Trivia / P.D.Q. Bach

• Approval of God: Schickele has been friends with Philip Glass since their Juilliard days, and Glass was in the audience when Schickele/Bach debuted his Glass takeoff, Einstein on the Fritz. Glass quipped in response, "Et Tu, Brute?"
  • Glass, along with Peter's brother David, helped to build the original Hardart used in the Concerto for Horn and Hardart — but, according to Glass' memoir, they built it as a transposing instrument "to an imaginary instrument in E," and they didn't tell Peter until after it was completed, meaning that Peter had to transpose on sight during performances.
• Channel Hop: Schickele was initially signed to Vanguard Records until 1989, when he moved over to audiophile Classical Music label Telarc Records, staying there for the rest of his career.
• He Also Did: Peter Schickele has serious music credentials. He earned a Master's in composition from Juilliard (where one of his classmates was Philip Glass), has written non-comedic compositions and film scores (including for Silent Running), contributed music to the notorious nudity-filled production Oh! Calcutta!, and did arrangements for several albums by Joan Baez. He also hosted the weekly public radio show Schickele Mix from 1992-1999, where he illustrated different elements of music theory with an eclectic mix of classical and pop music examples.
• Throw It In!: An inversion, perhaps, Schickele revealed on an episode of his radio show that John Ferrante's voice cracked on the word "soothSAYer" during the live, and only recording of The Seasonings. Henceforth, he would purposely sing it wrong in performances to match the LP (and because, hey, it's funny).

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