DiscoGlassy

P.D.Q. Bach

1712 Overture & Other Musical Assaults

1989

© GlassPages, 1999

Cover Picture

References

• Telarc 80210 (1989).

Credits

• Professor Peter Schickele: conductor, narrator, pianist, devious instrumentalist and intellectual guide.
• Walter Bruno: conductor.
• The Greater Hoople Area Off-Season Philharmonic.
• Recorded on January 10-11, 1989.
• Recording Producer: Robert Woods.
• Recording Engineer: Michael Bishop.
• Technical Assistance: Michael Bishop, Thomas Knab.
• Editor: Thomas Knab.
• Production Assistance: Elaine Martone.
• Art Director: Ray Kirschensteiner.
• Cover Illustration: © 1989 Marvin Mattelson.
• Cover Graphics: Michael Ericcson.
• © 1989 Telarc.

Tracks

1. Introduction (1:35).
2. 1712 Overture (S. 1712) (11:33).
3. Introduction (1:12).
4. Bach Portrait (14:32).
5. Introduction (2:53).
6. Capriccio La Pucelle de New Orleans
   (The Maid of New Orleans) (S. under 18) (3:25).
7. Introduction (1:14).
8. Minuet Militaire (S. 1A) (3:41).
9. Introduction (1:33).
10. Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz (S. e=mt²) (6:37).
11. Introduction (1:47).
    The Preachers of Crimetheus
    Ballet in One Selfless Act (S. 988) (12:27).
12. I. Prologue (Bottomless Sorrow;
    Topless Gaiety) (3:18).
13. II. The Lamentations of Jerry Maja (3:06).
14. III. Finale: Special Deliverance (5:57).

Total Time 1:03:08.

Notes

This recording features unique on-location introductions, spoken on the very historical spots where the actual history happened. The following information is intended to supplement that which will be, or has been, taken aurally.

The manuscript of the Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz was discovered, interestingly enough, on the beach, wedged in between a piece of flotsam and a piece of jetsam. The title of the opera refers to Alphonse Einstein, a 17th century philosopher and mathematician who came from an extremely large family, which led him to develop his Theory of Relatives. He is known principally for his great equation, the first formulation of which was e=mbcs; he later decided to do without the bs, resulting in the simplified e=mc, which still stood for energy equals matzoh balls in chicken soup. Later still he created the final version, e=mc², adding the raised "2" to indicate that this constituted a square meal.

P.D.Q. Bach took Einstein's discovery that time is curved to mean that if you constructed an opera so that each scene lasts 24 hours, then no matter how long the opera is, it will end at the same time it began. He would seem to have blown the chances of this happening by writing an overture (he anticipated Wagner by decades in calling it a prelude) of less than ten minutes' duration, but it may be that some adjustment was necessary to allow for intermissions. The manuscript of the rest of the opera has been lost, which is probably just as well, since P.D.Q. intended a performance of Einstein on the Fritz to fill up, in his words, "that boring stretch of time between leap years."

The plot is not as complicated as that of most operas:

Einstein feels a sneeze coming on, and takes his handkerchief from his pocket. In Act II, he realizes that he is not going to sneeze after all, and he puts his handkerchief back in his pocket in Act III.

In spite of the universality of its theme, P.D.Q. obviously worried that the opera might not engage the interest of frivolous 18th century audiences; he planned, therefore, to add an epilogue in which Einstein goes down to Hades to bring back his cousin Sophie, avenges the murder of his brother at the hands of Tsar Ivan the Inside Trader, slays the dragon guarding the entrance to the Golden Cave, seduces the Count's daughter on the eve of her wedding, and unites Italy.

Special thanks are due Leo Treitler for making the suggestion that resulted in the discovery of this most peculiar and astoundingly prescient work.

- Professor Peter Schickele
Farmer's Daughter Motel
Inkster, North Dakota
(doing a band clinic)
March 16, 1989.

Professor Peter Schickele has had a distinguished career. In 1952, he became the youngest faculty member at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople since Billy Scott, more than a generation earlier, and everybody knows how he got there. Now I'm not saying that Billy wasn't qualified to teach his subject -he knew as much about ice fishing as anyone around, and a lot more than many- but when the president of a university and it's youngest faculty member have the same last name (especially an unusual name like Scott), it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out why the bull married the frog, as the saying goes. I don't think anybody would have even cared if it hadn't been for the way they fired Ronald Quam to make room in the budget for Billy. Ron Quam had been called things like "the best Shakespeare teacher this side of Minot," as well as other things like "the only Shakespeare teacher this side of Minot," and "probably the best Shakespeare teacher this side of Minot even if he hadn't been the only Shakespeare teacher this side of Minot," and other things too numerous to mention, all of them good. You'd have to have a heart of stone hot to have resented Billy Scott when you saw old man Quam staggering out of one of the Front Street bars, reciting Macbeth's soliloquy in a drunken wheeze. It was pitiful.

Walter Bruno is one of the county's busiest conductors, especially if you include his summertime job on the Beulah - Zap narrow gauge railway. Just kidding, Walter! Maestro Bruno's repertoire runs the gamut from Classical to Cajun, but he is particularly noted for his interpretations of the music of Mozart, Schubert, Thelma Stefanson and her son Bjorn. In addition to his duties with the GHAOSP, Walter teaches at Hoople High; he is, in fact, one of the last of the shop teachers who work in both wood and metal.

Hoople and potatoes are synonymous the world over, or anyway if they aren't they should be, due to their fine color, exquisite taste and familiar shape. But "taters don't grow on trees," as Hooplinos are fond of saying, an extensive period of soil recuperation must elapse before the life-giving globules can be sown and harvested. And it is during those bleak winter months, when the weather gets so bad that even Grand Forks seems far away (forget about Winnipeg!), that the resourceful residents of Hoople turn to music. And turn they do. In the too brief years of its existence, the Greater Hoople Area Off-Season Philharmonic has performed throughout the Turtle Mountains, received two Citizenship-in-Action awards, and recorded the complete works of Thelma Stefanson and her son Bjorn for Polyspud. This is the orchestra's first appearance on Telarc under its own name.

Pictures

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