P.D.Q. Bach
The fictitious composer P. D. Q. Bach was created by American musical satirist Peter Schickele, who built a five-decade career presenting the "found" compositions of the Bach family's "only forgotten son". The music of Schickele blends slapstick humor, parodies of musicological scholarly discourse, and elements of Baroque and Classical music. The three-part names given to several members of the Bach family that are frequently abbreviated to initials, such as C. P. E. for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, are parodied in the moniker "P. D. Q."; PDQ is an initialism for "pretty dang quick".
Schickele started developing the role while attending the Aspen Music Festival and School and Juilliard and has since participated in a number of P. D. Q. Bach productions. The combination of collage, bitonality, musical humor, and symphonic surrealism in a "bizarre melodic stream of consciousness" is mentioned in The Village Voice. Due to advancing age, Schickele had scaled back his touring as of 2012. He gave two performances to mark the 50th anniversary of his debut performance on December 28 and 29, 2015, at The Town Hall in New York. From 1990 through 1993, P. D. Q. Bach records won four consecutive Grammy Awards in the Best Comedy Album category. In 1996, Schickele's shortened audiobook version of The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach won a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Comedy Album.
Detailed information:
Born: 24 April 1965
Died: 29 December 2015
Nationality: German
Notable works:
- Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067 - 7. Badinerie
- 1712 Overture, S. 1712
- The Abduction of Figaro, a simply grand opera in three acts, S. 384, 492
- Allegretto Gabinetto for Plumber and Keyboarder, S. 2nd Door on the Left
- The Art of the Ground Round, S. 1.19/lb
- Birthday Ode to "Big Daddy" Bach, S. 100
