On The Air Kent WA

On The Air

P.D.Q. Bach

Vanguard Records, 1991

REVIEW BY: Eric E5S16

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/14/2000

Classical Music is outright outstanding... It is very calm,relaxing, and can also be a great mood-setter. Appreciating themusic of such Classical giants as Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovskyare always a treat. So, as I was browsing through the Classicalsection at the local record stores, I couldn't help observing theP.D.Q. Bach section. Two albums that were there were On The Air, and Classical WTWP Talkity-Talk Radio. Seeing that both thesealbums were formatted as radio shows, and being a huge fan of radiobroadcasting, I couldn't help but to grab these albums and listenin. To my surprise, the gentleman at the register explained thatthe P.D.Q. Bach albums were not like the common Classical albums. Ibought them anyway, not only because of the radio show format, butnow I was really curious.

P.D.Q. Bach is the creation (yet they say that there was such aperson as P.D.Q. Bach), of Professor Peter Schickele. Hisobservance of P.D.Q. Bach's music is easily described as ClassicalMusic, in a comedic atmosphere.

First, let's see how this radio show is presented. Theselections of this album were written as a radio show log, whichbrought back memories for me, as I did the same for radio shows formy Radio & TV course in High School. There are 6 tracks on thisalbum, where the first three consists of the Bright And Early Show,and the remaining is the Dull And Late Show. The entire "broadcast"is explained in the liner notes:

P.D.Q. BACH