This month's Classics a Day theme is a tribute to the late Peter Schickle. Schickle was a talented composer of both classical and film music. He's best remembered, though, for his alter ego, PDQ Bach.
PDQ Bach was the youngest and least talented of Johann Sebastian Bach's children. The music by him that Peter Schickle "discovered" is musical humor at its most sublime. The more one knows about classical music, the funnier PDQ Bach pieces are. The works reference virtually every aspect of classical music, from familiar themes to nomenclature.
But Schickle wsn't the first composer to have some fun with "serious" music. The challenge this month is to post examples of musical humor in classical works. Although most of my posts are PDQ Bach, an equal number aren't. Here are my posts for the second week of #ClassicalHumor.
04/08/24 Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 "Classical Symphony"
Prokofiev wrote this work not as a joke, but as an exercise in composing without a piano. He predicted that critics would say he was "contaminating the pure classical pearls with horrible Prokofievish dissonances." But he also thought audiences would "just be content to hear happy and uncomplicated music."
04/09/24 PDQ Bach: The Stoned Guest S.86 proof
Although it seems a parody on Dargomyzhsky's opera The Stone Guest, this half-act opera actually follows many Classical Era conventions -- including grafting a happy ending onto a depressing tragedy.
04/10/24 Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2
Ives once told someone who was hissing in the audience, "When you hear music like this, sit up and take it like a man!" For Ives, this symphony wasn't a joke, but rather a poke at the pretentiousness of the classical world.
04/11/24 PDQ Bach: The Abduction of Figaro (Act 1, Scene 1)
PDQ Bach wasn't the only composer to write sequel to Mozart's operas. Just the least qualified to do so.
04/12/24 Luigi Russolo: Serenata per intorarumori
Russolo invented a family of musical instruments in 1913. They were classified as crackers, bubblers, rumblers, buzzers and so on.
I thought David Starobin released his farewell album a couple of years ago. But I'm not complaining. Starobin is a masterful performer. And his releases are always well-recorded.
Most of the works on "Virtuosi" have been previously released -- but not all. Three selections by W.T. Matiegka. Matiegka was a friend of Franz Schubert, and their styles are very similar. If Schubert had written guitar music, this is probably what it would have sounded like.
Also premiered her are Five Anecdotes by Andres Segovia. He's the only 20th Century composer on the album. The others all date from the early Romantic Era. But his music isn't out of place. These works explore the possibilities of the guitar while remaining tonal and tuneful.
Starobin plays with remarkable control. He plucks the strings with precision -- even the fasted runs sound clean and accurate. And his left hand technique is flawless. There's never even the hint of a finger slide.
But most important is what Starobin does with these skills. He plays expressively, giving shape to the music. It doesn't matter how demanding the music is, one only hears the beauty of the sound.
This is a collection of virtuoso guitar music written by virtuoso guitarists. And it's played by a virtuoso guitarist.
Virtuosi: Guitar Music by Giuliani, Matiegka, L'Hoyer, Coste, Regondi, Sor, Segovia David Starobin, guitar Bridge Records 9600
This month's Classics a Day theme is a tribute to the late Peter Schickle. Schickle was a talented composer of both classical and film music. He's best remembered, though, for his alter ego, PDQ Bach.
PDQ Bach was the youngest and least talented of Johann Sebastian Bach's children. The music by him that Peter Schickle "discovered" is musical humor at its most sublime. The more one knows about classical music, the funnier PDQ Bach pieces are. The works reference virtually every aspect of classical music, from familiar themes to nomenclature.
But Schickle wsn't the first composer to have some fun with "serious" music. The challenge this month is to post examples of musical humor in classical works. Although most of my posts are PDQ Bach, an equal number aren't. Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicalHumor.
One of PDQ Bach's more ambitious song cycles is this set of twelve lieder based on the signs of the Zodiac (sort of).
04/02/24 Lord Berners: Funeral March for a Rich Aunt
Lord Berners was Gerald Hugh Tyrwitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners. Although he was a early 20th C. avant gardist, he could never quite suppress his sense of humor.
04/03/24 PDQ Bach: Cantata Blaues Gras
Bach composed this work while at Wein-am-Rhine. It was commissioned by Tommy Mann and the Magic Mountain Boys, a roving group of musicians playing instruments from the American colonies.
04/04/24 Dmitri Shostakovich: Gallop, from "The Nose"
Shostakovich's 1927 opera involves a nose who runs away from its face and causes mayhem. The music matches the absurd plot, which features a human-size dancing nose.
04/05/24 PDQ Bach: Iphigenia in Brooklyn, S.53162
The title of this cantata plays off a couple of things. The Schickle number of this work references the cantatas written by Gerog Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner. They number in the thousands for each composer. Second, several composers set the stories of Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris. So having her land someplace else seemed only natural.
David Johnson was an important figure in Scottish music. He did ground-breaking research into 18th Century Scottish folk music. His work established links between folk and classical music of the period.
Johnson was responsible for reviving several early Scottish composers of the era. And as an instrumentalist and concert promoter, he brought this music to the public.
Johnson was also a prolific composer, although his music isn't well-known. This album collects the twelve preludes and fugues Johnson wrote in the 1990s. He was a research fellow at the time. The initial pieces were written as one-offs.
But as time went on, Johnson came to think of them as a series. He composed the later installments with that concept in mind. The pieces all share a common four-note motif. -- B-flat, B natural, E and A. In Germanic spelling, B natural is "H." It allowed Bach to spell out his name musically. And it allowed Johnson to reference Bheatha -- the Gaelic word for life.
This is a fascinating collection of pieces. Some are quite simple. Others sound challenging to play. Johnson writes in a primarily tonal style. But that doesn't limit him to simple harmonies.
Christopher Guild has a strong background playing Scottish classical music. And that experience informs his playing here. Johnson often referenced Scottish music in these pieces. Guild ensures they're played with the proper phrasing and rhythmic bounce.
Charming, witty, and thought-provoking.
David Johnson: 12 Preludes and Fugues for solo piano Christopher Guild, piano Divine Art
The #ClassicsaDay team has made Women's History Month the March theme since 2017. The challenge remains: post classical music videos from female composers on your social media channels. There are plenty of options when it comes to 21st- and 20th-century composers.
What continually surprises me is how much music is yet to be discovered from earlier centuries. And also how much of it was known at the time, but somehow fell into obscurity. Here are my discoveries for the fourth and final week of #WomensHistoryMonth.
03/25/24 Alba Trissina (f. 1622): Vulnerasti cor meum
Trissina was a Carmelite nun who studied with Leone Leoni. Leoni published four of her works in 1622. They're all that survive of her music.
03/26/24 Mlle Bocquet (early 17th C.-after 1660): Sarabande in A minor
Her first name is unknown, but not her talent. This virtuoso lutenist wrote a series of works that expanded the possibilities of the instrument.
03/27/24 Antonia Bembo (c. 1640–1720): Se legge d'amore
Bembo was an Italian singer and composer who found a home at Versailles. She was a musician in the court of Louis XIV. Six volumes of her music are preserved in manuscript.
03/28/24 Rosa Giacinta Badalla (1660–1710): Pane angelico
Badalla's reputation rests on a single publication. Motetti a voce sola (1684, Venice) shows a composer at the top of her game. The works were most likely written for performance in her convent.
03/29/24 Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729): Sonata No. 2 in B-flat
De La Guerre was famed as a harpsichord virtuoso. She published several collections of sonatas and cantatas. She also composed two operas that were staged in the 1690s.
