Supposedly a relative of J.S. Bach, P.D.Q. Bach is actually the funny and talented Peter Schickele who has come up with a bunch of silly-yet-smart parodies of classical music. This kind of music was aching for someone like this, but in listening to it you're not listening to classical music being "deflated," but just played around with lovingly, maybe even letting us less serious people appreciate classical music better.
Information: The Peter
Schickele / P.D.Q. Bach Website
Suggested first purchase/album: 1712 and Other Musical Assaults
Suggested best of: Ill-Conceived PDQ Bach Anthology
1712 and Other Musical Assaults (1989) -- This album is pretty funny, especially for fans of classical music (which I'm not necessarily--if I were, I'd probably get more of the jokes, but I know enough to know). The take on Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" is enough, but the hilarious "Bach Portrait" (in which the real composer of these works, Peter Schickele, reads some of J.S. Bach's droning and money-obsessed letters) is also really funny. The rest are pretty great inside jokes, but you don't have to be too inside. B
Copyright (c) May 2001 - Apr 2005 by Rusty Likes Music