History Music / PDQBach

* AnachronismStew

...Okay, fine, you got us: P. D. Q. Bach never existed. Schickele made him up as a [[DirectLineToTheAuthor disguise for his own compositions]], which are parodies of typical classical conventions and compositions. The results, though of questionable merit on purely musical terms, are [[SoBadItsGood unconventional]], [[AnachronismStew eclectic]] and quite popular on the comedy circuit, performed anywhere from high school campuses to the Boston Pops, long-time seat of famed composer Music/JohnWilliams.

* BilingualBonus: The titles of P.D.Q.'s pieces have meanings obfuscated by translation into pseudo-musical Italian, pseudo-Lutheran German or pseudo-ecclesiastical Latin:

* BizarreInstrument: The works of P.D.Q. Bach often require the use of unconventional instruments, like the "tromboon" (Trombone with a bassoon reed).

* BoastfulRap: in "Classical Rap": "I'm the apex, I'm the best. I'm considerably better than all the rest."
* TheComicallySerious: any musician performing P.D.Q.'s works.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Those of P.D.Q's songs that aren't silly in their own right tend to have something odd going on in the background during the recording. For example the ''Traumarai for Unaccompanied Piano'' was performed on the very piano that the composer used when writing it, in the home of its owner. During the performance, a baby starts crying, someone starts vaccuuming in the next room, and a kid turns on a stereo to a rock station.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: One of the pieces that Schickele himself admits to writing on these albums is ''Bach Portrait'', essentially parody of Music/AaronCopland's ''Lincoln Portrait''. Like the original, it is a piece of orchestra music interspersed with quotations of J.S. Bach's writings...except the quotations are from letters in which Bach is complaining that he's not getting paid enough, or that a cask of wine he bought was damaged in shipping, among other completely banal topics.

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: ''Report From Hoople,'' the fictitious campus radio broadcast on the third album, was "a program of fine music - and P.D.Q. Bach."

* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: Some program notes for the ''Pervertimento'' note that, since its discovery "...P. D. Q. Bach must be considered history's greatest late eighteenth-century Southern German composer of multi-movement works for bagpipes and chamber orchestra."
* OverlyPreparedGag: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2n4zqq6LJ8 Please, Kind Sir]]"

* ShaveAndAHaircut [[GratuitousGerman Zwei bitte!]]

* SoBadItsGood: invoked.

* TranslateTheLoanWordsToo: The lyrics for "La Pucelle de New Orleans" supposedly include the line, "Hinky dinky do you speak."

** "Song to Celia" (a parody of Ben Johnson's eponymous poem and the song based on it, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes"), has a none-too-steady chorus attempting modulations in various places and picking fights over the key with the accompanist. The last verse modulates 6 times, 4 of them on a single syllable, and the last 2 painfully scooped down and up.

* YourMom: ''The Art of the Ground Round'' has verse not found on the LP, ''Who, oh Who'' where the three voices combine to sing “your mother war army shoes.”

* VocalRangeExceeded: The bass aria "Open Sesame Seeds" from ''The Seasonings'' is deliberately written to drop off the bottom of any singer's range for a little bit, then come back up to something reasonable.
* WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma: an entire song built around this: by moving the pause / comma around in the phrase, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYLPfUnzhLg Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John]]'' becomes "Throw the Yule log on Uncle John."

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Schickele's definitive biography of P.D.Q. Bach is titled "The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach".

...Okay, fine, you got us: P. D. Q. Bach never existed. Schickele made him up as a [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis disguise for his own compositions]], which are parodies of typical classical conventions and compositions. The results, though of questionable merit on purely musical terms, are [[SoBadItsGood unconventional]], [[AnachronismStew eclectic]] and quite popular on the comedy circuit, performed anywhere from high school campuses to the Boston Pops, long-time seat of famed composer Music/JohnWilliams.

* HookHand
* HollywoodToneDeaf: {{Inverted}}. The music itself is completely ridiculous, but is always performed by professional [[ClassicalMusic classical musicians]] and {{opera}} singers who play it totally straight.

** ''La Pucelle du New Orleans'' is recorded near an airport, is further interrupted by a passing train, and finally ends after criminals break into the studio, have a shootout with police, and set the building on fire.

* OverlyLongGag: Happens often in his music. For example, during the climax of the ''1712 Overture'' (obviously a parody of [[Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky Tchaikovsky's]] ''1812 Overture'', the exact same chord is repeated 21 times before the orchestra stops to take a breath and continue.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: One of the pieces that Schickele himself admits to writing on these albums is ''Bach Portrait'', essentially parody of AaronCopland's ''Lincoln Portrait''. Like the original, it is a piece of orchestra music interspersed with quotations of J.S. Bach's writings...except the quotations are from letters in which Bach is complaining that he's not getting paid enough, or that a cask of wine he bought was damaged in shipping, among other completely banal topics.

* {{Feghoot}}: "So This Guy," the last movement of the "Knock Knock Cantata," offers one of these. There's also a sketch on the ''1712 Overture'' CD that turns out to be a long build-up to the punchline, "I've just always wanted to [[spoiler:give Burt Bach a rock]]."

* TruckDriversGearChange: "Song to Celia" (a parody of Ben Johnson's eponymous poem and the song based on it, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes"), has a none-too-steady chorus attempting modulations in various places and picking fights over the key with the accompanist. The last verse modulates 6 times, 4 of them on a single syllable, and the last 2 painfully scooped down and up.

P. D. Q. Bach is a fairly obscure member of the Bach family (being the last, least, and certainly oddest of Music/JohannSebastianBach's 20-odd children) who lived from 1807-1742[[MerlinSickness (?)]]. As with much of his family, he began a career as a musician; unlike much of his family, he was both GiftedlyBad and extremely prolific. After his death he was promptly forgotten by history, and most of his compositions were suppressed by the Bachs to protect the family name; what we do know of him is primarily the work of one Professor Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Schickele has spent much of his career not only researching the life of this obscure historical figure, but also discovering his works and performing them for modern audiences.

* DepravedBestiality: The final part of ''Oedipus Tex'' appears to advocate this.
-->The moral of the story is of course,\\
[[OedipusComplex Don't love your mother]], save it for your horse.\\
You will be filled with great remorse\\
If you give your mother love you should be saving for your horse!

* ShaveAndAHaircut

'''P. D. Q. Bach''' is a fairly obscure member of the Bach family (being the last, least, and certainly oddest of Music/JohannSebastianBach's 20-odd children) who lived from 1807-1742[[MerlinSickness (?)]]. As with much of his family, he began a career as a musician; unlike much of his family, he was both GiftedlyBad and extremely prolific. After his death he was promptly forgotten by history, and most of his compositions were suppressed by the Bachs to protect the family name; what we do know of him is primarily the work of one Professor Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Schickele has spent much of his career not only researching the life of this obscure historical figure, but also discovering his works and performing them for modern audiences.

* ForegoneConclusion: Since ''Oedipus Tex'' is ''Theatre/OedipusRex'' [[RecycledInSpace IN THE WILD WEST]], it's pretty clear what's gonna happen.

* IncrediblyLongNote

* OverlyLongGag: Happens often in his music. For example, during the climax of the ''1712 Overture'' (obviously a parody of [[Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky Tchaikovsky's]] ''1812 Overture'', the exact same chord is repeated 21 times.

* FallingChandelierOfDoom

* OverlyLongGag

P. D. Q. Bach is a fairly obscure member of the Bach family (being the last, least, and certainly oddest of Music/JohannSebastianBach's 20-odd children) who lived from 1807-1742[[MerlinSickness (?)]]. As with much of his family, he began a career as a musician; unlike much of his family, he was both GiftedlyBad and extremely prolific. After his death he was promptly forgotten by history, and most of his compositions were suppressed by the Bachs to protect the family name; what we do know of him is primarily the work of one Professor Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Schickele has spent much of his career not only researching the life of this obscure historical figure, but also discovering his works and performing them for modern audiences.