ISBN 9781598066173. 6.875 x 10.5 inches. Key: F major. Text: Peter Schickele.
This a capella pieceas clever little surprises add lots of fun, making it a must for your holiday programming.
"Nobody's perfect." There is no more convincing illustration of that adage than P.D.Q. Bach, whose father Johann Sebastian Bach's track record with regard to bringing beauty into the world was otherwise unblemished and perhaps unequaled. P.D.Q. Bach, who was balled "a pimple on the face of music" by his brother J.C. Bach, apparently left no musical form undisturbed. This set of thankfully secular Christmas carols (Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John, O Little Town of Hackensack, and Good King Kong Looked Out) was probably composed during the final years of P.D.Q.'s stay in Wein-am-Rhein, a time of transition from the clumsy excesses of the Soused Period to the clumsy excesses of the Contrition Period. As is the case with most of P.D.Q.'s vocal music, the original manuscript has never been found. The only extant copies are those published, in English and without any lyricist or librettist mentioned, by the composer's old friend Jonathan "Boozey" Hawkes, who left Wein-am-Rhein and returned to his native Liverpool soon after P.D.Q.'s timely death. He also married P.D.Q.'s cousin Betty-Sue, but that's another story.
