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2.8.2001 00:05
Peter Schickele is Bach with his most famous creation
Take cover, classical music fans. PDQ Bach is coming out of retirement!
After almost a decade in hiding, this outrageous, slightly demented distant cousin of the Bach clan is going back on tour, making his first stop Saturday in Providence, for a pops concert with the Rhode Island Philharmonic that's sure to be a hoot.
PDQ Bach is, of course, the invention of Peter Schickele, whose gift for composing is as keen as his wit. For 25 years, Schickele toured the country, trashing the history of music with his wacky parodies on the classics.
Typically, he'd begin a concert by dashing down the aisle and belly-flopping on stage. Then he'd lead the band in such dubious scores as
The Royal Firewater Music,
a twisted takeoff of Handel's
Royal Fireworks Music,
and the
Musical Sacrifice,
inspired by J.S. Bach's
Musical Offering.
When he wasn't conducting, he'd be firing off corny jokes, like the one about the brain-transplant patient who's offered the brain of a Metropolitan Opera tenor for $1 million. Why so much? asks the patient. You have to remember, says the doctor, this brain has never been used. Ba-boom!
But Schickele, who actually spends most of his time writing serious classical scores, decided about 10 years ago that it was time for a rest. He shelved PDQ Bach in favor of a public radio show that "combined two of the things I love best, entertainment and education." The show, called
Schickele Mix,
looked at how classical music techniques turn up in music of all kinds.
One show discussed melisma, or the florid stream of notes sung on a single syllable. Schickele would demonstrate by using examples from Gregorian chant, the Beatles and Conway Twitty.
But in a recent phone interview from his home in New York, Schickele said he's looking forward to dusting off his alter ego. He'd done a couple of concerts with friends David Dusing and Michele Eaton and "had such a good time, we said, 'Let's do more of this.' "
On Saturday night, Schickele, joined again by Dusing and Eaton, will host
Peter Schickele Meets PDQ Bach,
a program that combines some of his songs -- ditties with lines from Shakespeare set to the Doo-Wop harmonies of '50s rock along with straightforward Beatles arrangements sung by Eaton -- plus some of PDQ's greatest hits.
Schickele will lead the Philharmonic in excerpts from the oratorio
Edipus Tex
and the
Art of the Ground Round,
pieces written in an ersatz Baroque style that he toured some 15 years ago.
It's an odd melange of music, but true to Schickele's own experience.
Always entertaining
"I've always been the kind of person who entertained people," said Schickele, who has a son and daughter in their early 30s, both of them writing and performing alternative rock.
"My mother said I'd been entertaining people since I was 11/2. A friend of mine said, 'What took you so long?' "
When Schickele was 12, he put together a band doing "wacky stuff" in the style of Spike Jones, while writing arrangements of folk tunes, playing sax in dance bands and string bass for square dances.
"When I was at Swarthmore, when someone would play notes on a fire hose nozzle, I'd be the one to write a piece for fire hose nozzle."
Schickele ended up going to Juilliard, where in the early 1960s he taught history, harmony, counterpoint and ear training. "I always wanted to tour Europe with my trained ear circus."
At the same time, he was arranging and writing tunes for Joan Baez. He also wrote the score for the film
Silent Running.
By the 1970s he was able to make a living as PDQ Bach, a takeoff on one of Johann Sebastian Bach's most talented sons, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, or as he is usually referred to, CPE Bach.
The serious stuff
Even though Schickele is taking PDQ back on the road, most of his time is spent fielding commissions for symphonies and the like.
He's writing a double concerto for oboe and violin that will be premiered this summer at the Bravard Festival in North Carolina. A second symphony is in the works for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. "Right now my biggest problem is too many classical commissions."
Probably most people will remember Schickele, though, for his gift for musical parody, a gift that last year won him a Grammy. That was for
Hornsmoke,
a spoof on Western movie tunes that was issued by Rhode Island's own Newport Classic label.
"I've always had a weakness for cornball western music," said Schickele, "partly because my dad took me and my brother to movies every Friday. I loved Hopalong Cassidy, becauae he didn't sing and didn't kiss girls."
Peter Schickele, a
/
k
/
a PDQ Bach, joins the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday night
at 8 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 69 Avenue of the Arts, Providence. Tickets range from $25 to $70, with discounts for students and seniors. Call 831-3123.
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