April Fools’! Best of P.D.Q. Bach

Contrary to popular belief, classical musicians and composers have always had a good sense of humor. Mozart was a notorious potty-mouth, and Haydn loved a good musical surprise. But no musician had a better sense of humor than Peter Schickele, aka “P.D.Q. Bach.” The noted musical satirist passed away on January 16 at the age of 88. In preparation for April Fools’ Day, we look at some of Schickele’s best classical music gags as the “discoverer” of “the last and by far the least” of J. S. Bach’s progeny.

Peter Schickele was born on July 17, 1935, in Ames, Iowa. An accomplished bassoonist, Schickele played with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra while still in high school. He went on to study music at Swarthmore College and then earned his master’s degree in composition from Julliard in 1960. While at the esteemed New York music school, he came up with the idea of P.D.Q. Bach, the “youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children.” Schickele claimed to have discovered P.D.Q. Bach (1807–1742)?, whom he called “the only dead composer from whom one can commission.” In 1965, he debuted his musicological discovery to an unwitting public, renting out the Town Hall in Manhattan and unleashing P.D.Q. Bach on the world.

Schickele’s music is full of inside jokes, mashing up familiar tunes from classical music and beyond and poking fun at musical conventions. Many of his compositions are plays on canonical works, such as the “1712 Overture” and “A Little Nightmare Music.” He also invented several musical instruments, including the tromboon (a cross between a trombone and a bassoon), the pastaphone, and the double-reed slide music stand. Singers did not escape his satirical clutches, as he wrote for “bargain-counter tenor” and “off-coloratura soprano.” He even composed a full Mozart parody opera entitled The Abduction of Figaro.

Below, we’ve included some of Schickele’s best musical gags. First, we have Symphony No. 5 Sportscast, which narrates the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as if it’s a televised sports event, complete with slo-mo instant replay, a ref calling penalties, and a cheering crowd. Even amid all this silliness, the skit is informative, introducing audiences to different instruments of the orchestra and symphonic terms such as development, recapitulation, and cadenza. The work is a prime example of Schickele’s preternatural ability to simultaneously entertain and educate, showing that classical music doesn’t have to be so strait-laced. We also see him in duet with famed violinist Itzhak Perlman (and composer John Williams at the podium!) and on Johnny Carson in 1987. Finally, unlikely musical pairings abound in the “Unbegun” Symphony (a nod to Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony). See how many musical references you can spot!