Peter Schickele

Peter Schickele (1935-present) is a composer, musician, and musical parodist. He was born in Ames, Iowa on July 17, 1935, and graduated with a degree in music from Swarthmore in 1957. He graduated from the Juilliard School with an M.S. in musical composition.

He has created music for school bands, film and television, folk singers, musicals and concert performances. His musical creations have won him multiple awards. He is perhaps best known for his clever parodies of classical music, written under the name of "P. D. Q. Bach[?]." He hosted the radio program "Schickele Mix" (http://www.schickele.com/mix) which was broadcast on many public radio stations in the United States.

Besides writing music, Schickele invented instruments. The most complicated is the hardart, so called because it is used in the Concerto for Horn and Hardart[?]. It consists of a variety of tone-generating devices mounted on a frame. He also invented the dill piccolo (for playing sour notes) and the left-handed sewer flute.