I don't do this often but this one's necessary.
From The NYTimes:
Peter Schickele, an American composer whose career as a writer of serious concert music was often eclipsed by that of his antic alter ego, the thoroughly debauched, terrifyingly prolific and mercifully fictional P.D.Q. Bach, died on Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, a hamlet outside Woodstock, N.Y. He was 88.
Damn. He was one of my heroes.
This was how, in 1982, my first music history teacher started discussing Sonata-Allegro form:
For my senior recital, in '85, I scraped together a brass quintet to play his Fanfare for the Common Cold. (S. 98.7).
I even got to interview him for The Post-Gazette in 2001, back when I was freelancing for the P-G. Back when the P-G had freelancers. Back before the staff went on strike.
But I digress.
Brilliant composer, brilliant parodist. Very funny guy.
And composer of perhaps the greatest quodlibet of all time:
But perhaps my favorite is this:
Essentially a parody of Copland's Lincoln Portrait. But listen to subtle shift in tone about 13:30 in.
Damn. He was a hero of mine.
