The Discovery of PDQ Bach
This is one that I can't believe escaped me for as long as it did. I remember about two months ago Carolyn and I drove out to Barrington Hills to drive a bike route that she used to ride, and we saw piles of deer -- probably about two to three dozen in total over the whole trip -- just grazing at dusk in groups of three to five in the front yards of the houses. The other major event was listening to the radio, specifically to a program called Schickele Mix, where the host was giving this really interesting talk about fugues. He was playing a trio of fugues, one that was by a composer named PDQ Bach, which I thought was really interesting, because it sounded somewhat modern.
Fast forward to a couple of days ago, and I was talking to Izzy at work, who somehow brought up PDQ Bach again, and I mentioned the song that I heard. He laughed, and told me to look at a PDQ Bach website that had some 'information' about the composer. As it turns out, PDQ Bach is a pseudonym for the program host, who uses it to write parodies of classical music. Among my favourite titles in the repertoire were 'The Short-Tempered Clavier -- Preludes and Fugues in all the Major and Minor Keys Except the Really Hard Ones,' or 'Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments.' Anyway, this is just my plug for the site and for the music, which turns out to be pretty entertaining.