Legendary composer Peter Schickele (88) dies; looking at his career
What's the story
Multiple Grammy-Award winning legendary music composer and parodist Peter Schickele is no more. Schickele passed away on Tuesday at his home in Bearsville, New York, as confirmed by his musician daughter Karla Schickele. He was 88. Karla added that her father's health was deteriorating after contracting infections last year. Take a look at Schickele's life, career, and singular achievements in the world of music.
#1
Beginnings and early education
Born in Iowa to Alsatian parents, he was the son of Rainer Schickele, chairman of the Agricultural Sciences Department at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University). Schickele studied music at Swarthmore College, beoming the college's first student to attain a degree in that subject. Subsequently, he earned a master's degree in musical composition from the Juilliard School in New York City.
#2
His work and notable projects
Schickele reportedly worked on over 100 original works for symphony orchestra, choral groups, voice, television projects, etc., in addition to composing music for school bands and musicals. He also developed music for films such as Funnyman, Horowitz in Dublin, and Silent Running. His most famous compositions are No-No Nonette, the Unbegun Symphony, and Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons, among others.
#3
He 'created' P.D.Q. Bach
Schickele is best remembered for creating the fictional entity of "music composer" P.D.Q. Bach. Schickele attributed a lot of musical orchestrations to Bach, which were actually "comical rearragements" of the works of other composers and leveraged a variety of instruments and music types. He performed multiple Bach shows over the years and developed a repute for his parodies and humor. Explore his work here.
#4
The role of music, according to Schickele
In an interview with Bruce Duffie, Schickele had said, "The purpose of music is to be beautiful." "I write for people who like the kind of music that I write—and there are a lot of them. I'm in this for the long run. I'm not like some pop composer who's anxious to get that Number One hit and then split with the money."