Re: PDQ Bach

on 1/12/01 2:20 PM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:

> Message: 12
> Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 09:08:09 -0700
> From: "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@adaptune.com>
> Subject: P.D.Q. Bach's microtonal experiments
>
> I am a huge fan of Peter Schickele, discoverer of P.D.Q. Bach, the last
> and least of the sons of J.S. Bach. During his lifetime, Schickele has
> discovered one work after another by P.D.Q., works which to my ear
> contain a fine blend of humor and genuine musicality.
>
> Wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out that some microtonal works
> were lurking?

I'm a big fan too, especially the radio program. I don't know if PDQ wrote
anything microtonal, but I've certainly heard a reasonable share of
microtonal and JI work as diverse as gamelan to Pauline Oliveros on various
shows over the years.

Seth
--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth@sethausten.com

"Music is far, far older than our species. It is tens of millions of years
old, and the fact that animals as wildly divergent as whales, humans and
birds come out with similar laws for what they compose suggests to me that
there are a finite number of musical sounds that will entertain the
vertebrate brain."

Roger Payne, president of Ocean Alliance, quoted in NY Times

--- In tuning@egroups.com, Seth Austen <acoustic@l...> wrote:

http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/17459

> on 1/12/01 2:20 PM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:
>
> > Message: 12
> > Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 09:08:09 -0700
> > From: "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@a...>
> > Subject: P.D.Q. Bach's microtonal experiments
> >
> > I am a huge fan of Peter Schickele, discoverer of P.D.Q. Bach,
> > the last and least of the sons of J.S. Bach. During his
> > lifetime, Schickele has discovered one work after another by
> > P.D.Q., works which to my ear contain a fine blend of humor
> > and genuine musicality.
> >
> > Wouldn't it be wonderful if it turned out that some microtonal
> > works were lurking?
>
> I'm a big fan too, especially the radio program. I don't know
> if PDQ wrote anything microtonal, but I've certainly heard a
> reasonable share of microtonal and JI work as diverse as gamelan
> to Pauline Oliveros on various shows over the years.

I too am a huge fan of Peter Schickele and his alter ego,
P.D.Q. Bach. I believe I recall that Schickele's quote about
P.D.Q. is that "he was the last and certainly the least of
the sons of J.S. Bach".

I don't know about any specific or technical microtonal
indications in P.D.Q. Bach scores, but I know for sure where
you can hear some microtonal P.D.Q.:

Give a listen to his oratorio _Iphegenia in Brooklyn_, which
includes double-reeds in its instrumentation. But that's
literally *double-reeds*, *NOT* double-reed instruments!
The players blow on the reeds alone, in harmony, and wow!,
what harmonies they are!!!

-monz
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
'All roads lead to n^0'