P.D.Q. Bach

Composer Peter Schickele introduced the world to his alter ego P.D.Q. Bach, presented as the youngest and most insignificant offspring of Johann Sebastian Bach, according to the supposed Professor of Music at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. In 1965 Schickele began staging and documenting the composer’s unearthed scores, treating them like revived musical relics that demanded fresh instrumentation. Among the required inventions were the left-handed sewer flute, the slide music stand, the windbreaker, and additional eccentric devices.

Schickele’s efforts produced an opera titled The Abduction of Figaro that reached television audiences and later appeared on home video, complete with the notorious aria “Found a Peanut,” alongside early genre-blending experiments such as the bluegrass cantata “Blaues Grass, Grune Himmel.” Leading orchestras around the globe agreed to present these pieces, a development that perhaps reflected unpredictable artistic judgment. Performances of P.D.Q. Bach’s catalog persisted internationally through the 2020s, most consistently through the Semi-Pro Musica Antiqua and with sporadic Telarc releases.

Schickele’s parodies generally hit their targets with comic precision, though occasional self-indulgence appeared; the lapse remained easy to overlook across the larger catalog. Peter Schickele passed away at his residence in Bearsville, New York, on January 16, 2024, at the age of 88, rendering the emergence of further P.D.Q. Bach material improbable.