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Peter Schickele

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Peter Schickele (Template:IPAc-en;<ref name=NYTobit/> July 17, 1935 – January 16, 2024) was an American composer, musical educator and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, which he presented as being composed by the fictional P.D.Q. Bach. He also hosted a long-running weekly radio program called Schickele Mix.<ref name="Schickele Mix: The Lost Episodes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

From 1990 to 1993, Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach recordings earned him four consecutive wins for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.<ref name="Grammy"/>

Early lifeEdit

Peter Schickele was born on July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa,<ref name=NYTobit>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LarkinGE">Template:Cite book</ref> to Alsatian immigrant parents. His father, Rainer Schickele (1905, Berlin – 1989, Berkeley, California), was the son of writer René Schickele and was an agricultural economist teaching at Iowa State University.<ref name="library.ndsu.edu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1945, Schickele's father took a position at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., then became chairman of the Agricultural Sciences Department at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) in Fargo, North Dakota in 1946.<ref name="library.ndsu.edu" />

File:Peter Schickele at Swarthmore.jpg
Schickele (rear) and others at Swarthmore College

In Fargo, the younger Schickele studied composition with Sigvald Thompson of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1952, then attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1957 with a degree in music. He was the first student at Swarthmore to earn a music degree.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a contemporary of Ted Nelson at Swarthmore, and he scored Nelson's experimental film The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow. It was his first film score.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> He graduated from the Juilliard School in 1960<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with a master's degree in musical composition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He studied composition with Roy Harris and Vincent Persichetti.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early careerEdit

File:Peter Schickele in Milwaukee, February 24, 1981.jpg
Schickele in Milwaukee in 1981

Schickele wrote music for a number of folk musicians, most notably Joan Baez, for whom he also orchestrated and arranged three albums during the mid-1960s, Noël (1966), Joan (1967), and Baptism (1968). He also composed the original score for the 1972 science fiction film Silent Running.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Peter Schickele seated barefoot atop a piano.jpg
Schickele seated barefoot atop a piano, c. 1980s

Schickele, an accomplished bassoonist, was also a member of the chamber rock trio the Open Window, which wrote and performed music for the 1969 revue Oh! Calcutta!<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and released three albums.<ref>Template:OCLC</ref><ref>Template:OCLC</ref><ref>Template:OCLC</ref>

The humorous aspect of Schickele's musical career came from his early interest in the music of Spike Jones, whose musical ensemble lampooned popular music in the 1940s and 1950s.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> in 1959, while at Juilliard, Schickele teamed with conductor Jorge Mester to present a humorous concert, which became an annual event at the college.Template:Citation needed In 1965, Schickele moved the concept to The Town Hall in New York City and invited the public to attend;<ref name="LarkinGE"/> Vanguard Records released an album of that concert, and the character of "P.D.Q. Bach" was launched.<ref name=TT /> By 1972, the concerts had become so popular that they were moved to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.

P. D. Q. BachEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Schickele developed an elaborate parody around his studies of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional "youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" of Johann Sebastian Bach.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> Among the fictional composer's "forgotten" repertory are such farcical works as The Abduction of Figaro,<ref name=NYTobit/> the "Unbegun" symphony,<ref name=NYTobit/> "Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons",<ref name=NYTobit/> Canine Cantata: "Wachet Arf!",<ref name=Compositions>Peter Schickele: Compositions, Peter Schickele</ref> Good King Kong Looked Out,<ref>Peter Schickele: Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele</ref> the "Trite" Quintet,<ref name=Compositions/> "O Little Town of Hackensack",<ref name=NYTobit/> A Little Nightmare Music,<ref>'A Little Nightmare Music' From P.D.Q., The Washington Post. Accessed 16 May 2024.</ref> the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn,<ref name=NYTobit/> the Concerto for Horn and Hardart,<ref name=NYTobit/> The Stoned Guest,<ref name=NYTobit/> "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice",<ref name=NYTobit/> the Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra,<ref name=NYTobit/> the dramatic oratorio Oedipus Tex<ref name=Compositions/><ref>Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities, Peter Schickele</ref> and Einstein on the Fritz, a parody of Schickele's Juilliard classmate Philip Glass.<ref name=Gann>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His fictitious "home establishment" is the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, where he reports having tenure as "Very Full Professor" of "musicolology" and "musical pathology". He invented a range of rather unusual instruments. The most complicated of these is the Hardart, a tone-generating device mounted on the frame of an "automat", a coin-operated food dispenser. This modified automat is used in the Concerto for Horn and Hardart, a play on the name of Horn & Hardart who pioneered the American use of the automat in their restaurants.<ref name=NYTobit/>

Schickele also invented the "dill piccolo" for playing sour notes, the "left-handed sewer flute", the "tromboon" ("a cross between a trombone and a bassoon, having all the disadvantages of both"), the "lasso d'amore", the double-reed slide music stand, the "tuba mirum" (a flexible tube filled with wine), and the "pastaphone" (an uncooked tube of pasta played as a horn).<ref name=bio>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

To a large degree, Schickele's music as P.D.Q. Bach has overshadowed his work as a "serious" composer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>"Swarthmore's First Music Major" Template:Webarchive by Paul Wachter, Swarthmore College Bulletin (September 2007)</ref>

Schickele performed two concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first concert at The Town Hall in New York on December 28 and 29, 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He reduced his concert appearances due to health issues, but continued to schedule live concert performances through 2018.<ref name="Schedule">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Other musical careerEdit

Schickele composed more than 100 original works for symphony orchestra, choral groups, chamber ensemble, voice, television and an animated adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are (which he also narrated).<ref name=TT>The Tennessean March 12, 2009, "The Nashville Scene", p. 46</ref> He made a brief foray into cinema with the Bruce Dern film Silent Running (1972), for which he composed the musical score and co-wrote the original songs "Silent Running" and "Rejoice in the Sun" with Diane Lampert. He also wrote music for school bands, as well as for a number of musicals, including Oh! Calcutta!, and organized numerous concert performances as both musical director and performer. Schickele was active on the international and North American concert circuit.<ref name=NYTobit/>

Schickele's musical creations won him multiple awards. His extensive body of work is marked by a distinctive style which integrates the European classical tradition with an unmistakable American idiom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Schickele also created such not-quite-P.D.Q. Bach albums as Hornsmoke,<ref>{{#ifeq: | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/composition/mc0002446336{{ 

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}}</ref> Sneaky Pete and the Wolf,<ref>{{#ifeq: | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/composition/mc0002660973{{ 

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}}</ref> and The Emperor's New Clothes.<ref>{{#ifeq: | yes | https://www.allmusic.com/composition/mc0002530765{{ 

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Schickele's music is published by the Theodore Presser Company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

RadioEdit

As a musical educator he also hosted the classical music educational radio program Schickele Mix, which aired on many public radio stations in the United States (and internationally on Public Radio International). The program began in 1992; lack of funding ended the production of new programs by 1999, and rebroadcasts of the existing programs finally ceased in June 2007.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Only 119 of the 169 programs were in the rebroadcast rotation, because earlier shows contained American Public Radio production IDs rather than ones crediting Public Radio International. In March 2006, some of the other "lost episodes" were added back to the rotation,<ref name="Schickele Mix: The Lost Episodes"/> with one notable program remnant of the "Periodic Table of Musics", listing the names of musicians and composers as mythical element names in a format reminiscent of the periodic table.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Schickele married poet Susan Sindall on October 27, 1962.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His children, Matt and Karla, are both musicians. The two played together in the trio Beekeeper in the 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Karla is also an orchestral music composer.

Schickele's brother David Schickele (1937–1999) was a film director and musician.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Peter Schickele died at his home in Bearsville, New York, on January 16, 2024, at the age of 88, due to a series of infections that damaged his health.<ref name=NYTobit/>

AwardsEdit

Year Award Category Work Result Template:Abbr
1970 Grammy Awards Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album Oh! Calcutta! Template:Nom <ref name="Grammy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1990 Best Comedy Recording P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults rowspan="3" Template:Won
1991 P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities
1992 Best Comedy Album P.D.Q. Bach: WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio
Best Album for Children Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf / A Zoo Called Earth / Gerald McBoing Boing Template:Nom
1993 Best Comedy Album P.D.Q. Bach: Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion Template:Won
1996 Best Spoken Comedy Album The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach Template:Nom
1999 Best Classical Crossover Album Schickele: Hornsmoke (Piano Concerto No. 2 In F Major "Ole"; Brass Calendar; Hornsmoke – A Horse Opera) Template:Won
2004 Best Spoken Word Album for Children The Emperor's New Clothes Template:Nom

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:P.D.Q. Bach Template:Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control

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