Click on a picture to see the sights. Click on a Victrola to hear the
sounds.
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| NARAS Luncheon: Mr. Schickele’s duties as host of the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences (NARAS) “Salute to Classical Music” luncheon on February 20, 2003
included a visit to the piano (left) plus the opportunity to interview
young cellist Benjamin Lai (above). |
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Gabby Hayes Radio Spot: During the 2002-2003 season, Mr.
Schickele was Composer In Residence with the Pasadena Symphony,
giving him a great opportunity to investigate how California musical
institutions try to attract new audiences to classical music.
The most interesting example was this radio commercial featuring
Western movie star Gabby Hayes (not pictured, left). |
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| George On My Mind: When jazz legend George Shearing (not
necessarily pictured, right) celebrated his 80th birthday, Peter
Schickele wrote this piece and presented this recording at a
Shearing birthday bash in Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1999. The recording
was performed and produced by Peter Lurye and Peter Schickele (the
same team which created the station ID’s for
WTWP). |
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| Audio Samples can be played using the free RealAudio
player.
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A Discerning Bug?
This is a true story. It happened in a teaching studio at the
UConn (University of Connecticut) Community School of the Arts this week
while I was waiting for a student to show up for her piano lesson.
Yes, believe it or else, there are other things going on at UConn
besides basketball. Anyway, I was passing the time by
sight-reading my way through P.D.Q. Bach’s Notebook for Betty-Sue
Bach — actually I was on part II “Corrate” — and was
wondering how exactly to “make appropriate Samurai faces and sounds”
as directed in the score. While playing and pondering, I was attacked
by what seemed to be a gigantic insect. It flew out of nowhere
into my eye and stayed there until I screamed and flailed at it.
After it finally flew off, I looked around the room and saw it — a
common ordinary house fly. I tried to shoo it out the door, but it
disappeared somewhere in the room. A member of the office staff
appeared at that point to say my student was caught in traffic and would
not be coming — I thought at first that this staff member had heard my
screams and was coming out of concern for my welfare. After she
left, I started playing something else — actually, anything I could
find lying around in the room. When that became boring, I switched
back to the P.D.Q. Bach piece. Bad idea! Out came the fly
from hiding — I got dive-bombed several times until I stopped playing
that piece. I don’t know if it was the piece itself or my
execution of it that provoked the attacks. [It was the
piece.—Ed.]
—Dorothy Bognar
(Still wondering how to
do those Samurai things)
January 15, 2004 |
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| Kay Casteel made this drawing after seeing her niece and nephew’s
positive reaction to Listen Here, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Mr.
Schickele’s friendly answer to scary dinosaurs.
An audio sample of Listen Here, Tyrannosaurus Rex is
included below so
that you can experience both the music and the artwork that was inspired
by it at
the same time. This sample is from the album
P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele:
The Jekyll and Hyde Tour, copyright 2007 Telarc International.
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A note from the Webmeister: “I would like to thank the
members of the Academy for allowing us to post the pictures from the NARAS
luncheon. I’d also like to thank Peter Luyre, who not only performed on
and produced, but also provided permission to post George On My Mind.
I’d also like to thank Kay Casteel, Artistaurus Rex, for kindly letting us
include her drawing, Dorothy Bognar for her short story, and Armadillo Barry Socher for his photographs. Finally, every Web page is a collaborative effort,
so thanks Peter, Michèle, my wife and kids, and, last but not least, God.”
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