P.D.Q. Bach

Real Name: Johann Peter Schickele

The composer alias of Peter Schickele, who refers to PDQ Bach as being 'the youngest and the oddest of the twenty odd children of Johann Sebastian Bach'. In fact, PDQ Bach is said to be the twenty-first of Bach's twenty children.

Supposedly born in Leipzig on April 1, 1742 (an April Fool!), and supposedly died on May 5, 1807 in Baden-Baden-Baden, Germany. (Some releases show the years as "(1807-1742)?".

When his father died, he allegedly willed PDQ Bach a kazoo. PDQ Bach apparently advised Leopold Mozart that his son, young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, would be best off playing billiards. He was also apparently the main reason Ludwig van Beethoven went deaf, as Beethoven would stuff his ears full of coffee grounds whenever he saw PDQ Bach coming!

Primarily Baroque in style, PDQ Bach is happy to steal from any other style available to him - his music, in the words of Shickele, consists of 'manic plagiarism'. His work is split into three periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused (or Brown Bag) Period, and the Contrition Period.