The genius behind P. D. Q Bach, and the compoaser of the score to Silent Running, is 79 today. Happy birthday, Peter Schickele!
This is a mostly encore post, of course.
Peter Schickele, born July 17, 1935
May he live to be a happy, robust, still-composing, still performing 139, at least.
Some people know him as a great disk jockey. Some people know him as the singer of cabaret tunes. Some people know and love him as a composer of music for symphony orchestra, or to accompany Where the Wild Things Are.
Then there are those happy masses who know him for his historical work, recovering the works of Johann Sebastian Bach’s final and most wayward child, P. D. Q. Bach.
Tip of the old bathtub-hardened conductor’s baton to Eric Koenig.
This is mostly an encore post. It was scheduled to run on time, not sure why it didn’t — problems of being on the road, you know.
Related articles
- Classical Notes: “Defiant Requiem,” Peter Schickele, “Little Women” (timesunion.com)
- Classical Comedy is Harder (the-unmutual.blogspot.com)
- Dining With Caruso Near the Old Met (wqxr.org)
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Thanks for the information, Ed. My station is not, but I will certainly take a look at those links.
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But, if you Google Schickele Mix, you find some public stations were, maybe still are, streaming:
http://mshook.webfactional.com/talkabout/archive/talkabout.editthispage.com/discuss/msgReader$175fb67.html?mode=topic&print-friendly=true
Not entirely sure how current this listing is, but if you live near Yellowstone NP, or if you have a computer, this gets you to the 50 Lost Episodes:
http://www.ypradio.org/programs/listings/schickele_mix.php
Not sure whether these are square with the copyright gods:
http://mp3skull.com/mp3/schickele.html
Other radio broadcasts are available at Schickele’s site:
http://www.schickele.com/broadcasting/
The first time I remember hearing Schickele was on KALL-AM Radio in Salt Lake City, the play-by-play of orchestra versus conductor. At the time KALL had the top-rated morning drive programs, loaded with good humor, but not much high-brow. That broadcast made a lot of converts to at least thinking about classical music. (RIP Will Lucas, and for all I know, RIP KALL’s great morning drive stuff.)
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I loved Schickele Mix and wish that those programs had been recorded for sale, but they were not, as far as I know. Too bad, and Happy Birthday to Mr. Schickele.
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