Another Musickal Milestone

(P.D.Q. Bach. Image courtesy of Theo. Presser Company)

I know, I know, you're all so wrapped up in Haydn's birthday that nothing else seems to matter. Well lest we forget, April 1 also is the birthday of P.D.Q. Bach, the last and least of the post-Johann Sebastian generation of Bachs. His bio has these encouraging words to say:

P.D.Q. Bach once said that his illustrious father gave him no training in music whatsoever, and it is one of the few things he said that we can believe without reservation.

Heh. Here's a list of the P.D.Q. albums currently out there. I've got three or four of the earlier ones but haven't heard much of the more recent stuff. Perhaps a fitting tribute to P.D.Q.'s birthday might be to listen to the Missa Hilarious. Who can forget the moving "Angus Dei"?

Angus Dei! Angus Dei!
I have to make it through the week as best as I know how.
Angus Dei! Angus Dei!
I see her every Sunday morning, she's my sacred cow....

I will say one thing in all seriousness: P.D.Q.'s "biographer" Peter Schickele is an extremely talented (if insane) musician and scholar. You will learn more about classical and other kinds of music from listening to one episode of his very entertaining radio program Schickele Mix than you will plowing through any number of dry texts. (I was going to say something snarky also about the classical music radio show of Dr. Karl Haas, known in my circle as "Dr. Slurpee", but I see he recently died. Pace.)