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VANGUARD RECORDINGS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR
:
ep ahiAo MeN DIG MORa NPS Sao e
AE SEI TERRE RODE RO SR Sn AO nee pueRRO pao ompR aap ReaNmGeRopmain SuRiaa
| . pee a : | ) : The Okay Chorale
estival Orchestra «= MMM NOUNS Sify John Nelson, Di
DESIGN / JULES HALFANT
Oratorio: ‘“The Seasonings’”’ (S. !/2 tsp. ‘“Unbegun’’ Symphony
Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle, and Balloons (S. 66 .
Stephen Schmidt, Producer
VARS - 9223
An Hysteric Return Mr
RD.Q. BACH at CARNEGIE HALL with Professor Peter Schickele
The Royal P.D.Q. Bach Festival Orchestra Jorge Mester, conductor
Produced by Stephen Schmidt
The Tromboon
The Bicycle The MV indbreaker
PROGRAM
Side One
ORATORIO—“THE SEASONINGS”, S. 14 tsp.
Chorus: “Tarragon of virtue is full”
Recitative: ““And there were in the same country”
Duet: “Bide thy thyme” : SOPRANO AND ALTO, WITH SLIDE WHISTLE,
WINDBREAKER AND TROMBOON
Fugue for Orchestra
Recitative: ““Then asked he” Chorale: “By the leeks of Babylon
There we sat down, yea, we wept”’
Recitative: ““Then she gave in”’ Aria: “Open sesame seeds”
BASS WITH KAZOOS, WINDBREAKER, AND SLIDE WINDBREAKER
Recitative: “So Saying” Duet: “Summer is a cumin seed”
SOPRANO AND ALTO, WITH SLIDE WHISTLES AND SHOWER HOSE
Chorus with Soloists: “To curry favor, favor curry”
LORNA HAYWOOD, soprano JOHN FERRANTE, tenor MARLENA KLEINMAN, alto WILLIAM WOOLF, bass
: THE OKAY CHORALE; John Nelson, director
Side Two
1. “SUNBEGUN” SYMPHONY (Professor P. Schickele) III. Minuet IV. Andante—Allegro
2. PERVERTIMENTO FOR BAGPIPES, BICYCLE AND BALLOONS, S. 66
Allegro moulto
Romanze II (Adagio Sereno ) Minaret and Trio
MAURICE EISENSTADT, bagpipes PETER SCHICKELE, bicycle
Romanze I (Chi Largo) Presto Changio
ROBERT LEWIS, balloons
In the year which has elapsed since his music was first introduced
to an eagerly skeptical public, P.D.Q. Bach has emerged as a unique
phenomenon in the current Baroque revival. It would be difficult
to name another composer whose works have aroused so much in-
np ent ee nr eee
terest, in such a short time, and with so little reason. Groping for
an explanation of this situation, some psychologists have suggested
that the modern concert goer, constantly exposed to the perfections of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, has developed a deep-seated inferiority complex which can be best relieved by listening to the all-too-human efforts of P.D.Q., who, although unpredictable in many ways, is dependably fallible. Certain scholars, on the other hand, have claimed that the popularity of J.S. Bach’s only-forgotten son is due to the fact that he represents the seamy side of 18th century music, a side which was either neglected or suppressed until the recent development of hard-core musicology. Music critics,
however, have pointed out that audiences seem to be moved to the point of laughter by P.D.Q. Bach’s egregious limitations, and it is
probably this more than anything else that accounts for the irre- sponsible enthusiasm shown by these audiences; to them and to
thousands of record buyers, P.D.Q. Bach can do no right. I suppose this is better than complete apathy, but I must confess that I was hoping for a more serious consideration of the numerous singular
aspects of his music.
Fortune (or is it perhaps one of the Muses?) has continued to guide me to the hiding places of long-lost P.D.Q. Bach manuscripts, and each new discovery is greeted with a sense of anticipation which
borders on the apprehensive. The unearthing of the grand oratorio,
“The Seasonings”, however, was especially exciting, since it proved beyond a doubt that P.D.Q.’s inabilities were not limited to the smaller forms; every measure of this monumental work is infected with the same lofty intentions which permeate the cantata “Iphigenia in Brooklyn” and other shorter pieces, and the carrying out of these
intentions is equally disappointing. The road to musicians’ Hell must be paved with P.D.Q. Bach compositions.
His instrumentation, however, is always interesting; in “The
Seasonings” he employs a lurid assembly of instruments which, in addition to the usual trumpets, timpani, and strings, includes a
push-button chord organ, two slide whistles, two kazoos (the in-
struments themselves are modern, but for the sake of authenticity they are equipped with original 18th century tissue paper), a shower hose in D, a tromboon (this instrument is a hybrid—that’s the nicer word—constructed from parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both), a windbreaker and a slide wind- breaker (perhaps the less said about these the better; they consist
of tuned mailing tubes, and are sometimes referred to in old treatises as “mailing tubas’’), and, interestingly enough, a foghorn. I don’t
know of any other piece, intended for performance on the land,
that uses a foghorn. Equally adventuresome in orchestration is the Pervertimento,
which was perhaps P.D.Q. Bach’s most notorious work during his own lifetime. The virtuosity of the bicycle and bagpipes parts is
considerable; the balloonist, on the other hand, has very little to do, although a great deal is required of the balloons themselves.
In the first movement they are thrice rubbed the wrong way. In the last movement a small balloon, filled with air but unknotted, can
be heard as it is released for a short jet flight; and at the end of the piece, a large bunch of helium-filled balloons is released. As they float towards the ceiling, three pitch pipes, attached to the
mouth of one of the balloons, play the final chord. This spectacular ending suggests that the work was written for some grand festivity
at the court; perhaps it was performed outdoors, with royal falcons sent off to retrieve the pitch pipes.
The bicycle is used in several ways. In the second and last move- ments a siren mounted on the rear wheel sings the plaintive melo- dies; in the Trio of the Minaret, the performer blows on the handle-
bars as if they were a trumpet; and in the final movement, after
the passage for siren, playing cards are allowed to flap on the
spokes of the rear wheel as it turns, thus producing a percussive effect known to every small boy but, until P.D.Q. Bach, unknown
VANGUARD RECORDINGS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR
VRS-9223
also on stereo, VSD-79223
to even the most sophisticated masters of orchestration. The first performance in Bach’s day of this work was marred when the soloist ‘got a flat tire, but unfortunately Stradivarius made no bicycles, and the modern ones seem to be more reliable. :
P.D.Q. demonstrated his mastery of the bagpipes in his Sinfonia Concertante, but in the Pervertimento he achieves a variety of tim-
bres which forces us to consider him history’s greatest composer of classical music for bagpipes and orchestra. In the third movement he instructs the player to remove the chanter (the part on which
one plays the melody) from the rest of the instrument and to play it as he would an oboe. Since a bagpipes player is not trained as an
oboist, the resulting sound, however jarring, is not unexpected. In
the Romanza I, he uses a small practice bagpipe without drones
which sounds as if it has a sinus condition. It is used when a bag- _ piper wants to avoid disturbing his neighbors; after several hours, however, it may seriously disturb the bagpiper himself. This move- ment is the only instance in the entire literature, as far as I have been able to ascertain, of the indication “molto vibrato” for a bag- pipe. Actually this is probably another case of P.D.Q. Bach’s un-
intentional originality. The man for whom he wrote the part was one of his most devoted drinking companions, and from all reports the poor fellow had very little choice about whether to use vibrato or not. The notes at the end of this movement are played by detach- ing the drones and playing them separately. In the last movement the full instrument is employed for the first time.
P.D.Q. Bach has been accused of gimmickry, but I think it is safe to say that no other instruments could convey his own peculiar vision, in all its myopia, as faithfully as do these. So we have used the authentic instruments whenever possible; it seems the least we
can do for a composer who is now so misunderstood, and who was himself so misunderstanding. Professor P: Schickatt
P.D.Q@. Bach’s Musical Debut on Vanguard
P.D.Q. BACH (1807-1742) ? Concerto for Horn and Hardart, S. 27
Cantata, “Iphigenia in Brooklyn”, S. 53162 Quodlibet for Small Orchestra (Schickele) Sinfonia Concertante for Bagpipes, Left-handed Sewer Flute and
Double-reed Slide Music Stand, S. 98.6 featuring: Peter Schickele, Ferrante, Hambro, Froelich, Eisenstadt; Cham-
ber Orchestra conducted by Jorge Mester VRS-9195 (mono) & VSD-79195 (stereo)
“Demonstrates that the art of intelligent comedy may not be dead on records.” (Chosen as one of the best records of the year).
H. Kupferberg, N.Y. Herald Tribune
“A gigantic spoof of baroque music, recorded at an unforgettable
concert performance in New York’s Town Hall... riotously funny.” P. Affelder, Newark News
“Luckily, the concert was recorded and Vanguard has released the disk. And the good news is that this disk is just as funny as the concert
was.” H. Klein, New York Times
“Awe-inspiring event...now been made available to an even wider
audience through the medium of recordings.” I. Kipnis, HiFi/Stereo Review
Ne Ae a SR TOD Ps nD A ncn one ae oc ENE Naee eres ee OE HENS IEISeE This is a VANGUARD QUALITY CONTROL recording, employing especially
designed microphones, tape recorders and amplifiers to produce masters which embody a frequency response covering the entire range of human hearing and embrace the full gamut of vocal and instrumental sonorities. Although a single- channel recording, it is playable not only with any monophonic but also any stereophonic cartridge, and its richness of sound is further enhanced when played on a stereophonic system. VANGUARD RECORDING SOCIETY, INC., N.Y. PRINTED IN U.S.A.
A Quick and Easy Guide to the “‘Unbegun Symphony’’ Themes in Order of Appearance
Iil.— Menuet
Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” (Mozart) - “Du, du, liegst mir in
Herzen” - Cielito Lindo (C. Fernandez) - Symphony No. 39 in E flat major (Mozart) - Symphony No. 8 in F major (Beethoven) - Die Fleder-
maus (Joh. Strauss Jr.) - “Clementine” (P. Montrose) - Symphony No. 4 in E minor (Brahms) - Carmen (Bizet) - The Blue Danube (Joh. Strauss
Jr.) - The Swan (Saint-Saens) - Symphony No. 3 in E flat, “Eroica”
(Beethoven) - Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastoral” (Beethoven) - “The
Band Played On” (C. P. Ward) - Symphony No: 41 in C major, “Jupiter”
(Mozart)
IV.— Andante-Allegro
Symphony No. 2 in D major (Brahms) - “Beautiful Dreamer” (Foster) -
“Tha-ma-ra-boum-dee-he” (Lemon-Deransart) - Overture to “William Tell” |.
(Rossini) - The Irish Washerwoman - The Camptown Races (Foster) - Symphony No. 9 in D minor (Beethoven) - “Onward Christian Soldiers” (Sullivan) - Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro” (Mozart) - Symphony
No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” (Mozart) - Overture to “Russlan and Lud- milla” (Glinka) - “Joy to the World” (Handel) - Symphonie Fantastique (Berlioz) - Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” (Mozart) - “Anchors
Aweigh” (Savino-Zimmerman-Lotiman) - Symphony No. 6 in B minor, “Pathetique” (Tchaikowsky) - “You Are My Sunshine” (Davis-Mitchell) -
1812 Overture (Tchaikowsky) - Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Brahms) - “Dies Irae” - Symphony No. 9 in C major (Schubert) - March Slav (Tchaikowsky) - Symphony No. 5 in E minor, “New World” (Dvorak) -
Russian National Anthem, as in “1812 Overture” (Tchaikowsky) - Lohen- erin (Wagner) - The Mikado (Sullivan) - Etude (Kreutzer) .
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