Peter Schickele | |
|---|---|
 Schickele in 2010 | |
| Born | (1935-07-17)July 17, 1935 Ames, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | January 16, 2024(2024-01-16) (aged 88) Bearsville, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) Juilliard School (MM) |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musical educator,parodist |
| Website | schickele |
Peter Schickele (/ˈʃɪkəli/;[1] July 17, 1935 – January 16, 2024) was an American composer, musical educator andparodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, which he presented as being composed by the fictionalP. D. Q. Bach. He also hosted a long-running weekly radio program calledSchickele Mix.[2]
From 1990 to 1993, Schickele's P. D. Q. Bach recordings earned him four consecutive wins for theGrammy Award for Best Comedy Album.[3]
Peter Schickele was born on July 17, 1935, inAmes, Iowa,[1][4] toAlsatian immigrant parents. His father, Rainer Schickele (1905,Berlin – 1989,Berkeley, California), was the son of writerRené Schickele and was an agricultural economist teaching atIowa State University.[5] In 1945, Schickele's father took a position atGeorge Washington University in Washington, D.C., then became chairman of the Agricultural Sciences Department at North Dakota Agricultural College (nowNorth Dakota State University) inFargo, North Dakota in 1946.[5]
In Fargo, the younger Schickele studied composition with Sigvald Thompson of theFargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1952, then attendedSwarthmore College, graduating in 1957 with a degree in music. He was the first student at Swarthmore to earn a music degree.[6] He was a contemporary ofTed Nelson at Swarthmore, and he scored Nelson's experimental filmThe Epiphany of Slocum Furlow. It was his first film score.[7] He graduated from theJuilliard School in 1960[8] with a master's degree in musical composition.[9] He studied composition withRoy Harris andVincent Persichetti.[10]
Schickele wrote music for a number offolk musicians, most notablyJoan Baez, for whom he also orchestrated and arranged three albums during the mid-1960s,Noël (1966),Joan (1967), andBaptism (1968). He also composed the original score for the 1972 science fiction filmSilent Running.[11]
Schickele, an accomplishedbassoonist, was also a member of the chamber rock trio the Open Window, which wrote and performed music for the 1969revueOh! Calcutta![12] and released three albums.[13][14][15]
The humorous aspect of Schickele's musical career came from his early interest in the music ofSpike Jones, whose musical ensemble lampooned popular music in the 1940s and 1950s.[4] in 1959, while at Juilliard, Schickele teamed with conductorJorge Mester to present a humorous concert, which became an annual event at the college.[citation needed] In 1965, Schickele moved the concept toThe Town Hall in New York City and invited the public to attend;[4]Vanguard Records released an album of that concert, and the character of "P. D. Q. Bach" was launched.[16] By 1972, the concerts had become so popular that they were moved toAvery Fisher Hall atLincoln Center.
Schickele developed an elaborate parody around his studies of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional "youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" ofJohann Sebastian Bach.[4] Among the fictional composer's "forgotten" repertory are such farcical works asThe Abduction of Figaro,[1] the "Unbegun" symphony,[1] "Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons",[1]Canine Cantata: "Wachet Arf!",[17]Good King Kong Looked Out,[18] the"Trite" Quintet,[17] "O Little Town of Hackensack",[1]A Little Nightmare Music,[19] the cantataIphigenia inBrooklyn,[1] theConcerto for Horn and Hardart,[1]The Stoned Guest,[1] "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice",[1] theConcerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra,[1] the dramatic oratorioOedipus Tex[17][20] andEinstein on the Fritz, a parody of Schickele'sJuilliard classmatePhilip Glass.[21]
His fictitious "home establishment" is the University of Southern North Dakota atHoople, 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 theConcerto for Horn and Hardart, a play on the name ofHorn & Hardart who pioneered the American use of the automat in their restaurants.[1]
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).[22]: 153
To a large degree, Schickele's music as P.D.Q. Bach has overshadowed his work as a "serious" composer.[23][24] He frequently collaborated with soprano Michele Eaton and tenorDavid Dusing who often appeared with him in concerts.[25]
Schickele performed two concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first concert atThe Town Hall in New York on December 28 and 29, 2015.[26] He reduced his concert appearances due to health issues, but continued to schedule live concert performances through 2018.[27]
Schickele composed more than 100 original works forsymphony orchestra, choral groups,chamber ensemble, voice, television and an animated adaptation ofWhere the Wild Things Are (which he also narrated).[16] He made a brief foray intocinema with theBruce Dern filmSilent Running (1972), for which he composed themusical 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, includingOh! Calcutta!, and organized numerous concert performances as both musical director and performer. Schickele was active on the international and North American concert circuit.[1]
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.[28]
Schickele also created such not-quite–P. D. Q. Bach albums asHornsmoke,[29]Sneaky Pete and the Wolf,[30] andThe Emperor's New Clothes.[31]
Schickele's music is published by theTheodore Presser Company.[32]
As a musical educator he also hosted the classical music educational radio programSchickele Mix, which aired on manypublic radio stations in the United States (and internationally onPublic 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.[33] Only 119 of the 169 programs were in the rebroadcast rotation, because earlier shows containedAmerican 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,[2] 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 theperiodic table.[34]
Schickele married poet Susan Sindall on October 27, 1962.[35] Their children, Matt and Karla, are both musicians. The two played together in the trio Beekeeper in the 1990s.[36] Karla is also an orchestral music composer.
Schickele's brotherDavid Schickele (1937–1999) was a film director and musician.[37]
Peter Schickele died at his home inBearsville, New York, on January 16, 2024, at the age of 88, due to a series of infections that damaged his health.[1]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Grammy Awards | Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album | Oh! Calcutta! | Nominated | [3] |
| 1990 | Best Comedy Recording | P. D. Q. Bach:1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults | 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 | Nominated | |||
| 1993 | Best Comedy Album | P. D. Q. Bach:Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion | Won | ||
| 1996 | Best Spoken Comedy Album | The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach | Nominated | ||
| 1999 | Best Classical Crossover Album | Schickele: Hornsmoke (Piano Concerto No. 2 In F Major "Ole"; Brass Calendar; Hornsmoke – A Horse Opera) | Won | ||
| 2004 | Best Spoken Word Album for Children | The Emperor's New Clothes | Nominated |
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