In other news, exciting football games have engulfed my life recently, along with uniquely horrible national anthem performances. All the while, I am about to overdose on J.S. Bach. I originally intended to perform a lecture recital on a Bach cantata, but I have since decided to throw in some Vaughan Williams into a semester consumed with preparing Bach's B Minor Mass, where I will be the tenor soloist at a performance at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City on my birthday - April 28, and a couple weeks prior to that I will act as the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion.
But with that said, and since it is still my vacation for a couple more weeks, I would like to write about another famous Bach other than J.S. and C.P.E. Bach or any of the J.C.'s - but rather, the great P.D.Q. Bach.
P.D.Q. Bach is known as one of the most prolific plagiarists in music history. Here's a look at the genius of P.D.Q. Bach with these top ten compositions. I have to say, moments of this will be funny to music nerds and not very funny if you don't know much about classical music - but for the music freaks and geeks out there, here you go:
10. Tocatta et Fuga Obnoxia
9. "The Farmer on the Dole" from Four Folksong Upsettings
8. Sonata for 4 Hand Viola
7. Bach Portrait
6. 1712 Overture
5. "Eine Kleine Nichtmusik" (with theme subtitles!)
4. The Seasonings an Oratorio
3. The Abduction of Figaro - click here for the full opera
2. "Erotica" Variations, for banned instruments and piano
- Theme: Windbreaker
- Variation I: Balloons
- Variation II: Slide Whistle
- Variation III: Slide Windbreaker
- Variation IV: Lasso D'Amore
- Variation V: Foghorn, Bell, Kazoo, Gargle
1. New Horizons in Music Appreciation (although not a composition of P.D.Q. Bach, this was his attempt to make classical music exciting)
