Johann Sebastian Bach’s Only Forgotten Son

Big Band had it’s Spike Jones. Top 40 music has it’s Weird Al Yankovic. Classical music has it’s PDQ Bach. PDQ Bach is the alter ego of composer Peter Schickele.

Schickele is a music expert. Listening to his many compositions of PDQ Bach allow you to study models of classical music and it’s structure. He uses classical elements in a more modern context. On the liner notes of one of his albums, he explains how many classical composers used folk songs of the time and expanded them into orchestral piece. An example of that can be heard from the very beginning of this video as Bach, er, Schickele began with a theme from Yankee Doodle — a motif heard throughout the piece.

There is no telling what you are likely to hear in a PDQ piece, but they are certainly worth a listen. You can have fun and expand your musical horizons. The orchestra also joins in on the fun here as well. Listen, and perhaps you, too will want to enroll in the music program at the University of Southern North Dakota At Hoople.