“Peter Schickele composed symphonies, film scores and musical numbers for Broadway,” reported The New York Times Lives Lived section this Friday, January 19. “To his resigned chagrin, he was best known as a musical parodist, the supposed discoverer of the fictional P.D.Q. Bach. Schickele died at 88.”
Schickele, a Woodstock resident for several decades, was known for his support of local musical causes in which he believed.
Johann Peter Schickele composed more than 100 symphonic, choral, solo, instrumental and chamber works. He also wrote film scores and musical numbers for Broadway.
From North Dakota, he graduated from Fargo Central High School and Swarthmore College. A graduate from the Juilliard School in 1960] with a master’s degree in musical composition, he wrote music for a number of folk musicians, most notably Joan Baez, for whom he also orchestrated and arranged three albums during the mid-1960s.
An accomplished bassoonist, he was also a member of the chamber rock trio the Open Window, which wrote and performed music for the 1969 revue, Oh! Calcutta! and released three albums.
It was as a musical parodist that he remained best known, however. For more than a half century, his live performances “punctured the reverent pomposity that can attend classical-music culture,” wrote the Times obituary. From 1990 to 1993, Schickele’s P.D.Q. Bach recordings earned him four consecutive wins for thw Grammy award for best comedy album. He would bounce onto the stage with an endless variety of entrances and regale his audiences with improbable tales of J.S. Bach’s fictional son..
His health had declined after a series of infections last fall.
A zany personality even by Woodstock standards, Peter Schickele accomplished more than most. And his spirit lives on in those he leaves behind.
Schickele is survived by his wife, Susan Sindall, a former dancer and well-known poet, by his daughter Karla, a writer, singer songwriter and bassist, and by his son Matthew, a Bard graduate and student of Joan Tower who with his sister cofounded the Indie rock group Beekeeper and has written chamber music, vocal music, songs, and electronic music for ensembles, bands, and the stage.
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