The unfortunately prolific alter ego of composer Peter Schickele, P.D.Q. Bach was the last and least of the many children of Johann Sebastian Bach -- at least according to Schickele, reputedly the Professor of Music at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Releasing the beast of P.D.Q. Bach's music upon a drowsing world in the year 1965, Schickele set upon a course of performing and recording the composer's works as they were, like some kind of musical zombie, disinterred. The music required some creativity in the development of instruments such as the left-handed sewer flute, the slide music stand, the windbreaker, and others. Over the years, the works of P.D.Q. Bach included an opera, The Abduction of Figaro, which was broadcast on television and made available on home video (this work includes the infamous aria "Found a Peanut") and early attempts at stylistic fusions such as the bluegrass cantata "Blaues Grass, Grune Himmel." Curiously enough, many of the world's greatest orchestras consented to performing the composer's work, but this may simply mean that there is no accounting for taste, even when there is no taste for accounting. The works of P.D.Q. Bach continued to be performed worldwide well into the 2020s, particularly by the Semi-Pro Musica Antiqua, with occasional recordings erupting on the Telarc label. Schickele's parody compositions were generally spot-on, with hilarious results, though once in a while he did tend toward self-indulgence, a sin quite easy to forgive considering the whole body of work. Peter Schickele died at his home in Bearsville, New York, on January 16, 2024, at the age of 88, making the discovery of additional P.D.Q. Bach works highly unlikely. ~ Steven McDonald