P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) - "The art of the ground round"

Just like Anna Russell before him, Peter Schickele is well-known for his parodies of classical music traditions. Though Schickele took the whole thing a step further by creating a whole musical personality, P.D.Q. Bach, "youngest and the oddest of the twenty odd children" of J.S. Bach. He has used this guise to write quite a lot of music, including a couple of "operas" in various quantities of acts.

Surprisingly, considering the fact that P.D.Q.'s "music" basically lampoons classical music, Schickele seems to be quite a talented composer, some of the musical ideas he uses can be quite contagiously brilliant (the third "piece" here features a quite wonderful bass line, so wonderful, in fact, that I really do think that a couple of excellent singers could make the piece into a serious one (incidentally, do listen to the words, most of the humor lies there)). Presented here is a parody of musical pieces utilizing the basso ostinato or the ground bass. I am also providing a link to the album from which this piece is taken, just in case you want more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intimate_P._D._Q._Bach

Enjoy and do try to take the pieces as far away from seriousness as you can :)!

P.S. By the way, for people who have guessed the identities of the people on the painting I have used for the backdrop, I'm not trying to lampoon either of the people on it, I just found that the painting went well with the music :)!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ground
• bass
• P.D.Q.
• Bach
• the
• art
• of
• round
• Peter
• Schickele

[nervagor]

"LOOK! UP! HER! DRESS!" Maturity at its finest ladies and gentlemen.

[happyman]

Loving is as easy as falling off a log

A cat'll love a cat and a dog'll love a dog

When you're hot you know you're hot

and when you're not you're not... hot.

Cold, cold loving is hard but hot... hot.

[muulka]

It's really funny but amazingly good music as music! I can imagine that it's really hard to sing lol.

[affectivity]

I mean Schickele, not the guy sitting next to us! ;)

[affectivity]

I remember his Christmastime concerts at Carnegie Hall. Once, during a performance of Iphigenia in Brooklyn, my sister and I thought the man next to us was going to have a coronary, he was laughing so hard. I believe he entered that concert by running up the aisle accompanied by what looked like a hooker.

[thesorandomstudio]

We are the singing the second one in chorus. We are an 8th grade class in a christian school!!:D

[barochial]

Does anybody have anyposts for The Abduction of Figaro? Specifically,the "Talkin' about Love" quartet or the "Standing as in a Dream"? These pieces are musically brilliant as much of Schickele's work is, and they have haunted me for over twenty-five years.

[jsl1211]

Both of my parents are band directors..I grew up listening to this stuff. I didn't understand why my 5th grade band director wouldn't let us play it!

[TheTwinWhoLovesMusic]

@tidaking816 wowwwww, elementary school? Haha, my teacher had us sing this unknowingly a little while ago. We're the seniors of our high school. Well, we caught on, then we just couldn't stop laughing.

[Jazzbeu55]

Fun stuff. He was the only guest artist performing with the local symphony who ever arrived on stage by swinging in on a rope from the balcony. The performance was funny on so many different levels. The sophisticated symphony patrons loved the musical tricks and everyone else laughed at the sight gags.

[evac93rd]

My absolutely favorite PDQ Bach tune Bar none....

Her hair is like down-wind of a compost heap on fire

[skidude7253]

singing this in my college men's glee club. Gonna be the best song of the night