SCHICKELE

With a feat of transformation worthy to stand beside the changeover from
Superman to Clark Kent, the volcanic force behind the delights of P.D.Q. Bach
on Monday night became, one night later, just plain Peter Schickele. The
result: new realms of delight.
Schickele, Swarthmore and Juilliard trained, had already made his name as a
serious composer before the invention of the P.D.Q. mealticket in 1965. On
Tuesday night in a small theater on the Brentwood campus of Mount Saint Mary’s,
the Armadillo Quartet, a splendid local group of freelance musicians founded in
1980, performed Schickele’s entire quartet repertory to
and a piece called “Music for an Evening” for quartet and piano duet (with
Schickele and Guy Hallman as pianists). Charming, modest music it was,full of
bright, kicky energy.
In defining his chosen musical style, Schickele would have to rank as a
conservative. His music uses familiar harmonic progressions in familiar ways.
It also dips into popular American idioms, including a kind of elementary jazz
and a fair amount of bluegrass. It comes up, in most cases, with results that
are thoroughly original.
The works on Tuesday’s program were all fairly recent, the earliest dating from
1982. One of the quartets, by the way, has been recorded, a work subtitled
“American Dreams.” This, the first of the quartets, proved the most
ingratiating. The middle movement, a long, slow evocation of a remembered
birdcall at dawn in upstate New York, might fairly be thought of, in fact, as
gorgeous. The other movements, including a set of jazz studies and a whole
bluegrass movement, had their charms as well.
If there are clear points of reference in this music, it seemed to point to the
rustic, outwardly simple but profound music of Leos Janacek. That is meant as a
compliment, by the way.
The concert drew a small crowd, including both Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach
groupies who had assembled in town because of Monday night’s P.D.Q. farewell.
Bill Walters, who has served P.D.Q. Bach as stage manager since the start,
noted that this was the first Schickele concert where he could sit out front
with his wife.
Schickele delivered some valuable insights in his spoken program notes. He
made no effort to conceal the fact that has been the most apparent in all his
work: that he is one of the world’s great spontaneous humorists, and an honest
and attractive musician as well.