On P. D. Q. Bach: the Vegas Years

It has been an almost life-long dream to attend a concert featuring the music of that (not so) great, justifiably forgotten, composer, P. D. Q. Bach. So when I heard that Professor Peter Schickele, endowed chair of Music Mythology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople was coming to Waco, I had to go. He did not defraud. P. D. Q. Bach, as a composer, is extremely mediocre and surprisingly forgettable. That, however, never stopped Schickele from performing any of this music which he has rustled up in a variety of abandoned castles, pawn shops, and establishments of more than shady affairs. I couldn't decide which was worse, "Oedipus Tex" or that other thing that they played about thanking God it was Friday. We also found out that a "milli-helen" is the amount of force necessary for launching one ship. What was extremely interesting about the entire evening was the relentless desire on the professor's part to satirize everything. He's a sort of equal opportunity offender, one might say. The concert was played for laughs, but as my son pointed out, you have to be a pretty good musician to pull off that comedy, play the wrong notes correctly and not let the thing turn into chaos. Stephen Hyde's Baylor Symphony was remarkably controlled, highly disciplined, and just funny enough to accompany Professor Schickele on his merry romp through music, both classical and popular. The concert was a music lover’s concert, and if you were sharp enough to catch all of the allusions, you probably had a very good time. This type of humor is about demystifying just about everything, not taking yourself too seriously, and letting yourself laugh. Bordering on pure silliness, and often sliding headlong into it, the professor was neither shameless nor tired, and had more fun than the audience. Tip of the hat to Professor Peter Schickele, P. D. Q. Bach, and conductor Stephen Hyde for providing an evening of wonderful fun.