Customer Reviews

P.D.Q. Bach: The Short-Tempered Clavier

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I agree with most of the other individuals who have written comments. The first piece, "The Short Tempered Clavier" is, by far, the best piece on the CD. The other works seem oddly derivative of it. There isn't the usual variety in the pieces which Schickele includes (one or two instrumental, one or two vocal). My personal suspicion is that since, years ago, Schickele announced his intention to stop his P.D.Q. Bach work in order to focus on serious compositions, this CD may have been part of a contractual obligation, or, perhaps, just an effort to get the last of the P.D.Q. Bach pieces recorded.

While the "Short Temepered Clavier" is a good piece, its probably not worth the price of the CD. If you were looking for a good P.D.Q. Bach album, I'd buy "Oedipus Tex" or "1712 Overture" or even the lesser-known (but really funny) "Lieberslieder Polkas and Twelve Quite Heavenly Songs".

I enjoyed the Short-Tempered Clavier pieces tremendously. Played masterfully by Christopher O'Reilley, they are witty and delightful. A new suprise is always around the corner, and upon my first listen I found myself grinning and sometimes laughing out loud.

Then comes the rest of the album.

In the succeeding pieces, Schickele uses the same jokes, the same tunes, and crummy synthesized instruments that become so annoying that I just want to turn the thing off.

Do yourself a favor and leave after the first act.

Others have written here of the slight difference between Peter Schickele's "early" and "late" PDQ Bach performances, hence it is slightly surperfluous to say that the more recent Telarc recordings (of which this is one) lack the sparkle and 'zany' character of the earlier ones from the 1970s.

They are certainly still as clever: "The Short-Tempered Clavier" is of course a spoof of J. S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Keyboard", laced with quotations from other areas of the pianists repertoire as well as having the odd snatch of a very familiar tune here and there.

The whole disc is set out as the document of a lecture given by Peter Schickele to a group of skeptical, 'unmusical' US senators, with the PDQ Bach keyboard works woven in as musical examples. Hence, as well as the title work (played on piano), the programme also features appearances by a theatre organ (on which is played the "Pochelbuchlein" - "The Little Pickle Book"), a calliope (used for the "Sonata da Circo" - "Circus Sonata" - the rendition of which is cut short by the explosion of the instrument!) and the organ of the King Congregational Church (get it?!) which is little more than two synthesisers stacked on top of each other.
Each piece is fun, although the impact of the musical jokes will vary depending upon how musically-minded the listener is. In other words, musicologists, pianists and organists are likely to get the most laughs out of the programme. The liner notes add an extra dimension to the fun by containing, as well as a "scholarly essay" on the history, discovery and publication of the music, various quips about those involved in the production of the recording, with in-jokes including a 'specification' of the King Congregational Church organ...

Take it or leave it ... as a Christmas or birthday gift for a musical friend or family-member, it wouldn't be a bad choice.

Although not my favorite PDQ album, I enjoyed this one immensely. I think it helps a lot to know the purpose of the well-tempered clavichord and what exactly JS Bach set out to prove. PDQ does his best to undo everything his father started and Professor Schikele does his best to hold it all together, even though it does get a little wierd at times (did he say "little"?). Definitely worth the price of admission. JKS

Professor Peter Schickele has created the fictional composer PDQ Bach in order to poke gentle fun at the stuffy world of classical music, but on this outing it doesn't really work. His verbal introductions (that are often so hysterical, filled with "unintended" deprecation and outrageous puns) are very limited and rarely merit even a chuckle. The first offering here, "The Short-Tempered Clavier", is a series of piano pieces that subtly (or not-so subtly) incorporate very well-known melodies in a way that's likely to bring a smile to your face. But laugh out loud? Not very often. Subsequent pieces feature some cool organ-playing and some forgettable nonsense with a steam calliope, but little more. For those interested in learning about this unique composer, I would recommend instead "The Intimate PDQ Bach", a lavish travesty of various classical forms including the madcap "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice: An Opera in One Unnatural Act".

PDQ Bach plagiarizes every traditional American tune he can remember in this collection of works for piano, theater organ, church organ and steam calliope. The piano and organ pieces sound excellent, but that calliope is extremely ugly. My favorites are The Little Pickle Book and The Short-Tempered Clavier.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first. The "setting" for this performance is allegedly a Senate committee hearing room, where they are debating some ridiculous amendment to the Constitution. All of the sections of the CD where the Professor is just talking to the Senators are rather dull -- I guess Schickele was trying to get in his verbal jokes, like he does in his (hilarious) live performances, but it just falls flat here.

On to the good stuff. The Short-Tempered Clavier is some of PDQ's most inventive writing yet. Of all the solo piano PDQ music that Schickele has put out, this is some of the most cerebral ... There are quotes from other works that you don't hear until you've listened 3 or 4 times -- they're deeply imbedded. The fugue subjects are all quite ridiculous -- Beethoven's 5th, "The Worms Crawl In...", etc. (except for the last), and they are given the full PDQ treatment. The last one (in B-flat) is notable in that the fugue subject is B-A-C-H (see J.S. Bach's "Art of the Fugue", Liszt's treatment, etc.), which PDQ also manages to *invert* (something that old J.S. did once in a while, to show off his stuff). But as soon as you think the fugue might be getting serious, there is an outburst of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". Then back to the fugueing. Marvelous stuff.

PDQ does the same thing in the Toccata -- it starts out with the theme of Dad's warhorse Toccata & Fugue in D minor -- only the subject is inverted (it goes up instead of down). This is an example of the oft-mentioned principle that the more you know about music theory and history, the funnier PDQ's stuff is.

Not PDQ's best work, but some of it is close. Not Schickele's best CD, but not bad, either.

P.D.Q. Bach is the funniest composers of all time. This cd is quite interesting-from the Short Tempered Clavier to the Chorale-Based Peicelets. I fint the subjects of the Fugues hillariuos such as the Jumprope-skipping Song to Beethoven's minor third in Symphonie in c-moll. The little Pickle Book selections are quite odd. The Sonate da Circo is in sseveral languages-German, Spanish, "Russian", and some other language! My favorites are the 3 chorale-based peicelets playedon a 2 manual and No Pedal organ (2 Casio keyboards on top of one another!) I think everyone should at least listen to a PDQ Bach peice. This CD gives a good intro to his "Music" ****Also reccomended-PDQ Bach on the air!!****