I saw his show 50 years ago, it was hilarious!

Peter Schickele, whose comedic parodies of classical music overshadowed his own strengths as a serious composer, died Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, N.Y. at 88. His daughter confirmed the death and attributed it to a series of infections that damaged his health.

Schickele won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album four years in a row from 1990-1994. He also won in 2000 for Best Classical Crossover album...

Complete article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/musi...r-was-88/ar-AA1n9mbY

R.I.P.

I also got to see him live - very funny.

Here he is with Itzhak Perlman and John Williams with the Boston Pops.

Also familiar with his work. Never got to see his show live.

His version of Peter and the Wolf is classic Schickele.

There is /was a musicians/comedy group in Argentina named Les Luthiers that started almost at the same time, late sixties, with an identical format. Homemade bizarre musical instruments and a fake musical composer named Johann Sebastian Mastropiero. The early similarities are striking but Les Luthiers evolved to be their own particular style that covered all genres of music, popular, classic , national and foreign.

I discovered Schickele and P.D.Q Bach in the late eighties when i was amiliar with the Luthiers until then “original” style
Can’t tell who came first but Luthiers are a part of Argentina´s national culture.

You might find some of it in YT, hopefully with subtitles but i wonder if our particular type of humor translates to English.
Some sort of fast paced Monty Python type dialogs but a lot is jugling with words and double entendres. No foul language whatsoever. Never.

I use PDQ as a screen name at a local audio board, knowing well that nobody local has ever heard of Schickele.

R.I.P.

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My favorite was The Stoned Guest. Last track on that album was a famous rendition of a Madrigal. My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth. Many advanced show choirs back in the day took a crack at it. But, fell flat because no one could recreate the scatting at the end.

Also Beethoven's Fifth First Movement performed with sports like commentary, and the Unbegun Symphony were also favorites.

Inventor of the tromboon, a trombone with the mouthpiece and double reed of the bassoon. As Schickele described it:

“ . . . a hybrid – that’s the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both.”

Rip to Schickele.

He was a bassoonist. He was the featured "guest artist" with our orchestra a couple of times in the 90's and early 2000's. He climbed down a LONG way from the balcony on a rope to the main floor to start things off. That was his standard MO, but I was still surprised because the hight was extreme for a balcony anywhere. At the first concert, he walked by my wife and I coming on stage for the 2nd half, and we both chuckled as he walked by--tails, with a ratty red plaid flannel shirt (he probably had it wadded-up in his suitcase for that "special" look) and long-worn tan work boots that I don't think were tied. He said to us "You're just jealous because I dress like you WISH you could!" And he was right. He was a wonderful artist to work with.

quote:

Originally posted by Reedman:
...He climbed down a LONG way from the balcony on a rope to the main floor to start things off. That was his standard MO, but I was still surprised because the hight was extreme for a balcony anywhere...

He did the same for the show I attended circa 1974, but it was an old facility and I'm guessing he roped down maybe 15 feet.

Juilliard graduate, and sat on their board for many years.

An absolute musical GENIUS. There has never been anyone like him.