Klarinet Archive - Posting 000725.txt from 2001/04

From: Lacy Schroeder <LacyS@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] P.D.Q. Bach!!!
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 12:45:54 -0400

Speaking of the man..

I had the pleasure of meeting the man after a concert he presented here at
Powell (on April Fool's Day, ironically!). The concert started out with an
announcement that Mr. Schickele was involved in an accident and was taken to
Barnes-Jewish Hospital (here in St. Louis) and that the concert was to be
canceled (I believe this is common for his performances!). Then, all of a
sudden, you hear someone shouting from the back of the orchestra level and
you see a nurse (his soprano assistant/page turner) running while pushing
him in a wheelchair to the front of the stage where she dumps him out of the
chair and onto the floor (I've also heard he's getting too old to do the
rope from the balcony routine). He was wearing a tuxedo with logging boots.
Quite fashionable. Next was a series of silly quirks from a podium; I almost
soiled myself from laughing so hard (not really the former). Then, he played
some piano pieces, which included several hand gestures (including the
BIRD!) and playing a melody with his nose. Let's not even go into the page
turning sight gags!

I had the honor of meeting him after the concert. He was a very pleasant
man, and extremely witty! Since the topic of "Grand Serenade for an Awful
Lot of Winds and Percussion" came up on the list, the "Six Contrary Dances"
are also on that cd. I had always thought that this was a parody of Mozart's
"Contra Dances", but was never quite able to validate that idea until I
asked the man himself. He said with a laugh, "That's right, young lady!" I
also
validated my guesstimation that he composes his serious pieces under his own
name, and his parodies and silly pieces under the pen name. Then, I
commented about the Beethoven V Sportscast. I said the first time I heard
it, my mouth was gaping the whole time out of sheer amusement and amazement
at the same time. He said that this one is his favorite, and that the
commentary is really accurate and true. How can you argue with that?

Is there nothing better than to be able to discuss the music of a composer
with the composer him/herself? I think not! I also met Donald Erb, but I
didn't talk much with him about his music-I'm not a big fan of what I've
heard, although that's not very much. I didn't wan't to end up lying to the
man! Nice guy, though.

Ciao!

Lacy Schroeder

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