P. D. Q. Bach#Tromboon

Schickele wrote a humorous fictional biography of the composer{{harvnb|Schickele|1976}} according to which P. D. Q. Bach was born in Leipzig on April 1, 1742,{{harvnb|Schickele|1976|p=3}}: "the night of the 1st of April, 1742", "giving birth to his twenty-first child", "at one minute after midnight" the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach; the twenty-first of Johann Sebastian's twenty children. He is also referred to as "the youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children".{{cite web|title=Peter Schickele: 50 Years of P.D.Q. Bach: A Triumph of Incompetence!|url=http://www.corningcivicmusic.org/index.php?page=S1415C6|website=Corning Civic Music Association|access-date=31 August 2017|archive-date=31 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831091428/http://www.corningcivicmusic.org/index.php?page=S1415C6|url-status=live}} He died May 5, 1807,{{cite web|url=http://www.schickele.com/pdqbio.htm|title=P.D.Q. Bach Bio|work=schickele.com|access-date=20 February 2016|archive-date=17 March 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060317014853/http://www.schickele.com/pdqbio.htm|url-status=live}} though his birth and death years are often listed on album literature in reverse, as "(1807–1742)?".{{cite web|url=http://www.schickele.com/shoppe/pdqrec/evening.htm|title=An Evening With P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)?|work=schickele.com|access-date=20 February 2016|archive-date=29 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129091502/http://schickele.com/shoppe/pdqrec/evening.htm|url-status=live}} According to Schickele, {{nowrap|P. D. Q.}} "possessed the originality of Johann Christian, the arrogance of Carl Philipp Emanuel, and the obscurity of Johann Christoph Friedrich".{{rp|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3hmSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT23&lpg=PT23 23]}}

{{Main|List of works by P. D. Q. Bach}}

Schickele's works attributed to P. D. Q. Bach often incorporate comical rearrangements of well-known works of other composers. The works use instruments not normally used in orchestras, such as the bagpipes, slide whistle, kazoo, and fictional or experimental instruments such as the pastaphone (made of uncooked manicotti),{{Cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1D9153CF936A15751C1A96F948260|title=Oh, No! Still More (Quite a Bit More!) From P. D. Q. Bach|last=Blau |first=Eleanor|date=25 December 1998|access-date=18 August 2012|work=The New York Times|archive-date=9 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809205856/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/25/arts/oh-no-still-more-quite-a-bit-more-from-pdq-bach.html|url-status=live}} tromboon,{{Cite web|title=Tp – Tr|url=https://www.dolmetsch.com/defst4.htm|access-date=2023-02-17|website=Dolmetsch Music Dictionary}} hardart, lasso d'amore,{{Cite web|title=L – Lh|url=https://www.dolmetsch.com/defsl.htm|access-date=2023-02-17|website=Dolmetsch Music Dictionary}} and left-handed sewer flute.

There is often a startling juxtaposition of styles within a single {{nowrap|P. D. Q.}} Bach piece. The Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz, which alludes to Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach, provides an example. The underlying music is Johann Sebastian Bach's first prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, but at double the normal speed, with each phrase repeated interminably in a minimalist manner that parodies Glass. On top of this mind-numbing structure is added everything from jazz phrases to snoring to heavily harmonized versions of "Three Blind Mice" to the chanting of a meaningless phrase ("Coy Hotsy-Totsy", alluding to the art film {{lang|hop|Koyaanisqatsi}} for which Glass wrote the score). Through all these mutilations, the piece never deviates from Bach's original harmonic structure.

The humor in P. D. Q. Bach music often derives from violation of audience expectations, such as repeating a tune more than the usual number of times, resolving a musical chord later than usual or not at all, unusual key changes, excessive dissonance, or sudden switches from high art to low art.{{cite conference | title = Music-engendered laughter: an analysis of humor devices in PDQ Bach | first = David |last=Huron | url = http://www.musicog.ohio-state.edu/Huron/Publications/MP040049.PDF | book-title = Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Music | year = 2004 | pages = 700–704 }} Further humor is obtained by replacing parts of certain classical pieces with similar common songs, such as the opening of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 with "Beautiful Dreamer", or rewriting Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the 1712 Overture with "Yankee Doodle" replacing Tchaikovsky's melody and "Pop Goes the Weasel" replacing {{lang|fr|italic=no|"La Marseillaise"}}.

Schickele divides P. D. Q. Bach's fictional musical output into three periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused Period, and Contrition.{{cite journal|last=Ravas|first=Tammy|title='The Initial Plunge', 'The Soused Period', and 'Contrition'?: Moving Towards a Style of Peter Schickele's Funny Music in His P. D. Q. Bach Works|journal=Notes|series=Second series|volume=62|number=2|date=December 2005|pages=322–353|doi=10.1353/not.2005.0146 |jstor=4487573|s2cid=191611084 }} During the Initial Plunge, {{nowrap|P. D. Q.}} Bach wrote the {{Not a typo|{{lang|de|Traumarei}}}} for unaccompanied piano, an Echo Sonata for "two unfriendly groups of instruments", and a Gross Concerto for Divers Flutes, two Trumpets, and Strings. During the Soused (or Brown-Bag) Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote a Concerto for Horn and Hardart (a pun on the name of a chain of automat restaurants), a Sinfonia Concertante, a Pervertimento for Bicycle, Bagpipes, and Balloons, a Serenude, a {{lang|de|Perückenstück}} (literally German for "Wigpiece"), a Suite from The Civilian Barber (spoofing Rossini's The Barber of Seville), a Schleptet in E-flat major, the half-act opera The Stoned Guest (the character of "The Stone Guest" from Mozart's Don Giovanni, and the play by Pushkin), a Concerto for Piano vs. Orchestra, Erotica Variations (Beethoven's Eroica Variations), Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice, an opera in one unnatural act (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), The Art of the Ground Round (Bach's The Art of Fugue), a Concerto for Bassoon vs. Orchestra, and a Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion.

During the Contrition Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn (Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, etc.), the oratorio The Seasonings (Vivaldi's The Four Seasons), Diverse Ayres on Sundrie Notions, a Sonata for Viola Four Hands,The term four hands refers to the playing of one instrument, most commonly a piano, by two players at once. the chorale prelude Should, a Notebook for Betty Sue Bach (Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue"), the Toot Suite, the Grossest Fugue (Beethoven's Grosse Fuge), a Fanfare for the Common Cold (Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man) and the canine cantata {{lang|de|Wachet Arf!}} (Bach's {{lang|de|Wachet auf}}).

A final work is the mock religious work Missa Hilarious (Beethoven's Missa Solemnis) (Schickele no. N₂O – the chemical formula of nitrous oxide or "laughing gas").{{cite web|title=Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach|url=http://www.schickele.com/shoppe/pdqrec/portrait.htm|website=The Peter Schickele Web Site|access-date=14 December 2015|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303175011/http://www.schickele.com/shoppe/pdqrec/portrait.htm|url-status=live}}

File:Tromboon.jpg

{{right|File:Tromboon-det.jpg]]}}

The tromboon is a musical instrument made up of the reed and bocal of a bassoon, attached to the body of a trombone in place of the trombone's mouthpiece. It combines the sound of double reeds and the slide for a distinctive and unusual instrument. The name of the instrument is a portmanteau of "trombone" and "bassoon". The sound quality of the instrument is best described as comical and loud.

The tromboon was developed by Peter Schickele, a skilled bassoonist himself, and featured in some of his live concert and recorded performances. Schickele called it "a hybrid – that's the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both".{{cite web

|url = http://www.schickele.com/concerts/jandh.htm

|title = P. D. Q. Bach & Peter Schickele: The Jekyll and Hyde Tour

|access-date = 13 November 2008

|archive-date = 23 December 2008

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081223122034/http://www.schickele.com/concerts/jandh.htm

|url-status = live

}}{{cite web

|url = http://www.strangeroad.com/DrDSpeaks/DrDSpeaks008.php

|title = A Viva For Elizabeth Lands

|access-date = 13 November 2008

|author = Dr David Shevin

|date = 5 August 2004}} This instrument is called for in the scores of {{nowrap|P. D. Q.}} Bach's oratorio The Seasonings,{{cite journal|jstor=897049|doi=10.2307/897049|title=Review: The Seasonings, Oratorio for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass Soloists, SATB Chorus, and Orchestra by P. D. Q. Bach [Peter Schickele]|last=Seay|first=Albert|journal=Notes|series=Second series|volume=30|number=4|date=June 1974|pages=863–864}} as well as the Serenude (for devious instruments){{rp|187}} and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.{{Cite web|title=Bach: Shepherd on the Rocks, with a Twist: for Bargain Counter Tenor and Devious Instruments|url=https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/products/7293834--bach-shepherd-on-the-rocks-with-a-twist|access-date=2023-02-17|website=Presto Music|language=en}}

P. D. Q. Bach recordings received four successive Grammy Awards in the Best Comedy Album category from 1990 to 1993.{{Cite web |url=http://www.presser.com/composers/info.cfm?Name=PETERSCHICKELE |title=Biography page for Peter Schickele |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121206013617/http://www.presser.com/Composers/info.cfm?Name=PETERSCHICKELE |archive-date=6 December 2012 |work=Theodore Press Company}} Schickele also received a Grammy nomination in the Best Comedy Album category in 1996 for his abridged audiobook edition of The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach.{{cite web|url=http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1996/1996grammy.htm |title=Past Winners Database |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812182758/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1996/1996grammy.htm |archive-date=2007-08-12 |website=Los Angeles Times}}

• Johann Sebastian Mastropiero
• Johann Gambolputty, a character from episode 6 of Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Peter Planyavsky

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Schickele|first=Peter|title=The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach, (1807–1742)?|location=New York|publisher=Random House|year=1976|isbn=0-394-73409-2}}

• {{official website|https://www.schickele.com/wp/p-d-q-bach/}}
• {{discogs artist|P.D.Q. Bach}}
• [http://www.bruceduffie.com/schickele.html Interview with Peter Schickele], February 15, 1988
• [https://www.presser.com/p-d-q-bach#composer-tabs_content_1 P. D. Q. Bach: Works, About], Theodore Presser Company

{{P.D.Q. Bach}}

{{Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album}}

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Category:Humor in classical music