Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach Paperback - 1998

First line

It was cold and dark and wet in Leipzig on the night of the 31st of March 1742.

From the jacket flap

What little-known son of a famous genius has been called:
"A musical blight" "A one-man plague"
"History's most justifiably neglected composer" "The worst musician ever to trod organ pedals" "A pimple on the face of music"
In this long-awaited hoax, possibly the most unimportant piece of scholarship in over two thousand years, Professor Peter Schickele has finally succeeded in ripping the veil of obscurity from the most unusual -- to put it kindly -- composer in the history of music: P.D.Q. Bach, the last and unquestionably the least of the great Johann Sebastian Bach's many children.

Media reviews

"Absolutely grossing reading...I loved every minutiae of it. I recommend it to all with a bent ear."

-- Pinchas Zukerman

"As with all of Peter Schickele's musical musings, this is superb humor reflecting a boundless knowledge of the world of music."

-- Victor Borge

An "eminently readable and vastly enjoyable book."

-- Isaac Stern

"But how can I explain to outsiders the humor so delicate, the mirth evanescent, the je ne sais quoi of this handsome and hilarious book?"

-- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times