Peter Schickele was born in Ames Iowa on July 17, 1935 and graduated from Swarthmore in 1957 and a short time later, earned an MS in music composition from the Julliard School of Music. In between, he spent his formative youthful years growing up in Fargo. Schickele has always followed his own path…being the only music majpr to graduate with his 1957 Swarthmore class just as he was the only bassoonist with the F-M Symphony Orchestra. His advanced musical education began early, studying composition as a youngster in Fargo under legendary conductor, Sigvald Thompson.

Peter Schickele’s writing and performing career also began at a young age. Here’s a piece he, a sibling and a friend wrote, performed and recorded in Fargo sometime in the 1940s….

(Recording of “Sheik of Palamazoo” ).

One of the first original compositions of Peter Schickele…The Sheik of Palamazoo!

Schickele would go on to have a prolific career as a writer and performer. His produced commissions are numerous and include works for the Saint Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Opera and recently the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. In the spring of this year, Schickele returned to Fargo, original composition in hand, to help the Symphony celebrate its 75th anniversary. Schickele has written music for 4 major motion pictures including “Silent Running” and Walt Disney’s “Fantasia 2000.” Peter is also the host of the popular “Schickele Mix” radio program that has been a hit with public radio listening audiences since 1992.

Well…if all that isn’t quite enough, Schickle created another entirely different persona, built around his studies of the “youngest and oddest of the twenty odd sons” of Johann Sebastian Bach…PDQ Bach! The PDQ Bach compositions, often parodies of classical music favorites, have won Schickele 4 Grammies and numerous other awards. Perhaps you’ve heard the PDQ Bach Christmas Classic, “Oh Little Town of Hackensack," or his extremely popular dramatic oratorio, “Oedipus Tex” featuring the OK Chorale!

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Schickele refers to his roots when identifying his fictitious home establishment, where he has allegedly taken tenure as the Very Full Professor of both “musicology” and “musical pathology”…the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.
Happy 72nd Birthday to Peter Schickele.

(fade out to another Schickele musical piece)

Sources:
www.schickele.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.kennedy-center.org
Sound recording of Peter Schickele’s early work

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