Word has just reached me that Peter Schickele, the creator of “P.D.Q. Bach”, died on Tuesday. Schickele was a composer and parodist whom I got to see live back in the early seventies, and whose comedy sketches featured his music, which he often attributed to the fictional P.D.Q. Bach. One particularly amusing bit was "New Horizons in Musical Appreciation", where the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth symphony is presented as a sportscast complete with play-by-play and color announcers.
Schickele was a man of many talents, and could connect with listeners regardless of their level of musical knowledge.
He will be missed.