Peter Schickele, a Grammy Award-winning composer and clever humorist who positioned himself as the foremost authority on the rule-breaking P.D.Q. Bach, the “last and least” of J.S. Bach’s musical offspring, passed away on January 16 at his residence in Bearsville, N.Y. He was 88.
His daughter, Karla Schickele, confirmed his death, noting that his health had been declining since infections last fall.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, the Juilliard-trained Mr. Schickele crafted melodious chamber music, vocal compositions, symphonic scores, and film soundtracks. Yet, his most significant recognition came as a comedic maestro who not only created and performed but also wrote about and lectured on the pseudo-classical and baroque music of the fictional P.D.Q. Bach.
Mr. Schickele, a robust, bearded figure with broad musical interests and a keen sense of humor, bore a slight resemblance to Brahms in profile, a likeness he occasionally exploited in his P.D.Q. Bach performances by mimicking a pose from a well-known Brahms portrait.
His comedy was characterized by rarefied references, blending jokes intended for composition experts with gags requiring only a basic knowledge of music. For instance, he might disrupt a serene baroque adagio with a touch of boogie-woogie or overlay “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” on a J.S. Bach prelude.
P.D.Q. Bach’s works often parodied the titles of well-known classics, with compositions like “The Seasonings” (a play on Haydn’s “The Seasons”), the “Sanka Cantata” (a twist on J.S. Bach’s “Coffee Cantata”), “Oedipus Tex” (a Wild West take on the Sophocles fable, featuring characters like Billie Jo Casta and Madame Peep), and “Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice” (a fusion of the Humperdinck opera and filmmaker Paul Mazursky’s satire on swingers).