Classical Music is outright outstanding… It is very calm,
\nrelaxing, and can also be a great mood-setter. Appreciating the
\nmusic of such Classical giants as Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky
\nare always a treat. So, as I was browsing through the Classical
\nsection at the local record stores, I couldn’t help observing the
\nP.D.Q. Bach section. Two albums that were there were
\nOn The Air<\/i>, and
\nClassical WTWP Talkity-Talk Radio<\/i>. Seeing that both these
\nalbums were formatted as radio shows, and being a huge fan of radio
\nbroadcasting, I couldn’t help but to grab these albums and listen
\nin. To my surprise, the gentleman at the register explained that
\nthe P.D.Q. Bach albums were not like the common Classical albums. I
\nbought them anyway, not only because of the radio show format, but
\nnow I was really curious.<\/p>\n
P.D.Q. Bach is the creation (yet they say that there was such a
\nperson as P.D.Q. Bach), of Professor Peter Schickele. His
\nobservance of P.D.Q. Bach’s music is easily described as Classical
\nMusic, in a comedic atmosphere.<\/p>\n
First, let’s see how this radio show is presented. The
\nselections of this album were written as a radio show log, which
\nbrought back memories for me, as I did the same for radio shows for
\nmy Radio & TV course in High School. There are 6 tracks on this
\nalbum, where the first three consists of the Bright And Early Show,
\nand the remaining is the Dull And Late Show. The entire “broadcast”
\nis explained in the liner notes:<\/p>\n
P.D.Q. BACH<\/p>\n
ON THE AIR<\/p>\n
From Radio Station WOOF at the University of<\/p>\n
Southern North Dakota at Hoople<\/p>\n
PROFESSOR PETER SCHICKELE<\/p>\n
brings you the chamber music of P.D.Q. Bach
\n(1807-1742)?<\/p>\n
with John Ferrante, countertenor<\/p>\n
and I VIRTUOSI DI HOOPLE<\/p>\n
(Peter Schickele, conductor)<\/p>\n
on this week’s installment of<\/p>\n
REPORT FROM HOOPLE<\/p>\n
” The Bright And Early Show”: “The Signature Theme and Intro” is
\nan introduction as the DJ (Peter Schickele) introduces the show to
\npresent the music of P.D.Q. Bach. But as he prepares to play the
\nsong “Echo Sonata For Two Unfriendly Groups Of Instruments” he
\nexperiences tape problems throughout the entire song. In fact, the
\ntape breaks on the air, yet the tape gets fixed, but tape problems
\nstill persist. A Station Break is then heard, followed by a
\nCommercial – “Do You Suffer?”. This commercial is where we hear a
\nwoman singing opera, asking “Do you suffer from pain?”<\/p>\n
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the focus of “New Horizons In
\nMusic Appreciation.” Schickele explains that most classical music
\npieces are long, and in most opera houses, the lights are turned
\ndown low, where people could not read their programs while the
\nmusic is playing throughout the concert. P.D.Q. Bach’s solution is
\nheard, where as Beethoven’s 5th is playing, we hear a satire of two
\nannouncers (Peter Schickele and Robert Dennis) explaining over the
\nmusic what is going on. This reminds me of Spike Jones’ “William
\nTell Overture,” where the descriptions and accounts are that of a
\nsporting event. Very funny selection… Time, Weather, News
\nfollows.<\/p>\n
“Traumarai For Unaccompanied Piano” is the focus of the third
\ntrack, and it seems that as the song is playing, the microphones
\nare left open, as we can hear various crazy happenings going on.
\n“The Bright And Early Show” ends with a Station Break, Tag, and
\nSignature Theme (as we heard in the beginning of the show).<\/p>\n
” The Dull And Late Show”: Fun and music, and P.D.Q. Bach…<\/p>\n
We hear “Schleptet In E Flat Minor,” another classical piece,
\nand this one is more of a typical sounding classical piece, where
\nthis composition could easily get radio airplay on “normal”
\nclassical radio stations, such as Chicago’s WNIB. A Tag and Station
\nBreak follows.<\/p>\n
“What’s My Melodic Line?” is where listeners send in works of
\ncomposers from 1500-1750, and the musicians in the studio are
\nexpected to play the compositions requested from the listeners. Two
\nrequests are correctly identified. The last one was incorrectly
\nidentified. The Time and News follows. The grand prize is where a
\nlistener who has “stumped” the musicians, were to be entered, to
\nwhere the winner would win the complete works of Vivaldi, recorded
\non 45 rpm records, which would be sent once a week, for the next 35
\nyears.<\/p>\n
“Fugue In C Minor” is a very comedical composition, where it
\nreally sounds more Baroque\/Calliope than Classical. “What’s
\nHappening In Home Economics” is where a minor “stab” at Beethoven’s
\nmusic is compared to Baroque\/Calliope music. Suddenly, Peter
\nSchickele was forced to admit that he enjoys Beethoven’s music, as
\nif Beethoven’s ghost had taken over forced him, under Schickele’s
\nown free will (Beethoven’s Revenge). A commercial, and sign-off is
\nheard, ending the program, and this very memorable album.<\/p>\n
P.D.Q. Bach is more of a comedic look at Classical Music. This
\n“radio broadcast” has the style of another comedian, Stan Freberg.
\nThroughout most of the spoken dialogue, sound effects such as dogs
\nbarking, and dogs howling are heard – being the radio station call
\nletters – WOOF. As much as this is a look at Classical Music in a
\nmuch different way, there were die-hard Classical Music fans who
\nwere offended that such a unique style of music was handled in a
\ncomedic atmosphere. So, for the serious Classical Music fan,
\ndepending on your sense of humor, this may or may not be an album
\nthat would normally be recommended. Yet, for the humorist, and
\nmaybe for people who do not especially like Classical Music, Peter
\nSchickele’s observance of P.D.Q. Bach’s music will bring laughter
\nand many chuckles in listening to something that Monty Python had
\nalways said… “And now for something completely different…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6496],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36909","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-p-d-q-bach","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36909"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36909"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}