Those familiar with composer Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach persona may be aware that he wrote original music as well. Less common is knowledge of what it actually sounds like, and less common still an awareness that it's far from unrelated to the P.D.Q. Bach compositions. An added bonus is that as of 2009, at age 74, Schickele was still at it: the opening A Year in the Catskills, composed that year, is a delightfully elegant piece of American neo-classicism. Schickele's essential style has remained recognizable through ...
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Those familiar with composer Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach persona may be aware that he wrote original music as well. Less common is knowledge of what it actually sounds like, and less common still an awareness that it's far from unrelated to the P.D.Q. Bach compositions. An added bonus is that as of 2009, at age 74, Schickele was still at it: the opening A Year in the Catskills, composed that year, is a delightfully elegant piece of American neo-classicism. Schickele's essential style has remained recognizable through several decades of tonal fashions, and as heard in these wind-ensemble pieces it's often very funny indeed. Quite like in the P.D.Q. Bach pieces, Schickele relies on a combination of rigorous part-writing and unexpected stylistic shifts. He juxatposes Baroque dances with modern popular ones (a device not unknown in the P.D.Q. Bach recordings), and his ear for amusing musical pictorialisms is keen: sample the three movements of What Did You Do Today at Jeffrey's House? for an idea. The...
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