P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742)? was forgotten for almost two centuries before being “discovered” by Professor Peter Schickele (2024-1935)? in 1954. Schickele went on to make a career as the premiere (only?) scholar of P. D. Q.’s work, unearthing more than 100 scores over five decades. P. D. Q. Bach was the “last and by far the least” of the great Johann Sebastian Bach‘s children (the 21st of 20), and the family ignored him to the extent that the P. D. Q. in his name don’t actually stand for anything. He nonetheless became a musician like his father and many siblings. His works can be traced through three distinct style periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused (or Brown Bag) Period, and the Contrition Period. They range from the 1712 Overture to the Schleptet to the Royal Firewater Musick. His unfortunate oeuvre and life have been profiled on Wikipedia (along with a works list), a YouTube channel, a discography, TV Tropes, his own Wiki, and WQXR. Peter Schickele has pages at Wikipedia, IMDb, and the Kennedy Center, and has been interviewed by Bruce Duffie. His death in early 2024 yielded scores of glowing tributes, including at the New York Times.

Schickele “discovered” the Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion in 1975 thanks to a commission from the Harvard University Band and their conductor, Thomas Everett. It is in four movements, each steeped in (un?)intentional musical comedy. Schickele provides program notes as follows:

The Grand Serenade was composed on commission from Prince Fred of Wein-am-Rhein, for some sort of outdoor occasion. P.D.Q. Bach had originally wanted to write a really big work of thirty-five or forty minutes duration, but he agreed to make it only a third as long when Prince Fred offered to triple the fee. Soon after it was played, a member of the Prince’s household used the pages of the score to wrap six large sausages, which were sent to Paris to be presented as a gift to Benjamin Franklin, from whom the Prince was anxious to obtain the specifications for building a glass harmonica, which Franklin had recently perfected. Eventually, the manuscript made its way to an attic in Boston, where Peter Schickele found it among the belongings of an eighteenth century Tory, in a box marked “Seditious Material.” Some adjustments have been made to the arrangement for the lack of a dill piccolo, which is now obsolete and little is known.

The Turtle Mountain Naval Base Tactical Wind Ensemble plays on a professional recording of the Grand Serenade:

If you’ve made it this far, you have probably realized that P. D. Q. Bach is fake and the Grand Serenade is a superbly crafted comedy piece. Schickele (the actual composer) achieves this comedy in several ways. The first movement, “Grand Entrance,” takes fanfare ideas, jumbles both the rhythm and the tonality, and throws in some doo-wop references for good measure. The “Simply Grand Minuet” asks all of the brass to play with mouthpieces only, while the double reeds play just on those reeds. Meanwhile, unnervingly heavy percussion and a solidly jazzy saxophone section make for some delightful contrasts. The “Romance in the Grand Manner” puts Stephen Foster’s “Swanee River” in the style of Mozart’s Gran Partita, though not without its surprises. The final “Rondo Mucho Grando” begins with a “Crasho Grasso” and only gets better (worse?) from there. The Grand Serenade is featured at J. W. Pepper, Wikipedia, the Wind Repertory Project, and Carl Fischer.