Peter Schickele was a composer and humorist best known for his comedic musical compositions, released under his persona, P. D. Q. Bach.
- Died: January 16, 2024 (Who else died on January 16?)
- Details of death: Died in Bearsville, New York, at the age of 88.
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Peter Schickele’s legacy
Schickele was born in Iowa to immigrant parents. While in school, he studied composition in Fargo, North Dakota, under Sigvald Thompson of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, then earned a music degree from Swarthmore College and a master’s from the Juilliard School.
Schickele spent time in the 1960s and early 1970s composing music for such folk musicians as Joan Baez – he arranged three albums for her in the late ‘60s – as well as scoring music for the science fiction cult classic “Silent Running.” However, his best-known work debuted in 1965 under a different name: P. D. Q. Bach.
P. D. Q. Bach was a fictional composer of Schickele’s invention, a supposed relation of the Bach family whose long-lost compositions were only now coming to light. His work was defined by sharp parodies of Baroque and Classical music conventions, good-natured takedowns of musical scholarship, and even pure stage slapstick. The act proved to be a big hit among both mainstream and classical audiences alike. All told, Schickele released 17 albums as P. D. Q. Bach.
Schickele also had a career as a serious musician and composer. He created over 100 works for orchestra and wrote musicals. His work on “Oh! Calcutta!” earned him a Grammy nomination in 1970. He also hosted the educational radio program “Schickele Mix” on NPR from 1992 to 1999, with rebroadcasts lasting until 2007.
On the early success of P. D. Q. Bach:
“Even then I thought that all this might last five years or so. I had no idea that it would end up a career. By the mid 70s it was pretty much paying my bills and then some. And the rest, as they say, has been travesty.”—from a 2008 interview with Northwest Reverb
Tributes to Peter Schickele
Full obituary: The New York Times
