and a certain amount of slapstick comedy.
Schickele has written a fictional life story for P.D.Q. Bach, in the book The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach (1987; New York: Random House; ISBN 0394734092). According to this biography:
Prof. Schickele describes P.D.Q. Bach as having "the originality of Johann Christian, the arrogance of Carl Philipp Emanuel, and the obscurity of Johann Christoph Friedrich." The most distinguishing feature of P.D.Q. Bach's music, in the words of Schickele, is "manic plagiarism". P.D.Q. Bach seldom wrote original tunes; for the most part he stole melodies from other composers and rearranged them in often funny ways. Also, P.D.Q. Bach's music uses instruments not often used in orchestras, such as the tromboon, slide whistle, hardart, lasso d'amore and kazoo, as well as items not normally used as musical instruments, such as balloons and bicycle. His parts for vocalists, in addition to singing, also include coughing, snoring, sobbing, laughing and yelling.
In addition to making fun of Baroque and Classical music conventions, P.D.Q. Bach's music sometimes pokes fun at Romantic and modern music, and sometimes even country music (Oedipus Tex) and rap (Classical Rap). In Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz, a man is directed to make snoring noises while the music proceeds in a minimalist manner.
Schickele divides P.D.Q. Bach's musical output into three periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused Period, and Contrition.
During the Initial Plunge, P.D.Q. Bach wrote Traumarei for solo piano, an Echo Sonata for "two unfriendly groups of instruments", a Gross Concerto for Divers' Flutes, two trumpets and Strings.
During the Soused Period, P.D.Q. Bach wrote a Concerto for Horn and Hardart, a Sinfonia Concertante, a Pervertimento, a Serenude, a Perückenstück, a Suite from The Civilian Barber, a Schleptet in E-flat major, the half-act opera The Stoned Guest, a Concerto for Piano vs. Orchestra, Erotica Variations, the opera in one unnatural act Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice, The Art of the Ground Round, a Concerto for Bassoon vs. Orchestra, and a Grand Serenade for an awful lot of Winds and Percussion.
During the Contrition, P.D.Q. Bach wrote the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn, the oratorio The Seasonings, Diverse Ayres on Sundrie Notions, a Sonata for Viola Four Hands, the chorale prelude Should, a Notebook for Betty Sue Bach, the Toot Suite, the Grossest Fugue, a Fanfare for the Common Cold, the canine cantata Wachet Arf!.
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