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VS D >79SS3
VANGUARD RECORDINGS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR
An Hysteric Return
at CARNEGIE HALL
The Royal P.D.Q. Bach
Festival Orchestra Jorge Mester, Conductor
The Okay Chorale John Nelson, Director
DESIGN / JULES HALFANT
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Oratorio: “The Seasonings” (S. V2 tsp.)
“Unbegun” Symphony
Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle, and Balloons (S. 66)
Stephen Schmidt, Producer
The Tromboon Discovery of “The Seasonings”
The Bicycle The Windbreaker
An Hysteric Return
BD.Q. BACH at CARNEGIE HALL with Professor Peter Schickele
The Royal P.D.Q. Bach Festival Orchestra Jorge Mester, conductor
Produced by Stephen Schmidt
PROGRAM Side One
ORATORIO—“THE SEASONINGS”, S. y2 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
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
I STEREOLAB VSD-79223
also on mono, VRS-9223
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. Schickele
P.D.Q. Bach’s Musical Debut on Vanguard
P.D.Q. BACH (1807-1742) ?
Concerto for Horn and Hardart, S. 27
Cantata, “Iphigenia iri 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
This is a VANGUARD STEREOLAB recording, employing a multi-channel com¬ plex of microphones, tape recorders and amplifiers of advanced design, so that these varied channels are engraved in the dual grooves of the stereophonic disc. This disc is playable with any stereophonic cartridge, and reproduced through a stereophonic system, it affords a roundness, clarity, definition, physical presence and natural directionality, so that all awareness vanishes of any intermediary between the listener and the live performance. VANGUARD RECORDING SOCIETY, INC., NEW YORK PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Side Two
1. “UNBEGUN” SYMPHONY (Professor P. Schickele) III. Minuet IV. Andante—Allegro
2. PERVERTIMENTO FOR BAGPIPES, BICYCLE AND BALLOONS, S. 66
Allegro moulto Romanze I (Chi Largo)
Romanze II (Adagio Sereno) Presto Changio
Minaret and Trio
MAURICE EISENSTADT, bagpipes ROBERT LEWIS, balloons
PETER SCHICKELE, bicycle
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-
A Quick and Easy Guide to the “Unbegun Symphony” Themes in Order of Appearance
III.—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 “Russian and Lud¬ milla” (Glinka) - “Joy to the World” (Handel) - Symphonie Fantastique
(Berlioz) - Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” (Mozart) - “Anchors
Aweigh” (Savino-Zimmerman-Lottman) - 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¬
grin (Wagner) - The Mikado (Sullivan) - Etude (Kreutzer)
RE
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tinss
sio^
AN HYSTERIC RETURN p.D.Q. BACH AT CARNEGIE HALL
’ "UNBEGUN” SYMPHONY (Prof. P. Schickels) III. Minuet
IV. Andante ■ Allegro 10:45
VSD-79223-B ( s, Side Two XSV 122353
2 PERVERTIMENTO FOR BAGPIPES, BICYCLE AND BALLOONS. S. 66
Allenro moulto - Romanze II (Adagio Sereno) AMinaret and Trio - Romanze I (Chi Largo) -
Presto Changio 12:26 Maurice Eisenstadt, bagpipes; Peter Sch.ckele, bicycle,
Robert Lewis, balloons The Royal P.D 0. Bach Festival Orchestra
Jorge Mester, conductor
Copyright 1966 Vanguard Rcording Society, Inc., N-Y.
Recorded in U.S.A.
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